My Zam Project Progress

Helmet is here! Thanks again Cal!!!!!!!!!! awesome stuff as usual

so we got the ear guards and the two greeblies on..whole lot of dremmeling to get this to fit her, but alas...it's on her head!...ive got the binocs half weathered but not yet attached to the helmet because of obvious reasons...paint...rub and buff and weathering...plus the brim dying...but here is Jamie looking all zamish...she make a cute zam, but then i'm partial to what i see...LOL

Looks awesome JD!
Man I'm dreading the helmet. I think I'd rather do 2 skirts.

Looking good...

Looking cool skipper!
Good luck shaping that brim. Rather you than me

Hope you got the ears to fit ok

Hey their JDFett, your helmet looks awesome! Cant wait to see whats next.

so seeing as i had a few moments before i remembered the troop this week :wink: I thought i would do up jamie's helmet...everything is done and weathered with the exception of the brim...need to soak it, dye it and stain it up...the only problem and the reason it's not done...ran out of purple dye doing the skirt...soooo..new trip to tandy in the comming week to get that as well as eyelets for the vest and the right size punch and setting tool for them...

here's some pics of the helmet as it is now...hope you enjoy...



back weathering


left side weathering and connections


back details/hose ect...gotta figure out a way of getting the brim to stop sinking down...


right side weatering(forsome reason in the reference pics..zam has a cleaner right side... :wink: : )




I had to actually resess the nuts for the binocs in into the ear guards so they would fit flush with them....worked out okay seeing as it was plenty thick to make a hole for the nut...

LOL i was gonna say ... What have you DONE to Jamie?!!

Its looking awesome JD, i love your neoprene!!!

now that i see the suit kind of together im thinking the hoses are a bit too long and the ovary bits and the half moon hanger are a bit under sized...any thoughts?

Okay....(I knew Sith could have a temper... but really now! )


The eyelet setter you can get at JoAnn's or Michael's btw. You don't need to get the Tandy one. Some come with a punch as well...

Now that you mention it... the hoses do look a bit too long. Perhaps ZIA or Cal can tell you the measurements on the length of the hose they used?

Nice to see the progress you're making. !

Hoses i think should be approz 21 ribs long haha!

Originally Posted by Langsuir666

Hoses i think should be approz 21 ribs long haha!

But yours are 16? LOL

Depends on the hose I guess. The one Becky has on is about 16 / 14 long

Sorry i counted the extra ribs for the inside of the hose attatchments, didnt want ppl to lop em off at 16 and go ... but its too short now!

It also depends on how far apart the ribs are. Some hoses they are closer together than others. I haven't seen any that look like the ones you've got Becky. The ones I've been looking at look more like JD's.

ya...i was thinking of checking out the drain hose for washers...i hear they are pretty close and i think thats what cal used...

what i want to know is, how did you attach the swing to the rifle


only kidding . Your costume is seriously wicked and looks great - well done

That's too funny!

Must be part of that "shape-shifter" mystique!

we needed that for the baby zam im going to do for my 3 year old..LOL

so i finally got off my but and finished the vest...pre-colored that is...put in the zipper and the eyelets as well as the lace for the sides and the epulets...so now i just have to get brave and airbrush it...came out pretty good for my first attempt at leather garment making...never tackled anything like this before and im glad it worked out...could have been a real costly mistake(shouldnt say that..havnt tried the dye process yet!)

also made the cummerbund today too..post a pick later...after i cut it and then install the speed lace gromets

here is the cummerbund

Wow!!! Well Done!!!

Hey dude, that's looking well cool. Especially if you did it yourself.

Glad to see you've left a gap under Jamie's arms for the eyelets. I started mine too high for Becky. The neoprene will bunch up but it look slike you're ok

Good work

finally got the rest of the lace and finished up the skirt

WOW!! Looking great!

Looks good!

Bet you're glad that part is done!

thanks...and yes...i was actually not looking forward to doing the last 5 rows when the lace come in...but a relief now that it's done...we are pretty much done with the costume at this point...we have a couple greebs left to paint, a couple things to do for hanging some greebs like snaps and stuff and our gauntlets...hoping to see those soon as they are the biggest hurdle left...we do have the cape and the veil as well but thats a day project...a bit of sewing and a little dye...

so as the zam world turns....as you guys know the possiblity of me getting the gauntlets from moncal before dcon is still up in the air...we decided to go ahead and try our hand at making our own for the time being. if they turn out better than expected then maybe they would be an option for anyone who wants to zam it up in the future as we will keep the molds. The plan is to make them out of liquid plastic...the same as the greeblies we did. they will be two halves like the real ones and hindged together as well. not really sure how we intend on pouring them but for Jamies we will probably just waste a bunch of the plastic and pour the halves solid and then cut out the inside to fit her arm. quicker and easier than making a two part mold at the moment. here is the sculpt i did today for one of the gauntlets...





