Nightmare in Silver Cyberman

Woah!
That's....
Incredible.

Ever consider the selling the raw pulls as a kit?

I'd be on line for that!

Good luck on your build :D
 
Thanks for the encouragement folks. Progress continues to be slow but at least I'm making progress :)

Here's the latest pics from the right bicep.
First the silicon on the clay, then the mother shell gets put on (plaster of Paris and burlap if you are wondering).

bicep-r1.jpgbicep-r2.jpg

Next, removal of the mother shell, peeling off the silicon and then putting the silicon and shell back together.
bicep-r3.jpgbicep-r4.jpg

Aqua-resin is then applied to the inside of the mould.
bicep-r6.jpg

Add some layers of fibreglass with aqua resin and then the shell comes off and out pops my right shoulder/bicep.
bicep-r7.jpgbicep-r11.jpgbicep-r12.jpg

There is still a lot of sanding and filling to do.

Most of the moulds and mother shells get tossed after I've pulled the piece. I don't have room to store them all and the quality of the finish straight from the mould is pretty rough.
I have started to make a mould from the thoroughly filled and sanded head though. The original is pretty heavy so I'm going to try to make a lighter one. The original will be turned into "Handles" if the second one turns out well.

head2-1.jpghead2-2.jpghead2-3.jpg
 
This looks SO GOOD. This is the only build i have found online for the 2013 cyberman. I have been looking for templates to make my own out of foam and 3d printed parts but I found this and realized it wasnt foam :(((. But anyway looks badass
 
Excellent build, and sweet thread! Way too few DW costume builders...
I'll have to add to the above humble requests - should you decide to offer raw casts, I'm game too. Especially when it seems that we have very similar measurements....
 
A bit more progress. I've been trying to figure out how to get the neck done and rather than staying stuck, I've started to created a rough prototype.
First a quick layout sculpted in reverse.
neck - 5.jpg
The first layer of silicon.
neck - 1.jpg
The second layer.
neck - 2.jpg
The silicon flipped over after removing it from the mould.
I've found that with the silver colour that I add, the particles settle nicely against the mould (gravity!) but the back part has all sorts of swirls and patterns. This is why I sculpt the pieces in reverse. When they are flipped over, they have a nice even colour.
neck - 3.jpg
The result is nice and flexible and stretchy so I can get it over my head with no problems and it isn't choking me.
neck - 4.jpg
Next step is to figure out how to get the piece that covers my neck. I'll probably do something similar to my elbow and knee pieces.
 
Well, looking at the date of the last post, it has been almost a year since I worked on this. Other things got in the way (including procrastination and a lot of things around house).

Progress: I used worbla to create a rough mould of my neck, added clay to sculpt the patterns and apply silicon. This worked fairly well but it was really loose. That was a year ago. I finally got back to the project and adjusted the size by taking an inch or two out of the neck circumference and re-sculpting the inverse of the pattern on the neck. The pattern isn't exact but it is close enough. I went through several episodes of shows on Netflix as I rotated the mould to keep the silicon from dripping and pooling.


neck1.jpgneck2.jpgneck3.jpgneck4.jpg

The prototype neck base I had made was not the right size for the new neck piece so I had to sculpt it again using the finished neck as a reference how to size it and line up the pattern.

neckbase1.jpgneckbase3.jpg

After pouring the silicon, and removing the piece, I lined up the neck piece with the base and used silicon to glue the pieces together.

neckside.jpgneckback.jpgneckfront.jpg

There is a bit of a seam between the two pieces, some the shapes are not quite the right size and the back of the base doesn't lie flat but I think it is good enough for now. The back of the base should be under the chest piece so I'm not too concerned about it not being flat. This has been holding me up for too long so it is time to move to the next pieces.

The resizing of the mould worked really well because it fits really well. It isn't loose and more importantly, it isn't choking me.

It will, however, be fairly hot when I'm wearing it.
 
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Some more progress to report: the right thigh.
First I made a foam version of the thigh to get the size and rough shape right and started to cover it with a thin layer of clay.
thigh1.jpgthigh2.jpg
Then it was roughing out the shape and trying to get the proportions right.
thigh3.jpgthigh4.jpg
There were several changes as I found different photos that gave me a better idea of whether there were "innie" or "outie" patterns. If you look closely, I ended up changing at least two parts to "outies" after comparing several screen captures in different lighting. I don't know if I got it right but I like the way it turned out.
thigh5.jpgthigh6.jpg
Hopefully it will fit ok after I make the mould and pull the finished piece.
Then the left thigh will have to be done.
 
