Rohlan Dyre Progress Thread -- Image Intensive

[Qthooga]

I decided to start a new project this week -- Rohlan Dyre from the KotOR comics. Let's see if I can stick with it long enough to actually finish. Maybe with a horde of Mandalorians edging me on, it might actually happen.

It may sound like heresy, but I love the EU more than the OT or PT. And I've been totally digging the KotOR and Legacy comics -- so much, that I've decided to do a Rohlan Dyre costume. But with comics, you're always at the mercy of who's this month's artist when it comes to reference material. Dyre almost always has a different helmet in every picture...



Of all the different helmets, I like Harvey Tolibao's version the best from ish #18. It looks less like a bucket with a visor, and more organic and reptilian. On backpacks, though, I like Bong Dazo's from ish #19 better. I mean, heck -- any chance to wear a backpack with glowing green liquid jostling around in it, I'll take.



So here we are, a few nights into the sculpt. There's still a few nights left to refine everything, but I won't be able to get around to it until later next week. The spikes on the back of the helmet are just sitting there -- I figure I'll probably sculpt and cast those separate from the helmet. It's almost symmetrical (as good as humanly possible, that is). I took a ton of pics earlier today to compare halves and check the center ridge line and other features. I found a few things I'm going to change a little, but for the most part I'm actually happy with it. I'm sure when I come back to it next week, I'll find more I want to change. LOL.

[Darasuum_Verd]

WOAH! O.O that is AWSOME!!!

[GCNgamer128]

OH MAN! When I opened this, I figured, "blah, another custom mando." This is fantastic. Please finish this, take your time, make it look fantastic.

[Rich D.]

Oh man this is great. I was hoping to start either the Tolibao version or the Brian Ching version (issue #16) this winter. I'll be looking forward to see more of your progress!

Here's a comparison pdf I put together a couple weeks ago.

[MARROW SUN]

Very nice job sculpting. It reminds me very much of my latest cutom mando. Wierd that I've never even seen any of these comics or there picture and I designed a simular helmet.
Again, Great work! Hope to see the entire suit!

[mandalore697]

Absolutely love it! And the comments about green liquid really made me laugh!

[OrtharRrith]

Nice bucket, I look forward to seeing your progress on this.

[NovallTalon]

Very nice indeed! This is definitely going to turn out nice!

OH MAN! When I opened this, I figured, "blah, another custom mando."

Nice attitude towards customs

[The Clayster]

Cool to see someone who sculpts it out, and will make a mold for his own costume, lots of talent.


Good luck.

[Kashyyyk4ABY]

Nice attitude towards customs

I don't think you really get what he mean't by that.


NICE WORK!!!!! I love this helmet, and I espeically love the other sculpt I see in the side of your pictures. It looks like your quite the sculptor. Keep up the good work!

[Qthooga]

Oh man this is great. I was hoping to start either the Tolibao version or the Brian Ching version (issue #16) this winter. I'll be looking forward to see more of your progress!

Here's a comparison pdf I put together a couple weeks ago.

Nice! What did you do your drawings in? Before I started, I did a couple pencil sketches before I started, but those look really nice.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I'll update as I make more progress. I'm planning on doing the helmet in fiberglass, but will be vaccing the armor. No idea what I'll do with the backpack yet, though.

[Qthooga]

I don't think you really get what he mean't by that.

I do. No offense to custom anything -- I plan on doing a custom Mando someday -- probably something pulled from the Jango "Open Season" comics. But actually sculpting something from the ground up (IMHO anyway) is more fufilling to me. I wore my TK/TD for years and I always felt like everyone else. I ended up going a little overboard on my Tusken, though. LOL. I just like having my own stuff. *shrug*

NICE WORK!!!!! I love this helmet, and I espeically love the other sculpt I see in the side of your pictures. It looks like your quite the sculptor. Keep up the good work!

