CAustin64
New Member
Hello there everyone,
I'm relatively new to RPF but love the site and all the amazing things you guys do and make on here, I'm a maker, a crafter, and I love superheroes and some other special characters, so an interest in making things from those characters is a foregone conclusion. So, this first thread is going to be an experimenting / learning and community discussion for anyone interested. as I prepare to tackle one of my first replica projects, The Amulets of Power wielded by marvel's White Tiger.
Now, I'm not a professional crafter, and I am vastly out-leagued by most everyone on this site in terms of creativity and ability. So, I plan on leaving things, like lightsabers, arc reactors, and movie replicas to you pros who have perfected them. But I did notice no significant threads on marvel's White Tiger character. With an MCU version of him set to appear in Daredevil: Born Again I thought it would be a fun project to try my hand at.
For those unfamiliar, White Tiger is a martial arts vigilante, like daredevil. He was Marvel's first latino superhero, and I always thought he was a very cool and underused character. His powers come from the mystical Amulets of Power or sometimes called the Jade Tiger Amulets. Which will be the specific focus of this project build, the amulets. As I said, he is poised to make a significant debut in the MCU Daredevil revival, however, this will not be about the show's amulets, which have not been seen yet. I have every confidence a maker much better than I will make a perfect replica of those or marvel will release an official one in due time. No, this is going to be an attempt at the original comic style amulets.
Now the info I have about these are currently limited to wiki blurbs, and low quality google images. I'm hoping to dive into original source material to broaden my knowledge to work off of for this project.
The main components and attributes, what I do know and what I don't:
- They are made of jade. but the exact coloring eludes me. Jadeite comes in lots of colors, green, yellow, white, even black and more. First thought is that jade amulets will be the beautiful green kind, called imperial. Earliest depictions of the amulets I've so far seen appear yellowish in color though (as pictured above), I'm unsure whether that means the coloring is meant to be literally yellow or if it was an illustrating decision. more modern depictions of the amulets in the hands of the sister as the newer White Tiger show the amulets as a whiter or gray appearance, and they glow green when active. So, it seems for the detail of color specifically, it's not been written in stone. I'm left conflicted about which route to go without a definitive answer.
- The Amulets are three separate pieces, the head and front paws removed from a jade tiger statue long ago. So is goes to assume the amulets will look like the highly detailed parts off an intricate statue. modern depictions in Ava's case show the amulets as a flat, low detail, almost stylized representation of a tiger. For now, I want to focus on how the amulets appear originally, in Hectors tenure. I might later try another version styled after Ava's amulets. but I'm still working on finding high quality closeups of how the amulets appear in the comics to nail down an exact appearance for details. I imagine much of my final design on the details will be best guess and creativity to imitate, given the drawn comic appearance will not have too much detail, and variation from drawing to drawing, artists, etc. but I still want to get as close to the most consistent details as possible. - Sizing, I am at a complete loss for reference to sizing on this, is the tiger head 1.5" across or 4" across. I don't know that there's an answer, but it feels like it would make a difference if I don't get the proportions right.
- The chain. I am unsure of what kind of chain brings the amulets together to be worn around the neck. Is it a cord of some natural material, a string of matching jade beads, as it looks in some depictions, or a basic stainless steel beaded chain. I'm not sure. I think natural cord, or matching jade beads would look good, but I don't know if there is a canon answer, or if it even matters all that much.
As to construction, I'm pretty familiar with resin casting, and am currently thinking that is how I will make them. If there's another way to make an intricate design like a tiger head, that appears gemstone like, custom colored; then I'm not familiar with it. it would be cool if I could make them feel more stone like in texture, but I'm not sure how to achieve it. If anyone has Ideas for better methods for casting or making them, or suggestions for finishing to achieve a carved gemstone like texture, please feel free to throw them out there.
Hope you guys find this cool and interesting. Please feel free to discuss, give me your thoughts and ideas on this, I'm open to any input. If anyone has or can provide better info or high-quality pictures from the source material to fill in some of the details to hammer out, you'd be the real freaking superhero. But overall, I just hope to bring you guys along on a fun journey as I develop this project throughout the research phase and into the crafting in future updates.
