Big end of year update

So it’s been really busy the past few months and I haven’t had time to update this with everything so here’s the round up to sum everything up to date. But between studying for A+, and a mixture of 5 different projects it’s been very busy.

Grinch Mask

Last post I had finished the clay sculpt and was about to cast it. Now once again I ran into several issues, 2 pretty much stand out:

1. Having the full size mannequin to work on it’s a hassle and makes it hard to get a good cast without it spilling everywhere – really need to get a head cast done / brought and a front face only cast for when I’m making things like this.
2. I just was running short of time – deadline was Christmas work party and I ended up rushing and making mistakes. Especially when trying to price apart the cast it tore apart a bit and so I had to make several patch ups

Afterwards I casted it with the gelatine once again made a mistake but it’s one to take not of via trial and error. I poured way too much into the nose socket as I figured having it sit flush to the face would have been better however with this particular mold it was just too heavy on the face causing it to tear.

Next time I’ll have to poor less in and keep it light rather than solid / fitted.

The final issue I came across was I didn’t tapper off the edges of the mold to be thinner so it could blend in so like the zombie prosthetic there’s a noticeable line across the face along the edge.

So onto application, once again I keep picking up on things I should have done better but that’s how we learn and improve. The main thing I realised that next time I should pre paint the mask – just ran out of time prepping before the party so the paint didn’t get an even coverage / didn’t get the exact colour tones need

Biggest issue as I mentioned above was just that the nose was too heavy and caused a massive tear. But all in all it got a few laughs and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Wartable

So finally managed to get the next chunk of what I needed to work on the table. From where I left off last I had just finished the ice shards along the cliff wall so to speak. So to carry on I continued with the poly filler filling in gaps and the board where snow would be all along the edges and where the ramp / cliff is.

From this point I got a bit sick of polyfiller and also ran out so I figured I’d start on the ice itself. After finding some cool inspiration online used for Warhammer bases id figured I’d make it on a larger scale so to start with using various sample pots I found a blue I liked as a base and filled in the large portion in the middle that would be the ice as you can see here the base coat was applied.

On top of this I then proceeded to add a blue / green micro glitter on top – now it looks like a lot and a little tacky at this stage but once it’s finished it will make sense. The glitter will give the ice a nice glimmer once completed.

The next step would have been to layer all this in my water effect resin however I wanted to cover some of the shards so I started giving some areas a raised texture.

So once I’ve finished with this section it then gets worked on in roughly this order:

• Objects glued to the board where ice would be for stuff that got frozen over – this needs to be generic items so it can be used for both fantasy and futuristic games.
•  The water resin will be layered on top of the glitter base coat. Either clear or tinted experiments needed 
• Crackle paint will be used to break some of the ice – got to love crackle paint 
• Various shading and dry brushing in white on top of that to create the ice 
• Painting any details – i.e. cliffs 
• Working on adding the snow layer to the board itself using faux snow / powder snow 
•  Once I get some woodland scenic water effect will create a frozen water fall on the right side of the board 
•  Once all that is done then it’s just onto making trees etc.

Other projects

So over Christmas I’ve been doing a lot of photoshop work to help with various other projects which I will eventually post on here but for now it’s a secret project. But you can have a look at this spacescape thats tied into it.

The purple leather I ordered for some larp claws arrived so I will be working on that soon alongside the claws for my Skaven.

On top of this will be starting on some new larp kit because you can never have enough – thankfully I have some help with sewing as I’m just downright terrible.

To follow on with sewing still working on my friends Christmas present (very late now I know however the sewing machine and I have issues >.>)

Finally will be starting on writing up plot for D&D / Shadowrun games which will involve some artwork on my part and making various scenery that will be used alongside Warhammer – which I’m hoping to also tie in with more 3D modelling. 3D printer at this stage would be amazing!

That’s the mega update done will try to keep this more updated now the Christmas rush is over.

Christmas Project pt2

Another evening on finishing the main bulk of the claywork. So I managed to bulk out the face more and adding the many fold lines that are across the face around the cheeks and forehead.
Here you can see the progress so far:

There not too much to say I managed to achieve what I wanted to do tonight which was getting the rest of the structure down - I need to watch some footage though before tomorrow as I'm still not happy that the nose is correct - I think I will need to push it in more so its more scrunched up to the face. (Unfortunately most picture on Google is Jim Carrey pulling his normal funny faces so its hard to tell, but gives me a reason to watch a Christmas movie a little early.)
I'm also considering pushing the eyebrows up a bit further but as they're hidden by the fur it shouldn't make too much difference.
Finally I need to work on the edges and lip ears to get it smoothed out and thinned out.


