By the way, my tools are simple:

http://www.steiderstudios.com/images/pl ... _tools.jpg

I also use a razor blade to cut excess clay.

I look back on my now several years of being in the hobby. What got me this far were a lot of rip-off kits from the Internet that require a lot of work and modification in order to make the grade. While it's unfortunate to have lost so much money to these vendors, I also feel positive that working on those kits gave me the experience I have today.

In the past I had to be "in the zone" to work on these Vader projects because each step takes so much time. But with this new medium, I can leave the world of crappy kits and modifications and do original sculpts and turn things out at a fraction of the time it used to take me.

I think I'm happy!

wow mac! night and day differance! good job!

Mac thats amazing you are mega telented and have a great eye for detail, im sure anyone would be proud to own any of your work.

That's a very nice bit of Mac Magic. I like that a lot!

Good idea adding the teeth to a hard cast and going from there. You could maybe do the same with eye lenses? That might make sculpting the eyes easier and much less fiddly eliminating the risk of damaging the surface of the inner eyelids.

Thanks guys!

Regarding the mouth, yes, I intend to leave the teeth out at this phase, because I want to properly shape the inside space of the mouth before adding the teeth.

I can add the tusk tubes with no problem.

The clay behind the eye eyelids fall away, so, currently, knowing where to cut is not an issue. When I do a first-pass casting, I may leave these in if it works out.

Can't wait to get started on the dome!

Wow, that's amazing. I wish I could sculpt anywhere near that but I guess I just have 2 left hands.

Thanks for the encouraging feedback so far guys - keep it coming!

Now onto the next challenge: the dome.

The dome itself can be a make-or-break thing. A slight fluctuation in depth, width, size, height, flange flare angle, etc. can cause the entire helmet to absolutely suck.

I have a Hasbro Voice Changer that I use as a size reference of Diana's head. However, the dome is pitifully small. I can't put the Voice Changer's dome on the ClayNH without damaging the sculpt, so I have to leave a lot to guesswork.

The next few shots are only a proof of concept. The size isn't final.

I decided to use the Voice Changer helmet as an armature. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the armature is an under-structure so you can basically use less clay.

The dome was quite a challenge to sculpt. I have to keep with the same proportions of the 1:1 scale prop. I'm not sure if I should go larger or not, but we'll see as time progresses.



Here, I wanted to sculpt the character of the dome. I have a Rubie's as a 3D reference, and some screenshots as a 2D reference. Nothing's final.

The challenge was creating something finger-smoothe, and after a lot of fussing with the domecap, I like the shape. I may end up having to widen the entire sculpt, so we'll have to see. Here you can see how much clay I've packed onto the little Voice Changer helmet. This is by no means a modification.

And here's another perspective:



The mid strip is a placeholder. I may cast this without the mid strip and take that 1st generation pull and pose that with the ClayNH mask. If it needs to be bigger, I could go back to the clay sculpt and work it larger.

More later...!

A thought about checking size relation between mask and dome to see if they fit, since you can't do it with the physical models, you could put your camera on a tripod and place the facemask at a fixed distance from the camera and do the same with the dome and the do photoshop compositions without scaling the pictures. It's not perfect, but it may give you an idea if they are somewhat to scale.

Good work.

as always. looks good mac!

Thanks guys!

I decided the thing was too small, so I slapped more clay on it. It was a tough decision because I was in love with how it turned out, but fortunately the size boost so far appears quite successful. The dome right now might be a touch on the long side, but yet proportionately in of itself looks great. Nevertheless, the dome is still smaller than 1:1 scale. I'll post shots later....

So here are the results of increasing the dome size and building (in part) the opposite side.

NOTE: Flange length is still a work in progress and is not final.

Another angle...

Using Photoshop to do simulated dome positioning is a superb idea, but it's time consuming given my work schedule.



I think the one on the right is more to my liking as it captures the ANH feel. The one on the left is tilted a bit too far back but if I do an ESB version I'll modify the dome accordingly.