Professor Pyg

It's been a while and I've been pretty busy, but since it's summer now I'm hoping to get more done and post more frequently. We'll start off with a project I was really excited to work on.

This weekend was Akon in Dallas. I made one of my favorite Batman costumes, though he is one of the less well known villains. I am of course talking about Professor Pyg. For those that don't know, this is what the costume should look like:

Here is a picture of my final costume:

I'm trying to get some other pictures from my friends, but until then this'll have to do.

So now that you've seen the costume, you might ask how I made it.

It wasn't as hard as it might seem. The pants, shoes, shirt, gloves, and bow tie are all straight from the store or my closet.

The mask is the tricky part of this costume.  I started off my sculpting the mask out of regular kiln fire clay.

 I left the ears off because it would cause the mask to be significantly harder to mold and cast.  Next I used my silicone caulk method of mold making for this mold since I wanted to get it done quickly. I added fabric to the third layer of this mold to help strengthen the mold.

The aluminium foil is to create a layer between the silicone and the plaster, and to cheat filling in deep undercuts.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of my mother mold and the mold ripped when I took it off, despite my reinforcement. I didn't put enough fabric/layers of silicone, but I was in a hurry and I did get one cast out of it so it all worked out in the end.

So this time I used Smooth-Cast Onyx, and I've never used it before. I wasn't expecting how quickly the resin set up so when I was slushing the cast the resin cured before I got even coverage. 

The yellow circle shows the edge that is thin and you can see where it actually chipped. It's hard to see, but the red square is a very thick mass of resin where it pooled while I was trying to get the resin to the edges of the mask.

Somewhere I have pictures showing this, but I drilled out the thicker parts and used Apoxie Sculpt to reinforce the thin edges. For  those who don't know Apoxie Sculpt is a two part Epoxie putty that starts soft and pliable like clay but in about 30 minutes gets very hard.

Here is a shot of the front of the mask right after demolding. This shows one of the problems with using silicone caulk. If the resin gets too hot while casting (like Onyx can) the silicone can stick to the resin casting. 

There was also some pitting in the pull that I filled with more Apoxie Sculpt but overall it came out pretty well. 

And a healthy bit of sanding later...

I need to get better about documenting, especially when I am in a hurry. You guys know how it is, the day before the con and you have a lot to finish, pictures become less important. 

Jumping ahead, the next picture is the mask primed with ears attached. I made the ears out of Apoxie Sculpt. When they were nearly hardened I put screws through the inside of the mask into the ears. I then used Apoxie Sculpt to cement the crap out of the ears and they are pretty solidly attached.

The straps are attached with waxed thread. I saddle stitched the straps on through holes I drilled in the mask and then coated the outside holes with Apoxie Sculpt to hide the stitches and reinforce the connection. The good thing about a saddle stitch is that if one of the stitches breaks the whole thing doesn't fall apart.

And a nice piggy pink...

And finally some weathering...

And that is how you make a Proffessor Pyg Costume. I still need to add some padding to the inside and sand out the nose a little more.

It fits pretty well, but is pretty hard to see out of. Kinda have tunnel vision. That made it hard to navigate the con with the mask on. 

The apron was an apron I had that I put some paint on I need to remake the apron too.

So there you have it.

As a bonus for reading this whole humongous post, here is a picture of my lovely wife as Gaige. She is so cute! I also made a bunch of her props. I'll probably do a post about those. Or not. We'll see.

Until Next Time,

-Matrix

Codex Staff (Two More Pics)

The title says it all. These are two more pics of the codex staff.  I have some projects in the works and will hopefully be having some updates soon.

It's not perfect, but not bad either.

The next one should be better.

Until Next Time,

-Matrix

Green Goblin Sculpt, Avatar

So I realized I never posted this sculpt. I sorta rushed the mold and I'm not sure it's salvageable. We shall see, but this may be bust. (Get it, bust?)

I've also got this on the back burner. It needs a lot of touch ups before I can do a final pull on the vacuum forming table.

It's hard to tell but it is Amon's mask. I have to fill in the top dome and smooth out this cast.  I can't say I don't have anything to work on, if only I had the time and attention span...


Until later,
-Matrix

Tattoos and Ponies!

