RANCOR Sculpt FINISHED PAGE 7!

Re: RANCOR Sculpt

I like this sculpt a lot! You really are capturing the Rancor's rancor. Are you going to sculpt the band and chain on his right wrist like in ROTJ?
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

That is high praise coming from someone as skilled as you Cyberman, thanks!The sculpt is coming along very nicely, I'll post more images soon...
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

This sculpt looks amazing so far. Loving the dynamic pose he's(or she's) in. The texturing on the arm looks great. I've been curious about monster clay too. Judging from this, I'd say it seems to do the job really well. May have to try some for myself. I look forward to more.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Thanks very much Smashter, Monster clay is amazing stuff when you get used to working with it. I'm battling on with the Rancor, as I was not happy with some of the proportions - it just looked 'boxy'! I've got it to a stage I'm very happy with the proportions now, so I'm refining the face further before moving on to the rest of it. I'll give an update soon, but I want to show progress that people would recognise - At the moment the changes are quite subtle.

I'd really recommend you give the clay a go. It holds detail perfectly and when used with a butane torch/freezing spray it gives you a very high level of control and versatility. Best of all, you melt it down once you've finished casting and reuse the stuff.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

I just got some monster clay for my scorpion king sculpture and I L.O.V.E it! I didn't have a crock-pot to melt it down in, so I just nuked it to a silly-putty consistency, and applied it to the armature and let it cool. Wonderful stuff! :)
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Really excellent work. May I ask, are the teeth carved toothpicks? In past I've tried to sculpt teeth and they always look horrible. Again, awesome work...
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Cadeus, I don't have a crock pot either, I just nuke it in the microwave! 13doctorwho, the teeth are actually sculpey, but toothpicks would have worked pretty well too.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Well, it's been a while. I've been putting the hours into this sculpt but only the eagle eyed will probably be able to see the differences. I was not happy with the side profile as it kept looking boxy and anatomically off, so I photographed the model so far and took it into photoshop. I painted a better profile onto the image and then matched the sculpt to it. I'm a lot happier with it. The proportions are where I like them now. I had to move the entire shoulder section up a little, but I think all the big changes are done now.

As you can see, we have fingernails on one hand. I baked a pan of Sculpy 'spikes', which is sculpy set into thin bits of wire. Some of these I will use for the spikes at the top of the arms. BTW, the shoulders are not finished yet - just blocked in- there is a bit of a mismatch in scale!

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I've more or less finished the face (although have not begun texturing it yet, and I'm on the way to getting the main bulk of the body detailed. From here it should not be as much of a headache - just many hours of work. It has taken hours upon hours of doing this and I'm quite surprised that the changes are that subtle. But, hey - that's the way it goes sometimes.

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What does everyone think of the pose? I'm probably getting blind to it because I've seen it for so long, but would happily take opinions as always.

Cheers folks :)
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

It's gorgeous! I love the Rancor and you've done an awesome job capturing it. SS or GG or Hasbro hasn't even come close to the real deal as you have. Any chance of offering it as a kit when finished?
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

That new pose looks really great. Very natural looking. Great job on those claws as well. Starting to come together and look really amazing.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Thanks people, glad you like it :)

Steveo, I will be offering it as a kit, providing that it makes it through the casting process.

You know, I really shouldn't work on this thing late at night. I was rearranging some of its teeth last night and then I had a really bizarre dream about one of my own teeth falling out!
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

This is really shaping up, Chris. Pose is looking good... I like the arm positions. The head is looking spot on. Can't wait to see the detailing and texturing you come up with.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

CATASTROPHE! DISASTER! Followed by redemption...

This is sort of typical I suppose. So, here's what happened. I was doing some work on the right leg and noticed that the hip socket was too far forward. This was probably due to working from rubbish reference before I had enough studio model pictures. I made a new leg armature but when I attached it to the pelvis I heard a 'crack'. The socket, which was made from epoxy putty had snapped. Great.

So, I dug the entire section out and attempted to construct a new socket. It was very difficult now that the armature was covered in clay so I got some two part epoxy glue to try to glue the new socket onto some of the existing armature wire. Well, guess what, the epoxy decided not to fully set, instead remaining like chewing gum. I now had a huge mess of a model with no legs.

I cleaned the glue off and had to dig deeper to find another anchoring point on the wire armature. For this I had to dig a lot of the tin foil out I had used to bulk this thing out. (See first page to see what I'm on about.)

By the time I had located the wire, more than half the sculpture was ruined. I was on the verge of giving up and binning the whole thing. The top of the torso and arms were thankfully okay, so after a bit of panic I calmed down and set to putting this sorry mess right.

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^ After the door scene in Jedi.

If you ever want some advice, my guess would be DO NOT CUT CORNERS EVER!!!! I decided to make a proper armature stand, (which I should have done in the first place) and make a typical mounting position on the back of the model, halfway up the spine.

After hours of looking for armatures I got thoroughly fed up of the prices and decided to go my own way. I went to the timber merchant, got a load of wood cut and made this base:

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^ This is a beast of a base, over-engineered to the point of madness. You could probably hang a car engine off this. Monster clay is pretty heavy stuff though, and the sculpture's weight does tend to sit forward, thanks to the Rancor's fat head.

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^ I got some thick brass tubing and drilled 2 holes into the wood support. I then carefully knocked the tubing into the wood, ensuring a very snug fit. I then cut some more brass to fit inside the Rancor, and scored it so the epoxy putty would bind to it better.

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^ The clamp is holding the model up like a rotten toffee apple whilst I line up the brass rods for epoxying.

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^ This picture cracks me up. Looks like some primitive bicycle experiment. Remember Robocop 2 where they pull him to pieces? Ha ha!
The removable section of the square tubing has now been attached to the wire armature with epoxy putty.

The little bit of wire helps to support the front, and will be replaced with a wooden dowel.

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And I now have a handy arm storage area.


So, we are fixed. Yeah, a lot of retracing of steps is needed, but thankfully I took many photos - especially turntable shots for 360 degree views, so constructing the bottom half should not be too challenging. I'm actually really pleased and relieved I managed to save this model. As it is now, the legs will not have to be load bearing, so things should be a lot simpler from here on in. The model slides off the tubing easily, and things are all just generally better.

So, looks like I have many hours in front of me. Joygasm.

So, the moral is: When a Rancor is torn in half and now resembles slimer, do not turn to hate and aggression. Keep calm, drink a nice hot cup of tea and work your way through it. A new dawn will arise. We will walk into the light with our heads held high supported by wires and square tubes.*

* the epoxy fumes are affecting me.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Ah, the joys of sculpting... maybe I should show pics of what happened to the T2 sculpture of mine... good recovery though, Chris.
 
Re: RANCOR Sculpt

Thanks Alan. Go on, show the T2! It is a bit demoralising, but you just gotta keep going otherwise you have just wasted too much time. By the way, I was going to ask you, I'm thinking about having the right hand more clenched, but not fully. The angles of the fingers would be a nightmare to cast though - imagine the hand position when using the gear lever on your car. - Would you remove the fingers and just cast them separately? Probably the easiest option?
 
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