Ame Comi Jade - SDCC 2012

Girlfriend had done an Ame Comi Jade from DC Comics a good while back and she finally bugged me to make her the headphones for it. Her first pair were just some cups and some headphones and well...it was a mess. Luckily I could at least top that... First off here is the reference.




So the entire time I knew I was going to be vacforming the thing so I started out making a vac buck out of MDF and hot glue.

 

Once that was done I was able to fill in a lot of the holes with lighter and cheaper clay (waste stuff i.e model magic) then layer it over with apoxie sculpt for that nice hard finish.




I nailed the pose right?



When I was looking at the buck I realized that the ends were all really derpy, so I cut out MDF end caps for ensure that they were flat and as symmetrical as I could get them.





We had to get the pulls done in a hurry since San Diego Comic Con was 2 days away. Unfortunately the vac form machine was not up to the task to pulling from acrylic...I was really crestfallen, but we adapt.

 

So the same day we decided to get some pulls from styrene and paint it green. Not ideal, but it was manageable.

 



During the day I quickly fabricated an acrylic headband and an acrylic MP3 player that would hook up to the headphones. Here are some of the finished pictures! Enjoy!

Xiba. Soul Calibur V. Cosplay Comcom 2012

Xiba was a project that was supposed to be something very easy, but we wound up throwing a lot of technology at it. Ironic since the character is a jungle man.



First the bangles would start out as PVC pipes. I then cut out styrene circles to act as a guide for the application of bondo. The foot bangle was just a ring cut from wood using my circle cutting jig.





Applied some apoxie sculpt and sanded it like mad to get a nice finish.



Added some styrene strips to the bangles for added detail as well as little styrene "monkies"



I had the bangle stay on my arm by wrapping my wrist in black boxer tapes, was simple but effective.



The necklace was quickly made with wood circles for the coins and apoxie sculpt for the green beads (magatama ish shapes)



So I didn't have a lathe to properly cut the staff heads for Xiba's staff. Luckily a very eccentric friend JUST HAPPENS to HAVE a 3D printer lying around his house. Yeah. Weirdness right? Here is the 3D model we used.

 

So how it works is that the contraption melts plastic and spits it out in lines until it forms a 3 dimensional object. This process is fairly time intensive on the machine's part but it frees us humans up to do other things while it works.







So to print the damn thing solid would have taken upwards of a week, and I didn't have that kind of time. So it was decided to print the thing hollow and I would make it work...somehow. First order of business was sanding them down a bit.



The thing was way too fragile so what I had to do was figure out the volume via water displacement (filling the thing with water then ramming the shaft in and measuring the volume of the remaining liquid) and place that much resin into the head.



Then I had to let it cure in the hot hot sun for an hour or two to ensure that it cured. There was some resin leakage so the duct tape is to mitigate it as much as possible as the resin cured.



Painted everything GOLD and weathered with black acrylic. Sword WIP should look familiar.



Then everything finally came together! I didn't bother taking pictures but the claws on the tiger paws were also sculpted from apoxie sculpt and stitched to the faux fur.

Monster Hunter Tigrex x Diablos - Monster Hunter - ALA 2012

So I got talked into a pretty crazy project involving the hunting of monsters. It was nuts and I had a good time learning the basics of apoxie sculpt as well as slightly more complicated sintra work. Here is the reference for the Tigrex x Diablos armor.



I cut out the shapes of the armor and left a little triangle for myself so I could build it up with foam and apoxie sculpt for the horns.



The gauntlet was a big different since I needed a pretty strange shape, so in order to get it the right shape I had to cut several darts into the plastic to get it to be a box. Was certainly a nuisance but it got done. The gauntlet is 4 separate pieces glued together with liquid nails and super glue.





I added some sintra detailing to it as well as more platforms for the apoxie sculpt to rest on.I thought it looked like a rabbit with the extra platforms so I drew some silly eyes.



I started sculpting the horns and used a small needle tool to get the grooves in the apoxie for the horn detail.



The big horn on the shoulder actually broke off since it was too heavy so I had to cut a hole into the shoulder and brace it. It's a bit awkward to explain so here is a picture.




The entire armor started to come together. It was painted initially by me but a friend hated my paintjob so much that he just repainted it all glossy.



I chose a single handed sword with no shield since it is impossible for me to hold anything in my left hand. This sword is called the Odyssey Blade.



Simple build so I started out with printing out the sword for scaling.



The sword started out as 4 pieces of MDF layered with a gap so I could apply bondo for the bevel.



Added bondo, some sintra and foam to it.



Sculpted the horn the same way I did the horns on the armor, had to take it into work since I was starting to feel the time crunch.



Painted it with spray paints and weathered with acrylics. Additionally the handle isn't leather, but electrical tape weathered with acrylic then clear coated.



So there you have it lots of hunting of monsters. Hope it was useful!