Resin Kit Tutorial ,new stuff 4/1/2011

[kent kidwell]

I really appreciate the comments and suggestions pijai. I have been planning horns for it for since I put the exo skelaton on but the shape just still seems wierd to me . I was going to thicken and texture them and see how they look after ,but the jury is still out on them . as for the pod my Idea is this thing is almost like a food storage for the creature I am prepping the human food to go in it. its still in the works but below is the start .

lilalex . I have used every concievable cutting method at some point but I have learned the fastest part of doing a cut like this is the repair after , I have spent hours trying to make a perfect cut and 2o minuts repairing the damage . saddly there no way out really . so I dive in head first do the damage and quickly repair it ,makes me tear up but I have been staring at this piece for couple of weeks now ond we are getting tired of each other .im slammin it.
lilalex your vasaline queastion is a good one , vasaline will create striations and thin lines like seperations if mixed with tthe epoxy but applieng it after mixing does nothing , If I was going to prime this piece at the end I would use a solvent that evaporates like terpenoind to remove oil on surface and follow up with a dish soap scrub with a soft brush . I do this anyway to remove all the accumulating dust you can see building on the piece even now. it starts to clog detail if you dont wash it.

thanks again for your excellent questions and comments!

[shwa]

cool thread,I really look forward to see the more

[kent kidwell]

Thanks shwa , here are a few recent shots of where I am in this piece . earlier I had seperated the piece into sections , I am nearing the end of the sculpture and engineering portions of this study and will be starting in on mold making portion very soon . thanks again for following this thread .

[kent kidwell]

Im waiting for some matrials for the mold to arrive , Hawaii is a horrible place for shipping , so I expect I will be able to start the mold tutorial around the jan 25th or so.I will have the piece completed and seperated very soon . thanks for following this thread <i hope it has been educational so far and that you will join us in the mold process .mahalo

[Monkeywiz]

Keep up the good work Kent, I am looking forward to seeing the next stages (and I'm sure everyone else is too.)

Sorry to hear about your postage woes, I have a similar (although probably nowhere near as severe) problem getting hold of modelling and mold making materials at a reasonable price here in the UK, as opposed to the cheap prices, range of materials, and ease of shipping our mainland US cousins seem to benefit from.

It can't be all bad though, I expect you have much better views etc to peer at whilst waiting for the postman than the majority of us? (he says with only a hint of jealousy peering out onto the dark grey terraced streets currently bearing the brunt of the usual British climate

[kent kidwell]

hey monkeywiz beleive it or not I would trade with you in a second . maybe we should consider a life trade .Hawaii is a great place to visit not to live. this will sound stupid but I would love to go to a gallery or museum where the main focus is'nt whales , dolphins and the ocean , .as for the postage I pay twice at very least for everything I send here. we are actually planning to move back to the mainland in march, so for any companies looking for a concept sculptor reading this I will soon be available thank heaven.

[lilalex]

Great update 'KK', that's looking great.

Excellent point about hacking the piece to .. umm.. pieces.

I'm enjoying the sculpting process so much, I forget the main focus of the thread is the mold/reproduction process!

Sorry as well to hear about your shipping woes - and thanks for Hawaii tip; next time the little woman wants to head out there for another vacation, I've got, "But Babe, they don't even have wheels!"

Thanks again for doing such a bang-up job on the SBS - much appreciated, and looking forward to the next update.

la

[kent kidwell]

thanks la,
seperating a piece is always a little scary . but when I have to fix something it always seems to work better after, then it did before the damage . so I no longer look at seperating the piece as a negative .
thanks again for your comments ..

[pijay-brown]

damned man , impressive...

kent kidwell you' re the boss.
Great garage kit,
maybe i would be interested if you sell a resin later

bravo

[The Curry's]

After all of these years I am realy surprised that you are not rich from this...And this isn't even close to being your best work!!

[kent kidwell]

rich with friends, thats good with me. Thanks heather !

[kent kidwell]

just quickly a few pics of how I am starting the pod interrior.Im again waiting for mold material so I have corrected a few things waiting , waiting ,,,,,,,,,,,,

[tatiana]

hey monkeywiz beleive it or not I would trade with you in a second . maybe we should consider a life trade .Hawaii is a great place to visit not to live. this will sound stupid but I would love to go to a gallery or museum where the main focus is'nt whales , dolphins and the ocean , it gets very dull . you have culture , the Hawaiin people have no recorded history , no written language . no ancient structures worth visiting not even an ancient wheel or arrowheads. I dont know what's been going on here in the islands for the last 2000 years but I believe It had something to do with serfing and cracking coconuts that's all I can figure.Im usually a pretty non critical sorta dude , but dam'n not even a wheel.