So the next big push will be finalising the structure then on to start the smoothing & detailing. Hopefully if I can nail this down tomorrow I can spend the weekend making the cast with more care this time round so there hopefully wont be air pockets.

Christmas Project Pt1

So starting a few new projects today for the Christmas party. This is a 2 part project at the moment.
Part 1: A Grinch mask / Prosthetic
Part 2: A Krampus mask + outfit

So to start with I'm getting what I'm weighing up to be the easiest / quickest of the two: the Grinch mask. The process to start with is the same as the zombie prosthetic, for the first few evenings after work I'll start the blocking process on the face using clay, following on from that will be detail + texture then finally molding and casting.
The main idea is to get Grinch finished but the end of the week. Which should then give me the next week to work on the Krampus mask and a further week to get all the kit together for it.

So to start with I outlined on the mannequin head the lines biased on the Jim Carrey Grinch. You can enjoy this classy reference picture for the moment. 

I started to block out the shapes and folds with the clay just to get the basic shape, tomorrow night I'll start to bulk out the details and add  depth to it before the detailing can begin.
So here is the progress for now:

 

So as you can see its just the basic shape for the moment the nose / muzzle area needs to come out more at the sides and I need to start bulking out the cheeks and eyebrows also. I might have to get better pictures or re-watch the film again to see if I've made the nose too far out as I think its more squashed in that what I've made it but its a start.

Learning prosthetics Pt 2

So to continue where I left off, I finished up as much of the clay work that I could in the limited time I had. Moving on to the next steps: molding and casting.
I coated the clay face in a silicon release agent and let it dry while I mixed up a patch of plaster.
I managed to coat the entire front part of the face without too much issue - having a proper head cast would of been nicer as its a less bulky piece to work with the large mannequin kept rocking a lot and was just really awkward to get the plaster to sit without slipping down the sides everywhere.

So as you can see here is the plaster cast in process - learned afterwards that either i didn't apply my plaster correctly or mix it very thoroughly as there was a lot of random pockets in the cast where the mold had not worked correctly.
Once set I pulled it off - there was some issues around the edges where either the release agent wasn't present or where the plaster was thin but after some back and forth wriggling it came off. I cleaned the clay off as best as I could and went straight into my first cast.
So never having done this before I had way too much fun microwaving the gelatin mix and playing around with it - its such a fascinating material to work with. As you can see below I managed to pour the gelatin in and slush it around the mold to fill in all the gaps.

So several issues already which i will change for the next cast - when i was making the plaster mold i covered too much of the face - the entire nose was not needed so where it is now a lot of the gelatin mixture got into that cavity meaning i couldn't get a thin edge along the nose. additionally the eyes were a massive pain but that's easily solved just but cutting the gelatin but will try to work on something to just deal with this as it will not be included in facial masks.

So as you can see here this is a problem with the first cast - not knowing how gelatin sets I wasn't sure how much to pour as you can see the edges are way to thick. The idea being that I would feather and tapper all the edges off so they can be blended / melted into the skin / skin tone seamlessly.
I melted some more and re-did the cast again attempting to get a thinner effect.

As you can see here its a lot thinner but i went to the other extreme of too thin - it was so difficult to hand and move without tearing. ideals i need a thin edge and a slightly denser middle along the brow where most of the features are held.
running low on time i decided to stick with the thicker one for now so i remelted the thin cast - the brilliant thing about gelatin is that if you mess up you can just re-melt it down and start again.

So after plaster casting the face I moved onto making a very quick lower jaw just for some more horror - as you can see here the idea being the mouth torn with teeth visible. - this was quickly molded and i proceeded to cast it in the same fashion as before. So here you can see the final cast - yes its on my leg because lighting was being an issue.

As you can see where I mentioned before about plaster issues you can see the little air holes or missed areas especially on the jaw piece. ultimately i might look into a different molding material instead of plaster - be it resin or some sort of algenate material I'll just have to experiment.
So all in all I applied the piece to my face - its a weird experience having your eyebrows stuck down. there was difficultly due to the thickness in sticking it to my face especially around the eyes stuck my eyelid at one point - I should point out this glue is strong equivalent to a medical glue.
I proceeded to painting, adding blood effects and greasing my hair up for the finished effect. I didn't have time to add the jaw piece in the end however. So you can see the edges of the mask and round the eyes but next time they'll be invisible almost and blended in when I make version 2!

