My first attempt at sculpting

[HardyGirl]

Hi! Well while waiting for the ADT guy to finish installing my alarm system, I decided to work on a project I had started a few days ago. I am now in the process of making (w/ Jessica's help), Rick Springfield as Lt. Zac from the original Battlestar Galactica. (yeah, I know, Rick Springfield again? ) Anyway, I decided to try my hand at sculpting a Viper pilot helmet. It is to scale and it fits Hutch's head, (Jess is working on the Rick head), but I need to make a few improvements.

Mego Talk

I'm changing the color to match the suit I'm working on. The earphones are too big, and it barely fits in a CAW clamshell package. But I think I did a pretty good job for a first attempt, and I'm kinda proud of myself. I'll be making 3 of these again (one for me, one for my friend V and of course, one for Rick) and will be posting the finished figure at some point.

What do you guys think?

[Cmonster]

That's awesome, Sharry. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished figure... I'm sure Rick will appreciate it.

SC

[GreenLantern9999]

That is looking pretty good! I don't know much about the source material but I like what I see!

[piecemaker]

You should be proud,helmets are tough to do and thats looking really good!

[jessica]

You may have to dremel that to fit his hair...

[Darth Freeman]

You should be proud,helmets are tough to do and thats looking really good!

Helmets are really tough!!! I'm working one with my Viking and to the best of my ability, I've not been able to get it symmetric. I'm still going with it, but I'm sure I'll keep trying to make a better one, after I "finish" the rest of the figure.

[HardyGirl]

You may have to dremel that to fit his hair...

That's not the one I'm going to use. That was a test run. When I get the Rick heads, I can make them the right size.

[HardyGirl]

You should be proud,helmets are tough to do and thats looking really good!

Thanks.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

Cool Sharry. I look forward to seeing the finished product. Go girl.

[mikeoz]

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this. Great start.

[ctc]

Neat!

What are you using for it? It looks pretty good, but I think you might be trying for too mjuch all at once. That is; I find it's a lot easier to do stuff in stages. So for something like this, I'd sculpt the basic shape, let it cure, then work the details up layer by layer. 'Course, I'm pretty hamfisted, so having a durable base to work off of is REAL important for me....

Don C.

[jessica]

Working in layers does wonders, especially for helmets, swords, shields...

[HardyGirl]

I'm using sculpey, but I want to use the Super Sculpey (or Bake and Bend), as regular sculpey is rather heavy, and not very toy like. I don't think the layers will be needed, but I do need to cut down the size of the earphones and collar.

[johnmiic]

Sharry, you're off to a good start but I would like to make a suggestion. There are Sculpey tools out there which will be very helpful to you when making accessories which are rigid, symmetrical or technological shapes like helmets. Check your local art store or try mail ordering these:



These are blades for cutting sculpey. I bought a pack a long time ago. Some newer versions now have these handles on them-which are good to have. Even tho the blade is not that sharp you can still cut your fingers on them if you're not careful. One blade is thick metal for cutting straight pieces-very good for the angular sides of a Viper Helmet. One is thinner in case you want to cut something a little curved so you can bend the straight edge a little. The wash-board design is great for adding texture or details to an item. With a ruler by your side and these blades you will see much improvement on you next Viper Helmet attempt.

Also there is the Clay Extruder:



This is a syringe type device. Put Sculpey into the chamber, leave a little air as well, and push the Sculpey out the the opening. You can use this to create fine details on any accessory you want to create. There's squares and rectangles and thin ribbon-like shapes. You can cut them into smaller parts, (Viper Helmet earphones), or layer them onto whatever item you're making for detail. The key to making things look good is subtlety. This can help a lot when detailing the helmet. The spaghetti style would probably be good for sculpted hair on a sculpted head too. Plus it's fun to play with I must confess!

Here is the Sculpey home site.

Sculpey Polymer Clay Tools | Polyform Products Company

Many tools have instructional videos. So if you're not sure you need a new tool watch the video and see what they can do with them. Maybe the vids will give you inspirational ideas.

[HardyGirl]

Thanks John. I really doubt I'll be doing any sculpting after this. I just took this on as a personal challenge, you know, to see if I could do it. And y'know, the only tools I used were my bare hands and a toothpick. I may try a butter knife next time.