I'm relatively new to RPF but love the site and all the amazing things you guys do and make on here, I'm a maker, a crafter, and I love superheroes and some other special characters, so an interest in making things from those characters is a foregone conclusion. So, this first thread is going to be an experimenting / learning and community discussion for anyone interested. as I prepare to tackle one of my first replica projects, The Amulets of Power wielded by marvel's White Tiger.
Now, I'm not a professional crafter, and I am vastly out-leagued by most everyone on this site in terms of creativity and ability. So, I plan on leaving things, like lightsabers, arc reactors, and movie replicas to you pros who have perfected them. But I did notice no significant threads on marvel's White Tiger character. With an MCU version of him set to appear in Daredevil: Born Again I thought it would be a fun project to try my hand at.
For those unfamiliar, White Tiger is a martial arts vigilante, like daredevil. He was Marvel's first latino superhero, and I always thought he was a very cool and underused character. His powers come from the mystical Amulets of Power or sometimes called the Jade Tiger Amulets. Which will be the specific focus of this project build, the amulets. As I said, he is poised to make a significant debut in the MCU Daredevil revival, however, this will not be about the show's amulets, which have not been seen yet. I have every confidence a maker much better than I will make a perfect replica of those or marvel will release an official one in due time. No, this is going to be an attempt at the original comic style amulets.
Now the info I have about these are currently limited to wiki blurbs, and low quality google images. I'm hoping to dive into original source material to broaden my knowledge to work off of for this project.
The main components and attributes, what I do know and what I don't:
- They are made of jade. but the exact coloring eludes me. Jadeite comes in lots of colors, green, yellow, white, even black and more. First thought is that jade amulets will be the beautiful green kind, called imperial. Earliest depictions of the amulets I've so far seen appear yellowish in color though (as pictured above), I'm unsure whether that means the coloring is meant to be literally yellow or if it was an illustrating decision. more modern depictions of the amulets in the hands of the sister as the newer White Tiger show the amulets as a whiter or gray appearance, and they glow green when active. So, it seems for the detail of color specifically, it's not been written in stone. I'm left conflicted about which route to go without a definitive answer.
- The Amulets are three separate pieces, the head and front paws removed from a jade tiger statue long ago. So is goes to assume the amulets will look like the highly detailed parts off an intricate statue. modern depictions in Ava's case show the amulets as a flat, low detail, almost stylized representation of a tiger. For now, I want to focus on how the amulets appear originally, in Hectors tenure. I might later try another version styled after Ava's amulets. but I'm still working on finding high quality closeups of how the amulets appear in the comics to nail down an exact appearance for details. I imagine much of my final design on the details will be best guess and creativity to imitate, given the drawn comic appearance will not have too much detail, and variation from drawing to drawing, artists, etc. but I still want to get as close to the most consistent details as possible. - Sizing, I am at a complete loss for reference to sizing on this, is the tiger head 1.5" across or 4" across. I don't know that there's an answer, but it feels like it would make a difference if I don't get the proportions right.
- The chain. I am unsure of what kind of chain brings the amulets together to be worn around the neck. Is it a cord of some natural material, a string of matching jade beads, as it looks in some depictions, or a basic stainless steel beaded chain. I'm not sure. I think natural cord, or matching jade beads would look good, but I don't know if there is a canon answer, or if it even matters all that much.
As to construction, I'm pretty familiar with resin casting, and am currently thinking that is how I will make them. If there's another way to make an intricate design like a tiger head, that appears gemstone like, custom colored; then I'm not familiar with it. it would be cool if I could make them feel more stone like in texture, but I'm not sure how to achieve it. If anyone has Ideas for better methods for casting or making them, or suggestions for finishing to achieve a carved gemstone like texture, please feel free to throw them out there.
Hope you guys find this cool and interesting. Please feel free to discuss, give me your thoughts and ideas on this, I'm open to any input. If anyone has or can provide better info or high-quality pictures from the source material to fill in some of the details to hammer out, you'd be the real freaking superhero. But overall, I just hope to bring you guys along on a fun journey as I develop this project throughout the research phase and into the crafting in future updates.
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