Ok Folks,

I am on a roll, I have another update; two more heads deamed finished. I have the Centari head and the Minbari head sculpts. Here they are:





I had a hard tiime getting the fine detail in the minbari head piece, but I think I got it down now. The centari head was practicle untouch except for the hair lines into the hair fan. I will be casting the Hoover tonight so I might not have time to get another round of finished head pics in until tommarrow. As aways, enjoy the pics.

Jedi_Master_Ben

Hello everyone,

I have to say that I missed being here this summer. I had too much on my plate with a death in the family, work (TV Production), family vacation to California, amongst other things. I was also in a slump after all that and then Comic Con '06 and Hasbo's opening comments/slide show. BAM! i got hit with all kinds of e-mail and PM asking me about my Gargan. It was the motivation I needed to get back on the saddle and start sculpting again.

I have finished the Gargan wax sculpt and now making the mold for Hoover. I ran out of the RTV silicon and more is on order, until then I picked up the heads again and worked on  those until the silicon arrives. As stated before, I want to show the Gargan and Hoover to Hasbro and see if they would produce it. Therefore, I will not be showing the final sculpt here just in case if they have problems with posting works in progress. If they turn down my offer, then I will post all the pictures of them then.

Now for today's update, I have a finished sculpt for you to see. During the summer, I got arround to getting some of the Clone Wars Graphic Novels and fell in love with them. I have one favorite that really stands out to me and I already started him before I went on vacation. I am talking about none other than Jedi Master K'Kruhk and here is the picture:



I really wanted to capture the feel and look of the comic version. I have seen other customs of him using the whipid action figure head and either Foul's torso or bits of some jedi and J'QUILLE the whipid. It just did not settle with me that would pass as Jedi Master K'Kruhk. In the comic, he wears jedi clothing ontop of his fur and his feet are wrapped in ninja like shoes.  So I changed my head several times making the hair fuller and beard longer and added the pig tails down the face. I also wanted to open his eyes up some more like the comic version than the movie prop. Something in the eyes that were drawn brought life and character to Jedi Master. The only thing now is wether to stop here or go on and make the whole figure.

Well thats it for today. Let me know what you think and I welcom any inputs. Stay tunned for more heads this week since I accually finished quite a few the past month.

Jedi_Master_Ben

Hi RollaJedi,

I have been down the same path that you are going and asked the same questions. What I found was this: there are two major ways to sculpt in wax or how wax is used in toy production. The first is to sculpt the model intirlly out of wax using a wax pen, carving and etching tools. The other is to sculpt the model in clay and then make a mold and then pour wax and make a wax cast. From there you then sculpt/carve the finner details. I found this site very useful in the proccess of the wax casting:

http://www.designinteract.com/features_d/asylum/index.html

I like the ability to shape the clay with my hands and work in as much detail as I can before my finger prints start to destroy the details. I defently prefer to do my final detail work now in wax.

The other thing you asked about is the aquireing of "Hasbro" grade wax. Well Rick as well as Glassman and myself, get our wax from Bantha 5. He makes his own wax which is as close you are going to get to "Hasbro" grade wax. You see, Hasbro wax is a guarded special recipe from what I have been told. The next best thing is to try other type of waxes.  I only found this brand, Azbo wax:

http://www.sculpt.com/catalog_98/Wax/Azbro.htm

I have heard mix reviews on this. I have not bought any my self, only used Bantha 5 stuff so far.

The last thing you asked about "is it soft or what?" I will tell you this, it is not the same as candle wax. it is much harder than that. The two samples that Bantha 5 has sent so far are actually two types of wax hardness. The first sample I got was hard but had a silky feel to it. I only had to apply the slightest amount of preasure to the model with my tool to make changes. And it melted real easilly over the candle. The last batch that Bantha 5 sent me was a harder type. When I casted the model using this wax it felt like plastic. Really strong stuff especially for little old butterfingers me who drops things from time to time. The wax when melted, was a lot thicker than the first which could cause problems when pouring into a mold. To counter this would be to pre heat the silicon mold so that the wax would not have a chance to cool down before your done pouring the wax.

Glassman and UK Rick have been doing this much longer than I have and I hope they will have time to chime in as well. Bantha 5 hangs out mostly at Rebelscum than in here so if you want to pm him you will have to do it there (I think ).

I hope this helps some.

Jedi_Master_Ben

Hi everyone,

I thought I would start a new thread to showcase this area of this art skill. I have only started to work with wax just this past two months or so and have adapted to it like fish to water. First let me show you my workstation.



And here is a close up of the tools used to work with the wax.



I use a soldering iron with a modified tip to melt the wax and drip on wax to the wax sculpt and also used to remove large amount of wax flashing left over from the wax casting process. The rest of the tools are various carving instruments used to scrape away excess wax. It turns out the wax I get from Bantha5 can be worked with clay shaping tools so I did not have to invest in a new set of tools. Any chance to save a few bucks is always welcomed.

