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

AlphaTech686

Active Member
I decided to start posting everything here as this is a work in progress. I plan on posting all of the past builds in abbreviated form. Today I did my hand casts. I did them years ago in plaster but After seeing Made007 do his in resin I decided to give it a whirl as I think they will be more durable.  So here they.

The first one turned out to be somewhat experimental. I pulled it out to soon and screwed up the finger tips and I wanted it to be further up my arm. Here weird, that is a blister healing on my finger.
029-7_zps44bdf62b.jpg


I built a box to try and use as little alginate as possible.
001-35_zps488a0aa7.jpg

003-39_zpsb87eb2f3.jpg


008-34_zpsa00cb4f7.jpg

009-30_zps100685dd.jpg


LIke I said to short. My pooch wandering "what the heck"
031-3_zpsd3362aef.jpg


So the second go round I modified the box.
012-27_zps88aeee97.jpg

011-22_zpsa5e8ce73.jpg


I hung a blow drier to keep it as dry as possible while I prepared the resin.
014-22_zpsc83bec8a.jpg

016-19_zps7c7b226b.jpg

017-15_zps8061c64b.jpg


I had to use it one more time for the right hand AGAIN.
018-12_zpsdf96cad1.jpg


Fresh pull no trimming or dremeling.
025-7_zps17d9d5ea.jpg

026-4_zps4f80ed73.jpg

027-8_zps249c527b.jpg

030-5_zps9f786ea7.jpg
 
Glad to see you made a thread for topknot :)
Your box idea is great, i see you used alja safe, i used some dental stuff
My first batch the thing got dried too fast i couldnt make anything with it i lost it , i used room temp water, then i made my second batch with cold water, it gave mo more time to put my hand in place , but it was so cold to hold my hand there, i cant wait to see what hands design you have in mind for topknot :)
 
Hey pygreek, now ya tell me. I looked into that (a little late now) and it does look like good stuff, about twice the compression and twice the shear strength. The 320  I used has minimal shrinkage so I think it will be ok. My next batch of resin will be 1630. Thanks . Hey made007 the monster makers alginate worked great. Thanks for the inspiration of your hands. I will probably set these to the side until I get the legs done. Who knows.  
 
Wish id done mine out of resin, when I did my left hand, I ended up having to break the hand up to get it out of the mould hehe.
 
Looking great as always. :) 

 
 
So I am building this post little by little and I thought I would start at the begining. I actually sculpted the Topknot head around 1998.
If you look close you can see that I added the topknot area later. Here are the only 2 pictures I could find of this thing when I was doing it.
Man I look young.
002-38_zps8d3d76db.jpg

001-35_zps812adde2.jpg

You see the Fangoria mag. That is the only reference pics I could find at the time. The internet was in its infantsy still.
 
So to keep this post going I putting up the bio build. I guess this is probably 7-8 years old now. Yes I am a slow loser.
The first 3 photos are of the sculpt. I made an alginate impression of the mask and cast it in plaster then sculpted on that.
bio1001.jpg

bio3001.jpg

bio5001.jpg


Here's a couple I took pretty recently of the clay the way it looks now. I forgot it is sitting on a shelf in
the garage.
109.jpg

107.jpg


Starting on the tiny but expensive (60 bucks) blade release solinoid.
blade01.jpg

helmet02.jpg

helmet01.jpg

topknotbio014.jpg

topknotbio015.jpg


Then came the jaw latch mechanism. The only way I can explain doing this is because I thought it would look cool when I was taking it off. The trouble is a person would have to be standing pretty close to see it's function. It activates with a push of the thumb on a plate under the chin. It is spring loaded and has a lock for the thumb plate.
jawclamp001.jpg

jawclamp002.jpg

jawclamp003.jpg

jawclamp004.jpg


The lock for the jaw mechanism.
100.jpg

101.jpg


I guess I painted it next.
IMG_2912.jpg

IMG_2910.jpg

IMG_2902.jpg

IMG_2905.jpg

IMG_2904.jpg


Then came the patina 
012.jpg

009.jpg


I had an idea for the visor that I thought was different. I sandwiched three layers. The out side layer  
was just clear. I did this to reflect the leads I affixed to the top of the visor.
012-1.jpg

013.jpg

001-1.jpg


The effect.
010-1.jpg

009-1.jpg

003-1.jpg


The finished inside.
098-1.jpg

you can see the super magnets that help it stay on. When I say they snap it into postion I mean they snap it into postion.
This one is the wiring that goes to the fixture that the 3 hoses will connect to on the outside. The wiring will be inside the hoses
and go to buttons on the wrist computer. This is for the laser, visor, and blade solinoid.
105.jpg


And finally the finished bio.
080-1.jpg

081-2.jpg

090.jpg

091.jpg

113-2.jpg

114-2.jpg

I just realised I need to age those laser heads

082-1.jpg

084-1.jpg

083-1.jpg

085.jpg

096.jpg

095-1.jpg

094.jpg


Last but not least the Youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Ss_B9X5qg
 
Back to the hands. After reading and viewing the Facebook page about mold making I decided I need to work on these hands. First I have to smooth them down and do a little filling to get them ready to mold then cut apart. I plan on making the thumb and pointer come off together as I will be using these as plugs for the Topknot hands. This is a picture from the Facebook site.

Here is the first hand sanded and filled and painted.

002-38_zpsb9f9fb9e.jpg


005-31_zps792448fd.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yep this is still one of my favourite builds on here, and has been since you started, be kind of sad to see you finish it lol.

So many cool ideas and food for though.
 
Hey Lee, thanks dude. I have to say keeping an eye on what you are doing over there does keep me pushing over here. Don't worry there won't be any sadness anytime soon.
 
Did a little more this morning. I decided to pour water in it to see how much silicone I would need. Primitive but effective. 3 3/4 cups. This is good as I hope I will have just enough for both hands.
001_zps16c2538a.jpg

002_zps5a89dc62.jpg

003_zpscc00ceb5.jpg

004_zps216fd1bf.jpg
 
Cool man very cool. I looked pretty freaky with the water in it . it looked flat on the hand from the angle of the pic. fiber glass here you go !!!  
 
Well it's around 98 degrees in Austin today so you don't have to ask how the fiberglassing went. Ok I'll tell you. HOT! This sure does seem like a lot of work for half a hand. I might have to try selling some of these to try to put my mind at ease for all the time I'm putting into these. On a positive note it is something very new for me so it is pretty fun figuring it all out. Hey ptgreek I got the 1630 in. Thanks for that tip.
003_zps053c0e9a.jpg
 
This thread is more than 5 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top