I'm still working on the right thigh and am currently working on the aqua-resin cast. At the same time, I've been working on creating a higher quality mould of the head. I just pulled the front part of the head out from the mound and I'm really pleased with the results. It's nice and smooth and shouldn't require too much additional finishing. It's much lighter than the original so I think I'll use this for the helmet and use the other one for a "Handles" (after I complete the NiS cyberman!). I'll have to make a mould of the back now. More work!
head2pull.jpg
 
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I've started on a new mould of the back of the head that has already been filled and sanded so the future "Handles" project will have a good start.
may2018 - 1.jpgmay2018 - 2.jpg

I've also started to work on the left thigh. First job was to take the clay off of the right thigh sculpt and then take the underlying foam structure apart. I then flipped the outer foam the other way and put it back together again. The dimensions should be pretty much the same as the right thigh. I then covered it with clay so I can start the sculpt.
may2018 - 3.jpgmay2018 - 4.jpgmay2018 - 5.jpg
 
Here is the process I use when creating a mould and mother shell...
After sculpting (this is the left thigh), I put a few layers of silicon on (usually 3 or 4). The first is a straight mix of A and B which gives a thin, smooth layer. The next layer I put some thi-vex in to thicken up the silicon. The following picture is after the second layer.
mothershell - 0.jpg
After the silicon is relatively smooth with no indentations that the mother shell might get locked into, I add some bumps in the silicon so it is easy to align the silicon in the mother before I make the cast. I then use the clay to divide the mould in half watching out for indentations that could cause the mother shell to lock on to the silicon. I add a couple of registration bumps in the clay so the two halves are easy to fit together in the right spot.
mothershell - 1.jpgmothershell - 2.jpg
Next I create one half of the mother shell. I use burlap and plaster of paris because it works well and is cheap. You have to work fairly quickly before the plaster sets.
mothershell - 3.jpg
After the first half is set, I turn the mould over and remove the clay (it can be reused many times but you might have to clean bits of plaster off of the clay).
mothershell - 5.jpg
I then apply foil tape to the edge that the second half will go against. I find this works well because the plaster of paris doesn't stick to it but it conforms to the contours of the edge really well - even if it isn't sticking well. I fold it over the outside edge which helps keep its shape even more.
mothershell - 6.jpg
Then it is time for the second half of the mother shell. I usually cut out sufficient burlap before mixing the plaster of paris. Here in Canada you can get big rolls of burlap from lots of stores during the fall (for protecting bushes from snow) but it may be harder to find in the spring or summer. I ran out and needed some more and ended up buying a long burlap table runner from Michaels. With a discount coupon the price wasn't too bad.

mothershell - 7.jpgmothershell - 8.jpg
Now I wait until the morning for the mother shell to fully set and dry out before separating the halves.
 
It's morning and time to remove the mould from the plug. The plaster of paris is a bit damp where it was against the silicon but it isn't an issue. The shell is nice and solid.
shell2 - 1.jpg

The mother shell popped off pretty easily. Yay.
I trimmed the bottom of the silicon and removed the supports I used while sculpting on the lazy susan.
shell2 - 2.jpgshell2 - 3.jpg

I pull the silicon off from the widest part to the narrowest.
shell2 - 4.jpg

I clearly wasn't paying enough attention to the silicon application. There are some fairly big pockets but they will be taken care of after I cast the thigh.
shell2 - 5.jpg

Everything fits back together ready for the casting.
shell2 - 6.jpg
 
Looks great, how are you going to handle the heat....?

Have someone ready to catch me when I pass out ?

But seriously ... I've worn hot costumes before but not as heavy or heat retaining as this will be. I've been thinking about getting a cooling vest. I'll be putting fans into the helmet and plan on having one of the fans behind a couple of small vent holes on the front part of the "crest". I was thinking of having as an exhaust fan rather than pulling in air to the helmet (don't fight the hot air rising).

I'm open to suggestions.
 
Hi Clifton,

I would suggest getting a portable AC unit so you can stand in front of it at the booth while the cold air is blowing on your back. The cooling vest will help a lot and the fans are good.

Best regards.
Simon
 
I've been wondering how to keep the two halves of the shin/calf pieces together for a LONG time. I decided to try rare earth magnets.

magnets - 1.jpgmagnets - 2.jpg

They work pretty good.
I have to do some more work to tidy up around the magnets but I am going to re-finish the outside too so the extra work will be a minor inconvenience.
 
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