Thorssoli's MkVI Costume Buildup

I have to admit, I'm still confused as to how you went about molding the chest piece. Any chance you could clarify a little bit more? I'm interested to hear your take on how you went about doing so if you'd be willing to re-iterate.

Will_Turner said:

Any chance you could clarify a little bit more?

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There's really not much else I can do to explain it. It's just a rubber jacket mold with a rigid mother mold. If these terms are foreign to you, you'll want to do a lot more research before you try to do the same thing yourself. If you're starting here, it's like learning to run steeplechases before you can crawl. There are any number of excellent moldmaking tutorials here and all over the internet. There's also Thurston James' excellent book titled The Prop Builder's Molding and Casting Handbook. Which I've mentioned at least half a dozen times in this thread. Pick it up and it'll do a much better job of describing these processes than I ever could.

It was more of a question in reference to the clay and how you worked with that for your torso mold. That's what I was trying to wrap my head around.

Will_Turner said:

It was more of a question in reference to the clay and how you worked with that for your torso mold. That's what I was trying to wrap my head around.

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I gotcha. Once I had made the outer portions of the mold (which had all of the shapes and details for the outside faces of the parts) I could make a rotocast pull of the armor just like folks do with their helmets. The problem is that the chest and back mold each weigh over 35lbs and were a bit tedious to wrestle around. That meant it was very difficult to control the thickness of the castings and get a nice, smooth surface on the inside. Instead, there were thick spots where the resin had pooled in the low spots in the mold and thin spots in the high parts of the mold as well as little spikes and such where the resin cured as it was dripping in the mold before I could move it around.

So once I had made a rotocast copy of each piece, I took a flapwheel grinder and took down any really thick spots on the inside of that first casting. Then I used the clay to fill in any spots that were thin. Since I was planning on throwing out the first casting anyway, I didn't need to use a filler that would be able to hold up to any abuse. I used a nice, soft, oil-based clay that was easy to work at room temperature and just added more volume to the areas of the first casting that were thin enough to suggest they might break and also to smooth out any really rough spots. Then I pushed the first casting back into the mold, applied a mold release to the areas of the silicone that were still exposed, and built the inner portions of the mold which would form the inside areas of the armor.

I hope this answers your question.

Back mold update, here I am gooping on the last layer of light red bubble gum flavored frosting:


Here's the finished mold fully assembled with the resin poured in for a casting:

It takes a full gallon of material to make this piece. This means that the entire set of torso armor will take about two gallons of resin to make once I add in some fillers to reduce the weight.

Here's a shot of the inside of one of the pulls:


Here I'm holding a rough casts of one of the shoulder boxes to show the fit:

It'll fit better once I finish the inside of the mold for the shoulder boxes.

Here's the last part I had to mold before calling the torso molds done:

This is the vent insert that goes in the shoulder blade area on the back armor.

In other news, I've made a new mold for the shoulder plate and the outer side of the upper arm armor. Here they are boxed up before I poured the rubber in:


Comments/critiques welcome. Stay tuned for further updates...

NICE! Great job!

Here's a shot of all of the pieces included with the torso armor:


With the new & improved mold, the shoulder boxes have a controlled thickness and the front-facing vent details are hollowed out and ready to fit with fans or speakers or whatever.

I'll be cranking out a few of these sets to fill my pre-orders and for anybody else who would like one. I've got a For Sale thread going in the Classified section if anyone needs new torso armor for their Master Chief costume.

thorssoli said:

It takes a full gallon of material to make this piece. This means that the entire set of torso armor will take about two gallons of resin to make once I add in some fillers to reduce the weight.

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I would love you (even more then I already do) forever if I could perhaps beg some details out of you as to what fillers you add and how exactly you mix them in? I saw you mention microballons, but does any particular brand work best, and is there any trick to mixing them in?

Feel free to bap this noob for being a pest. I've already learned TONS from your thread and some of the information sources you've cited. Thank you. ^_^

Castellan_Craft said:

I would love you (even more then I already do) forever if I could perhaps beg some details out of you as to what fillers you add and how exactly you mix them in? I saw you mention microballons, but does any particular brand work best, and is there any trick to mixing them in?

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It depends on what I'm trying to get out of the finished product. I've got a huge sack of microballoons I picked up from my local TAP Plastics shop a couple of years ago that I've been using ever since. I also have another large sack of milled glassfibers that I picked up at about the same time.

The microballoons reduce the weight of the casting and make it easier to sand, but also make it a bit more brittle. Adding too much makes a final product that is spongy and likely to crumble. The glassfibers increase the weight of the casting, make the sanding dust much more dangerous for your health, but they also add strength to the final piece. Too much milled glassfiber and the resin clumps together and refuses to pour.

There's probably a proper ratio for mixing these things in, but I don't know what it is. All I've ever done is work by feel and experience. I use a squirrel cage mixer, blend the two parts of the resin together, then add filler as I continue mixing until it looks to have the viscosity I'm aiming for.

As an example, lets look at rotocasting. In the case of my helmet castings, I usually go pretty heavy on the microballoons for the first layer of resin that goes into the mold so that it will be easy to sand down any mold lines. Then there will be a second layer with about half as much. Then I'll add milled glassfiber to the third layer to make it nice and strong. Then I pour a fourth and possibly fifth layer with more microballoons to make sure that there isn't any chance of loose bits of fiberglass rubbing against the wearer's head.