I'll be handing this off to Jamie tonight for final clean up of the sculpt and then we will make the mold for this tomorrow hopefully, along with the other set of ovary bits and half moon greebs we redid...then i figure a quick sanding and touch up of the first cast of the gaunt then a remold if we have enough material...if not then we will just clean up the one set for now and depending on any possible interest in the future make another for recasting purposes from the same mold and then re cast for interested parties...

we still have to sculpt out the other gaunt and the top part for it...I had thought about getting this one casted first and then using the base clay sculpt to do the other side as they appear to be the same size with different details and the addition of the top section...

Nice work! Like you , we are stuck w/o gauntlets too. Holly has been trooping with some makeshift ones for a while now, holding out for some better ones to be produced in a timely manner someday....

Hey JD, this is looking great. Any chance of a fully suited shot to tease us?

maybe after we get the greebs finished up...maybe by weeks end...and hopefully some pictures of Jamie in action at Dcon...ive been holding out on dying the vest and cummer cause im a bit nervous...i just picked up a bunch of different colors from turtle feathers.com, they had numerous leather dyes in various shades of purplish reds..so we bought them all...7 different colors...now to test them and see what happens...

so...on a wing and a prayer...i picked up every known color of leather dye from turtle feathers....i wasn't taking any chances on not having the right combination...as you guys know we wanted to go darker and more like the visual dictionary zam...

the colors we found that worked with the vest was 1 part cordovan, 1 part wine, 2 parts reducer...we did the whole vest with that using the cotton dobber...i then used a paper towel soaked with reducer after it partial dried and rubbed it almost off in most part to give the worn look...after that i used 1 part purple deluted with about 10 parts reducer and gave the vest a couple go overs with that to bring in a little purple over tones...

for the cummer i used 1 part purple to 2 parts reducer...after it dryed a bit again i used a heavy delution of reducer...and then washed it litely with a blend of cordovan and wine to tone down the purple a bit and make the belt closer to the color of the under suit....

i think it looks pretty close...closer in person but we all know how that goes with these colors...

Thats looks very close dude. Not much left

loving the skirt but I like the hand plates best

like all zam pics...this is no exception....looks much better in person...we were thinking about possibly hitting it once more with the reducer to lighten and weather it a tad more cause when it dried up it got a bit darker than i like...cant get to it till tomorrow so im hoping once it's dry that i can still use the reducer and take a bit of color off...

added the side part to the gauntlet and now it's ready for casting....


we also came up with an idea on how to cast it so there will be no need to dremmel out the inside area and be able to cut the halves in the proper spot...i'll share that after we do it and hav e a product to show you...

also fixed up the brim on the helmet...just have to dye it today and make the veil...

in these pictures you can see we are about 95% done...all thats left is the gauntlets, paint a few greebs and a few straps, and the new ovary bits...which are sitting in the mold compound as i type along with the first gaunt...

so here are a few cool shots...i think Jamie has the look down face wise and the colros and the suit really look good on her!

Wow, Looking good!

Hey JD almost there dude, looking really good.

Slap me if I'm wrong but isn't Zam's veil meant to be suede not skin? Jamie's looks like skin there mate....?

ya...temp fix for now..used the unfinished side of some pig so it is a bit suede and not smooth...may change it later but it was a tough dye to get it right so we may just go with it...the cape is the same material...some left over leather we had from doing the boots...if we have time before dcon we will re do them in suede...but we'll have to wait and see...also had a real bad issue with her pants...had put them on our mannequin that we made and the humidity caused a leak of the expandable foam inside the duck...got all stuck to the inside near her calves...were able to get most off but now that area is kindof stiff from the foam...will have to make another pair of pants...more for her comfort cause you really cant tell when she has it on...i think we have enough material to get them done but again...dcon is-a-coming and dont know if we will have them done by then

here are some shots of the finished right gauntlet...one more gaunt to go till done time!

wow!
Have you ever done anything like this before dude? that's ace

actually no I used my small experience with the greebs and applied it to the gauntlet...came out pretty good i thought for a first go at it...the hardest part was getting the leather on the cuff beleive it or not...