I have more in my "Room of Projects I've Put On Hold Because I Don't Have Any Time." LOL. I've always wanted a Calamari, but the DP and Rubies masks suck hardcore. This sculpt is almost ready -- I wanted to do a little skin texturing and add a bit more detail. But I'm also scared to death to cast it, and I'm also not sure what to cast the finals out of. Plain latex will be floppy like a Dp/Rubies mask. Foam latex will be too heavy. I might try to do a really light self-skinning urethane foam and coat that with latex, so in the end it'd be more of a big foamy Muppet head, and I could use wire to open/close the mouth. And I'd be a Muppet.

[NovallTalon]

Holy **** thats an awesome Mon Cal.

[Kashyyyk4ABY]

That Mon Cal is the coolest. I wouldn't mind trying to sculpt, besides the fact that I'm well, not good at it.

Where do you get the supplies that you use to sculpt and cast these?

[Sarim Thiri]

That is AWESOME! I love the KOTOR comics, and seeing someone bring a character such as rohlan and mandalore is pure joy.

Great work on the sculpture, also the Mon-cal ;-)

[Zeever Fett]

I want one of those Mon Cal's!

The Don Post ones do suck!

Great work, you might want to try something called Smooth-on

[Mojo-Fett]

absolutely awesome work....

[Zeever Fett]

one thing, how are you going to approah the eyes? you will have to vacuum form them or something so that the match the curvature of the eye socket...

[Jaiden]

Dude, you're a master at this sculpting thing!:thumbup

Quick questions... what kind of clay are you using? How much, approximately, do you use for each mask? What tools do you recommend for the detail work?

Great job!

David.

[Qthooga]

On the Calamari -- I was actually thinking about doing the eyeballs in acrylic. Black for the pupil, and then a tinted clear for the eyeball itself. And yeah, it'd have to be hollow. I'd love to have the eyes open/close, and I've gotten some good suggestions from Muppet Central on how to do that, so really, only time will tell how I do them. If I do make them open/close, I'll need to resculpt them closed, or half-closed.

On supplies -- There's a sculpture shop (Western Sculpting Supply) in Denver (they're old skool -- no website ) that I get most of my stuff from. They carry a huge variety of oil-based clay in varying hardnesses, and they're also a Smooth-on dealer. So I'm able to get all of my clay, tools, silicone, latex, and casting materials there. They even have a forge and do a lot of metalwork, there, so someday I may actually try to have a couple things cast in bronze just for pretty. I've also tinkered a bit with that gel Bondo stuff from Home Depot on my Guard helmet. But I didn't reinforce what I did with it, and after a year of sitting in the garage it fell apart.



That was just a rough, though, so I wasn't too heartbroken about it. The real piece...is coming whenever I get the guts to do the final silicone mold for the sanded down master.



So there. I fell pretty good that I've hijacked one of my threads with 2 other subjects. Go me!

[Qthooga]

Dude, you're a master at this sculpting thing!:thumbup

Quick questions... what kind of clay are you using? How much, approximately, do you use for each mask? What tools do you recommend for the detail work?

Great job!

David.

Not a master yet...but thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll feel better once I actually have finished pieces.

Type of clay -- Regular oil-based clay...medium firmness. The sculpture shop I go to carries a couple of different types -- J-Mac Clay Products and Wesclay. But any oil-based clay should work. I've used firmnesses from soft to extra firm, and I like medium. Soft gets too gummy when you work with it a lot, and the extra firm needs to be blasted with a heat gun before you can move it around.

How much clay -- For the Calamari I used about 40 pounds. For the Coruscant Guard I used about 30, and the Dyre helmet was probably 20.

Tools -- I've collected a bunch of tools over the years. Follow slowly -- I'm going to use some pretty hardcore technical terms, yo.

*The loopy wood thing on the far left is my favorite. I can do just about anything with it.
*The really really big one in the middle is also pretty handy for smoothing out large sections.
*The silver dentist tool things -- they're ******* dangerous, but can be handy for intricate details on miniatures and whatnot. I've almost put my eye out with one, though, so...I don't like using them much.
*The other silver loopy things -- that are great for small detail work on larger pieces.
*Funny looking wood thing with black rubber tips on the bottom-- also great for detail work where you'd like to get your finger in to smooth something out, but your finger is too big.
*And the loopy wood ones on the right -- they're all purpose scraper things that are pretty handy, too.

