ShadoKat's Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 3) helmet sculpt - WIP

[ShadoKat]

Thanks, Shadowind and Satchmo! I do hope to post more progress Hey, in fact, why don't I do so now? Here's tonight's work... I need to do some more measuring, but all the lines I've drawn are currently getting in the way, so I decided to hit it with a coat of primer.



I've been really curious as to what it would look like "clean." Also, just so I don't lose it, I put down a strip of tape along the center line. That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

[ShadoKat]

Progress for the last couple of days... Took the laser and drew some more lines, then made some corrections based on those measurements:



And then, of course, I had to correct the corrections...



In part of the first incorrect correction, I kept getting lost and confused, and accidentally cut back some points too far because I had measured the intersection of the wrong lines. So, this time, I numbered the vertical and depth lines. Seems to have helped. So, yeah, it's getting there. Slow, tedious process, but I think I'm getting good results.

Thanks for looking!

[Sky_Walker]

Wow! the shoulders are rather lovely, if i may say so myself. The helmet is turning out to be quite detailed nad is showing lots of promise. Very exited for this build

[Mstruvmgc]

This is freekin sexy! Great work so far :-)

[ShadoKat]

Thanks, you guys! Here's progress for the last week... I started out with this...



And then I did some sanding. A LOT of sanding. This always makes me really nervous, because every time I sand it, it alters the shape, and I have to recheck all the symmetry, which is tedious and time consuming, but very rewarding when it's done. Then I noticed that the faceplate on the left side sits at kind of a strange angle from front to back (and it occurred to me that I never really measured that properly), so a bit of epoxy clay later, I'm hoping has evened it out. Before measuring it, though, I needed to hit it with more primer. I'm kind of afraid I'll need to do this every time I sand from here on out. It's just so time consuming getting my garage all set up (I actually park cars there, and live in a townhouse with no driveway, so I have to move both cars out, find a place to park on the street X2, put down protective gear, do the deed, wait for the paint to dry, then tear it all down, and finally move the cars back). And I forgot to tape over to protect my center line, so it was a huge pain finding that again.



Then, after getting some more reference models from some members here (BIG HUGE MEGA AWESOME THANKS to PaigeMaster and MissingSpartan7), I decided to indulge in a little study time. and... GAH!!!! Why is it when I think I'm ready to move on, I notice something else that I have to fix? As much as I keep telling myself to just let it go every time it happens... but, for some reason I just can't... Anyway, the ear bananas are not nearly as rounded as they should be. They start off curved at the back, and then flatten out almost immediately. It's easy to see from a head-on comparison shot. So, I need to round those out. Started from the bottom and am working my way up. Here's my reference.



And, on the cast, about two hours of staring, cutting, filing, and sanding later, i now have this.



The squiggles are where I need to build it up and fill it in. Hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow. I'm really starting to see the drawbacks of epoxy clay but, unfortunately the aforementioned garage scenario also takes Bondo out of the equation. I tried to use FG resin in there once, and the smell didn't come out of the adjoining room for nearly a week. Oh well, I can do it, and will eventually. Thanks for looking everyone!!

Ugh... Just reread this post and it sounds really negative. Don't get me wrong, it's totally not, and I absolutely love this hobby, and this project. I'm just a bit discouraged at the moment. I've been working on this going on three years now (albeit with several - shall we say, "generous" - breaks), and I'm still not even close to done. And then I think about how so many people can crank out excellent work in just a few weeks or months, and it kinda gets me down. No worries, I will persevere, this is just one more thing.

[ShadoKat]

After a pretty decent bit of work tonight, the right ear banana is now more rounded, and more closely follows the contour started out at the back.



I think it looks quite a bit better, and flattens out toward the front much more evenly. Since I never seem to remember to get pics before I start, here's the other side for comparison...



It's much more obvious from the back. It's not perfect, of course, and will require just a bit more shaping once the epoxy clay has cured, especially at the front. What do you think? Am I on the right track here? Let me know, and thanks for checking out my build!

[PaigeMaster AKA Primal Weyland]

Glad I could help, ShadoKat. I'm a huge Metroid fan myself; it'd be a shame to just keep the resources to myself for this build of yours.

[Mstruvmgc]

Looking righteous. Keep it up!

[Iron Monger]

Awesome. Love the "lazer beam" technique too!

[ShadoKat]

But wait! There’s more!! Back when I started this project, my wife tried to dissuade me from doing the helmet first. It’s like the most iconic piece of the whole costume, and she suggested that I do other pieces first so that I could take what I learned from those, and apply it to the helmet. That’s just not how I roll. I have to just jump into it, and get in way over my head. One of the things I’m better at now is “reading” the reference material. When the sculpt was first “finished,” I thought it was awesome, and followed the reference very well but, apparently, I’ve learned a lot since then. At this point, I need to stop looking at the references, because I keep seeing things I need to fix. The profile shape of the front and back, for example…





The back comes sharply inward at the back, rather than curving around, as I currently have it. In an attempt to correct it, I drew inward at the bottom of the point, then took a rough file, a Dremel, my handy-dandy plastic cutting tool, and a hacksaw to match the line I drew. This also meant removing the little buds that terminate the heat-sink rib things.





By the way… Hacksaws are great!! They allow you to take drastic action and cross the point-of-no-return very quickly to totally screw up what was once perfectly decent work! They can also make very interesting wound patterns when you slip.





It was a little thin back there, so I ended up having to fill in some holes with my good friend epoxy clay!






Then it was on to the front!





Looks much closer now to what I’m going for, I think. Yup, slowly but surely, it’s coming together… again





Thanks for looking!