The Sandman's Helm (Pt.8)

So here I am, back at the helm, and sure enough, I wasn't too impressed with the middle section. Only one week left till finish, but I do like a challenge!

I fiddled around with it a bit, but I already knew the writing was on the wall, I just didn't like it's current incarnation. Here is where I ended up.

So I originally got the idea of copying the tail-bone of the medical spine I had, and then it occurred to me, instead of 'copying it', why don't I ACTUALLY copy it, making a mold and a cast, that way I could get two exactly identical bones sections for either side.

I spent a while preparing the spine that you can see here (below) by eliminating the undercuts that would cause the mold to be stuck to the original, but thanks to the wonderful flexible properties of silicone, I didn't need to go too far, and I could keep some deep depressions for further detail.

The mold, pretty dirty, but I was trying to save money and therefore silicone. Turned out great though!

I then pulled two copies using some clear urethane resin I had lying around. I also recently bought some aluminium powder for future metal-looking castings, hence why they turned out grey.

And now for the interesting part! I cut out the work I was unhappy with, right down to the head cast. I then placed the tailbone against the head with some clay underneath to support its weight and keep it in place, after that, it was a matter of taking the lines of the tail-bone and making them 'flow' into the other sculpted detail.

I think you'll agree this is vastly better!

Spent some time cleaning up the ridges, the Y shapes and making sure the tail bone blended seamlessly with the rest of the head. I also decided to remove the detail from the lower helm closest to the neck, I would probably need it o be stronger down there, so detail might not be a good idea.

Looks great!

I went straight to work on the other side, measuring and copying the whole time. This time, with the tail-bone being an exact copy, I just needed to place it carefully, and the rest was a piece of cake. I busted out the other side.

Cleaned up the remaining pieces of the left side, and done my last adjustments to make sure both sides are as symmetrical as possible (without actually being symmetrical, that would just be weird from an anatomy standpoint!)

And here we have it, finished, both sides, and front. All smoothed out and pretty. Sadly it was one HEAVY sonuvagun, carting it about must have given me the best workout I've had in a while!

As soon as I can, onto molding and casting this beast!

And for your viewing pleasure, a video so you get a better idea of how it looks in real life. (Is this real life!?)

The Sandman's Ruby (Dreamstone Pt.2)

OK, so I've never tried to reproduce 'sturdy glass' before, and even fake gemstones are something I've considered to be too heavy in large sizes for anyone to wear all night, unless you are Mr. T of course.

I had some clear resin from Alumilite lying around, and in a moment of craziness decided to see if I could rapid prototype a Dreamstone from a basic mold and cast process of the simplest variety.

Starting with the foam board I glued together from the last post, I manually cut down the edges with an Xacto blade to the best of my steady-hand ability (beer may have been required to steady that hand), and then used some clay to fill and roughly smooth down the edges.

Once done, I then whipped up a quick box, applied some Vaseline to the surface of the prototype gem shape as a release agent (it was lying nearby from a previous life cast I had done), and poured myself a concrete mold.

Not bad, not bad at all, but I could already see some potentially hazardous and troublesome undercuts, nonetheless I pressed on. I mixed up my clear resin, put a thin red wash of 'paint' in there, and 'Slush cast' the resin around the inside.

It was only a minute or two into this process that I realised I hadn't released the mold, which meant I'd probably be having a nightmare trying to get the resin cast out of this. It's OK, it's not like the release agent was nearby or anything, like a whopping mile or something... oh wait...

Well, that's what excitement and enthusiasm gets you, hasty mistakes! Either way I wasn't too bothered I was going fast anyway, just checking viability.

I was right, getting the resin cast out of there was a nightmare, and a feat of strength, but after a bit of warping it came out and i was able to roughly put it back into the right shape. Several things were apparent:

1. A vacuum former would be awesome.
2. The Vaseline layer that released the foam from the concrete was clearly too thick/course, and this transferred all the way to the final cast, the pattern was evident on the resin.
3. In that regard, if casting in resin, I'd have to do a lot of work buffing the positive I was going to cast into almost perfect shape, or find some way of polishing the final cast down smooth.
4. The colour transferred well, will have to go bolder, and look into resin dyes.

Good test, next time, I'll probably use wood, sanded down to good angles, followed by perhaps a filler layer smoothed down very fine, and topped with resin to give it a polished surface before casting. I'll use a spray release to prevent any unusual transfer, and slush cast as I did before.