Hi fellow Predator builders. I'm fairly new to this forum and I've already posted a completed life size terminator in the non predator build section. I am now tackling a near full size Predator but it's still at the early stages yet.

I've decided to make a model rather than a suit as I want to display it out of doors. It will eventually be built out of fibreglass , but I'm just at the body moulding stage. The head and hands will be cast separately and are incomplete at the moment. Progress is shit slow as I keep having long breaks and I probably won't do fibreglass until the summer. Once that's complete I'll start making the body armour. If I can be bothered I might make P1 and AVP armour so I can swap them backwards and forwards. Not to bothered about exact replicas cos it's too difficult, and it's been done before, so my interpretation has much more slender and heroic proportions, as the final product doesn't need to be worn.

God knows when I'll finish it but it's something to keep me busy. Most pressing job is to get the head complete ready for casting, so need to get cracking before I go back to work after a typical boozy Scottish new year.

Happy New Year everyone.
PS Be gentle with me, I'm a Predator virgin.

Click on link for more photos of the build. Unfortuantely I can't find any at the earlier design and bulking out stages
First photos of Predator build

These are a few of the images included in the above link

Wow, That's great work!

Killer work.

Cool Pred! Keep us updated...

Great work.

looks like its gonna be a awesome peice when completed.

Hey dude, amazing work, and your in Scotland, can't believe it. Let me know where you are and we can hook up some time. Are you going to cast some latex suits from that mould?

Hi there fellow Scotsman. Good to know I'm not the only Predator nut in the country.
I live in Annbank, a small ex mining village near Ayr.
As for the latex suit, I wasn't intending making any as the piece I'm making will eventually be made of fibreglass. However you are the 2nd person who's asked that question. Not sure how easy it will be to make a latex copy of the fibreglass. If I were to attempt it, it wouldn't be for ages as I've got a ton of work to do to complete the head, armour and bio.

Cheers.

Why did you use plaster on the outer shell? Not seeing the point in adding that much more weight.

The outer casing is made from plater bandages about 6 layers thick. It is relatively light and acts as a rigid support for the latex mould, so I can cast the fibreglass without the mould loosing its shape. I could have used fibreglass making it lighter, but I had to do this stage in the house and for safety reasons chose plaster bandage. When I eventually cast the model I'll do it outdoors but not now during a Scottish winter!

If anyone can suggest a lightweight, durable and safer alternative to fibreglass please drop me a line. Fibreglass scares the shit out of me.

Hey crawjaw! I just took a look at your photobucket WIP-shots - great work, thumbs up!
I somehow like the variation of the abdominal muscles, doesn´t look too human... what was your inspiration for this? If I remember correctly, there was a single shot of an anatomical Pred-maquette in the first ADI-Book, but I don´t have it here to consult it. :-/




Yeah, that makes sense. I was on the balcony during Christmas-days, doing fiberglas-copies of a Spartan helmet, and didn´t enjoy it. Can only guess what it feels like in Scotland.
One other thing that makes me curious, you did a latex-mo(u)ld for fiberglassing and don´t plan to use it anytime soon, due to weather conditions. Well, I´m not an expert and only used latex twice for some small parts, but what about the shrinking-issue of the stuff ? Waiting some months definitely would have an effect, woudn´t it??

looking good

Well spotted my eagle eyed friend. Although my Pred is going to be more P1 than AVP, I did use photos from ADI's AVP book for the abdominal muscles and other torso details. I used it for reference as I want a more heroic proportioned P1, but will use P1 style head and armour when I get round to it.
As for shrinkage your right again, there will be some, but I'm not bothered as I'm not going to be wearing it. Original sculpt wasn't full size anyway. Might try and do the casting before Summer, as I'm itching to get going again after posting on this forum and seeing everybody's elses work. Totally obsessed with all this Pred stuff again.

Worth getting hold of ADI's book cos it's the business - unlike the film. I believe the AVP2 book is out late January.

Cheers

Yeah, I know what you mean... same here. It´s kind of eerie, the more you see the stuff other lair members do the stronger the tingling in your fingers.
But I want to wait till my copy of the new ADI-book arrives before starting anything new, it´s no good to rush things... and then there´s still my General Veers armor (from `Empire`) to finish.

Great job so far, weather over heres crappy for glassing, i've been doing a couple of C-3PO heads and its taking forever to set up
Can't wait to see the finished prop

Looks fantastic!!!! One question though, if you weren't intending to make it a wearable costume, but instead a large scupture, why did you make it "normal person size" of 6 foot, instead of about 7'6" like the fully suited up actors were?

