Dr. Doom Sculpt

So I have been wanting a Doctor Doom costume for quite sometime and finally began the sculpt the other days. I began just blocking in the forms to get a good idea of how I wanted it to look as Doom has gone through several changes over the lifespan of the Marvel Character. I chose to go with the look based upon the Legendary Doom statue that really has him in some ornately crafted armor.

Here is the look I am basing it upon with certain changes to suit my own tastes.

So once again starting with the basic Plastelina clay easily accessible from Hobby Lobby thanks to their 40% off coupons!

As you can see its quite hideous at this point and looking more like five year old playing with clay than anything worthy of Doom. In the beginning its important to just get the rough shapes in because if you try and just carve out fine details and move on you will end up removing them as you have to constantly adjust something for scale or perspective. 

Once I had the Doom mask shapes in place it was time to start attempting some proportioning and symmetry for the mask. I haven't had more than a few hours to play off and on with the sculpt but its starting to look a little more recognizable as Doom. 

I plan on molding the face plate as one piece and the head seperate making a full head mask that the face can easily attach rare Earth magnets. I think the Dr. Doom mask and helm is a good fit for vacuum forming as its pretty smooth with little to no undercuts. Also making it from plastic will make it extremely lightweight and reproducible should anyone show interest in wanting one of their very own. As you can see from previous projects that the vacuum table is the direction I want to go with most if not all of my costuming choices. Thermoforming just really is fun and I look forward to seeing what I can pull from this.

Now I will really have to focus more on the key details getting the shape of the eyes correct and all the other little details. I believe any rivets will be added to the mask after casting to insure nice solid shapes to form over. If they don't get picked up well in testing I will then have to add them to the plastic mask as Doom requires rivets. Its always been a big part of his look.

So I got some more work done upon the mask and cowl. I finished the sculpt and coated it in Polygel 35 which is good stuff to use when you plan on pouring ultracal-30 casts, which I am. 

So here is a closer to finished pic of the sculpt. I forgot to take an end pic prior to molding but I coated it with Polygel 35 and then made a fiberglass support jacket for it. While this was curing I moved on to the cowl. In the pics above this looks less like metal and more of a leather or synthetic material.

I plan on making this from something like a flexible urethane rubber from Smooth On as I will want to move more comfortably since it is very close and molded to my head. 

DOOM!!!!

We have a Doom face plate! Or the makings of a potentially good one. I mixed up a batch of Ultracal-30 last night and poured it in to the mold and before long it hardened to in a very stout casting. The fiberglass mold jacket was a bear to remove so in hindsight you always want to make your silicone or in my case Polygel mold is as smooth as possible with no undercuts or areas it could potentially lock once the plaster expands while hardening. The mold and casting was successful and once I get to some touch up work with the Dremel smoothing out the planes and cleaning it up it will be a good base mask to add rivets and a solid paint job. I plan on carefully drilling through the eyes and mouth to increase suction for pulling the mask on the vacuum table.

Well I finally got some plastic and tested out the forms and table. I began with .04 ABS to test out the greaves and tried a .09 Styrene for the mask and pauldrons.

For test runs I think they came out pretty well. The plastic was a bit thick for the mask as I lost some detail but for pauldrons it was excellent. After some late night painting and sanding I think the first test run of the table was a success just in time for Free Comic Book Day.

So after the initial rush to get something created for Free Comic Book Day I have been doing the tedious work of sanding and working on the symmetry of the mask. Sand, sand, sand and make sure both sides match. The initial sculpt had several issues from the forehead half moon being far wider on the right side to the chin being lower on the left. I have been slowly fixing these issues to get a better looking mask. I also sanded the back evenly so it was no longer sitting at an angle when laying flat.

Also did several passes on the legs and arms to smooth them out as well.

Now off to make some elbows and knees.

Cutting Ultracal 30 with a bandsaw

I recently sculpted a closed greave to use in a Dr. Doom set of armor.

Here is the rough stages as again I forgot to document the finished pieces. I started with a piece of PVC cut to the length of my shin and then built up clay on top of it to the desired shape. I then added a shape shown in artwork with Doom's legs showing.

This addition created undercuts in the ultracal mold that I was originally unaware of. This created a problem because if I poured ultracal in to make a positive it would definitely lock the mold. After searching the web for several days I found nothing regarding cutting it in to two halves for ease of release. I decided to try it on the bandsaw figuring the worst that would happen when I cut the ultracal mold it would gum up the blade or dull it completely. Surprisingly it did neither. The bandsaw cut through both molds at an even speed with no damage to mold or blade. 

I made slight turns with the piece to make sure the mold fit back together precisely but the process worked well.

So last night I poured the casts. Always remember to coat your molds with some form of release agent. I nearly forgot last night until the last second to coat the inside of these molds or I would have ended up with bricks.

