Straxus Customs 6-8-08 Cobra Sand Viper Re-envisioned

[Fritzkrieg]

Looks like your well on your way to producing some amazing original cast. Your sculpts are amazing and the customizing community would benifit much if you made the cast available.

Keep up the great work,
Fritzkrieg

[Straxus]

I will! I have just wanted to perfect my work a bit before I do... I just did not want anyone getting bubble filled helmets with chunks missing...LOL
The other thing is wanted to do my research and find what would be a reasonable price to charge for the helmets that would cover my cost of supplies but be somewhat consistent with the range of what others charge out there for cast helmets... (That and I need to validate my Paypal for those that prefer that payment method...I would also have to get used to it too...)

[Straxus]

Here is a copy and paste of an update I gave on another forum. I have not had much opportunity to work on
customs as much as I like, however a small update is better than none I guess...
(I cant beleive its been a month since I did an update...)
Well here are some pics of my re-re-re-reworked Galactic Marine helmet...heheh. (I think its my fifth one...the last one was way too big...)
I have my new Microman Batman posing with it. Figured it was suitable as alot of the microman framework will be used for the Marine's articulation. I dremeled the heck out of a snowtrooper helmet cast to make it hollow. I then filled it with some sculpey to make a smooth layer. I baked the parts till sculpey was solid. Then I sculpted some more over the smooth face area and started carving in to the soft sculpey and then started smoothing it out. I then used an engraving tool attachement for my dremel to carve in the half ring ridge in the back of the helmet section.
pic added as reference to explain what part I am talking about...


I have intentionaly left the lower section of the mask thicker and rough as that area may need editing depending on the size of the sculpted torso combined with shoulder pauldron and detachable armor. (The plan is to make the Galactic Marine "cold environment" torso armor fit over a generic type torso like the DS gunner...not sure if I wrote that in an ealier post or not...)

[Dressel Rebel]

Very nice.  Plan on mass producing these?

[Straxus]

Most definitely! Though it will be after I have made the entire Galactic Marine sculpt and mass produce it, helmets, equipment, etc... (as in duplicate as well as I can with the limited molding/casting techniques I currently have at my disposal...an injection molding machine would be nice...LOL)

[CloneCommander1]

Very cool, I sure wish I could do that.  I espically like your work on the mask, just the right amount of folds without making it look wierd.
Nice work!

[Straxus]

Update 11-30-06
After much much delay I finaly have an update!
I finaly opened up my FIXIT Sculpt and decided to attempt to sculpt the helmet for a new type of clone trooper that I have made a few sketches of... The Fallout Trooper. This trooper is trained and equiped to deal with areas of high radiation fallout and other toxic biohazards. They have a secondary duty of assisting in the reactor cores of capital ships and stations.
The body will be sculpted eventually (hopefully very soon if all goes well)
I still have more I want to do with this helmet. It will have a cowl similar to that of snowtroopers and galactic marines, as it would be part of their Radiation Battlesuit. The gas filter areas on the mask will also have air tubes attached to them. I am waiting to add the tubes and cowl after I have sculpted the body to make sure all fits well.

EDIT- 12-01-06
hmmm the more I look at it I keep thinking maybe I should remove the "mouth" peice and details below it and resculpt something else over that area, kinda like a detailed cover that would look like the cowl meeting the rest of the mask. I am keeping the eye details and the air filter attachements though.

[Brisk Arper]

wow that is really good i only just saw this...i dont know how i managed to miss this helmet for so long but hey ive seen it now....any news on our favorite ice cream man?

[Darth_Anton]

Impressive stuff Straxus! Great work.

[Straxus]

Thanks guys!
Well, I have made some slight improvements on scupting faces. I just need a bit more practice then I will give ICMG another shot. The problem right now is that I have for some unknown reason turned into a morning person about a month ago. This is a problem because this sleep schedule does not give me much time to work on anything before I have to go to work, then after work I just fall asleep again. Cant seem to shake this messed up sleep schedule. I hate it, I have been a nightowl for the last 12 years...that is when I get the best work done...
So as soon as my schedule is back on track I will try to finish this project and eventually get back to ICMG.

[Straxus]

Here are a few pics (sorry still cannot afford a decent digital camera right now)













Due to all the comments for me to keep the face details the same on the fallout trooper the same, I will do so, but that version will become the Fallout Trooper Commander helmet. I sculpted a helmet that more fit my origional sketches for the fallout trooper over one of my Galactic Marine helmet casts.
I am also fixing my old Airborne helmet to start making it more accurate. So far I have started fixing the areas arround the  "mouth" areas to extend out further like they should and I have added the ridge above the visor. I plan on evening out the details on the sides and smoothing out things alot more.
As for the other helmets, one is a work in progress for a Combine Soldier from Half-Life 2 (I may start from scratch as I think I could do alot better on it) and the other one will probably become a Zero-G clone trooper helmet. I actually sculpted it months ago over a Robotech Bioroid helmet. I dont beleive I ever showed pics as I was not that thrilled with it after I was finished, but the other day I molded and cast it and I think I have changed my mind about it.
Let me know what you think.

By the way still working on sculpting frame work but having problems with my hand molds not working right... so its slowing me down.

[Straxus]

OK, that was a long delay getting to posting the updated pics...
I just recovered from being sick...bleh...
So here is what I have at the moment...
Fallout Trooper Commander (left) Fallout Trooper Grunt (right)



Imperial Recon Trooper (probably post-Battle of Endor or between ep 3 and 4)




Good news is I finaly found a technique to mold/cast tiny articulation parts without distrotion...bad news is my latest molds got warped by a severe temperature change during the curing process and were warped... fortunately the slightly warped molds still give me torso fodder to modify for other projects (with some dremeling of the cast project that is...)

Any suggestions on these?

[Deanna Rash]

  Looks Great to me!!!

[Straxus]

Here are two (of about five or six) helmets I have been working on. These two are pretty much done at the moment other that some very fine detailing and then mold/cast.
The one on the right is a revised Fallout Trooper grunt helmet based on the hasbro galactic marine helmet cast. (My previous Fallout trooper was based on my galactic marine scult...too big...)
The one on the left is going to be for a Medic Clone. I have been sketching up ideas for the armor and accessories. This is one I am really focused on right now. I chose the Airborne helmet as a base for this sculpt mainly as the first time I saw ROTS, I thought the airborne trooper was a medic clone. (I realized later they were not.)

[Glassman6]

Said the same thing on scum but These are amazing Straxus, simply amazing. The concept is cool , the sculpting is very detailed and they just look cool.

Amazing!