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Ganner Krieg, Imperial Knight


The Clone Emperor

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GannerAntares_S03.jpg

Ganner Krieg and Antares Draco stand watch at Bastion

 

More study. This image was drawn from a photo of Doug Wrangler and I at CIV. It is fascinating what you notice about a person when take the tyme to draw them. It is like seeing them through whole new eyes.

 

I have had one sculpture day since CIV. I believe I will have a whole week coming soon. It is my intention that my next images shared to be hard masters of a few of the Imperial Knight armour pieces I have been working on;

 

01. left hand plate

02. right hand plate

03. left vambrace

04. right vambrace

05. left under bell

06. right under bell

07. left over bell

08. right over bell

09. left shoulder strap

10. right shoulder strap

11. front breast plate

12. back plate

13. back shoulder/cape plate

14. abdomen plate

15. segmented groin plate

 

I concede that the shoulder strap segments could be left attached to either the front or the back of the body armour, but I am designing my armour with break down for travel in mind.

 

Be well,

Thomas

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Guest Anonymous

As always, it is a pleasure seeing your sketches. :) Thank you. Reminds me, I have a few pics of you as Durge I need to email you. There are better on the web, but the more the merrier, right?

 

Can't WAIT to see you in the Imperial Knight armor. Man, that is going to be just...just...amazing.

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Guest Anonymous

Here's Ganner...............

 

LMOGunnarEUpanelcAndymanspic.jpg

 

That's cAndyman's pic from CIV!!!

 

It was such a pleasure hangin' out with you guyz!!! :twisted::twisted::twisted:

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Guest Anonymous

That is deeply awesome. LOL! He got a picture of me, sort of, from the same panel. LOL! It shows my first slide, and then a sliver of me on the far left, with my arm projecting into the picture holding the mask up for comparison.

 

But that photo is so cool...Ganner...and Ganner!

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First off....that's awesome...belated congrats at the likeness being used.

 

What material/method will you use once all sculptures are complete? Vacuum form, resin, etc?

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Guest Anonymous

Awesome work, Thomas. I was pretty surprised at that presentation at the EU panel. That was fun.

 

I just started researching the Imperial Knights since I was considering doing a Antares Draco version. Could be interesting to get together with two completed Knights in character.

 

Let me know how the molds go. :wink:

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Now that the rush and recovery from SW Celebration IV, I am finally freed advance my sculpture. (I will have images from CIV online shortly.)

 

My first hurdle upon my return was the discovery that the Summer heat had worked against my sculpture. I found that the clay had torn itself off of my life cast under its own weight. Torn plates lie where they fell like flower petals around the torso. Something of an upsetting scene.

 

But no matter. I just picked up the pieces and fastened them in place with two dozen dry wall screws. It felt macho to do, and served a purpose; should the clay become heated a begin to slide away again, the dry wall screws should act as anchors.

 

I spent last weekend repairing the damage;

IKS5a.jpg

I have changed the cut on the underbells. Initially I had followed the geometry of the popular Legacy 6 cover art. However after additional research and confirmation I settled on a cut more in keeping with Jan Duursema's design. (The Legacy 6 cover was done by another artist.)

 

Before I make my first hard master of the chest armour I wanted to finalize the front AND the back.

 

IKS5b.jpg

The back is based on the under the cape images supplied by Jan Duursema.

 

IKS5c.jpg

I have high-lit in blue the location of the separate back-cape-plate from which the cape will hang.

 

IKS5d.jpg

(I plan to sculpt the back-cape-plate on top of the back armour hard master, thus insuring fit.)

 

Be well,

Thomas

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Guest Sakara

fantastic..blimey that must have been such a shock to see your work in pieces around the bust....i would have cried!..

but drywall screws..what an idea!

 

May i ask what type of clay you use...you may have mentioned it before..but i cant seem to find it.

It looks like i may have to sculpt my own armour ..at least the chest plate part as the female shaping will be slightly different to the male, which a number of people are interested in doing. if then made into ABS section sof the armour can be heat shaped to fit most bodies....at least thats the hope.

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Good evening Kristen,

 

So the English really do say "blimey." Core, Governor, ?Who'd 'ave thought?

 

I use sulphur-free oil-based clay;

plastalina.jpg

(Sulphur-free in case I decide to use the clay with a silcon mold.)