The main reason is I am very pushed for space. My ceilings are only about 8ft, and I also wouldn't have been able to get him out the door if he was any bigger. I could have done him in sections like my life size terminator build, but I'm using a different build technique. If I can be bothered I can also use the resin replica to create skins. Wouldn't be much use if the model was 7'6" in height! It's also a lot cheaper to make something 15% smaller.

The model should stand about 6'3" without base. Haven't decided on a base yet but will be at least 6" in height. So should still look dominating (I hope). Many of the Predator extras weren't near as tall as Kevin Peter Hall or Iain Whyte, much to the annoyance of Alec Gillis.

Did some modifications on the head and then realized I wasn't happy with the mouth. After about 2 hours I decided I wasn't happy with the eyes either. After 4 hours I wasn't happy with any of it. Damn all you fabulous Predator builders. The link below points to some of the mods I've made, but they are all still a bit rough.
Update on Head Sculpt

Since these pictures were taken I've gone over the mouth, eyes, nose, top and side of skull and mandibles again. Will I ever get finished with this!
I will keep you posted with further updates when there's something more interesting to show you. Excuse the crappy photographs, I sold my dSLR before I bought a new one and my pocket digital isn't up to the task. Some taken with daylight some with flash.

Here are a few pics for those that hate links.
Complete remake of lower jaw in progress

Beginnings of new mouth

Close up of mouth. Teeth are very roughly done and act as a guide only. Will be removed when making moulding.

nope u did the great job here!!!no idea why c u look in anger on yr face!!dun worry about it!!
its a very gd start!!

I've added some updated pictures of my P1 build. Head is now complete and ready for moulding I think but I might tweak it a bit more before I pass the point of no return.
The first few pictures have plasticine tusks in place, but these are only temporary. The latter pictures have them removed for moulding and I intend making them out of Supersculpy once the replica is complete. Note the neck is also temporary as it will be coverd in neck rings. Hope my build meets with fellow Pred builders' approval. If I hadn't discovered this site I would probably be finished by now - damn you all to hell you brilliant sculptors

damn
you can make a whole army of preds....thanks for documenting the process, this kinds of threads get me all juiced up


AM

looking good mate keep it up

Awesome job...

Very nice work you should be proud I know I would keep the updates comming

great job bud

WOW! That is looking EXCELLENT!

You are brave, quite the undertaking, awesome job so far. You look like you know exactly what you are doing.

Awesome job

Thanks for the kind comments. Joining this forum has been a godsend for me, cos I hate work and sculpting brings a bit of sanity to my life, although everybody thinks I'm mad anyway. It's a real pleasure to find a forum with like minded buddies who are passionate about their creations. As I said before, the fantastic work by other artists has pushed me to try and make something I hope will make fellow builders say wow! The opinions of Joe Bloggs on the street don't really count, always better coming from our peers.
Oh God I wish this site had been available 30 years ago. Might have been doing a different job now.

Kakoii neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!i wanna see the final latex mask!!

Am I right in assuming hellboyattack is Japanese or is it a throw away term in common use that I don't know about. I Googled it and was flattered to see it means cool, good looking, impressive, awesome.
Cheers for that. Going as fast as I can but long way from finishing. Damn work and damn weather holding me back.

Here's an update of the head moulding process. Latex mould looks like it's picked up all the detail and the plaster support casing comes apart OK too - thank f--k.
Click on link for plenty of pictures. They include the painting on of latex layers, hidden pieces to eliminate undercuts, preparation of plaster bandage casing and removal of finished moulds. Luckily the original newplast sculpt suffered very little damage during de-moulding, so I can probably repair and use to create plaster moulds/latex mask. Unfortunately the pictures in the link are not in chronological order - need to sort when I get time.
Head mould making process
Here's some images for those who hate links.

















Original after removal from mould. You can see where the plasticine has cracked and bits have fallen off, but I think I can still use it with a bit of repair work.

ferkin sweet......awesome thread dude, amazing to see the skilled process.

right on!! looking great! i love step -by step posts

That looks fantastic mate. Cant wate to see this bad boy finnished.

SA fucking WEET... lovin this nice work bro

Very cool. Thanks for the progress pics...

At long last some progress with my P1 inspired build. After sitting on my various latex moulds for over a year I accidentally came across a product called Jesmonite. For those unfamiliar it is a safe alternative to polyester resin and fibreglass chopped strand. The other reason for the delay was the need for a workshop as the kitchen was no longer a viable workplace. Hence the photo of my garage.


