Sculpting Mando Armor Master Molds

Alright, I'll prefix this by saying I'm a newb. ;-)

I'll also say I've done a fair amount of searching for this and just have not found what i'm looking for so if I missed it, please smack me, link me, and tell me to use search again. ;-)

But here goes: I saw Seeker's videos on making armor with Sintra and was extremely impressed with how well he shaped it using the master mold.

My question is how does one go about making such a thing? Is there a tutorial anywhere? What sort of material should be used? I'm open to trying my hand at sculpting, I'm just not really sure what's involved.

Thanks very much!

-Nyx:jango

I too am curious about this... :-)

Looks like the two masters he has there are made of Acrylic and Bondo, which can be made in a variety of ways:

1) Sculpt from clay, make a negative mould from that in latex or silicone RTV rubber, then bondo / resin cast inside the mould to make a hard version of your sculpt you can use as the master.

2) Carve the piece out of wood and vacuum form or stretch heated/soft acrylic sheet over it.

Personally I'd just go and make the master out of wood and use that, unless I wanted to give a 'copy' of the mater to someone else (as he stated he got it from a friend), in which case I'd probably make an acrylic version from my wooden master as per (2) above.

You could also put a larger square piece of sintra in a wooden frame and stretch it over the mould when it's been heated (like vacuum forming without the vacuum). This way you don't get any impressions imprinted into the surface of the finished piece from the cushion fabric texture, and you can trim it to size after the moulding has taken place.

Yeah I'm curious too in how he did that. my site is down right now or else i would show you how i started the bondo build up on the chest. But basiclly i to the regular flat shape of the chest and start building it up to a 3-d piece. It did take some time since back then I never realized I could actually sculp things.

Since then I have resculpted the chest with the REAL jango chest pieces measurements and had my buddy scan one side and mirror it and had him print out an acrylic piece of the chest area left and right.

Hopefully one of these days I'll do a bondo tutorial on post it up.

Thanks for the info....I'm intrigued.

I might have a go at this. Doesn't hurt to try, and wood ain't that expensive:-)

You actually found the height/depth measurements for the originals? How would one find information like that? ;) I think i might try the bondo sculpt method since I dont have the tools for fancy things like wood. Did you end up making molds for all of the pieces in the end or just the chest? The cod has me really leary when it comes time to tackle that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SEEKER

Yeah I'm curious too in how he did that. my site is down right now or else i would show you how i started the bondo build up on the chest. But basiclly i to the regular flat shape of the chest and start building it up to a 3-d piece. It did take some time since back then I never realized I could actually sculp things.

Since then I have resculpted the chest with the REAL jango chest pieces measurements and had my buddy scan one side and mirror it and had him print out an acrylic piece of the chest area left and right.

Hopefully one of these days I'll do a bondo tutorial on post it up.

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my site is up!!! yay!

check out my build up here. so i basiclly printed every image i had of the chest and put it on my kitchen wall. From there I stared the build up.

http://www.r2ro.com/jangochestarmor3.0.htm

It looks more like this now, but this one is still the chest made with sintra. I'm gonna redo the belly and the shoulders next. Then I'm gonna have the whole chest done in Cold Cast.

http://www.r2ro.com/images/img_6024.jpg
couple of more images

http://www.r2ro.com/images/img_6023.jpg

http://www.r2ro.com/images/img_6022.jpg

http://www.r2ro.com/images/img_6021.jpg

http://www.r2ro.com/images/img_6020.jpg

Ooohhh....purdy! :-)

So was this unheated Sintra and the Bondo is somehow making it hold the shape? I'm a little confused I guess as to how this works. The pictures on the site aren't quite getting it across to me. Sorry to ask so many silly questions.

I'm just missing something I guess. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nyx Mandalore

So was this unheated Sintra and the Bondo is somehow making it hold the shape? I'm a little confused I guess as to how this works. The pictures on the site aren't quite getting it across to me. Sorry to ask so many silly questions.

I'm just missing something I guess. lol

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basically.

I'll do a mini tutorial some time this week.

:D

Turo,
What are you going to do with the "old" armor once you do CC...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SEEKER

I'm gonna redo the belly and the shoulders next. Then I'm gonna have the whole chest done in Cold Cast.
]

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sixxgunn13

Turo,
What are you going to do with the "old" armor once you do CC...

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Gotmaul has dibs on it.:)

Oh well, I tried...:lol

Recently a buddy of mine gave me a piece of MDF board which I used to make a E-11 Blaster handle. Medium Density Fiber board is super compressed cardboard but it's as solid as a block of wood. A hacksaw cuts through it like butter and it's EASILY shaped with sandpaper. Easy to work with and pretty strong is a nice combo. Google it for a supplier, I would be willing to bet you could shape some nice moulds from it.

Bump for gentle query as to if Seeker has had time to work on that mini-tutorial at all.. Or if I missed it. ? :-)

I'm interested in the mini tutorial as well :)

You could go to http://www.imperialsurplus.com/ to see how he makes the molds for his armor, it might not be exactly what you are looking for, but it sure can give you an idea ^_^

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SEEKER

basically.

I'll do a mini tutorial some time this week.

:D

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*Bumps the dead thread to see if Seeker might still the tutorial and then runs away before anyone can throw rocks at him*

*grin*

:jango