Upcoming Project: Sideshow Nova costume

I am going to make my first Nova costume but it will be 1:6 scale for a sideshow doll. I don't have a Nova hanging around my house so I will have to use Zira as my model. It will look strange on Zira, but I want to work on this challenge because I think I can make it very film-accurate and Nova's costume has a high level of difficulty.

Operating Room Tables

Currently working on a pair of operating room tables and need to put up photos of it. The body of the slab is made out of green flower styrofoam. The base of the tables will also be made of this styrofoam but with clay or something on top of it to give it a stone look. I had originally used self hardening clay, but that shrinks as it dries so the surface of the tables looked like a dried out lake bed after hardening. I covered this up with a thin layer of white crayola model magic which was difficult to stretch out thinly with a rolling pin--had to pull and stretch it out like pizza dough. It's looking great. I need to paint it grey and then add on the leather.

Brent from Beneath the Planet of the Apes

I used Dr. Zaius' body to form the outfit, but I didn't take any headshots as it was DISTURBING...The leather needs to look a bit weathered, so will have to tweak it a little and sew down the snaps but I am pleased with the overall look.

Another photo worthy of the General

I am posting this photograph because I am very happy with the composition. It looks like General Ursus is leading his horse around an area with dangerous footing.

Recent photos of General Ursus

The first photograph is the best photograph out of the 90 that I took. I like it because of the angle, and the horse looks pretty real.
The other photos are ok. I wanted to showcase the cuirass and also the horse, but in stepping away to photograph both I lost the detail of the clothing.

Not sure if I like this angle, but I did capture his eyes looking directly at the camera, so that's why I'm posting it.

Before and After: What a difference several days make

I feel that the soldier ape has successfully morphed into a noble general. Note that I painted over that weird hair pattern on the face and it really makes a difference. I can't believe how powerful and more intelligent he looks now. I still think this has got to be my most favorite custom that I have done. Look at the after picture and note how the camera angle captures the intensity of his glare--the General is looking directly at you! Wow! This picture is totally awesome for me. I can't believe I took it!!

I will probably add some highlights to his face and beard as suggested to really make it pop, and I might replace the 3D paint of his collar with beads. I am not happy that the studs on the collar do not reflect the sunlight. It should glitter like dewdrops...but it doesn't. I found the perfect sized beads, but now to search for the needle that will fit through the beads...or else succumb to another jaunt to the craft store. They must know me by sight now.

More photos of the General

The General is still incomplete as I am still waiting for his hands so that I could craft his gauntlet, bridle and shotgun holster. I warmed up the grey of his face a little bit and he no longer looks like a black and white character from the old movies. And oopsie--the top of the helmet could use a little smoothing over.

I am still really proud of the toe dents of the handmade boots.

Isn't he a cutie?

General Ursus Closeup

Here's a closeup to show you what I finally decided as far as face color:

General Ursus

Some photos of the current state of the General. I think his face could use a little bit of lightening up but he's getting there!

Ape Rifle

Quick and dirty ape rifle. The barrel is made out of a used up gel pen and the handle is made out of clay that I toasted in the oven. It's a bit rough and could use a bit of touchup, but it was a fun thing to do. I think I could smooth it out a little bit and repaint, but I kind of like the crudeness of it.

Before, During and After painting

Here are a bunch of mug shots. Pretty damned ugly, isn't he?

He looks like a bright orange because I just scrubbed his face with dishwashing detergent--and it hasn't dried yet.

After the first light wash of grey primer

After several coats of grey as primer

I only hope to do the movie justice. I hope that the outfit outshines the bad paint job. Still hideous I'm afraid...

Getting there... I also noticed that his helmet still wasn't quite right. I added some more to the back of the helmet so it actually surrounded a good portion of his head and not just the top part (like a bicycle safety helmet)... This is composed of 3 different scultping mediums: Sculpey mold maker, Sculpey Bake Clay, and Fimo Bake Clay. When it's off of his head, the weight of the helmet makes it stand upsidedown on a flat surface and it reminds me of a badminton birdie. A pretty whacked one at that.

Hopefully the wild bling of the outfit will camouflage the paint job. What do magicians call it? Smokes and mirrors? Hee hee...

Not half bad for a start. It can still be adjusted by some tweaking. Now I need some honest opinions. What can I do to improve this? OK...need better brushes firstly and secondly need to stop using 3D paint! And...will darken his face a bit. Thanks for the input everyone!!

On a very good note, his eyeballs at least are pointing in the same direction!! Yay me!!

Sculpting practice--Do not try this at home!!

Here is a practice Ursus gun that I sculpted. These Mego hands really cannot hold anything, so I decided to sculpt the gun around it. Then, a brilliant idea of mine which was such a mistake was to toast the hand holding the gun in the toaster oven, which subsequently melted the tips of the ape's fingers down to some nubs. At least this way he looks like he really is holding the gun! I just can't wait until my chips hands come in. I guess I could sculpt the rifle and finish up the bridle today. I will also think about and scheme about painting his face. It's kind of scary for me but I'm sure I could pull it off. I have already invested in some tiny paintbrushes, but I need to purchase some paints. And then exchange that brick of clay I purchased which I did not have time to do yet.

Here's the third hat compared to the second hat. It's much shorter. The only thing now is that the hieroglyphs will be very difficult to do as it is now much shorter and the space for the glyphs are nowthat much smaller.