 

The choice of material depends on you. Oil based clay won't dry out, but it will oxidize and become hard to manipulate.

 

I have seen my colleagues work in many other clay-like materials, and while I cannot name these, I would encourage experimentation.

 

Be well,

Thomas

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::giggling about the blimey conversation::

 

I'm glad to see that you were able to make repairs and not have to start over from scratch, Thomas. That would have been.... well, really bad! Although, honestly, I've found that my second (or third, or fourth) attempts at sculptures always come out better. You learn the tricks, and get better with experience!

 

I use Chavant clay and Monster Makers, both of which are also oil based. Chavant is a lot softer and easier to work with, and usually takes only the warmth of your hands to work with it... but it's a tad on the expensive side. Monster Makers is cheaper, but it's also more difficult to warm up, and it jumps terribly fast from solid to liquid when you go overboard with the heat. Once I set a portable heater up near one of my lekku sculpts to warm it up before I started working, and then got sidetracked and forgot about it. I came back an hour later and found that the clay had slid off the lekku on the heated side and had landed in a gooey lump on the base. Heh.... oops!

 

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Anonymous

I know your poor ol' heart DROPPED when you saw the clay laying on the table.... :?:(

I'm glad you got it all fixed up!!! :wink:

& it looks sooooooo good!!!! :twisted:

 

Hopefully, you'll be wearing it, soooooooooooooon!!! :wink::twisted:

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Guest Anonymous

It's looking REALLY good. Near disaster averted!!! Thank goodness!!! As always, your deft sculpting touch and attention to detail are masterful.

 

Cor! Blimey!

 

;)

 

- Carolyn

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And yet again I am surprised at the actual number of days that go into a single costume component. I must subconsciously forget the tyme spent in making my own costume shortly after the labaour. Many hours and steps have occured between the last posted sculpture images and the truing images below;

 

IKS6a.jpg

I am so dedicated to Star Wars, that I even wear a costume when working on a costume. (Here I am attired as the Ralph McQuarrie concept for Luke Skywalker.)

IKS6b.jpg

For production purposes only, the torso armour was cast as one piece.

IKS6c.jpg

Some how, I spent 10 hours truing up these hard master pieces.

 

I will put in just a little more tyme to further true up the torso armour before cutting it up into wearable components for testing. I intend to make the final piece with a coloured gel coat, but that process is a ways off. My next step will be to sculpt the cape plate on top of the the back plate and the over bells on top of the under bell.

 

Be dusty,

Thomas

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.

Fantastic work on that, Thomas. The finished armor is going to look spectacular.... and before you know it, we'll have ourselves a real live Ganner Krieg!

 

Ahhh, mouse sanders. How did we ever accomplish anything without them?

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Sakara

wow ..just Wow Thomas.

may i ask , is that made from the clay or something else...ive never done that sort of thing before, so i dont know the procedures

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Looks great!

 

Question....what steps did you do to go from the sculpt on top of your duct tape self to the trueing?

 

Did you pull it off of the duct tape after air-drying, hair dryer, etc?

 

Aka....how did you get it off of the duct tape to the hard armor to be sanded?

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Thank you fellows for your support and input.

 

I have a pair of images to share of some my new pieces in progress;

IKS7a.jpg

These are the left and right overbell hard masters. The left overbell sports a clay Imperial Cog that will be cast separately.

 

IKS7b.jpg

This image shows the clay sculpt for the "cloak cap." I have sculpted dirrectly over the back plate hardmaster for fit.

 

Judging from the replies and PM's I have received, I gather there is a little confusion about the process I use. I have been hesitant to describe my process for several reasons;

1. The materials used in fibre glassing are dangerous to health. If not approached with due care and precaution folk could end up damaging their lungs or worse.

 

2. It takes tyme to document the process. It helps to have an understanding buddy with camera knowledge on hand. These are two things I seldom have.

 

3. I am not an expert. Good golly how I am not. I'd be embarassed for folk to see some of the foolish mistakes I make. With this in mind I feel less than qualified to suggest my process to others.

