BATTLECAT! Xuan's Magic Wheelchair

A while back I posted about the build we did for Meredith's Skeletor Throne we built on behalf of Magic Wheelchair.  I mentioned a the end of that post that we actually ended up building two Magic Wheelchair costumes in the shop simultaneously while the Magic Wheelchair team in Portland, Oregon cranked out two more.  

I suppose I was feeling a bit cocky when I said, "Skeletor's throne will be easy.  Give me another one too."  But that one ended up being the Battlecat we built for Xuan:

To see how it came together and some photos of the happy kiddo after the reveal, read on...

Genestealer Update 25: A Very Handy Critter

When I last posted about this project, we'd almost finished sculpting the hands. 

My friend Jeff Santos had done most of the sculpting on the upper hands:

And my friend Walter Welsh had done most of the sculpting on the lower hands:


After letting the incomplete sculpts sit on the backburner for a few months, I dusted them off and gave them some finishing touches prior to molding. Here's all four finalized sculpts sitting on the bench:


For molding each one had a parting wall built up around it with water-based clay:


Then one side was given a thick coat of epoxy-based gelcoat:


All of the hands were handled in the same manner, so I'll end up showing photos of them interchangeably:


I was very excited to be back to making progress on this project:


Once the gelcoat had set up, additional thickness was built up using Plasti-Paste Epoxy:


When that had cured, each piece got a couple layers of fiberglass added on top. Then I flipped them over, removed the water-based clay parting wall, and applied a healthy dose of release agent to the resulting flange:


The process (gelcoat, plasti-paste, fiberglass) was then repeated on the second side of each hand sculpt. Once the second side had cured, bolt holes were drilled in the flanges and the parts were pried apart. The bulk of the oil-based clay was picked out with wooden sculpting tools* to prevent doing any damage to the details on the surface of the mold. To get the last residual bits of clay out, the molds were placed in front of a heater to soften the clay:


Then the surface was scrubbed with isopropyl alcohol using a chip brush with the bristles cut down to make an improvised, and totally expendable scrubber. Once the molds were free of clay, it was time to place the powermesh reinforcement. This was basically just a simplified glove:


Of course, the Genestealer's fingernails are longer than mine, so I had to snip the tips:


Then the powermesh glove was placed on the mold core:


And the mold was bolted back into place:


Once they were bolted securely, I added a bead of hot glue around the edges just in case anything might want to leak. Then the molds were ready to go:


To make my life easier, the molds were strapped to a couple of buckets to keep them upright:


Then I used a syringe and quite a bit of time to inject the molds full of Dragon Skin silicone tinted with Silc-Pig pigments:


In this case, I used equal parts red and blue with just a tiny speck of white pigment to make the plurple genestealer skin shade. The parts will get additional paint treatment before I call them finished, but they'll start with a solid plurple base color. 

The next day felt like Christmas** because I got to unwrap these beauties:


The silicone had cured in the shape of the original clay sculpt with a hollow inside in the shape of the hand armature.  The power mesh reinforcement is captured inside the cross-section of the rubber.  Platinum cure silicone like this is prone to splitting if there's even the tiniest tear, so the mesh prevents the tear from propagating through the rubber.

Removing the silicone cast gloves from the mold core turned out to be a bit of a pain, but once I'd added the claws (cast in Task 16 rubber), I could't wait to try them on:


So far so good:


The three-fingered upper hands came out great as well:




All of the claws were glued into place with Sil-Poxy silicone adhesive.  It's basically silicone glue.  Strong stuff. 

As long as I was mixing and pouring plurple silicone, I went ahead and cast a pair of knees:

While I was on a silicone pouring roll, I also poured the tail:

So now I have hands, elbows, knees, and a tail:

I've been making it a point to make the rubber parts in order of complexity.  So the first rubber pieces we made were the little flat fleshy bits to go in the forearm, bicep, and thigh windows (LINK) because they only needed simple, one-sided molds.  Then I went ahead and made the elbows which required two-part molds with a core inside.  The elbow mold was a pretty simple thing.  The tail and knee molds were basically the same.  The hands were a bit trickier, but I think I've manage to nail them.