I'm sure they have real names, but when I go to the shop and say, "I'd like something...kinda...big, but with loops, and sharp, but kinda smallish...like this [makes gesture with finger and thumb]," they always seem to know what I'm talking about.

On that Dyre helmet, though, I only used the really big one, the loopy wood one on the far left, the wood popsicle stick with the one sharpened end, and that twine at the very top so I could map out where I'd make my longer cuts.

[Scott Kaufmann]

You're far too modest Qthooga, that looks like some supreme work that you have done. I wish I was that skilled.

[The Clayster]

To be honest, I thought the same thing GCN did..this was a big surprise.

I am watching this thread with excitement (ew, not like that)


Keep up the great work!

[Qthooga]

Ok, so I guess (and this is my own opinion) there seems to be a supreme lack of new material here on the board? I see tons and tons of resculpts of the same exact thing, but nothing totally new (no offense to anyone -- all the work I've seen here is awesome).

I'm curious as to why only Jango/Boba and Zam are represented? If the board was all Mandalorian I'd expect to see Crusaders, Neo-Crusaders, or at least a Mandalore costume. Or is it just that everyone's staying focused on Boba, and leaving everything else out?

But with Zam's inclusion, I'd expect to see other bounty hunters?

I guess what I'm wondering is...atwhat point is someone going to say, "Take your squishy Calamaris and Coruscant Guards, and go back to your other boards, Q!" ...?

[Qthooga]

Or is the issue that people would like to do more Mandalorians, but aside from just doing a custom repaint, there's not much out there to really work with?

And sculpting new things -- from the response and questions I've seen so far -- is that not many know where to begin?

If you'd like, I'll put together a tutorial with links on where to get tools and materials from. I'd love to see more people doing original work. A few years ago our FanForce only had a couple of us that could do props, but over time we've got everyone doing something. It's the same with our garrison. Some sculpt, vac, electronics, sew, sew, sew, machine, lathe -- it's actually pretty impressive, and I love seeing all the new work all the time. And our FF group projects are crazy -- we've done everything from mass X-Wing costumes to Batman, and even restored (with the help of our garrison) the X-Wing many of you saw at C3.

But what I like seeing more are things that haven't been done before. That's really why I like doing this.

[NovallTalon]

I for one do not have the time to sculpt. I have a very busy job that keeps me on the road alot, and between that and martial arts...I just just enough time sleep and relax and thats it. Plus, I have no real artistic talent for something like this. My strength is electronics and making my armor work, so for the most part I stick to what I'm good at. =)

I think the whole "repaint" term isn't really a fair term. You can look at just about any custom and see differences from one suit to the next besides the paint that stand out. Another factor you have to look at also is that before we had any pictures of the old crusaders, there was pretty much only one design for armor based on comics, books, and movies which is what we see with Boba and Jango. I like to call it the "traditional" design because it is the most common.

Since the KOTOR comic novels have come out, we see new armor designs which are actually old armor designs. I think depending on what time frame you want your character to come from will determine what style armor you make. From 200bby till current SW time you rarely see any suits other then the traditional armor or DeathWatch armor.

TDH is the Boba and Jango elite costuming forums. Even though they do host a Variant board, I believe their supreme focus lies on mainly those two costumes...with Boba being the primary of those two.

We've got a guy over at Mercs who is working on a Mand'alor the Ultimate costume and is making his own mask based off of one pictured up in the Sarlacc pit. He's pretty good with art, so I have no doubts it will look great. I've also seen some Neo Crusaders here and there, but that helmet is pretty tough being totally enclosed and I think those crafting it either have gotten discouraged because of that or are just being slow for the sake of getting it right.

Feel free to do up that tutorial though, it's defiantly something I'd dive into if I have the time to do so.

[Qthooga]

That's understandable. And yes, I overused the "repaint" term a little. People have done a lot of work on their various accessories and whatnot. "Repaint" is an incorrect term. I think "retooling" might be more suitable.

