WIP Posable Zeke

[Illandrasen]

Nov 21, 2012 21:34:19 GMT -5 zodd said:

Dude...you're a beast. Just remember that I called dibs on your first purchase order!

Yea I've got a list of who has dibs on what haha.

I've been redesigning the leg to make it work more accurately and and to better represent the anime. should have something to show by late tonight.

[Illandrasen]

Alright it's finally time for an update.

I present Zeke's leg Ver 2.0









As you can see a slot was added in the back of the thigh allowing for the knee joint to be moved back up into a more realistic location and making it much closer to the anime. (Thank you Snowflake for pointing this out)

[Snowflake]

woooo!! it looks perfect!!
good luck on the arm, i have no idea how it's supposed to be movable when it has that shoulder cowling sort of blocking it

[ShadoWolfozo]

I think that's actually part of the shoulder.

Man this looks legendary
it's insane you're so good at the detail at this size.

[Illandrasen]

Thanks guys. These pics are shown without the foot. I'm still working on it some so that it works correctly.

[wolves]

It's looking so detailed! At this early stage. I can't wait to see how you do the arms.

[Illandrasen]

Making some revisions to leg to fix some weak points and some scaling issues with the foot I ran into. Next update will be Rev. 3 and should be the final revision.

[rykke]

What are you using to pull the mold of the body?? It did a great job of keeping those tiny details!

I've tried to pull small molds with clay and a rubber material but both fall short at that tiny scale; clay doesn't pick up details and the rubber stuff fails at the positive.

Oh, and are you pressing or pouring to get your positive?

[Maethius]

Man, serious respect to you for this much effort! My lack of patience is my real Achilles heel when it comes to making customs.

[Illandrasen]

Thanks guys! It certainly is something that is using all the patience I can muster.

rykke First let me apologize if I tell you things you already know. I'm just going to be very thorough.

Nov 30, 2012 10:34:57 GMT -5 rykke said:

What are you using to pull the mold of the body??

I make a 2 part mold using a common technique where clay/playdoh is used to mask half of your model down a part line that you see best fits the model then as seen on page 1 of this topic where you see the body in white playdoh. Once I have it set up like I want I fill the other side with OOMOO Silicone Rubber from Smooth-On.
Seen Here:

www.amazon.com/Smooth-On-Silicone-Making-Rubber-OOMOO/dp/B004BNF3TK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354308272&sr=8-1&keywords=oomoo

This is what I've found to be the best at capturing even the smallest detail. No degassing is required though it never hurts if you have it available. Once the first half has cure you flip it all over and scrap the playdoh out and you will almost be set up to pour your second half of the mold. Before your pour your second half it is absolutely crucial to coat your first half with Vaseline or any other petroleum jelly. Only coat the silicone rubber as coating your model could diminish some of the detail. The petroleum jelly is simply used to keep the two parts from merging leaving you with a brick of silicone with your model encased inside. I've done it before and learned my lesson. Here is a plain and simple tut video on the whole process.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ1A7ZjTsx8

Nov 30, 2012 10:34:57 GMT -5 rykke said:

Oh, and are you pressing or pouring to get your positive?

As far as getting the positive it really just depends on the type of material I am casting with. There are two main methods I use that I've come up with after a bunch of trial and error and research of resins and polyurethane foams. For both you are going to heat up your molds. I stick the mold in the oven on the lowest setting while I am measuring out the resin or urethane parts. You don't really want the mold hot, just warm. Once you mix up your casting material you do one of the following.
Resin(20 min cure time):
Use a disposable paintbrush and paint a thin layer of resin in both sides of your mold making sure to fill in any tiny details and doing so without and bubbles. The heat from the mold will speed up the resin's cure time and start forming a skin on the mold. This is a desired effect. As soon as I see this happening I close the mold and secure it with rubber bands and then using a disposable dropper I inject the remaining resin into the mold. I've found that this make for the best results.

Polyurethane foam(expands while curing):
This is some really fun stuff to cast with. Basically I do the same thing that I do with resins except due the higher viscosity I am able to completely fill both halves with casting material and then close them together and then use the injection hole of the mold as a vent for the foam to expand out of. The foams expansion will depend on its density. the one that I use for flexible foam parts is a 10x expansion foam.

I stick either back in the oven once I've finished messing with securing the mold. Heat speeds up the curing process.

Please feel free to ask more questions if I've not explained something clearly!!

[rykke]

Wow, that's some great info about molds! Thanks for the vid, Smooth-On's silicone rubber looks much better than the rubber I tried before.

[Illandrasen]

Taking somewhat of a break because I have finals coming up next week! I'll be back to work on little Zeke around Dec. 14th!

[Tilly]

Every time you post more about this it makes me deeply happy in the geeky bits of my soul. Sculpture yesssss. Out of curiosity, what would be easier to try and cast from if trying to duplicate something more sculpturelike, Super Sculpey or Milliput? I've never tried sculpting in the latter and have been meaning to...

When you're closer to done (or even now) you might also want to share on Zoidspoison and/or Tumblr. I bet the bits of Zoids fandom on Tumblr would love this, especially!

[Illandrasen]

Yea I plan to post in on ZP once my account gets activated. =D