Helmet and monster sketches

Hey peeps! This is long overdue so I thought I would finally post it along with a little taste of something new that Im working on. As promised, these are some details of the process. It took 14 weeks and around 400 hours. 

So this was the rough clay sculpt, I chose some simple shapes because I knew I was going to get all backed up later on
with kitbashing and peach foam and lights and whatnot.

You guys seriously have to try stealing, its so much fun oh my goodness, this is me roughing in where the visor slots
are in tape.

This is about as far as I went with the sculpt. those weird orange things are the hand sculpted peach foam inserts that
will eventually be pipe grabbers. 

After I primed the helmet, it was time to put in the lights! I used EL tape so that I could cut the lights into the shapes of the
slots that I had carved earlier. I figured this would be about the fastest and easiest way to do this. That being said, I had no idea what I was doing with the EL tape and it took me 3 days...

I had 4 EL panels to work with so I needed to carve through the primer and sculpt in order to fit the side visor lights in. I would eventually stretch my bondo skills to the limit trying to resurface the carved out areas. 

But the result was so worth it.  Below the lights you can see the rudimentary kitbash stuff starting to take form. right here is a capacitor (I think), Custom pvc stuff,  and electrical wiring, I ended up buying a typewriter and using it to keep the tertiary level details within the same dead space feel. 

First coat of paint!

Tape mask for the second coat of paint

Second coat of paint!

Clean paint with most of the kitbash elements in place. 

I remember taking this picture, the bliss I was experiencing was next level.

Started to add some gasket lining to the eyes, I used thick neckalce string. It covers up the rough edges and makes the eyes pop a little more.

"Work in threes!" - something Sean Hargreaves always says, so I added a third Material around the neck. This is also to indicate how the main front of the helmet is a shell that goes over the top of a less shielded helmet model.

The final Paintjob! I have some regret here honestly. You always want that one extra day, you know? Given that chance, I would have toned down the rust in vlaue and spacing and paid more attention to the realism of it, softening the transition between that and the helmet material a bit more, but what can you do? I finished with 5 minutes to spare, and it looks fucking beautiful...I mean, I think so.

Even though he hated the base, and my presentation fell flat because no sleep takes its toll, I was picked for gallery.

400 hours well spent

in gallery view

got a little too excited about the rust...

I want to make another one of these at some point, I had so much fun.

But until then, I have started a maquette project in line with the DnD campaign I am making for some friends. these are some of the sketches. More updates on that soon! hopefully...