Genestealer Build Update 13: Prepping the Chest for Molding and a Few Other Bits and Bobs

First off, let me apologize for the lack of updates.  We got pretty swamped for a couple of weeks with one quick project I'll be posting about soon and another big project I may never get to post about at all.  These things happen.

On the plus side, I've suddenly been given a major incentive to focus on the genestealer build, so this thing should start showing a lot of progress in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, our friend Gene did a fine job of keeping the dust off of this little patch of work bench where he was waiting:

Realizing that clutter had become the enemy of progress in a big way, we cleared off the bench he was sitting on:

This always helps me feel like I'm about to get some stuff done.

Despite all of the other priorities, I was able to add another thick coat of epoxy to the newly reshaped chest:


A few days later my friend Ian stopped by looking to stave off some boredom and do some tinkering, so I set him to work adding cardboard margins to the edges of the part:


This is the first step on the way to making the eventual fiberglass mold for this piece.  Unfortunately, we didn't get around to adding the clay that goes on next:

We'll get to that this week.

We ran out of time that day because Ian had to get home, but first we needed to lifecast some hands which we'll use as sculpting bases for the four hands the creature needs.  Ian's hands are slightly bigger than mine, so we molded his in the "live long and prosper" pose to be used as the three-fingered upper hands, while mine were molded fully-splayed for use as the five-fingered lower hands.

The end result was a pretty handsy critter:


Since I'm really wanting to see this beasty start walking around, I figured I should get a jump on this piece:

So I started printing up the pieces.  The first recognizable part that came out was the tail:


And now I'm just about done assembling the whole thing.  It's not small:

So now I'm going to have to start rushing through some skin sculpting and molding so I can start pulling rubber parts.

Stay tuned...

Genestealer Build Update 12: Shorts and Thighs Modeled

Last week was mostly about playing catchup now that we're back in the shop. Jeff was still hard at work on the 3D modeling for this project though, so he was able to fine-tune the models for the lower half of the creature so they would better fit the scan of me in the stilts. Since Jeff is leaner than me, if we can get me into the suit, the same parts will definitely be big enough for him to wear them too.

So he got the digital sculpt done for the lower section of the torso:


The plan is to turn these into a pair of rubber shorts with the tail built in.  So once he sent me the model, I made a few changes to turn them into a sculpting armature that we can use as the base for a clay sculpt to cast in silicone later.  This mostly just meant lengthening the upper end of the waist and the bottom of the legs as well as removing the little spine nubs from the back and tail:

I opted to leave the bulge on the front.  Might as well make this creature look happy.

They're gonna be really sexy when it comes time to put them on:

Then again, the whole thing will go through a series of ridiculous iterations on the way to getting fully-dressed:


So now I'm in the process of printing the sculpting armature for the shorts and splitting up the thigh pieces so I can carve forming bucks on the CNC machines.  Meanwhile, Jeff is fine tuning the sculpt for the lower legs and feet.  So we're on track to get this guy looking like so:    

Meanwhile, the arm parts have been getting occasional attention on their way to being completely trimmed and prepped for paint:

The head sculpt still needs to get finished.  At least he looks like he's having a good time while he waits: 

Stay tuned!