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 Post subject: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:11 pm 
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Location: San Jose, CA
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(Above: earlier stage of progress)

I want to thank Anakin Starkiller, NAZGÛL, troopermaster, chefhawk, Darth_Finger, HAL9000, zenwalker, NoHumorMan, and Ghost for their most kind and supportive words. I'm absolutely floored by the encouragement! I thought I'd start a new thread here in the WiP Forum since this is technically still a work in progress. How this started was I needed a break from all my Vader-related sculpting projects. You can't believe how much there is to fuss over. The Vader-related politics, bickering, etc. were starting to get frustrating, and I needed the hobby to be restful, relaxing, restorative and - above all - plain and simple fun.

Sculpting is fun and therepeudic for me. I told myself not to sculpt a Stormtrooper, as the TK is perhaps the most illicitly copied and recast helmet in the fandom. I was put off seeing fans ripping fans off. Heck, even the phugly FX has been recast (no accounting for taste!) I don't know what drew me thus to sculpt a Stormtrooper. I'd love to own a TIE Pilot and a Stealth Trooper at some point, but given how one vendor completely ripped me off and never shipping, and another causing a one-month long wait to extend to a whole year, and seeing yet another vendor start off humble but become to be haughty, prideful, and demeaning, I've just about had it with vendors.

But after learning from Brian Muir how Liz Moore sculpted the original stormtrooper, I was mesmerized by the clay sculpture and how she interpreted her nuances and subtleties from those from two dimensional concept illustrations. Vader may be the number one movie villain of all time but the stormtrooper is also a remarkable sculpture. How does someone come up with a design like that in a vacuum? What kind of creative mind interprets mere lines to create all kinds of nuances and subtleties not necessarily even implied on paper?

So this is my informal and personal tribute to Liz Moore.

My error was thinking that the stormtrooper was a simpler sculpt. In one sense, it's simpler than Vader. In another sense, it's easy to get wrong even if you have "accurate" features. When I first started out, I documented my build out but was nervous about unveiling it because so many people have greater expertise. This is my first stormtrooper sculpt, and I honestly haven't studied every square inch like others have. But unlike my Vader projects where the goal is accuracy and that you hope that in the end you'll achieve enough accuracy and will actually enjoy the results, I wanted my Stormtrooper sculpting process to be a fun one, and whatever came of it would be a byproduct of that fun. It doesn't matter if it's not uber accurate, so long as I have fun and enjoy it.

Well, that sure sounds nice and Zen, but then then the accuracy bug bit me in the ass, and I realize I needed to make this more accurate. I didn't want to unveil this until I had achieved a reasonable level of accuracy. I'm glad I did, because some of you pointed out the asymmetries of the original and opened my eyes. My sculpt's face was a bit too narrow, so I decided to sculpt the whole thing a bit wider:

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- Mac
( Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sculptingvader/ )


Last edited by CSMacLaren on Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:13 pm 
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And here are some shots of my current stage of progress. Please pardon the lack of ears. The Blue Tak is there just as a placeholder. I'm experimenting with different approaches on ear caps, which I'm making as separate pieces. The one on the left is solid epoxy clay. The one on the right is a McDonald's coffee cup (I have to use something Scottish, you know!) as an armature with epoxcy clay over it. It makes sanding it to reduce its thickness much quicker since it's hollow.

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The holes for the mic tips were particularly tough to smooth out, and I'm still working on it.

The chin's vocorder will eventually be sculpted. Currently under construction!

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- Mac
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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:14 pm 
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My approach to the trapezoids was to sculpt them larger and deeper, and to later fill in the inner boundaries and inner surface to make them more shallow. I wanted to focus on the big picture and then home in in the smaller details later.

I'm not sure I'm going with these ears just yet. The imperfection bothers me somewhat. I know the rear of the head is inaccurate, but it's only for now. Eventually when I complete this stage, I will have it cast to obtain two helmets which I will build out as a frontcap and backcap for vacuum forming. The rear aerator tubes will be larger in diameter so as to overlap the frontcap's side tubes. I'll then sculpt the boundary where the ear piece will go, and then I'll be able to determine the final shape of the ear.

When I do the frontcap, the sculpted brow trim won't be part of the sculpt.

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- Mac
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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:16 pm 
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When I was working on this, I wasn't basing this on measurements or anything. I could have gotten uber-anal but the idea was for me to relax and have fun, and have this to-the-milimeter, and I'm sure someone would still pee-pee on it being not accurate. Even so, the part of me that fusses over accuracy from my Vader projects caused me to get bitten by the accuracy bug. I wanted this to be slightly interpretive so that recasters would be spotted. There are so many vendor helmets that are based on the same molds. I wouldn't mind mine looking a bit different.

Here, I like how the eyes turned out, and how the face is organic. In approximating Liz Moore's work, I came to appreciate her sculpting and artistic expertise. I don't know what Ainsworth was thinking. It takes a very trained artistic mind and talent to come up with something like this.

The teeth will eventually be put in after I figure out how to access the narrow mouth space properly.

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- Mac
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Last edited by CSMacLaren on Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:18 pm 
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This back cap or back plate is definitely still a work in progress. Please don't mind the transition between the aerator tube bump and the back of the head. I'm trying to get a smooth back of head first, then worry about sculpting the tube more accurately. I think the back plate tube has to be slightly bigger than the front plate's tube so that they overlap. When I have the sculpt as having a separate back and front piece, I'll then rework the rear tube accordingly.

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- Mac
( Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sculptingvader/ )


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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:18 pm 
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And there you go.

My goal is to get to a certain level of finish, then have two helmets cast for me. Of those two, I'll hack them up and rebuild them into a front plate and back plate to eventually and hopefully become masters for vacforming, should people actually be interested. I honestly don't know if any of this will even work. We'll take it a step at a time.

Please go easy on me, as Stormtroopers are not my primary area of study. This is my first TK sculpt ever, and even though I want this just to be a fun project and not necessarily a reproduction of any one particular screen used helmet, I hope it can be at least somewhat accurate looking as well.

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- Mac
( Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sculptingvader/ )


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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 12:10 am 
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Cricky Mac I am always impressed with your re-sculpting/repair work and this is no acception. It's a real job to get something like this right, especially as the subject matter is so familiar. I am looking forward to the progress.


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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:43 am 
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That is looking excellent Mac. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished vac formed article!

Joe

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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:17 am 
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Still looking fantastic. As others have said, can't wait to see that
all glossed up!

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup


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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:49 pm 
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Dang! That's looking great! Very impressive from-scratch sculpt. I can't wait to see more progress. Keep it up. :thumbsup


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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:44 pm 
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:eek :eek keep at it Mac!! obviously allot of us here will be watching your progress :salut great work!!

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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:34 pm 
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you should be very proud mac.
Fast progress as well.



cheers

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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:55 pm 
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Impressive. I like the look of it. Still think you should go idealized and as symmetrical as possible - lose the eye bulge on the right eye (left in the picture). Make the averaged symmetrical version, even though the prop accurate version could be more of a challenge. Either way, wonderful progress. :cheers

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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:13 pm 
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Hi Mac,

Your sculpting skills are coming on leaps and bounds. I'd love to see your next project in clay - it is so much easier to make changes and take to a good finish. You certainly show dedication. :thumbsup

Brian


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 Post subject: Re: MacStormie - My First Stormtrooper Sculpt
PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:25 am 
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Looking awesome Mac :cheers


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