Work in progress: Rob's Juggernaut Bio

[MeanGene]

Thanks Chris, I look forward to you putting your spin on it. I'll keep you in the loop when I do a run.

Going to have my way with this around the block a few times before I sell any copies. 👍👍

[NeoKazama]

On 6/11/2023 at 7:53 AM, MeanGene said:

Thanks Chris, I look forward to you putting your spin on it. I'll keep you in the loop when I do a run.

Going to have my way with this around the block a few times before I sell any copies. 👍👍

For sure buddy, i'll try yo come up with some painting ideas for that. Thanks.

[Kithunter]

This is one of the best bios ever...

 

[MeanGene]

The sculpture is finally getting molded today. 

Smooth on mold max STROKE. 1 Gallon kit.

Between coats of silicone I am tearing into a Stealth bio. Removing the fins and going custom. 
Will post some of the progress etc on a new thread.

[MeanGene]

Terrible pictures. But you get the idea. It's by and large finished. Will do some registration keys and smooth it and clean it up a bit tomorrow.

Was a pain in the ass. Very large complex helmet. Tough ensuring all the details get captured.

Thi-vex additive was used to thicken the silicone at the final coat. Makes it thick like peanut butter to hold its shape in deep undercuts.

Off camera are some tiny cups full of silicone. Will be used as registration keys.

Plaster bandages will be the outer jacket. Used them on the Shinto Bio mold and worked out really well. Inexpensive and quick.

 

[MeanGene]

Project update.


Silicone Mold.

Made significant progress on the silicone mold for this helmet.

Took about 1 solid 8 hr day to make the silicone mold. The brush on silicone has to be applied in layers, allowing each layer to dry to the touch before adding another.
Its a huge pain in the ass to put it bluntly. I've made molds others way before that didn't have as much waiting time but all in all took the same amount time to produce.


The Silicone is Mold Max Stroke. Thickened with Thi-vex.
The mold is probably 1/2" to 3/4" thick at any point along the interior.
On the exterior edges I made it quite thicker, partly because of preference to prevent tearing and partly because there were significant undercuts that needed filling.

 

This is the sculpture after removing the silicone mold.
It is in decent shape and will make a good starting point for another custom bio sculpture.
When I look at this it makes me want to rebuild the lower half in a P1 style with maybe some of my own subtle twists.

 

Outer Jacket.
The outer jacket shell is made with Gypsona plaster bandages. The kind you make into casts for broken limbs.
They are very inexpensive, readily available and set up very quickly.

I used 8", 4", and 2" bandage sizes.

Best thing I ever did was read the included directions and follow them to a T. Produced a very nice outer jacket that is superior to the jacket made for the Shinto bio.
Shinto bio's outer jacket had some issues where some of the final bandages applied did not set.
The root of the problem was dirty water in the bucket. As you dip the bandages the water becomes creamy. Creamy water makes it harder for them to set proper.


The outer edges of the jacket has 2" bandages rolled like hot dogs and then pressed in tight. Creates a rigid edge to prevent cracking/breakage as I rock the mold around.

* Whatever you do. Never pour any water/plaster from the bucket into your plumbing drains. It will set in the pipes.
Dump it in the bushes outside.

 

 

Cup molds.

These are for the teeth attachment pieces. 

When you have a shit ton of Dunkin cups around makes  a lot of sense to use them.

 

Video above shows how easy it is.

 

Tusks mold box.

The tusks themselves need some more sculpture work. Smoothing and detailing. When that is complete they will be suspended in mid air in each box for pouring silicone.
The mold box is not complete, the interior needs to be coated with a smooth finish so the silicone mold can be removed. The bottoms have large holes drilled to allow me to push the mold up and out later.
The holes are plugged with tape and clay to prevent leakage.

When the silicone is finished I will end up cutting a seam with a razor to remove the clay & then casted parts.

Thanks for following the project. I am nearing the end of this journey. Been a long trip, started this about 9 months ago. Still a ways to go but doing my best to stay focused, inspired and share the process to hopefully inspire others to do the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MeanGene]

Managed to get the casting sanded. It has some rough areas. This casting is definitely not show worthy and has become a good test bed for seeing how best to finish these out. Will be trying some different paints next.

I really like the automotive primer. Had good luck with it over the years. I always manage to come back to it. 

Multiple layers did a good job of filling in the sanding marks and imperfections in the casting around the dome area.

Sanded it with 220 grit and then 320 grit.

Probably about 8 coats of primer. Will let dry overnight.

 

After the sanding I trimmed the mold flashing. 

Left the eyes in as this is just a test bio.

Check out the comparison with the finish once the paint did it job.

[MeanGene]

 In the video above the helmet has been coated with Black Gloss Enamel by Rust-Oleum.

There were 4-5 coats applied. Proper dry time in between. The last coat got a wet sanding working my way up to 1000 grit sandpaper.

1000 grit sandpaper is available at auto parts stores. Auto body section.

Once the 1000 grit sandpaper did it's job. I cleaned the bio surface of all debris with a tack cloth, then hit it with 1 final coat of the gloss enamel. That final coat is what you see in this video.

Doing all of these multiple steps of sanding and coating has prepped the surface for the metallic rust oleum paint.

That will be the next update.