Genestealer Update 21: New and Improved Sculpting Armatures

So we're back to work on the Genestealer project.  

A while back (update 17) we ran into a bit of a snag because the sculpting armature I was using for one of the lower hands wasn't quite ideal.  It was made from a lifecast of my own hand and there were a few technical details that made it tricky to work with.

So we decided to go a slightly more high-tech route and start by scanning my hands.  Now with our somewhat low-end scanners, this is made a lot easier if the scanner is stationary and the object being scanned is placed on a turntable that will move at a slow, steady pace so the computer can keep track of where everything is easier.

So we sat me on a turntable and scanned my hand:


Tiki was no help at all in this process:


We scanned my right hand with the fingers splayed out flat and wide and then again in the "live long and prosper" pose.  We also scanned my right knee:


We didn't scan my left hand or left knee because it's pretty simple to just mirror them over digitally and my left and right sides happen to be the ideal example of symmetrical human perfection.  I am Adonis.

Or close enough for what we're doing.

After a bit of digital cleanup, the knee was truncated to just the part we'd need to sculpt on top of and the hands were cut into sections like so:


Since we'll be sculpting gloves and the armatures will be used later as mold cores, we have to make sure that the hands can be pulled out through the wrist of the glove.  Since the armatures are rigid, the only way to pull them out is to make them break down into separate parts that have registration keys to slot them together like so:


So once we were happy with the separation points, I started by printing a pair of knees:


Then the hands:

Reassembled, the hands looked like so:


The outer fingers were just pressed into place and will still be able to slide off later.  To use them as sculpting armatures for the Genestealer, they needed a big xeno manicure before we mounted them to bits of wood:


The knees were also mounted to boards as well as an elbow cut from an old lifecast of my arm:


To smooth the surface and reinforce the 3D prints a bit, they were given a coat of Epsilon PRO epoxy from Smooth-On because I'd run out of XTC-3D.  My friend Kate got to do the honors:


The removable fingers were hardcoated separately to keep them from being glued onto the rest of the hand:


Once the epoxy had cured, the fingers were placed back in place and the gaps were taped over:


If you're a keen observer, you'll notice the tail sculpt in the background of that last pic.  My goal has been to graduate to ever increasingly complex parts to mold.  The tail is bigger, but it's going to be a simple two-part mold not much different than the knees or elbows. 

So after layering it up with medium firmness Chavant NSP clay, the whole thing was textured to add the larger wrinkles and creases:


Jeff did the initial texture pass and he did a pretty good job:


Kate also spent a bit of time on it, smoothing out a few of the creases and brushing away some of the tool marks.  Then I got to do the final pass on the texture:


I added a few random lumps here and there to make the silhouette a little less smooth and manufactured-looking.  Then did the final pass with a tiny wire brush and a chip brush to give the whole thing the same final texture as the other fleshy bits we already cast:


The smooth part at the base is where it will mate up with the back of the waist/hip section when we get to making that piece:

So now the tail is pretty much ready to mold and the armatures for the hands and knees are ready for us to start sculpting on top of.

Next I'll have to figure out how to attach the carapace to a human wearer:

Stay tuned...