[WIP] Mass Effect Female Turian(s), Nyreen and Neimhaille

[mdb]

I was going to put this in the sculpture section but I have finally started the fabric parts so whole costume it is

Mass Effect
Nyreen is part of the Omega DLC, I am doing her tunic set rather than full on armour due to really not wanting another set of armour taking up room when I am already at maximum capacity with my costumes. That's the down side to do multiple genres




To start take 4kg of random bits of plasticine and melt it all in a pot specifically set aside for melting plasticine. Use a rnage hood if you can....
Strain into containers using netting and then pour onto waxed paper to make easily worked sheets about 7mm thick.

Also take two polystyrene wig forms and cut the necks down, seriously that flange helps no one. Even when just used to store wigs.

And now.. the sculpting!

First pass at sculpting an organic piece in a while so it was a rocky start. Still. It was something. And then it got melted down again to start over It was only about 4 hours work, so a rough sketch

However even once practice was sorted her face went through sevral different refining processes. At times she looked like a cat and at times like she belonged in Planet of the Apes. Fine line between the two apparently

This was a good 30 hours or so to this point. And at this point? I CUT HER APART!!!!!!

Mandibles came off first, then the jaw.
Another 15 hours I guess just cutting and restoring the pieces so they could overlap.



And voila, ready for final texturing and molding!


Oiled up and ready to get plastered. Geddit?


A few hours for each mold. Except the mandibles which were a simple pour

And the first test pull!


Oh yeah, one thing missing, her scalp! Fantastic official artwork showed up and she has pangolin style scales and warts, or whatnot...


Molding this was a biatch. I wanted it in one piece to reduce any seamlines so it meant sacrificing the wig head and really making sure to make a pretty mold:

As long as I could get my hand inside to paint the latex and scrub the clay out I decided this hood shape was going to be ideal.

So to test drive!

My latex was bad! It gelled rather than cured slowly so I have a lot of wasted pieces of latex that are warped and cracked. It's fine once cured, but the curing process is pants.

But I did at least get to test drive. In the driveway. My neighbours must think I'm nuts...


And finally:

Test patterning. Not quite the pink and white of Phoenix armour but there are plans....

 

[Darth Mule]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Very cool so far. Glad to see a new mdb build! Always love your work!

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Thank you Currently being a very patient grasshopper and not pulling the very nearly cured pieces from the mold or putting them out in the sun...

 

[Sakara]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Been loving this everywhere else so following it here is the natural progression!

 

[Emmabellish]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Hot damn; very nice! I'm currently working my way through the Omega DLC. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

 

[SqueekinOrka]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

This is looking really good so far! Great work,keep it up and good luck.

 

[Blobfish]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

This is really stunning - puts my attempts at a turian to shame . Can't wait to see the head all painted up, and the tunic pattern is looking very nice

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Thank you No shame! I have been sculpting since I was a kid, so heaps of experience behind me in some aspects (though not full scale and for a human body and the molding process as a steep learning curve though

My first successful enough cast has been made, I am now waiting on more latex to arrive (the good stuff.) The skull crest is still a bit cool so I have to leave that out to cure a little longer. But I should be able to trim the flashing off today

I hope my Cunning Plan to wear the pieces will work. So I should get to work on that as well. If I have fabric...

 

[Freya Willia]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

This will be the first costume of this character I have seen (she looks cool but I'm totally not familiar with the story). Great start on the Turian Mask, can't wait to see it colored.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

I have been patiently waiting until I can afford the 3 set of Mass Effect rather than jumping in and playing 3. But I've had Life(tm) get in the way of playing or even buying the disks. Finally got the computer to play on though

So I have been spoiled by what happens, but not too much because I still want to play (eventually- come on monies!) I want my Lizzy Shep to start over and have a chance at Phoenix Armour (which was the armour that I first saw online and went.. whoa. Hot pink spacesuits!)

I am aiming for asap I love wearing Liara but I think Nyreen will have that added creep factor at conventions

The mask will need a few areas of support. I'll likely use eva foam for that, just craft weight/flex as it does glue in well. It may also help with allowing the jaws to hinge.
There is going to have to be padding in the cheeks to help it sit straight as well.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros


I just clipped the flashing to do a test drive. Sweaty!!!

So the jaw extends a long way up and it is hiding the lovely curvy details, but that is intentional- I can cut that back to shape once I have the base hood made to glue and stick various parts to. I still need to cut down a few more places to help reduce bulk when the layers are all stacked, especially near the ears.