Now lets have a see at what I have been working on for the past month or so. First up is a collection of Alien heads I have made wax casts of for fine detailing. I still have 5 more heads to make molds of to round out wave 1 of alien heads. Here is a sneak peak at what they look like:



These are in various stages of progression. The Minbari head is almost done. I will be posting more detailed wax head shots as they are finished.

Next up is my masterpiece in progress. You have all seen the clay sculpt of her in different parts sculpted on various cast resin pieces. I am referring to my Gargan figure that I start back in December. Even though I finished the sculpt of the figure over a month ago, it could not see it assembled until now thanks to casting parts in wax. Now you too can see for the first time the assembled Gargan figure:



She is still a work in progress. I found that I had many corrections to make such as air bubble from imperfect molds, and much needed modifications after articulation was designed. Here is a pic showing all the parts that make up the Gargan:



It was after putting in the articulation that I had to make changes to my initial sculpt. For example, I made the arms to wide for proper articulation, so I had to slim them down, also the boobs were not angled correctly when the torso is sitting on the skirt so that had to be changed. Then there was the hollowing out the headdress and skirt. Based on some recommendations, I decided to mold the head dress with the head in it and same with the skirt with the leg base as well. On several occasions I broke tips off or melted holes, but the beauty of wax is that you can just add more to it and keep moving on. For the most part, the initial sculpt maintains its integrity. For my first wax figure, I probably should have not chose the Gargan with so many parts and extreme amount of detail. She has been a great learning project for me and I am having a lot of fun and above all else, I am really proud of how she is starting to turn out.

Well it is late now, so I will turn this over to you all for comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more updates on this thread.

Jedi_Master_Ben

Hi guys,

Well talk about a weird month!!! I started the Psadan Gladiator at the beginning of April as soon as we decided on the theme. I nailed the front of the figure and then got hung up on what the character looked like from the rear profile. Kingdom Hearts stole me away with Donald and Goofy and Sora and King Mickey ( note: must make Jedi Mickey). Then decided on what the final sculpt will look like. I finish the sculpt only to realize I ran out of molding and casting supplies. I re-ordered supplies and then I had to take my wife to the Hospital for surgery. Whew!!!

Now I would like to thank everyone who has passed on well wishes for my wife, Thank you!!! I would like to thank Ryan for allowing me to enter this figure late, Thanks Ryan ! Now for the good stuff!

Last time I posted an updated, I showed you all the final sculpt. I had a few questions regarding the articulation of the figure. I took a pic of the kit cast the way I spit up the figure.



As you can see, the intent was that the arms and head would have some articulation in the future kit. For the sake of the MCC, I decided to assemble the figure like a model kit with no articulation since I am only going to take some pictures and then set it on the shelf. I plan on continuing this project in wax to enhance the details and put in the articulation. Consider this phase of the figure as a prototype .

Now I do not post any claims that I know how to paint a figure. I consider myself still a padawan learner when it comes to painting. I look at Chewie's and Hemble's paint jobs and drool. However, I know I cannot leave a figure without color, "it just would not be proper" as C-3PO would put it. So I struggled with the color scheme for a few days and finial decided to follow the description of the psadan at Wikipedia. Here is a 4-point profile of the Psadan Gladiator:



I also made the weapons using styrene sheet cut outs and model parts. Nothing fancy, but effective. And here is the final pic of the Psadan Gladiator for submission:



I hope you all will enjoy him. He was a lot of fun to make and a real challenge to get him done. Let me know what you all think. Thanks again for everyone’s support on this project.

Jedi_Master_Ben

Thanks Smartypants,

I do plan on some articulation in the arms, wrists, and and head. Since that big bone is attached to the head, the only thing I could do was to make the head and bone as one piece and then attach the head to the body and let the bone hang freely from the head. As for the arms, I am going to use the ball joint method because of the way the sholders come out. By articulating the wrists, I should get more poses with the arms than to have them just hanging there.

The entery I will be submitting will be a painted "first shot" of this figure. I plan after the challenge to make a wax cast and refine the details so I can have it ready for casting. Like I said, I would love to see this figure used in Chewie's photo novel. It is somewhat generic enough that it can be modified to represent a larger clan or hunting party on Wayland.

Thanks for your input.

Jedi_Master_Ben 

Hi pjs76,

You have a lot of custom displays, too many for me to comment on all of them in one sitting. I will jus summarize for you. WOW!!! These are totally awesome, man! Very well made and put together. I like the thought process you used to pose each figure in a fashion that brings some life to your displays. The colors you chosen brought a sense of realism to your displays. Each custom looks thoroughly researched as far as proper costumes and accessories and your displays are better for that.

My favorite would be the Mara Jade and Luuke display. I really like this one for its details. What really caught my eye was that Mara looks healthy proportioned, not all skin and bones like the Slave Leia  bodies.

I would love to know how you made these. These would be nice displays that would look good in an office or sitting by the computer. Awesome work!

Jedi_Master_Ben