process was easy in the concept...I sculpted the full gauntlet and then put it into a cylindrical container that was just a tad larger than the piece...poured the mold material around the outside. when it was set up i cut the plastic bucket off then made a slice down the mold material from top to bottom in an area where i knew it wouldnt make a difference in the final cast and be an easy sand off if a line showed...I then put the mold into an identical plastic bucket and put a clay "arm" inside the gauntlet mold to save on wasting the plastic resin. I then poured the void with the casting material (a liquid plastic). Once that was set up the fun began...forgot to spray the clay which made for a real time getting it out of the inside! The inside also was still too thick, but i didnt want to go to thin. Dremmeled out the inside so it was a decent gauge thickness to fit Jamie's arm. The other tough part was cutting the spots for the hindged opening. My dremel cut off wheel wasnt deep enough so I had to carfully chisel the remainer by forcing a very tiny screwdriver into the crack and work it very slowly. once I had the "door" seperate, final clean up and sanding went faster...then some base of krylon fusion satin black and touch up with rub and buff...(silver leaf first, then pewter to dull some select spots and finally some roman bronze for the dirt and rust look) The hindge was actually secured with small computer screws that did pop out the back(pre-drill first to avoid a split)that I just filed off with the dremel and then covered with bondo.

The only other issue was the side greeb on it...I casted it way to big and had to dremmel the whole thing down and redetail it with a small pointy dremel bit. We will be installing two earth magnets in the opening to have it stay secured while wearing it...like you, im starting to like magnets for certain things.

I'm sure the second gauntlet will come out a bit better, but that too will be a whole new story with the cuff section. The worse part about doing this stuff is the cost of the tinsel 70-25 mold compound....its in the area of 120 bucks shipped to have enough to make the molds for the two gauntlets and maybe a couple greebs...thats the scary part...pour the mold on faith and hope it works out cause it can be real expensive if it doesnt... we've been lucky so far.

so with the right gaunt finished...i was able to use the old sculpt for that to sculpt up the bottom part of the left gaunt..once this is casted, I'll make the top cuff section for it...






I learned from the first sculpt and cast that it is easier to make a deeper cut into the clay for the hinge cut out line to make it easier to cut ofter casting...I also decided to spend less time smoothing as the liquid plastic im using sands smooth pretty easy...especially with thin one as there are less areas that are not flat on this gauntlet. The detail scores are deep enough so when i sand the sides they wont disappear.

I must give kudos to moncal as i used his gaunt sculpts as my reference while sculpting Jamie's. They were very valuable resources in his pictures to go by....thanks!

so along with everything else to get things together for dcon...i was in the process of cleaning...or attempting to clean Jamie's pants after our fiasco...and said to myself...what am i doing....

went and grabbed the extra material and made her a new pair of pants this afternoon...it was kind of a mixed blessing that the other ones got messed up...I was able to correct the angle of the inside saddle area by the knee...the first pair was too right anglish for me...so i dropped it more off on a 60 degree or so angle and it looks much close to the right angle now...so Jamie has new pants befroe she was even able to show off her first pair...

Wow... you've been busy! I've been outta town being lazy and you've been working! Great work there on those gauntlets! Looks like you're gonna be good to go for DC! Congrats!

was wondering where you disappeared to

ya been busy trying to tie up some loose ends..but ya..we should be ready for dcon...be looking for ya! either in my maul or walking with zam...or both

we actually found a shoe guy to finally install the ever elusive speed lace boot hooks...nice job and they are totally accurate...looks awesome...post a picture later of the belt with the new hooks...only cost us 16 bucks...a dollar per hook i guess

Yep... went up to Washington state to cool off! Visited some family but didn't have any internet connection... *That's my story and I'm sticking to it! *

Hope to get my pirate costume done... *sighs* But will be on the lookout for you and Jamie!

finished the sculpt for the gauntlet cuff...need to order a bit more mold compound though...ran a tad short :roll: another 80 bucks i guess wont hurt!

also pictured it our finished up cummerbund belt...Jamie took it into Worcester and stopped by a cobbler who installed the antique boot hooks for us! man that was a tough thing to find...

and here is the left gauntlet minus the cuff top..which should be done by the end of the weekend






it should be noted that i really didnt worry too much about the smoothness of the overall gauntlets as they seemed to be pretty banged up and weathered...figured the imperfections would add to the look as well as the speed of completion

Dude, you've done blindingly well on these parts

Those eye hooks are great too. Nice find.

You'll hav eto let us in on the process. As i haven't got a clue, LOL

oops, double post

i kindof mentioned a bit of the process in a post up above...if you want to email me for more in depth info feel free...i love to pass along information...the more to help the better i say..

sithlord7768@msn.com

here is the belt finished up with all greebs attached!



and some geeb close ups...




now if the darn tinsil 70-25 molding silicone would only come in i could finished the final gauntlet cuff and we could be done with this crazy costume!

uh oh! wait a minute....ups just pulled up!!!!..............

got the stuff just now as i was typing...will be able to finish the cuff tommorrow! pictures to soon follow!!!

We also managed to find some decent light colored suede too and i finished a new veil and cape yesterday...