At the end of the last update on this project I'd laid up the lower rib section of the chest. Here's that piece out of the mold before any trimming or cleanup:
Then the assembly sat around the shop getting in the way a lot:
Meanwhile, we decided to get back to work on the rubber parts. The misstep with the hands made me realize that, while I understand the principles and processes involved, I might as well start with a simple shape while I'm learning some new materials. So we dusted off the tail core and layered it up with some clay:
Jeff did all of the work on that. As you can see, he's very excited about it:
As long as we had some momentum going, we went ahead and pulled out the arm and leg shells:
They all needed a bit more bodyshop work on the seams:
Somewhere in the middle of that process, the creature got posted up out of the way while we hosted our annual holiday party in the workshop:
Then I got back to work, filling over the seams and rounding over the edges with Free Form Air from Smooth-On:
Free Form Air is an epoxy dough that comes in two parts. When you knead them together in a one to one ration by volume, the resulting lump will cure to a hard, lightweight plastic in about 45 minutes. Before it cures, you can shape it and sculpt it like Play-Doh, but once it cures, you can cut it and sand it and drill holes in it. It's pretty nifty stuff and I used it to round out the backside of the edges of the vacformed parts. This way the edges aren't sharp on the wearer's skin and the shells look like they've got more thickness than they actually do:
After a bit of sanding and fine tuning, they were ready for primer and paint:
These were the first pieces to get their base paint color, but the really exciting part was this piece:
Next up I have to finish smoothing out the upper arm parts and the leg parts and get them in their base blue color (which incidentally is Rustoleum "Ink Blue," a very fine match for old-school genestealer blue).
I'll also make some final texturing on the tail before it's time to pull a mold and cast the first plurple rubber part(s).
Stay tuned...
NOTE: A few of the products I use in this article have their names set as links so you can buy them on Amazon. There are other places you can buy these products but, full disclosure, I've set up an Amazon Affiliates account so I get a nickel or two whenever someone follows my link and buys something off of that site. So if you feel like doing me a favor, next time you need to place an order on Amazon, start by clicking one of my links to get to the site, then buy whatever you normally would. Here's a good one to start with: LINK!
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