Nyreen's head is proportionally small to her body, as compared to Garrus, so this does a look a bit big but it is as small as I could get and still have a narrow face- noses man they get in the way of a lot of masks/helmets.
The lower jaw sits along my own jaw so not much can be changed. This is one reason why I am doing the tunic version, I can use more illusion techniques to bring the whole into scale. Once the small amount of armour is sorted it should also work to help with scale.

Next up is to get some fine cotton lycra to start building the base.

Oh and the jaw does hinge Quite well actually better once I sort making it more rigid. Yay craft foam and possibly vilene.

Darn, I need to buy some cat lenses. Not quite perfect but as close as I can get.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

I mentioned in Frey Willia's femshep thread that it's cool to see the love and work that goes into a project, rather than just final pieces all ready To which she replied with a photo of a messy bench.

I reply with this: in amongst my thumbnails above is this:

That was just plaster chipped off the molds (overhang) and the clay. But I did have to totally destroy the wig head for the second piece which I managed to not get a photo of... hm..
But this might tell a better tale of love/hate:

About 7lbs of clay scraped out by hand (yes hand, not hand tools- much of that was support for the mold so it was a lot of scraping and getting clay buried into the quick of my nails )


Anyway, I have patterned the hood. Sort of. I need to roughly overlock it to see if it works. And then try on the tunic and hood and mask to see about balance.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Attempt 9 to get out of the house and not pass out (heat wave plus still Teh Sick(tm) ) to buy some dye and maybe hunt out some foam for the armour.

Meanwhile here is the pattern for the tunic, obi, and hood with markings for the harness and back brace thing (internal but the fabric has to follow).



As soon as the big pump across the road starts I'm offski. Sunblock acquired, money, just on budget, phone, charging slowly... Right I need some lining for other projects as well. To make myself insane I'm working on a Blingtastic gown. Should finally finish it as I don't my own 25th annivrsary of starting the thing (it's from Phantom of the Opera and is nearing 15 years since I started it...)

 

[Freya Willia]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Attempt 9 to get out of the house and not pass out (heat wave plus still Teh Sick(tm) ) to buy some dye and maybe hunt out some foam for the armour.

Looks really good!

Hilarious that you're talking about a heat wave, our temps just dropped 30 degrees today.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

I shouldn't complain too much, they are having it really rough across the ditch in Oz: it's either flooding or on fire it seems :/

But it's definitely caught Aucklanders mostly under prepared as we do not have air con as a matter of norm, probably in offices in the CBD but not in our homes.

Anyway, dye has been bought! No foam as brain is all melty with the heat and also the sewerage pumping happening across the road. Seems to be finished today.. I hope! So now to wash and prep fabric for dyeing

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Having a few issues with my website updating.... buuut... I have been working on my head form, bald cap wig head form thing and making my mannequin actually usable:
mdb- costuming
Interference pigments!!! | mdb- costuming

And these are the pigments I'm looking at for if I decide to make my own female turian vs Nyreen Paints for the armour.

Oh, paiting of the mask has not happened because I have no white paint (used to mix all my opaque colours) and I now have ME3 on my flashy new computer and I want to paint All The Turian Markings!

 

[Alpha Proto]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

I love seeing the sculpts people make for costumes.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Me too XD I'm a nerd for in progress work, in fact more so in many cases than the final result I think possibly because so much can be done in camera now that I like to see the grubby dig in the dirt and make something from nothing progress XD

Still debating on whether to make her an original or Nyreen. I think I could download the Omega DLC as I have an "email" from Aria in game to meet her at purgatory, so I'm kind of nibbling my nails about jumping in now. I'm digging seeing all the layers of colour in Victus and Garrus and pondering getting the ME comics on Dark Horse digital (I have the art book already). So I can work out a plausible paint job and armour and back history

 

[Alpha Proto]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Looks like you have a solid idea of where you want to go with this. I am excited to see what you do with it.

 

[mdb]

Re: [WIP]Female Turian, Nyreen Kandros

Thanks You may note a huge gap between start and currrent posting dates Long story short I am not quite needing a bubble to live in but close. Sigh.

Anyway, my work room had a massive overhaul so I could work on the various parts of this project as well as my other in progress costumes. And that health delay has now turned into a bit of excited stress!

I will be making the costume part soon but there are some sanding and fibreglass projects to get sorted first and sewing machines and dust do not work together...