 

 

 

Still I do think an "overveiw" could possibly help. Greatly simplified my process is as follows;

1. Create the sculpture, often in clay.

 

2. Send images to friends and authorities for critique

 

3. Adjust as necessary

 

4. Add mold walls to the sculpture--also in clay, applied with as much care as with which the sculpture was made.

 

5. Create a mold in Plaster of Paris

 

6. Remove the sculpture from the mold. If the mold came out well, I roll the remains of the sculpt into a ball of clay on the spot. It is a ritual signifying that I trust that the next steps will yield fruit. (I would not recommend it.)

 

7. Clean the mold, and fill in any air pockets that may have formed. For this I use clay. Sometymes I also sand the edges of the mold.

 

8. Apply mold release to the negative surface. (I use mirrior wax)

 

9. I prepare the work area. Do not set up in your living area. You must work in a garage, studio, or abandoned doll factory. Just not at home. The materials present a health hazzard.

 

10. I don an apron, gloves and a fibreglass rated respirator. If you try this with a breathe mask you health will be forfeit.

 

11. I mix bondo with an amount of fibreglass resin roughly 1 to 5.

You can skip the resin. I use it to assist with the bondo's flow. (Bondo is a paste at room temperature.)

 

12. I THEN mix in the the bondo and fibreglass hardeners. Mix the correct ammount and mix thoroughly. Don't mix up more than you can work with in a single pot-life. It would be better to toss out a partially set-up pot then to force it into your mold.

 

13. Working quickly I pour, spread and coax the bondo/fibreglass resin into an even thickness over the mold negative and past the edges of the negative form up the mold walls. This gives me a measure of excess to cut away. Better to have excess coverage than not enough. Be sure to avoid trapping air in corners and do not allow the bondo to pool-up in the centre of the mold. Try to keep the thickness even; 1/8"--1/4" is good.

 

14. While the bondo shell is curing I set up the fibreglass matte. I use chopped matte. I tear a couple strips up for use.

 

15. I then mix up a small workable pot of fibreglass resin and hardener (also called catalyst or "kicker."

 

16. With a disposalable paint brush, I lay a preparation layer of fibreglass resin onto the inside of the bondo shell.

 

17. I coat one side of a fibreglass matte strip and lay it sticky side down unto the coated bondo shell.

 

18. Immediately I "tap" the fibreglass matte with the brush until the resin premeates the fibre. The fibre will become transparent. I tap to move and pop airbubbles as I go.

 

19. Wow ?you really are still reading this?

 

20. I continue to apply the fibreglass matte strips until the entire inner surface is coated, allowing for a generous overlap.

 

21. I clean up.

 

22. I don saftey goggles for the next steps

 

23. Once the fibreglass resin has cured, I take out the hammer. You can pretty much brain the mold and not harm the fibreglass casting. I apply conservative force all the same an carefully smash the waste mold away.

 

24. Clean the bondo/fibreglass casting. Clip away the extra fibres.

 

25. Using a fibreglass cutting wheel, I remove the extra mold wall positive from the piece.

 

26. Clean up and trash run.

 

27. The piece can now be "trued" by adding additional bondo where needed, and sanding. I also use a dremel tool and x-acto blades for this purpose.

 

28. A base coat of primer helps to judge the quality of the piece, and seals the piece for further work.

 

29. Recite the proper incantation and offer the blood sacrafice. I prefer the blood of the unbaptised male child for my work.

 

This process makes a hard master. I wear mine. A pro would use a hard master to produce a production mold and reproduce the piece with gel-goat and fibreglass. Alternatively, the hard master could be adapted for vacuum-forming. One day, I hope advance my work to a more professional process.

 

Be well,

Thomas

 

PS Pam,

?Yes indeed, mouse sanders rock hard, tasty-abs-washer-board-style (glistening in the Sun!)

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19. Wow ?you really are still reading this?

 

 

LOL.... yup! Quite an interesting read, too. Thank you very much for posting that. I love seeing how different people go about finding solutions for their costume building challenges.

 

 

It's funny how many ways we seem to work from opposite directions to get to the same solution. An easy example: you add fiberglass resin to bondo to get a more spreadable paste. Bondo is resin with lots of talc added to it. So basically you're thinning down the talc. While I, on the other hand, get fiberglass resin and dump a ton of talc into it to create a spreadable paste!

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Sakara

ooh i carried on reading right past number 29!!! and it was very interesting how you do the sculpting and creation of your armour......

Something i will be attempting at some point. Its good to know different peoples methods to prepare for when i attempt it.

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