The Topknot Build. New photos of torso life cast build. 05/07/2015

[ptgreek]

NICE!!!!!!!

 

[AlphaTech686]

Thanks George, everything you told me helped. I was concerned about everything from using new products to never having done a mold this large before. Weird things go through you mind. Here's a couple of photos with the clay pulled out of one half. I didn't have much time to work on it yesterday. I am very happy with the results. I can see very few flaws in the mold surface. Next I will clean the clay out really well and break out the sander to clean up all the sharp areas on the outside of the mold. After that I will screw it in place on the plug and bolt the halves together, seal the edges and fill it with water to measure for the volume of silicone it will take to fill it up. Yes I am filling it with Ecoflex 20. I hoping for a snug fit with no weird suit wrinkles. It will be poured over some sort of leotard. I am also hoping for some good movement like doing the "Predator Squat". We will see. 

 

[AlphaTech686]

Hey Coollekotten,  I was reading back over this post and saw that I never answered you. Sorry about that. I have been sculpting and making mask since i was 7 or 8. My first latex one was when I was 12 or so. That was a long time ago and there wasn't much out there for information or supplies like there is now. That would have been aroun 1975. Here is a gorilla head I did in the early 80's

I am in awe over everything... this build screams of dedication and attention to detail, its incredible.   

Is this the first time you have build anything of this size or have you done it before (I know you have an old predator suit before this one, but anything else)? And how tall do you think you will be when everything is done and you're suited up? 

 

[AlphaTech686]

There is actually a cable that runs from the lower jaw to the upper lip (not fabrictaed yet when that photo was taken) on each side to snarl that lip up when you open the mouth.

Oh and Topknot looks like he will be around 6'8" to 7 feet from the ground to the tippy top of his noggin

 

[AlphaTech686]

I decided to get the hands done and then pour and paint the hands and legs at the same time. The first pictures are the little pieces that I sculpted for the glove. I realized that using hard pieces when i would be molding in a hard medium would be problematic getting the pieces out of the mold so I cast some more of these little things with some old Pour-a-Mold I had lying around.
Here is the original pieces.

The back of the rear lion cloth

  

 

[AlphaTech686]

Finished the molding of the rear loincloth and split the mold. All is good. Onto the finish the hands.

 

[troggs]

The imagination and attention to detail is amazing as always - looking forward to seeing Topknot in all his glory.

 

[Predasaurus]

I'm at the age when you said you made your first latex mask (I'm 13), and I just made my first mask, which was my predator mask (predator started it all ), so I hope one day I'll have all the skills you have! Your pred suits and all the work you put into it is phenomenal!


Eli

 

[Eaglewood]

Jeff,
you never cease to amaze me with your talent and humble attitude-- You damn well better be at Dragncon when we all invade the place!

 

[AlphaTech686]

Tryin to get these hands goin. Here are a couple of updates

things are still pretty rough.

 

[Montayva13]

wow, this is just... I cant even think of words to say what an amazing job you have done so far. The attention to detail just blows my mind!

*Looks at my own amateur  sculpt* yep, i definitely need more practice at this 

 

[AlphaTech686]

Alright I was going to wait on showing ya'll this but I just can't keep secrets. After experimenting with several silicones I decided EchoFlex 10 is awesome stuff. PTGreek lead me in that direction. As most of you know I already did a mechainal Topknot head but I decided to try another way. I decided to do a head that has everything working off my jaw movement, I have done this in the past with a gorilla head and it worked ok. The problem has always been 2 fold. First it takes a very soft pliable material as there is only so much your own jaw can do. With the gorilla, which was done over 25 years ago, I used worm lure rubber. It worked great for a while but eventually began to erode and bad. Second even with a pliable material these types of cabled heads alway seem to place a lot of pressure on the bridge of the nose. To that end someone on here fabricated a pretty simple but effective rig like this and I asked him about the nose issue. His response set a light bulb off. He suggested if the hinge point of the jaw was right the pressure can be moved back towards the centerline of the head keeping all the pulling forces straight down instead  of forward and down. So after all the work I did on the motorized head I decided to start over. I'm trying to think outside the box so the first thing  I'm doing is building this from the inside out. I'm using basic dimensions from my other masks. Once the mechanical underskull is done I will cover it with a thin layer of different materials and use it  to make a plug to skulpt the mask on. In doing this I can create areas of different thicknesses in the silicone for movement purposes.

Here is are a couple of videos of the motorized Topknot. I will repost that build here later.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/006-2.flv.html
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/274.mp4.html

Here's a couple of the mess inside the head.

And here is what I have so far for the new Topknot head;
I started with an old bust I had a friend do of myself.

Place some clay to start the epoxy/fiberglass process.

brushed on a couple of coats of PMA and layed down the resin/fiberglass.

Cleaned up with the helmet strap in place.

This is the anchor point for the jaw hinge. I placed it very far back and then later decided to shorten it up a bit.

This is the chin piece. I molded several layers of tin foil over the jaw and then fiberglassed over it.

Like I stated earlier I ended up changing this set up a bit but I wanted to show the process. Hee is teh brow movement which I scrapped also.

Here starts the newer version. Jaw hinged moved, new brow mechanism. 

I decided to add these light springs just to hold things in place. I am guessing the silicone will help move things back to there original positions.

Oh and I have been trying to stay with the hands project on the side.

 

[NeoKazama]

Jeff, your work is insane! I always come around this thread and check whats new. The spear is just amazing. Keep up the good work and cannot wait to suit up with you someday.

 

[reptilelover95]

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for posting pics of a jaw-powered animatronic mask build. I've never done any animatronics stuff before and my goal for the eventual mask for my costume has been to have something EXACTLY LIKE THIS. You, sir, are a saint. I look forward to seeing the progress and trying to replicate it when the time comes to do my own.

 

[AlphaTech686]

First off I want to say thanks to everyone for checkin in on my build and for the comments. So I got a couple hours in yesterday and here are the results. 
It's difficult to decide how to place things when you don't have the mask yet. I decides to do the upper mandibles using Narin's latest as a guide.

The nut/bolt was used temporarily. The roll pin was used in the final.

It appears the mandible is pretty open looking in the closed position but once the inside of mouth is sculpted up underneath and the fangs
are in place I'm aiming to have it appear very flat against the face.

I used a smaller diameter cable than what comes with these cable/housing kits as the smaller cables move more
freely.

And this is the movement test video. Let me know what you think.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/014_zps994a45cc.mp4.html

 

[Lowdmekon]

Again Dude, you truly amaze me every time I visit your build. I can wait to see the animatronics in action!

 

[ThePriest]

put it on man ! lets see you opening that bad boy. And did i read where you said you didn't have the mask yet ? WTF i thought it was done ? does that mean it is already being replaced ! way to go on the movement man it must get pretty boring at the station to figure all that out.

 

[AlphaTech686]

Thanks guys and yes I am doing a complete resculpt of Topknot. That mask was an old design and the topknot was an after thought. I have a cool idea for the topknot so it doesn't look like just another ponytail. That will be a surprise. HINT- the skull is going to be shaped differently in the back. I will post a video with the contraption on when I get all the moving parts on it. Hopefully by the end of the week. Yea right.

 

[AlphaTech686]

Here is a minor update. I spent a couple of hours this moring on this lower mandible. This tinkering really is time consuming.

 

[roninpredator]

I'm speechless Jeff!
havent visited in a while and I come back to this sweet eyecandy!