Results of my technique using multipart latex moulds are variable. The two body halves were out of registration by a country mile although I took the precautions of leaving the mould on the sculpt for as long as possible and created the case mould with everything still in situ. I also stored the moulds in a cool dark cupboard but the long delay in casting has meant the two halves have shrunk by slightly different amounts. I'm fairly confident with a bit of TLC I'll sort things out, although I'm still debating whether to recast the whole back again. In the meantime I've removed sections of the arms and recast the lower leg to see if that solves the problem.
I really wish I could have afforded silicone as multipart latex moulds aren't recommended or for the faint-hearted. As the old adage goes "Don't try this at home"
See photos below.


















However results with the hands and particularly the head show that multi latex moulds can work and I'm quite surprised how well they came out. Registration was much better and I'm delighted I've only a few minor repairs to do (hand photos below and head photos to follow later). I did take a lot more care over producing these case moulds and it shows in the final product.







You can see from the first casts traces of Newplast plasticine used in the sculpt but I'm not that bothered. I can either just paint over them or add layer(s) of latex and then strip them off just like a woman waxing her legs!




Still a bit of work to do before the whole body is assembled and painted but I'm in no hurry. Mind you I'll only have a naked Predator so I need to start thinking about making his armour. I could have sculpted him already wearing it but I suspected registration problems and it lets me create different armour for him to wear. Making it separately means I can also think about the possibility of adding animatronic elements to the build.

As I said this is a long term project and I would bankrupt any film set with the time it takes me to do anything. I must be the slowest model maker on the Lair.

Hope you like the first pictures and I will update as soon as I make more progress. I'll also added more pics to the link below as I go along, so as not to clutter up this thread too much.
First Cast Body

Thats a HUGE undertaking you have going on there. At least you now have a decent sized shed in the back to store everything and still keep working. Coming along nicely...doesn't matter how long it takes you because suit building isn't a race thats for sure...

It's been such a long time since I started that I felt like jacking it all in. I didn't relish using fibreglass and the polyester resins gave me a bad cough before. Getting the workshop and finding Jesmonite sort of fired me up again.
Probably be ages before I finish as I tend to go hammer and tongs for a period then nothing.

I'll post photos of the most important part later - his head.

excellent work.

i have to say i laughed out loud at the " MIGHT ADD SOME ANIMATRONICS " picture

neary at the fun part of painting now

A wee bit of the Scottish humour there OR a serious statement of intent.
Certainly would make for a unique twist on the Predator theme and not too difficult to achieve (thinking Alien's retracting tongue).
Anyway too much else to do first with the body repairs before I fly off on that direction.

Glad it made you laugh. Sometimes Predator building can get a bit too serious.

serious indeed, too much real world CRAP on these boards in my opinion.

its also great to see something unique being built instead of the usual ELDERS etc.

If you made said part animatronic, youd have to call him the sexual predator, or viagrapred.

Sounds as though your sense of humour mimics mine. Mind you I must have a one track mind as I was thinking of doing something similar to my life size terminator build and calling him The Fornicator. However I saved the animatronics on that build to more mundane operations.

My Predator is not full sized and is loosely based on P1 and a sculpt from the AVP book. As the final model is not a suit I can make him look more athletic and heroic in proportion (just like myself - aye right). Suits by their very nature mean they are bulky but I prefer the sleeker look and as my model will stand approx 6.5 feet tall I like to think of him as an immature P1. I intend giving him fairly long dreds to emphasise the appearance of a young dude. Might try and design some new weapons for him, but it's early days yet.

When I post his head cast you might think it looks quite small but I think its proportioned pretty well with this smaller framed body. Does mean that if I ever decided to make a latex mask it might only be wearable by someone of smaller stature.

Very nice work sir. Its gonna look great on display. Cheers!

holy $#!% thats totally bad @$$

awsome work

I'll give praise where praise is due to any1 who attempts to sculpt anything related or any part of the predator, but to sculpt a whole 6ft+ Predator WOW! Absolutely amazing!!!

Here is a variety of shots of my first cast of the Predators head. Some minor repairs required but shouldn't cause too many problems.
I obviously need to repair the lower mandible broken in my impatience when de-moulding and remove the dod of plasticine from the upper mandible.
Seam line much neater compared to the body cast earlier. Neck on this piece is only temporary and will be replaced when connecting to the body cast.
Once the repairs are done I'll make the tusks and quills.
Meanwhile I'm working on repairs to the body and hope to have that competed in a couple of days.

Photographed the head and hands using low voltage lamp and left the colour cast as it was. More or less an in camera shot except for the Photoshopped text.














Tired with casting so a bit of nonsense using Photoshop on this photo.


More head!

I like the "more head" link at the bottom! hehe ! Good job on the head cast - looks good.

Amazing how a bit of innuendo hits the mark.
Glad you like progress so far.

Looking good man. The repairs arent too bad. Looks good. Look forward to the next updates.