I’ve now finished my scratch build mech and am now moving on to paint.
It’s amazing how much a layer of undercoat really pulls all the disparate pieces together.
Here’s the first painted piece. I’m trying to strike the right balance of weathering – I want it to look used but not totally beaten up.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so I started collecting parts to use in this some time ago. I’m going to be putting together a full video on building this so I won’t go into it in too much detail. The sculpture is largely made from resin casts of things like lighters, yoghurt pots and deodorant bottles.
Here’s a video of a 1950s-esque robot that I made recently. This is actually a cast of my bioshock mask which went abit wrong, but had a really nice texture to it that looks a little like rusted and pitted metal. So I used it to create this sculpture.
This is a ray gun that I made out of some cast resin pieces. It was one of those occasions where a few bits and pieces made for different projects just happen to fit together perfectly and just beg to be made into something. I’ve built up abit of a library of cast bits and pieces now so I’m increasingly finding myself using them to build projects.
This might not mean much to you if you’re not a nerd like me, however it looks like one of my Lady of Pain sculptures has made it all the way to David ‘Zeb’ Cook, the lead designer of the Dungeons & Dragons Planescape setting. He tweeted the below and also posted on facebook. I made a bunch of these for ‘DND Collecting‘ on twitter a while back and he said he intended to try to get one to him and it looks like he succeeded.
I was able to exchange a few words with him on facebook and I took the opportunity to ask him whether the original Lady of Pain logo was a physical model or some digital art as it’s difficult to tell just by looking at it. It looks like a physical model and I’m not sure how likely it would be to be digital art given that the books were originally published in the early 90s.
He said; ‘The original was line art by Dana Knutson when he was creating faction symbol designs. Seeing it, I created the Lady of Pain to match the image and from there we decided she should be the logo. I’m pretty sure that Robh Ruppel’s wife sculpted her to use for the box logo. Not 100% on that, but Robh would know‘.
So not confirmation one way or the other exactly, but interesting nonetheless. It was nice to be able to speak to one of the people who created one of the most iconic D&D settings ever made. Aside from the various Lady of Pain sculptures that I’ve made over the years, it’s no coincidence that the logo for my website uses the Exocet font – that’s the font used extensively in the Planescape setting. So it had a major impact on me. Even the website name ‘The Dark Power’ is from a D&D game, specifically referencing The Dark Powers that rule the Ravenloft campaign setting. So D&D had a major influence on me growing up and it’s really nice to have some contact with one of the people responsible for developing it. Kinda brings things full circle somehow.
Edit – Robh Ruppel subsequently confirmed that his wife Cindy sculpted the face, the blades were created by ‘the guys in mapping’ (maybe a separate department?) and he gave it a patina. So it was an actual sculpture at one point which is really interesting. I wonder where it ended up? 😉
I recently attended Steampunks in Space, an event held in the National Space Center in Leicester. I’ve attended several times previously, but it’s always really nice to be able exhibit my models, sculptures, costumes pieces and props. Here’s a video and some pics.
About five years ago I had a go at making The Lady of Pain from the Dungeons and Dragons Planescape setting. I wanted to try some patination techniques to corrode some brass and the character is shown as being made from corroded brass, so it seemed like a good plan. My original attempt is here, but I’ve recently had another go at it which has been a little more successful. I’ve put together a build log covering the piece and even had some fun creating a CG version of Sigil, the city that The Lady of Pain governs in the Planescape setting.
Here’re some pics of the piece
And here are some shots of Sigil 🙂 It’s been good fun creating images from a game that was discontinued back in the 90s! I’d love it if a film was made in the setting one day, I fear this might be too obscure a property to get that kind of treatment though, alas.
Check out The British Steampunk Army!
You might recognise the green mask at the back. It’s a variant of my Bioshock inspired mask that I made for them. This is what it looked like when I shipped it out:
They’ve modified it abit as you can see below and I think it looks really cool – I’d never have thought of adding the plumage but it really works! Their outfits are fantastic.
I particularly like the stained glass shield!
As you may have noticed this one has three eyes rather than two like my previous mask, so I needed a little help with the code from a friend of mine, but I think they look pretty cool.
So here’s a new thing I’m working on. It’s the beginning of some Tony Stark/Iron Man sculptures, specifically the test flight scene and Mk 1 armour from the first film.
I’ve started with the head sculpt as you can see, but I’ve also created a generic body which I can easily cast up multiple copies of. I can then layer additional sculpted and cast pieces on top, so for example the flight test boots and stabilisers and the Mk 1 armour.
I’m currently molding and casting the head sculpt and will then start on the additional armour pieces.
Here’s a video looking at a steampunk bracer that I made a while back.