So my wife and I went to Fan Days in Dallas, I dunno, a few weeks ago.  I didn't dress up but she made My Little Pony costumes with her friends. Not really Armory business but whatevs, she was super cute so it's all good.

My wife is err... well, she's the pink one. I don't know who they are other than the baby is Spike the Dinosaur.

The grey guy and unicorn lady are Gunnar and Angela from Ember Costumes. <shameless plug> If you haven't checked out their blog you should, it is my sister site.</shameless plug>


Also, on an unrelated note, my wife and I got matching tattoos! Mine is the shoulder on the left.

It's the island of Catan!

The image is from the back of the cards from the best game ever, The Settlers of Catan. If you haven't heard of it shame on you go buy it and play it with all of your friends.


Until Next Time,

-Matrix

Codex Staff Speed Run

Okay, so it's been a little while since I posted but I figured I'd post the Speed Run Codex Staff I did for Renn Faire.

What's a speed run you ask?

Well it's when I have like a day to work on the prop and get it done.  I did this in a couple days and it's not perfect but not bad either.

I forgot the red paint when we left so I didn't get the red on the wings, and I sorta messed up the ball so it's not translucent. Oops...

Things to fix in v.2.

Anyways I didn't make the costume, but here is Mindy with staff in hand. I'm working on getting better pics, but we'll see if that actually happens since I don't actually have it with me anymore. My wife is Robin Hood btw...

I still have projects on the burner, but this semester has been CRAZY busy between work and school, so I will post stuff when it gets done.

Until Next Time,

-Matrix

Mold making, cheap and easy.

So you wanna make a silicone mold, but don't want to spend oodles of dollars on expensive silicone?

Well you are just in luck as I learned how to do such a thing when I got my fancy art degree.

Now this is a soft mold. So you probably don't want to be casting soft things in it (silicone, latex, etc.).

A general rule I follow (but as with any rule there are exceptions) is that you don't cast like into like, for example hard in to hard or soft into soft. So you don't make a plaster mold and then cast fiberglass into it. Unless you are making a one off mold and don't care that you'll have to break the mold to get the piece out. Conversely, casting silicone into a silicone mold is a bad idea. Why, you ask? Well silicone has this amazing property to stick to itself. So don't do it. Latex doesn't really stick to silicone, casting latex works better into something like porous so just use something like hydrostone or ultracal.
Here is what you will need:

-Dish soap
-100% Silicone Caulk (If it isn't clear it's not 100% silicone caulk so ,you know, get clear.)
-Latex gloves (Make sure these are powderless. Powder + watery silicone = paste. You don't want that. Also, make sure that these are not silicone gloves. Silicone sticks to silicone very well. As far as Nitrile, I've never tried them.)
-Plastic cup (Use bigger ones than this. I spilled a lot of water. Tupperware works well too)
-Water
-1 caulk gun

Also something to make a mold of!

Now if you didn't make whatever you are making make sure you have EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT from whoever did. Make sure to give them credit too. For example, Garry Newton made this and I got his permission to make a mold of this for my mom. Don't just buy someone else's work and try to remake it and pass it off as your own. If you do this is called recasting and it is a terrible, terrible thing.

Anywho, I like to stick my items to something portable. This is a piece of sintra, but wood works too. That way I'm not confined to working in one area. Make sure you use something that doesn't succumb to moisture like cardboard does.

You will also need something to make a mother mold. I used hydrostone, but plaster and fiberglass work and they make a bunch of different materials specifically for making master molds. Master molds are used with soft molds so that when you are casting into the soft mold, the finished piece isn't deformed. A bad mother mold means that you get bad castings. Take your time with it. I didn't do a great job but do as I say, not as I do.

Now that you have everything, what do you do?

The first thing you want to do is put soap in the water. Use it liberally. It's better you put too much soap in than not enough.  This is very important. The soap serves two purposes. The first is that it keeps the silicone from sticking to your glove. The second is that the soap acts as a catalyst and makes the silicone cure in about 15 minutes as opposed to 2 hours. I don't know why it does, but it just does. If you don't use soap, this process can take a whole lot longer.

Now that you've got the water all soapy, it's time to put on your gloves. I use one glove on my left hand (since I'm right handed) and I leave my right hand free to use the caulk gun.