Next project is for the Christmas party hopefully: Grinch Prosthetic and possibly one for Krampus - this might be a mask instead.

To summarize:   

• Investigate better mold materials / techniques to avoid air pockets
• Make better molds so the casts are nice and thin at the edges
• FX Glue is a pain to get off
• Possibly pre paint parts if using for self as 99% alcohol is terrible to inhale

Learning prosthetics

So been very busy lately but I've started a new project learning to make prosthetic's. As halloween is fast approaching I thought this would be awesome to go to parties / work with if it can master it.

So to start with I've been watching a lot of guides from Stuart Bray - including signing up for his E-lessons. I ordered / brought the starting materials to start the first step modeling the mask:
- Plasteline Clay
- Clay Tools
- Lighter Fluid
- Vasaline
- Hard Plastic Brush / Sponges
- Plastic  / Clingfilm

So the design I settled for was a traditional walking dead style Zombie because I'm being cliche and  I get enough werewolf-ness from LARP so I wanted a different monster.
I penciled in a shape on my mannequin body - it would of been easier to make a plaster cast of the front part of the face but I'm low on time to get this done.
Using the plasteline I blocked out the basic mask shape and started to bulk out features such as bones and eye sockets which you can see here:

So next up I wanted to add some wounds to my zombie face (so if anyone asks I was in a fight with a werewolf) so I could gore it up a little.
I started removing areas of clay to create an indentation for the deep wounds. This was followed up by texturing the bone and muscles i wanted on display.
Once I was happy i tore pieces of clay up and blending it on top of the marks to create the torn skin.
This was followed by a lot of blending and smoothing.
While I was wrapping up I used the Vaseline to make the edges thinner so it would blend in better once I ran the mold. 

So as you can see its not very neat so I spent the evening textured the skin to make it a bit more life like (or unlife like) using various materials including sponges and brushes on top of plastic to change indentations and pore textures. Once I was happy I finally cleaned up the edges with the lighter fluid ready for casting.

So this is the stage its at right now, figured I'd type this up while I was waiting for the lighter fluid to evaporate before finally details and starting the plaster mold.
Once I've made the cast of this part I will start modelling the jaw and teeth.

Update

So it's been a very busy week for me between working at EGX, going to the NFL game and boxing I haven't had much time to rest.
So hopefully during this week / weekend I'll have time to work on more stuff.

War Table - Ice

So currently working on building a table top table ever other day after work. Primarily designed for Warhammer - Fantasy & 40K, but can also be used for D&D and anything else we will play on it.
Design wise I'm not following any plans this is all just coming off the top of my head, so it's all up in the air about what might be on there at the end.
Seeing as typically you normally only see green, valley like tables or industrial ruins I wanted to go with something different so I thought an ice board would be an interesting idea.

So here you can see the progress so far:
So its primary made from a foam / polystyrene base glued on top of a large wood board. Currently I'm in the process of using filler to cover / strengthen all the polystyrene and wood where I want the snow effect to be. Bit of a long process at the moment as I have to wait for it to dry a lot as its hard to tell with white on white which parts id previously done.
As you can see I'v started also marking out the broken ice around the edge. The middle will be an ice lake which will be painted and coated with clear effect resin.
The plan also is to have an ice bridge that is dis-connectable going across one side to the other just to add another level to the game.
Here's a quick doodle of whats planned at the moment:

 So as you can see the bridge will go across joining both larger rock formations. in contemplating the idea of a ramp on the right side also so its possible to cross over both but that's still to be decided. After all of the main stuff has been finished I still have to make terrain pieces to use as cover for war games, so this will be primary trees, large ice formations etc.
Its a bit of a shame that Warhammer doesn't like gridded terrain as that way I could easily use this board for D&D sessions also.
So for the next few days / weeks when I get a chance to work on it, it will mostly be filling in and then sanding the filler down before painting base colours.
This is the first of several, there are still 3 other large boards and 2 half boards we brought to also be designed on with various terrains, however I'll be saving 1 of the larger ones to use for D&D exclusively with a wipe-able gridded sheet. Next will probably been a more modern / future city board that cna be used for 40K, Dropzone, Shadowrun etc etc