I may slow down in my spamming of various projects, though. If the intent is to keep the board's focus on Boba/Jango, with a light smattering of other Mandalorians, I may as well try to help foster that idea.

[NovallTalon]

I wouldn't slow down at all. It's great to see the creativity. Just be aware that the primary goal of the forum is whats stated in the title =)

[Sarim Thiri]

I've only seen Mand'alor's mask done, and now Rohlan-in-progress, and a SWG-ish Neo-Crusader helm... which I consider not to be a Neo, more like a child of a Crimson guard and Neo-Crusader.

Thing is, the Supercommando costume (Boba, jango) is the most common and easy to make of all of them, and is one of the cooler ones. No one I know, except me, like the Death Watch, so no one has (to my knowledge) made one. At last we see the old rise in the community, and that's one thing I like.

The costuming community would get boring and colourless if everybody would dress as a character from the movies, as we have the expanded universe with endless possibilities, and "customs" are also something to spice it up, if well done.

Don't give up on this one, this is going to look awesome. It would inspire the rest of the community to see such a new character be made into reality.

"Why, that's one more legacy of the great Rohlan" - Mand'alor.

[Cer'jo Aclos]

I would love to see that tutorial, I have sooo many ideas of things I want to do and make, but I since I have barely started on this hobby, I have very little knowledge on how to do things. I started off with the basic traditional armor set, and I hope as I go along learning new things to have my own unique suit. I love these cool unique customs not only because they look cool, but they also show me bit by bit what is possible and how to do it. I also love the simple "repaints" of the traditional armor because that's what I was used to, from the various old sources, but now that the new stuff has come out, I feel like our armor should change too. Basically what I'm saying is the traditional suit is a great starting off point, and from there we should try our hand on new designs. Ok, I'll stop there because I don't think I'm making sense and just rambling. Just my thoughts. Btw awesome job Qthooga!

[Qthooga]

Ohhh yeah. Ya know, I never even noticed that. LOL.

[The Clone Emperor]

Very strong sculpt work. Taken all the way, boot to jet pack, you'd have a gorgeous suit. (Please don't stop at the helmet.)

The Coruscant Guard helmet is particularily stunning. This has attempted before, but your WIP is the most impressive take I have seen.

I wish you great success in your continued efforts.

Be well,
Thomas

[setra]

oh man im really glad i caught this thread...i dont spend much of my web time here any more but this is very refreshing...well done....keep it up...also whay to go on the mon cal thats AWSOME you are quite the sculpter arnt you lol

[TeamFett]

Wow, I didn't even bother to look at this thread before because I thought what many others did about it just being another custom mando. I thought you were just going to have ref pics and only say what you wanted to do. Boy was I wrong.

That is simply beautiful work. You are very skilled at this, even if you won't admit. Please don't hesitate to "spam" us with more of your work.

[Melvin Fett]

Rohlan Dyre is such an awesome character. (Even if he is a 'deserter')

[GCNgamer128]

That Mon Calamari... if you do mold it for latex masks... I want one.

Your sculpting skills are just phenomenal.

[Qthooga]

Heh. Thx for the comments everybody.

No progress yet. Maybe Friday or Saturday. Need to catch up on work first.

I've been thinking more about how to cast the Calamari, and I really might do it in Nerf. I just need to figure out how to cast Nerf. Just so long as you didn't wear it in the rain so it got all crusty and the bits got in your eyeballs when you played catch with it.

[Qthooga]

Problem solved.

Nerf is polyurethane foam (figures. that's what Muppets are)

Self-skinning soft polyurethane foam.

Looks like it can be cast in a normal silicone mold. I won't rule out foam latex, though -- I've always thought it was a super dense foam, but being that I've never actually used it, I'm not sure yet. The applications that I have seen have always been pretty heavy. Once I start moving on the Calamari again, I'll give him his own thread. Same with the Coruscant Guard.

[Uther]

Holy cow, would I love a Mon Cal head. Do you have hands? Any idea on cost?

That Rohlan is amazing. You are truly a sculpt master.

[Untried Hunter]

Very nice sculpt,can't wait to see the finished product.