Wet your glove with the soapy water. This will keep the silicone from sticking to your glove. Otherwise, you make a big, gooey mess.

Put a little less than a golf ball sized clump of silicone in your hand. I put it in my hand out of the cup so you could see a little better, but it's best if your hand is in the soapy water and the silicone goes into the soapy water before touching your glove.

Alternatively, if you have a wider container than this glass you can put it directly into the water and scoop it up. This is how I spilled most of my water, and I don't prefer to do this, but it does work if that floats your boat.

Wad your silicone into a small ball. Don't press too hard, it doesn't take much pressure. I've found it also works better to use a rolling method rather than a pressing one. What this does is it makes your silicone more manageable, but also ensures that there are no sticky parts of the silicone (showing that the silicone was fully coated in the soap).

After your silicone is sticking into a nice ball apply it to the surface of the object. Make sure that you don't apply it thicker than 1/8". This silicone cures when the acetic acid evaporates. If you layer it on too thick, the top layer will cure trapping a layer of uncured gooey silicone.

 

This is what happens when you put it on too thick. When you touch the surface you can feel that there is uncured silicone trapped underneath. It is much easier if you don't put it on too thick, but if you do I've found a pretty good solution. Basically, you lance the spot where it is wet and squeeze out all of the uncured silicone. You are then left with a pocket of air. This is very bad for molds. If you cut the top of the "skin" off so the spot that had the uncured silicone is exposed, you can take the uncured silicone and squish it back on (not too thick) and fix the pothole. Imagine lancing a blister and covering it with a band-aid. 

Repeat for the second layer, thickening the mold.

This is the third and final layer. I used it to smooth out the mold and make it nice and form fitting. Normally this would be the layer where you would add keys for the mother mold, but this has a fairly distinct shape and I wasn't too concerned about the mother mold fitting on to the soft mold. Also, depending on the size of the object you may need more than three layers.

Now that the mold is ready for the mother mold, I built a divider so I can make a mother mold that will allow the final piece to come out. The reason for a two part mold is that this piece has undercuts. If I made a one part mother mold, I wouldn't be able to get the solid cast piece out of the mold so we make it in two pieces. 

After the first side is finished curing, remove the cardboard and coat the first half with Vaseline. This is important, because you don't want the mother mold sticking to itself.

After both sides are done, you can pull out the original and you are done.

Voila! The rest of the images are of the mother mold and the original pulled out of the mold.

There you go. I spent all of 10 bucks to get all the stuff, and most of it will last for future use.

This method can get some pretty excellent detail. I would only recommend using this on smaller items, but it can be used on larger items. For example I used this method when I made these:

And of course there are pros and cons to this as with any method.

Pros:
-Cheap in small batches
-Easy to work with
-Fast curing
-Easy to obtain
-Good for small items

Cons:
-More Expensive on a large scale
-Molds tear relatively easily (you could reinforce the silicone by adding a layer some burlap to the second layer while it is still tacky
-Smells bad
-Since you are using soapy water, this method can trap water on the surface of what you are making. This is great if you are molding over plaster or fired clay, but less great if you are using dry unfired clay as the details can get washed away or if you use something non porous as water bubbles can get trapped on the surface of the mold if you aren't careful.

That concludes Mold Making, Cheap and Easy.

Until next time,
-Matrix

Over the Holidays...

So I didn't really get what I wanted to done, but I finished a few things I didn't intend to.

First I introduce to you the Blendolathe v 1.0.

I call it the Blendolathe v 1.0 because after one use the plastic parts of the blender started melting (as they weren't designed for this kind of use). So I am going to take out the motor and mount it to a better setup.  So here is what I turned with the lathe. Not so bad for my first time. It's a handle for my Steampunk portal gun. The top is the lathed, the bottom is the handle I tried to hand carve and made me decide to whip up this lathe from my broken blender.

I also got the pictures I needed for a cheap DIY mold making technique!

I am going to put that in it's own post though so it is easier for myself as well as others to find.

Wahoo!

Ok so I didn't get all that much done over the break. I had to clean my stuff out of my parents garage and didn't quite feel like doing anything else. I will be going back in a week to try and get my vacuum forming machine out of their garage. I will post when I do.


-Matrix