Hey everyone! Happy Holidays!
An update to my Prometheus work - I do plan to return to the Nostromo soon.
I was able to successfully cast two Hypersleep Chambers from the mold I made last week. I plan to make several more but for now all I needed was a clean cast for a master to be archived and a scrap to sculpt the canopy on.
I started sculpting the canopy to late last week through the weekend. All in all with everything else going on it really didn't take me that much time compared to the bed of the chamber. Here's a shot of the canopy with half of the detail added.
Mind you I have to exaggerate the detail in order for the vacuum forming process to pick it up - plus I plan to add texture to the cast sample of this sculpt by sanding it down a bit so I need a buffer there as well.
...and here is the completed sculpt! Overhead view...
I have placed the piece in the freezer for awhile - I am hoping that it will pop loose from the plastic bed so I can prep it to have a mold made. If it wants to be stubborn, I will have to cut the bed away from the sculpted piece with a dermel tool. What I should have done was to place a piece of wax paper in between the bed and the monster clay but nope, I wasn't thinking about that at the time....sigh
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Had some fun with Photoshop and created a few additional overhead images of the chamber with the canopy sculpt - hope you enjoy.
More to come soon - including what will be made with this vector piece I had cut this week!!!
I spoke earlier about placing the Sleep Chamber in the freezer hoping that the sculpted canopy will loosen from the plastic casting to make the vacuum forming process easier - happy to say it was a success!
Now that I have the sculpted piece free from the bed, I can make a mold and cast a copy to use for vacuum forming the clear canopies.
Here is an image of the casts from the sculpted canopy.
The next step will be to vacuum form the canopy - I haven't done anything larger than a 2" x 2" form so this will require a larger former and the kitchen oven. I'm using PETG .020 mm - don't need anything thicker than that. Thanks to my Dad for helping me out with the process - it can be done alone but always more enjoyable when someone else is there to participate...especially when they come out like this!!!
Temp of the oven is set at 375 degrees for 30-50 seconds. Made several - some for paint tests and such.
Thrilled about the outcome! The formed canopy will simply sit on top of the bed, secured by the lip at the front of the chamber. This will keep the canopy from falling off easily.
Below are shots of the finished canopy places on the bed of the sleep chamber along with a work in progress sculpt of a sleeping Engineer inside!
Next step will be sculpting the tubes that connect to the back of the chamber. Also I will need to create a damaged variant (chestburster)of the canopy to represent the unfortunate Engineer's that never awoke from their slumber.
Back to the Nostromo and the addition to the work in progress, Main Airlock. I have created the vector line art of the Inner Lock Hatch Door and had the artwork laser cut last week. Here are a couple shots of the assembled pieces....
This will connect to the Main Air Lock - here are some images of the interior so far.
A shot from the outside looking in LOL!
The Inner Hatch Door needed some greeblie work so I used Aves FIXIT to sculpt tubes and hardware.
Once complete, I prepared the parts for mold making. Unfortunately I only had enough mold material to create the front panels of the door - the interior will have to wait till I can afford purchasing some more. Isn't that always the way it goes?...
...and here is a successful casting of the front panel and door pieces of the Inner Lock Hatch Door.
Some of these images were taken with my iPhone so forgive me if some of the photos look to be grainy - they are LOL!
So that is where I am so far...more to come so stay tunes and thanks for all the suggestions and comments!
Created a short video of the Air Lock section of the diorama so far - nothing glamorous but a good test of things to come...