Here are the casts fresh out of the molds after some delicate coaxing.  They will look great once they have been sanded a bit. I should get some good vacuum formed pulls from these pieces. The most important thing to remember if you are working with plaster molds and making plaster casts is to insure there are no undercuts. That will guarantee you will have to destroy your mold to get the piece out if any undercuts are present. I primarily work with the Ultra-Cal 30 for molds as it is readily available from ceramic supply stores and very inexpensive compared to silicone and urethane molding materials and the molds will last forever. That being said I will be making some molds down the road using these more expensive materials as the pieces I want to cast will be more complex but for basic shapes like I am doing now the Ultra-Cal works well for it.

Next up is to build some MDF risers as its always good to have your pieces up a bit when vacuum forming to insure you have good pulls and access to cut off.

The vacuum forming table is complete!

Last year I made the great decision of purchasing plans to make a heavy duty Thermoforming vacuum table. It was a very large and involved process to get it all assembled and now thanks to a wiring genius friend of mine I now have the final piece of the puzzle. Heat!

Now I am looking forward to beginning testing the ABS and Styrene plastics and thicknesses to see what kind of pulls I can achieve.

Deathstroke: The Terminator Arkham Edition

So I have always had an interest in Deathstroke: the Terminator. I felt he was a very cool if underrated character in the DC Universe and really like his updated look for Batman Arkham Origins.

So after making a headcast I went about starting a head sculpt of him. The biggest problem I have seen with some Deathstroke helmets is the proportions. People tend to over exaggerate the size and then you end up with something more of a bobblehead which really throws the whole suit out of whack. I planned on going for a more fitted helm that wouldn't appear as though I was wearing my big brother's helm or something.

I started sculpting the head with Plasticine clay from Hobby Lobby. I recommend using their 40% off coupon that is always available to pick up a 4 lb. block anytime you are near this place. Once you start building you will need a reserve of it as this stuff will eventually get muddled with plaster or other bits and need thrown out.

So after working with this for a long while (sorry I didn't think to take pics once I had a finished sculpt) I opted to mold it in Polygel- 35 instead of silicone due to it being better for Ultracal 30 use which I intended on using to make the casting from in order to vacuum form a mask. I sprayed Pol -Ease 2300 over the whole thing including the life cast to insure the Polygel did not attach to the clay.

Here are some of the stages of coating the helmet. I was mixing about 6 oz. of Polygel A and B at this time and that seemed to give me adequate coverage. The Polygel parts are both different colors which then turn blue once properly mixed which helps you know when you have a good consistency and mix. The potlife of this states 8 - 10 minutes of working time but I think it was closer to 5 - 6 minutes before it began thickening so be aware that your time could be lower so plan ahead when attempting to cover large areas.

At this point after the "print coat" and another two layers I added poly fiber to the mix in order to thicken the shell to fill in the eye socket and other areas to insure it was a good solid thickness.

Once I completed that I made a mold jacket out of fiberglass resin and cloth. This process took time thanks to the wonderful weather Mother Nature is continuing to hit us with making working outside less than ideal. Once that was done I mixed up the Ultracal 30 and poured it in to the mold and within 30 minutes it was hard enough to pull out. The great thing about the Polygel-35 was that I needed no mold release. The plaster casting came out cleanly never sticking to anything. Be aware though working with plaster that once it starts to cure you do not want your skin anywhere near it as it generates enough heat to burn you badly. This cast was steaming when I pulled it out of the mold!

This is the stage I am currently at with this helmet. There is some sanding to do to clean up the surfaces and make the planes of the helm much more angular for the Deathstroke helm to look correct. I now have to begin sculpting the rear interlocking pieces so the helm has a complete front and back.

Finally after a long hiatus working on other projects I was able to find someone with a bandsaw tall enough to cut this mold in half. I had tried vacuum forming the helm from one mold but due to the height and how it tapered inward the webbing was too bad and it didn't form well. Moving on.....

So the first issue was to attempt to draw a line and get as clean a cut as possible. Best advice I can give you is to get a piece of string or cord and hold it against the piece at the front and back to give you a line to draw. The bandsaw luckily cut through it in a matter of minutes with a pretty decent even cut. There was only a small amount of sanding to do to get it level for pulling.

The practice piece I heated for 6 minutes 30 seconds and there was quite a droop to it by then. I also turned the vacuum pump on to about -10 pressure as previous tests had pulled too hard and it pulled holes in the plastic ruining the vacuum. This amount seemed to work decent. I will be doing another test with more vacuum and perhaps another 30 seconds under the heater.

All in all I am happy with the first test. The plastic webbed and melted to itself on the top so I will be able to grind the folds and spot fill it before priming and painting. Once I clean all the edges and seam it together with plastic glue it should look pretty decent. Here it is taped together on my much shorter friend but at least it doesn't have that bobble head look I have seen so many other helms end up with.

The two test pulls are looking well enough to show all the areas I need to smooth out on the mold. Now it is time to weld the pieces together. I am going to try a glue on one and then an epoxy upon the other to see which I like more and which is easier to smooth and finish. The glue went on very easy and set within minutes.

My name is John Fleming and I have been interested in making all things cosplay and video game related for some time now. This blog will hopefully be a place for me to showcase some of the items I am working on and the steps taken to create them.