For the molds I have to pour into, such as the torso armor parts, I have to ride the line between making a part that's lightweight and making a resin mix that I can still pour into the mold. This is made more complex by the fact that the resin kicks much faster in large batches. This means that I have to mix and pour bigger batches faster. More fillers mean slower mixing, so I tend to end up with heavier pieces instead.

I'm not sure if this helps you at all. If you need a more specific answer, please don't hesitate to ask.

Oh, that helps MUCHLY. Thank you! I never would have thought to utilize a milled fiberglass layer for strength. And weight is a big concern of mine since I'm only 107lbs and don't wanna tip over in anything I make hahaha.

Only thing I wanted to make sure I'm understanding clearly... when you said a squirrel cage mixer, you mean one a bit like these, right? http://www.squirrelmixer.com/product/6954b22a-3a54-4219-86b9-c1fd5c0a0d73.aspx

If so, I was just curious how you clean that bugger off so resin doesn't set up and harden on it? ^_^

Castellan_Craft said:

Only thing I wanted to make sure I'm understanding clearly... when you said a squirrel cage mixer, you mean one a bit like these, right? http://www.squirrelmixer.com/product/6954b22a-3a54-4219-86b9-c1fd5c0a0d73.aspx

If so, I was just curious how you clean that bugger off so resin doesn't set up and harden on it? ^_^

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That's the exact mixer I use.

As far as cleaning goes, I don't really do it. I try to spin them dry after mixing each batch, but even still there's risidual buildup on the mixer after each use. More so with milled glassfiber added in. I go through three or four of these mixers every month when I really get productive in the shop. If I get really bored, I'll sit down with an X-acto knife and whittle away the resin on the mixers that are fully loaded. Other than that, I find it's usually easier to just buy a new $7.00 mixer every so often as opposed to spending half an hour trying to carve the hardened resin off of it.

Lookin awesome!!!

Really amazing work! I admire your attention to detail and am looking forward to seeing your finished work. I just received a copy of Thurston James' Prop Builder's Molding and Casting Handbook. I picked it up for just over $9 shipping and handling included from Amazon.com. This book is absolutely invaluable to anyone looking to take up the hobby of armor building. Thank you for all of the tips and tricks you have provided for us. Keep up the good work.

Your work has been so outstanding and so picture heavy I was wondering if I could use some of your images in a PowerPoint I'm making for an armor workshop at Fandemonium (a convention here in Idaho) this August. I would have just sent a PM but they don't seem to be working quite yet.

Very Nice !

Twisting_Neather said:

Your work has been so outstanding and so picture heavy I was wondering if I could use some of your images in a PowerPoint I'm making for an armor workshop at Fandemonium (a convention here in Idaho) this August. I would have just sent a PM but they don't seem to be working quite yet.

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Sure. Just please be sure to give me credit.

LARGE CHEST UPDATE:

Another collaborator requested that I make him a set of torso armor with a flexible foam chest piece. I dusted the mold with gunmetal-colored metallic powder before making the pour and here's how it came out:


The main advantage to using flexible foam is that it will give a bit and make for greater freedom of movement while wearing the costume:


It is pretty flexible, but when it's velcroed to the rigid cast back piece it should stay in place pretty well:



VISOR UPDATE:
This afternoon I was procrastinating in lieu of fixing Lopez the Robot Workshop Helper and on a whim I started tinkering with the visor. Pictured below is one of two rough drafts I made for the details:


Sometimes the best solutions are actually the simplest. This visor was vac-formed just like the ones I've pictured previously. To get the ridges I just scored them into the surface with an X-acto knife. Then I decided to dye the lines thinking it would help to pop them out a bit. Here it is installed in my desert digital camo helmet:


The dye didn't work out so well, so I decided to try another one with the lines scored on the inside before I added the metallic coat inside. I'm much happier with this version:


I photographed both of them from a number of angles and the dyed one didn't show up very well under any lighting. Here's a comparison shot:

The left helmet has the lines etched on the inside of the visor, the middle helmet has no etching, and the right helmet has the lines etched on the outside and then dyed black. I'm thinking I'll stick with the left version. Again, these are rough drafts; so I didn't use any of my good pulls that actually fit the helmets properly.

In other news, I got bored while tinkering yesterday and decided to dust the inside of my helmet mold with copper-colored metallic powder. The results were intriguing if nothing else (must resist the sudden urge to make a cheesy steampunk master chief):


Finally, I got a couple of boxes from Sean Bradley the other day and will probably start a build thread for my ODST armor pretty soon:


As always, comments welcome.

Stay tuned...

I gotta say I love that Copper brushed look helmet.

thorssoli said:

In other news, I got bored while tinkering yesterday and decided to dust the inside of my helmet mold with copper-colored metallic powder. The results were intriguing if nothing else (must resist the sudden urge to make a cheesy steampunk master chief)

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DO NOT RESIST! STEAMPUNK IS IMMINENT! Just look at the image in my profile! I've been drafting up the plans for clockworkified Terminator prosthetics at some point, and a steampunk Chief tooooooootally crossed my mind. Dusting it with brass would look quite dashing too. BTW, do you have to do anything to get the powder to adhere evenly when cold casting like spray the mold with something, or does it just cling nice to the silicon?

That copper MC helmet looks pretty awesome!