The Sandman - Epilogue

Well, I've worn the Sandman helm out and about a few times now, the most recent being Wasteland Weekend, a fantastic desert event out near California City in Nevada.

While out and about during the day, I got snapped a couple of times, and I absolutely adore these shots. They'll definitely be going into the final gallery once I get round to re-making the helm with the benefit of unlimited time on my hands. :)

Enjoy!

Photo 1: HyperSapiens.com
Photo 2: Jeff Vaillancourt

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 Helm (Pt.2)

So after many other side projects, and numerous false starts, I decided it's time to get cracking. Firstly, I bought a new plotter, and tried to get my head around Adobe Illustrator, in the eventual hope I could make great 1-1 schematics and blueprints for awesome helms and other props. After much messing around, failing, and general skulduggery on my part, I realised I was going about this project all wrong.

The lessons I had looked at, the tutorials from other great prop makers like Volpin Props, and the books I read were basically all telling me how to get started on a helm you build from the ground up, solid. I had a problem with that, which I didn't quite realise, and that's due to the elongated nature of the helm, I needed something that would allow it to sit comfortably and be attached mostly to my face, extending back from there ('free space' at the back). My original idea of putting a gas mask on a rough head cast of mine seemed to be incompatible with scaling and measuring out the helm, and trying to make the negative space in foam or wood to attach and then work on.

Frustrated, I let it be for a while, then watching an amazing tutorial on sculpting by the Stan Winston School of Character Arts (I'd thoroughly recommend a year subscription, their videos are amazing, and the site is getting new tutorials by the masters all the time) I realised what I had to do. In that video, he uses Wed Clay on top of a head cast, which, as I intended, takes away the need for a lot of filler material to make up the final product. Wed clay is cheap, but apparently not really intended for multiple uses. I decided to go to my nearest well stocked art store and get materials to try my hand at sculpting.

After a bit of advice from an employee of the store, I bought five blocks of 4.5lb Van Aken Plastalina clay, trundled home and got cracking.

Starting with the gas mask I cut earlier, I removed the extraneous elements, like the water pipe fitting on the 'cheek' and cut it down trim with the mask for symmetry. I tried to trim things neater, and then proceeded to fill the mask's interior with clay. If I wanted to have a cast that would 'sit on top of' the modified gas mask (with the intention of the gas mask being attached to my head as the pivot for the whole helm, securing it) then I'd need to build it around that, and that meant keeping it rigid while I worked on its surface.

As you can see, I had to also add a bevel of clay around the mask exterior as well, to eliminate the dip from mask to forehead. Once that relatively simple operation was complete, it was onto the hard part, fleshing out the detail! Using the pictures from the previous post, I wasn't aiming for perfection, just building it up as quickly as possible. I started smoothing a thin layer over the mask in general to get rid of the 'black sections', and then went onto mask details, like raised eyebrows and cheekbones. After that, I started using a lot of the clay to build up the rear of the head, there's almost 6-7lbs back there, but it gives he right extension I need.

At this point I also had to consider the 'gas pipe' a.k.a. the 'Spine'. Hollowing out the front of the gas mask was a good idea, but I would eventually need some way to attach the spine to the mask, without it being crushed against my face. This is why the gas mask was a good idea in the first place, as it is already designed to have space between the mouth and front sections. I therefore used that space by filling around the edges, and 'flattening' the upper surface. I trimmed the top to spinal bones down to the solid vertebrae alone, and removed all the sinew parts belonging to the reproduction.

Once that was done, I could see that my guesses were correct, and it would fit snugly into the gap, while also having a solid screw ill be able to use to attach it to the final mold. I took note to make sure the upper nose section of the mask is solid and supports the weight. I may also have to trim the back half of the spinal vertebrae down if in the end it still ends up too close to my face. Here's a picture of it in place.

I'll have to add some clay to 'blend' the mask into the spine, but for casting, I'm going to work on it with the hollow open, and attach them together post process.

All in all, this was about 2 to 3 hours work. Looking forward to the next part, which is getting the detail in, and working on it's look and feel.

The Sandman's Helm

Continuing with the Sandman project, the main sigil/totem of Morpheus is the Dream Helm, which is described as follows:

"The Helmet of Dream is a mask of pure dream stuff and is one of his three symbols of office; the other two being his sand pouch and the Dreamstone. Dream crafted the helmet himself ages ago, sculpted from the bones of a dead god."

Thankfully, there is a tonne of concept art in the Absolute Sandman Volume 1, and the one I shall be following most is this:

Though I also really like the profiles on these ones too, they have an almost Cthulian quality (well, it is an Old God), which I hope to capture:

 

I had to start by thinking a lot on how, when and where it will finally be worn. Firstly, I wanted it to be tight fitting to my head, yeah, I've got an L-sized noggin, and this bad-boy is probably going to make it look ridiculous, so keeping it trim to the head will be a priority. With that in mind, I also might want some cooling in it. It's quite a tall helm, so that could be fitted in the rear back. Another issue might be the weight and comfort, as well as being able to drink if possible!

I had the idea of starting with an old army surplus gas mask, as they usually come with attached drinking spouts, and the position of the gas filter on the front is almost exactly aligned with the 'spine' coming out of the front of the dream helm. So, I bought a gas mask and started cutting it up in the general shape of the face section of the helm.

I'm going to sculpt the rest of the helm around this in the hope that at the end of the project, I'll be able to slide it on and strap it in, allowing full, non-shaky movement, AND utilize the drinking pipe so that I don't have to take it off. Which led to the next key issue, the 'spine' at the front. In a lot of pictures, it looks like a set of simply ribbed pipes, but I've never really liked that as a concept if this was 'fashioned from the skull of an old god', so I decided to go literal, and buy a medical spine, which I plan to cut into the right pieces (removing the top and hip parts, leaving just a spine section) and attaching it securely to the front of the mask and blending it in.

It doesn't weigh all that much right now, but then again, it isn't currently attached to my face. Another good reason to strap in the helm to my head, but I'm still concerned it might be heavy, so we shall see about maybe hollowing parts out later if need be, perhaps fit the drinking pipe in there later?

More on it soon!