The Master Chief (Warning: pic intensive)

[Jouster]

Well, here is Master Chief in his entire pistol-whippin’ glory. A very good friend of mine sculpted this creation, and I obtained his permission to post these pictures to the public.

It should be noted that the sculptor has had NO formal training, which only makes this piece even more impressive to me. Without further adieu, here are the pics:











The piece was made entirely out of sculpey, as far as I know. All of the body parts were individually formed and heated, and were later glued together. My friend said that it was difficult to secure detailed pictures of the Mark VI armor, especially due to there being differences between the Halo 2 and Halo 3 versions. Therefore, some of these differences were incorporated into the statue as a point of humor. If you look closely, you might see some.

Finally, my friend desires to make a mold of his work and cast a few copies. He is thinking of taking a rubber mold, and using this mold to make some resin casts as tournament prizes for a local video game club. However, he fears what any type of molding process might do to the original piece: more specifically, he doesn’t know what the sculpey and glue will handle. It is therefore on this point that I ask the members of this forum: (a.) what type of mold would be preferred in this case, and (b.) what type of casting material may be used for a project like this. I will pass along any information over to the sculptor, and we’ll see where things go from there.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

hmm, I'm trying to remember weather silicon ruber does anything to the orriginal, I don't think a plaster mold would be a good Idea for sculpy, regardless you'd need to find a company to do the molding, the machinary to do castings that advanced isn't cheap.

[Novastar]

Whoa... pretty cool! It will look nice when painted and detailed for shininess, glow, shadow, highlight, etc.

[Mitji]

Very nice sculpt.

It would be easier to mold and cast copies if the arms were done seperately... but even with them attached, it's still possible to make a flexible mold that wouldn't damage the sculpture. The key would be to place the mold seams so that it wouldn't lock too badly anywhere. I would recommend using a highly elastic silicone, such as Dragon Skin. It would create a very durable mold that would flex easily when your friend removes the original or cast replicas.

Check out some of the threads here... there might be something that could help:

http://theflagshipeclipse.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=32


Pam

[Maxepane]

If he were to make one out of wax, he could cast it in plaster and then just melt the wax. Then all you had to do was pour in what ever he wanted to make Master Chief out of. Just have to heat the plaster before adding in hot material.

For those that don't know me, I'm new and in the planning and designing my first lightsaber. Hopefully money will allow me to be able to buy LEDs and blades in the near future.

[Logan Cade]

Hey, that’s a real nice sculpt. Your buddy has some talent!

With the time he has already invested in it, it would be a shame to rush to the molding process until the figure was as mint as possible. He should clean it up more, with all surfaces being smooth just like the character.

Molding is generally done with silicone and casts done in resin. You should also break the figure down and cast it in parts…. making a kind of model kit out of it for the builder with inter-locking parts.
Casting smaller parts is also easier and lessens the chance of offsets and air bubbles in the resin.

I belong to a modeling club for garage kits and there’s a wealth of info there that your buddy can use. The guys over there do this exact same thing everyday. There are a ton of sculptors there also, ranging from novice to pro. It’s the best place on the Internet for garage kits, with producers creating models of anything that you can think of. Plus it has the world’s greatest Model Museum, filled with everyone’s completed work.

Tell your buddy and anyone else interested in modeling to join up and check it out.

http://theclubhouse1.net/

[Darth_DevilGuy]

for smoothing out the indents a good material is green stuff (it's a two part epoxy putty ask for it anywhere warhammer stuff is sold) I used to make custom commander models for my 40k buddies. The way to work with it is to mix the two elements and then smear it over the place you want to smooth, then scrape the excess away with a wet exato blade.

[Jouster]

On behalf of the sculptor, thanks for all of the comments and information!

After telling him about some of the suggestions pertaining to creating a mold and casts, he is thinking that he may be able to get away with removing just the left arm, since that one is positioned right in front of the Chief's chest. He then thinks that he can create at least a satisfactory silicone mold for the two separate pieces.

Furthermore, he is at least considering smoothing out the sculpture before he makes a mold. Only time will tell, since I'm not sure whether he will attempt to make copies for some weeks (or even months, though I hope that is not the case ).

[987654321a]

Before he molds it, I recomend a 2 part mold. That way he doesnt have to remove any limbs.

Edit- I also recomend him to make a base for the figure if they're going to be trophies, just so you have a good pour spout for your mold.