So the next thing will be a slightly more complex mold and much bigger.  This will be the waist and hip section:

The armature is printed and layered up with epoxy and just sitting and collecting dust for a while now.  The next step will be to add the clay layer so we can sculpt out all of the skin texture.  Then I get to make the biggest mold of this project so far.

Stay tuned...

*The "wooden sculpting tools" were mostly the broken ends of popsicle sticks.
**Incidentally, it actually was Christmas day.

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Neobums Epilogue: Where are they now

Earlier this year I posted about the making of the "Neobums," the little alien vagrants that had been loitering around town during Neotropolis 2225.  On the last night of the event, the Sentinels of Kepler 609-c initiated a major crackdown and arrested all of them:


It was a sad story.

But when the event was over and folks were headed back to their home planet, it turns out many of these little bums found new homes.

Leon, the proprietor of Spacer's Landing, adopted the little drunk that refused to leave his bar:

His name is now "Dribbles" and he's still a drunk, but he's trying to cut back:

He's also trying to improve himself by learning some new talents:

Getting along with his housemates:

And helping with daily chores where he can:

Ghillie, of Ghillie's Arcade fame, adopted the little loiterer who gained a fondness for video games in his arcade:

Short staffed as usual, Ghillie decided to put him to work:


His name is now George and he's starting to master the arts of video game and vending machine repairs:

The Cahdo brothers wandered off together to find more misadventures in LaLa Land:

One of them was spotted in the midst of a brief love affair with an Earth local named Rufus:


The other briefly took up residence in a washing machine:


At this point, they still remain at large.

 
While searching for the two of them, someone managed to find this guy chilling in their fridge:


Many people will remember Dmitri, the frequently unconscious drunk spotted on the main drag:


Still a problem alcoholic, he's temporarily taken up residence with a roommate somewhere in Earth's northern hemisphere:


If you spent anytime shopping at Starside Armory, you may have seen this little criminal loitering there:


It turns out he managed to stow away when they were preparing for lift-off from Kepler 609c:


When they discovered him, they named him "Gimbal" and put him to work.  Now he purportedly helps out a bit behind the scenes, but mostly his contribution amounts to just hanging around:

Then there's this little guy:


His name turns out to be "Pug" and he ended up transported to the penal colony at Oz for a one-year sentence.  He was photographed wearing his prison-issued uniform during a coastal clean-up work release:


That should give him plenty of time to rethink his life.

Some folks will remember Steve who was regularly panhandling outside the Gentleman Loser:


Upon apprehension by the Sentinels, Steve's fake mustache was removed revealing his true identity. It turns out "Steve" was in fact Jerry all along. Wanted for numerous unspecified crimes throughout the sector, Jerry disappeared in Sentinel custody.

Jorbu the Bartender continues to work at the Gentleman Loser, even though he drinks more liquor than he serves:

Blamo somehow manages to keep his employment contract with Xenogon Pest Removal Services despite numerous sexual harassment complaints:


He can be found at their home office most weekdays and occasionally on Sundays when he thinks there's nobody around.

Finally, there's Coach's adopted son Scratch who joined the NPCs:

When I asked Coach how Scratch was getting along on Earth during the off season, he had this to say: 

"Since getting home from Neo, the most we've done is to ensure the infestation of space fleas have gone dormant by locking him in the RV and giving him a Wired magazine to review. 

He's still on page 3, must be terribly interesting. 

He did manage to make it on an adventure to a small mountain town where some down on their luck apocalypse types regarded him and his kind with joy. Many selfies were taken, pockets were searched, drugs confiscated. 

He's enrolled in multiple correspondence courses that he has been taking online, and had a recent breakup with his long distance AI girlfriend when she said... " You've reached the daily limit for Chat GPT at this current subscription level"

Otherwise it's nothing but page 4 of Wired magazine in Scratch's near future..."

Some months later, Coach sent me this photo:

Clearly Scratch's reading comprehension had somewhat improved.

So that's where they are now.  Expect to see them and more of their kind at Neotropolis in 2226.

If you'd like to see more photos of these guys from the even and a few more scattered behind-the-scenes pictures of them being made, I have a album posted here: LINK

*If you've never been to Neotropolis, know that the Sentinels are the oppressive mercenary law enforcement operators who maintain law and order in this dystopian cyperpunk colony.