Third Time's the Charm

Resculpting the hat. I think the second one is a bit too tall, so I am in the middle of resculpting it. Pity. It was almost beautiful. I also got some air-hardening clay at the craft store today, and I was going to use that for the new hat but I guess I bought myself a piece of brick. It was dry as mortar--will have to exchange that tomorrow. I also ran out of sculpey in the house so I was forced to use the sculpey mold maker (hate that stuff--it's such a bear to work with)...but what to do in times of desperation? I molded the main shape of the hat over the soldier ape's head, and then I wrapped the body and face of the ape in tin foil, held him by his feet and I toasted his head like a marshmallow. I did take a couple of before photos, but I was worried about roasting my plastic piece and forever melting it. I tried to pry off the head prior to toasting but it wouldn't give so I went with the path of least resistance.

Ursus is Coming Along

You will recognize the saddle bags and saddle from a previous post, but yes, the mighty Ursus is coming along rather handsomely! I am so excited at the way the costume is transforming into what I imagined. I only hope that I can do the movie justice. I think this might be my most favorite custom ever completed to date. I will need to sculpt a gun, a rifle, sew a rifle holster, and then whip up some kind of bridle.


Fun fun fun!!

Can't wait to get my hands back onto the crafting of General Ursus.

State of Ursus Armor

This is the state of the General's armor. The pieces have been sewn onto him because I think they were attached by leather string to him in the movie. I will probably re-do the collar--I'm just not happy with the placement of the little dots, plus I think the collar needs to be a bit wider. I actually added two little horizontal lines on the metal plates of the armor, but you can't really see it because of the flash. When I take his portrait, I will make sure that the camera captures it. This outfit is looking almost like the way I wanted it to be! Just some minor tweaking to do. I will also have to sculpt a pistol for him. I ordered some Chips black hands, so hopefully somebody can show me how to replace his hands...or I could read up about it.

Armor update

The metal pieces I had bent last night (the left sleeve on the picture) and glued into place are in my opinion really too big for the scale. From another mad dash through the craft store during lunchtime, I encountered something that will work. It is aluminum that is soft enough to bend without too much effort, and it's practically trimmed for me to begin with, so all I had to really do was roll it into shape, and then glue it. I must have rolled these little tin shapes for quite some time when my dulled senses were beckoned to sleep by the toll of the midnight hour. So another night has come to pass and there is much to do for the armor but I am happy at the results now. I wrapped the armored sleeve around the ape's upper arm and it looks wonderful. The studs will not be overwhelmed by the size of the metal plating and there is no need for me to paint this. Both sleeves are now done. This costume is promising to be a good one. After the glue has dried, I am going to place the sleeves face down on my kitchen counter and rub down the metal out so they are flattened. At that point, I will decide if I should add the horizontal bars on each metal plate--if they add or detract to the overall outlook of the outfit.

Ursus pieces falling into shape

I am taking artistic liberties and have decided to use these metal pieces for the armor plating. I know they are not to scale but I love how they are already made out of metal and add an ominous weight to the fabric. He will really look menacing wearing this outfit. Now to fit the studs onto the collar, finish up the rest of the metal pieces (if I can find more of these guys)...glue them and sew the outfit onto Ursus. I hope the outfit looks good when it's done. I would really hate to put so much effort in this thing with the end product not looking as spectacular as I imagined. If I am not happy with the end product, I will probably start all over again. I hope I don't have to do that--I want to see this costume done.

Ursus purple outfit

Underneath the armor is a plain purple outfit. I resewed the outfit today. I could have re-used the same pants from the soldier ape but I was not happy with the fit. I decided to place the snaps in the front of the outfit instead of the back, so that General Ursus would have an easier time putting on his outfit. The outfit came out really well I think and will look superb underneath the cuirass.

Ursus Armor Plating

I didn't know how to start this. First, I was going to create a die so that I could stamp out the pattern for the plating. That didn't work, as the die kept gunking up. Then, I decided to try to cut out the plating and then poke holes. These would be used for fastening to the leather. I spent probably a good hour at the hobby store looking for something to create these with.

Don't they look like graham crackers? The problem with this is that not only did I have to sew them down to the leather, but I also had to paint them silver. The size is perfect for the body, too, but I was not happy with the way the pieces were not uniform. I was going to sew the pieces down with wire, which required additional work...or attach the wire, spray paint the pieces, and then glue them down. I was worried about finding the perfect silver paint so that the pieces looked metallic.

Hieroglyphs on Ursus hat fixed

At first I tried to whittle down the hieroglyphs, but they popped off the hat. I didn't want to wait for the glue to dry before I could whittle them down again, so I decided to just remove them and start all over. The second time around, I created the hieroglyphs but made sure they were already thin to begin with so that they didn't need fixing. The second photo is a closeup of the collar's hieroglyph. It needs to be painted black, and probably will need a gloss cover so that it could match the fake leather. the hat will probably have to be glossy too.

Revised helmet. The first is a closeup of the glyphs. The second photo shows the two helmets together. The newest helmet is not as tall as the first helmet. I might shave down the glyphs later before painting by sanding them down.

I also noticed some black paint marks stuck on the helmet when i pried it off the soldier ape. Oh well. I am not really into getting these Megos in perfect, carded condition. My MO is just creating their outfits and playing with them and photographing them.

For my final portrait of General Ursus when done I will do something totally drastic that I have seen on 1/6 scale figures...but I dare not tell because I don't know if it will work or not.

General Ursus Helmet

Soldier ape wearing the helmet. Not really sure if the helmet is a bit too big. Need to find some more photos of Ursus as a reference and not rely solely on my single print-out. I want to find various poses so I can see a 360 of his helmet.

OK...I've thought it over and I have decided that his helmet is too tall. I will verify with a few more Ursus printouts, and then start shaving down the helmet. If that is too difficult, I will resculpt a smaller one. Good for practice, you know. I hope I find some good screen shots.

Crickey!

Major burns from the toaster oven! Gaahhhhhhhh! That's what happens when you try to multi-task! Should have been watching the baking process more closely, but the dishes were calling out to me...

The last photo shows the area where the burn marks were shaved off with a sharp knife.