[Mercke Lutso]

Wow, looks awesome. A true artist.

[Grizzly]

very very well done ive always liked the look of rohlans helmet youve done a superb job

[Bountys Hunted]

Looking fantastic!! Great choice and greater work!!

For the backpack, I'm interested in how you're going to do the "glowing green liquid".

Water w/ a cylume lightstick added?

[Rich D.]

For the green glow on the backpack (and maybe inside the helmet, depending on how you interpret some of the comic panels), you could use those "pimped PC" type green LEDs. Search on eBay for "PC green LED", for examples.

[+Mandalore+]

Cool Im also making a Rohlan Dyre helmet. I personaly like the one in KotOR #7
though not the cover illustration

[lowki13]

ok would you ever consider making me a copy of that black sun gaurd helmet? unpainted?

[Qthooga]

Yes. I eventually plan on doing runs of each of these. And, I guess...the Coruscant Guards were really only mentioned in SOTE as Xizor's temple guards.

Hmmm...

No update as of yet for this week, but I was able to get 2/3 of my fenceposts planted this week! 80 feet to go, and then the task of putting up all 240 feet of lumber.

And I only hurt myself once this week! LOL.

[Stormrider]

Or is the issue that people would like to do more Mandalorians, but aside from just doing a custom repaint, there's not much out there to really work with?

And sculpting new things -- from the response and questions I've seen so far -- is that not many know where to begin?

If you'd like, I'll put together a tutorial with links on where to get tools and materials from. I'd love to see more people doing original work. A few years ago our FanForce only had a couple of us that could do props, but over time we've got everyone doing something. It's the same with our garrison. Some sculpt, vac, electronics, sew, sew, sew, machine, lathe -- it's actually pretty impressive, and I love seeing all the new work all the time. And our FF group projects are crazy -- we've done everything from mass X-Wing costumes to Batman, and even restored (with the help of our garrison) the X-Wing many of you saw at C3.

But what I like seeing more are things that haven't been done before. That's really why I like doing this.

Actually, Im very good with my hands, and very creative, but find a lack of 'process' posts on this board.

For example, I created a scratch built mando helmet in the last few weeks, and it was difficult to figure some of the 'simple' things out. Mainly because as of 5 years ago, I stopped doing physical physical art, and started only doing digital art. I am a web designer, 3d artist, and just havent been able to keep up with some of the newest things. I havent sculpted or even fabricated since college.

That being said, My helmets getting close to 'revealable', and its fair. And at some point, Ill want to scult gauntlets, make a Mold. Create some copies of some of the things. To us newbs we have no idea:

What type of clay to buy.
Where to buy it. (Art stores are obvious, but I had a hard time even finding newspaper board originally)
Where to get resins/silicons etc. Which type to buy. Why. Where etc.

In short, a tutorial from you on...

I bought 'this clay'. Its properties (It will stay soft, hard, hardens etc) I scuplted it hollow or build up. I measured depths on each sides with pins etc...

Once Finished I coated it with xxxxx and then used namebrand silicone from superstore to create... You get the idea.

Often the tuts leave out some of the simple stuff. If you could fill me in on some of these little secrets, Id be extremely grateful.

I posted a post asking a couple of simple helmet finishing questions, and never got even 1 reply. I suppose that maybe its a trial by fire not to offer up suggestions, or perhaps so many people talk about doing something and never actually do it, that people tend not to respond, but either way, it adds a level of frustrating to a rather daunting task.

I could redo this helmet in 1/4 the time, 2x as good, just knowing what I learned so far on this build.

Thanks, in short id love to see a detailed tut, including recipes

Ciao
Mason

[Qthooga]

Ok. I can do that. I'll also dig up some online sources for clay, too -- I know that I'm fortunate in that there's an art house not too far away where I can buy bulk clay.

And a quick update from me -- not much to say. Last couple of weeks have been pretty busy during the day while I've been finishing/destroying the yard, the night's been spent wrapping up a little side contract (which should be done this week...yay), and the few hours I got this weekend, I finally did my final 8-hour push to level 70 in World of Warcraft (which I've been neglecting for the last 4 weeks). LOL.

