The class is pain 101, your instructor is Casey Jones

Ever since I was a kid I have always loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My favorite turtle when I was a kid was always Leo, but the older I got I related to Raph more. I always loved the scene in the movie where Ralph first meet Casey Jones. After watching the movie yesterday, I'm thinking why hasn't anyone built a screen accurate replica mask yet? Well the time is now.

Start off with some reference:

 

I figured the easiest way to build this mask would be to use a program called Pepakura Designer. Pepakura Designer allows you to create paper craft models from 3D models. Now personally I hate working with paper craft, but the class is pain 101.

To start off, I contracted a very talented artist to 3D model the mask, as I am not that familiar with 3D software. Within a span of 24 hours he came back with this:

 

I was absolutely amazed at how fast he was able to produce this. Unfortunately the amount of polygons in this rendering was too high for Pepakura Designer, so we had to lose some of the detail. But all in all even with the loss of detail it was still perfect for a starting point.

This is how it looked once it was imported into Pepakura Designer, unfolded and ready for print.

 

Next step, print, cut, score and glue.

Now that I have a 3D paper model I can start the wonderful world of fiberglass.

Some features were lost when the file was converted to a lower Polygon count, so I had to do some cutting and shaping to get the correct look back.

Pieces of cardboard were added to fix the nose area. Then it was fiberglassed, filled and smoothed.

Next step was to add the brow lines. To do this I cut the shape I wanted out of ABS and then epoxied and screwed the pieces into place,

More filler was added to cover the screw holes and hide any seems. The same thing was also done for the nose.

 

Lots of filler and spot putty.

 

Primed and ready to cut the mouth slits.

For this I designed a template in Adobe Illustrator, lined it up, taped it down and cut it with a Dremel tool.

More spot putty.

Finished piece primed white. There are some minor changes I still want to make which I will show later when I am finished.

Tools of the Trade

Well I figured I would post up a project that I was working on this last week. No it is not a prop, but something needed to make one... a table. It is hard to find a decent strong table these days that wont cost you a fortune, so I set out to build my own. With a few drills, a sander, a saw and my trusty pencil and tape measure I set out to build a good sturdy work bench. This work bench will end up holding my metal break and my drill press. I wont go into detail about how it was made, but Ill show you the pictures as it happened. Enjoy!

 

And the eyes have it

This is just going to be a quick post on how I painted the eyes for my silicone Gizmo from Gremlins.

First I started by mounting a ping pong ball to a golf tee so it could be mounted to my drill so I could airbrush perfect circles.

The first layer of paint was black that was lightly airbrushed onto the ping pong ball.

 

Once the paint was fully dry the next step was to paint small thin lines. I started with a dark brown for the background color.

 

Once the background lines are finished I moved on to painting the foreground lines in a lighter brown followed by a light wash of dark brown around the edges. This was to give them more dimension.

 

The final step before clear coat is to put the eyes back into the drill and paint the centers black. This was done with a small paint brush and a steady hand.

Now once they are fully dried they were sprayed with a high gloss lacquer spray paint.

I let them dry over night, then it was time to test fit them into the head to make sure they look good :)

Voyage Trekkers

So back in January I went to a web series screening of Voyage Trekkers at the Film Bar in Phoenix. I sat down with the director after the screening and discussed building a few props for their season 2. I am very excited to say that the first set of props are completed and are already in his hands for shooting at the beginning of this month. I will be helping build more props for the rest of the season so look for future updates on those.

Here is a teaser of what you might see:

 

What does this case contain? Could it be the answer to world peace? You will have to check out Voyage Trekkers Season 2 to find out!

Gizmo Charity Auction

At the beginning of January 2012 this Gizmo Replica will be auctioned off to help a friend of mine struggling with Cystic Fibrosis. 

Thank you all for the support, and hopefully we can give this guy a good home.
-Todd

A Mogwai for a Good Cause

A few months ago I became aware that an old friend was in need of important, even life saving operation. Family and friends were doing what they could to raise money for him, so at that moment I decided that I would do what I could to contribute to his cause. I decided I would make a prop and sell it with all proceeds going straight to him for his operation. That prop... is a Mogwai. Some of you might ask "What is a Mogwai?" A Mogwai is a fuzzy little creature that turns into a Gremlin when it eats past midnight.

For this project I wanted to sculpt him out of Chavant nsp medium clay. This kind of clay is prefect for doing a sculpt like this, plus you can also use silicones with it as some clays you cannot.

The next step was to make a blueprint of the Mogwai without any fur on it.

Once that was completed I could start the build up. I started first by making a wire skeleton that would support the entire sculpt.

Once the skeleton was completed it was then covered in tin foil. The purpose of that is to take up some of the mass of the sculpt so you don't end up with a solid heavy clay figure.

When the body was to the size I wanted I then mounted it to a base board for sculpting.

Now time for the fun part! The clay was applied to the entire tin foil body and the sculpting process could begin.

The same process was applied to the head. Some pieces such as the hands and feet will be molded separately for different options on the finished piece. At this time the sculpt is complete as I just have a few minor clean up spots before this can be molded.

Happy Halloween Everybody!