Hopefully will have something more from this upcoming weekend.

[Jaiden]

No worries, Q. We all still have to maintain our day jobs to eat, and there's nothing in the Rule Book that says "Thou shalt spend all thy days sculpting masterful creations for the multitudes-eth."

Sometimes you get into a vein and go-go-go! But sometimes, you take a break to get new inspiration. Take your time, Bro. We're not going anywhere (thanks to the response notifications )

David.

[BREWZA]

Unfortunately the image intensive aspect of this thread was unavailable to me.
I would absolutely love to be able to see your progress on your helmet and all aspects of this project. When I read through this thread all I saw when it came to your pictures was a square and a cross inside. The more computer savy amongst you are probably having a good laugh right now but `I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe' (sorry about that).
:o
I'm not sure if I'm posting in a thread long forgotten but I only discovered this thread tonight.
Many thanks.

[Rich D.]

I'm not sure if I'm posting in a thread long forgotten but I only discovered this thread tonight.
Many thanks.

You are posting in a thread long forgotten. The OP hasn't logged on here since last October. The domain where the original poster was hosting his pics has expired.

Shame, too, since this was a really promising project. All that I think I remember was that the guy was named Josh, he's TK-4752 in the mountain garrison, and he's a good sculptor. If anybody else can track him down, I'd love to know whether he ever cast that Rohlan Dyre sculpt.

[NovallTalon]

Same here, that was one awesome sculpt he had going on.

[BREWZA]

Thanks Guys, sorry to clutter things up like that.

[BREWZA]

I added to this thread without knowing it was lost and forgotten.
I intend to start my own Rohlan Dyre armour and hopefully contribute some thing productive to this forum.
I have gathered some great reference material toward this goal ( any pictures would be greatly appreciated from other members), but I am curious as to opinions on the fact two different artists have brought this armour to life.
Whose do I choose? does it matter? can I incorporate from both?
Many, many thanks for input.....

[Rich D.]

I added to this thread without knowing it was lost and forgotten.
I intend to start my own Rohlan Dyre armour and hopefully contribute some thing productive to this forum.
I have gathered some great reference material toward this goal ( any pictures would be greatly appreciated from other members), but I am curious as to opinions on the fact two different artists have brought this armour to life.
Whose do I choose? does it matter? can I incorporate from both?
Many, many thanks for input.....

Don't worry about adding to an old thread, especially if you're planning to take on a project as cool and different as this. The thing about Rohlan Dyre's helmet and armor is that he's probably been drawn slightly differently by half a dozen artists. If you picked your favorite aspects of each artist's interpretation, it would still be a great costume.

[precentorjames]

I'm with Count Dookie. If the artists do not agree...more's the better. It gives you a bit of leeway for 'artistic license.'

[BREWZA]

thank you very, very much, artistic licence is a term I love to hear,
Many thanks

[Menok]

Hey, my first post on this forum, YAY!

I've been thinking about the rohlan dyre armor, and if I do it, I'll mostly use Steve Argyle's version (no, he didn't write in the comic... I think)

He made a kickass wallpaper off Rohlan, which I think is quite awesome.

[Qthooga]

Continuing my slow orbit around this system's sun, I found myself drifting past this little blue planet again...

I have to apologize for the dead images. Will get them up again once I find a place to drop them where they won't poof if I decide to stop paying for a hosting account that I rarely use.

I still owe Stormrider a tutorial, too, assuming he hasn't already passed me in knowledge.

So, what's happened with the progress? I started logging stuff on a somewhat mostly project-oriented blog over here. I haven't touched the helmet since January, though -- been mostly busy trying to find a job so I can actually pay for my projects. LOL. I am happy with where the helmet is, though, and I'll be able to get a silicone mold of it once I figure out where I can do it.

Family's a little larger now (we just had our 3rd kid this past Summer), and the kids are starting to encroach on my project space. I started cleaning/re-organizing our spare room and turning it into an office/studio, so we'll have space to work on our projects again.

Aside from that, it's just a matter of getting back into the swing of things.