I liked living on Oahu! Miss it alot. Four years of running around barefoot and swimming everyday. Granted, I was in elementary school at the time as my family was stationed at Pearl Harbor AFB so it was quite perfect for me. I'm surprised you seem so unaware of the rich cultures of the Hawaiian peoples...but than I maybe I had a better introduction since I was in school and learned more about it. For me, the only negative was the squashed frogs from cars on the streets during the rainy season (which didn't last long), and the very brief one time toilet paper shortage (I kid you not) since all non-produce items had to be shipped to the islands (my aunt in Texas shipped us packages of the stuff immediately which we shared with friends and neighbors). Maybe as an adult I wouldn't enjoy it as much, although if I could have a second home there like Oprah (ha) then it would be perfect.

Anyways, am totally still very much appreciating you posting your progress on this project!

t

[Jimb0b]

Shaping up to be a realllllllllllllllly nice piece this one .., just one q tho.., how do you like working in magic sculpt? and you can get it in hawaii? WOW ive found a grand total of 1 shop in the whole of the UK that stocks it

[kent kidwell]

You know tatiana ,I deserved that ,I kinda felt bad slammin on Hawaii like that . I live on the Isle of kauai . its the farthest island out next to the niihau island. this island is as big as oahu but only has 60.000 people to the 3 mil people our naighbor oahu has . Kauai boasts a wallmart(not a super) and costco(new) and a handfull of resteraunts .
and a midget theatre. Its a beutifull place with waterfalls and tons of private beaches, And we use them and love them.but on this island it lacks all the cultural establishments oahu has .as well as those things we took for granted before we came here four years ago. like cheap food.An example the retail price for a gallon of milk is $ 7.50. and our power bills are $500 monthly on an island with very little industry that putts the locals into three jobs per family to survive here and I have four kids ,so anyway paradise has its price and I digressed .believe it or not I know something of hawaiin history. at least recent history 200 yrs . As for ancient history the hawaiin people used storytellers to keep there history and we know from history that the grape vine is no way to tell history its prone to imbellishment . and as the storytellers of old hawaii were sanctioned by the local kings and higher archy it made it an even more dubious way of keeping the past accurate. so what we do know about pre white visitor hawaii could be totally wrong. so forgive me for that you have every reason to maintain good feelings about Hawaii im just worn out trying to survive here.that and the past four years sculpture could only be a hobby, I miss working with talented people in the industry like yourself and unfortunately its not here.

hey jimbob , I find majic sculpt to be a much better and smoother product then . milliput or a&b epoxy putty Its just my opinion , but you can smooth it with water or vasaline . its cure time is pretty slow and it changes hardness as it goes so in the begining it seems to soft but I take that time to rough in a form and as it hardens you can make the detail tighter and tighter . once hardened I like that it is hard as hell . and smooth to carve,dremmel and I primarily use it for miniatures and to skin a piece like I did on this one . I find its just more crisp detail wise then sculpey. but I have to say im changing over the majority of my bulk sculpting to super sculpey firm that stuff is awsome and no cracks so far.
I can't tell you how many risky sculpey bakes I have saved myself from just by using majic sculpt,the stuff is great. but its good to have several kinds of clay on hand each with its own positive properties . I have used 3 kinds on this piece and im glad i had them here.I order majic sculpt and all other sculpting materials from the mainland california usually . I havent found a place here that carries much of anything. Anyway thank's for the questions and comments.
happy sculpting.

[shwa]

I almost made same mistake trying to relocate to Okinawa.fortunatly friend of mine gave us a month to stay at his home while he was abroad just to taste what would wait for us if decide to go.it was small city,big airforce base just next to us,lot of sound pollution.ocean is perfect but somehow after three weeks I start missing things.job wise i could make it there,but nothing really much going on,I assume it 's much more interesting once you get to know ppl and place .But it wasn't my cup of tea.Surely I would like to live self-sufficient life style and having everything i need within 20 miles range.Well i'm going to dream on.
Kent
Do you mind me asking what is your job,if you do this just for fun and not making much money from this,man...how good you have to be to make it in the biz?
shwa

[kent kidwell]

hey shwa, I dont mind at all . so much of this business is location if you want to make movies or be involved in the process you should move to california.if you want to do bronze sculpture your going to need to get closer to a foundry . if you want regular work as a freelancer in sculpture you want to be near a city the bigger the better. if you are a freelancer like me working from a distance the work comes in but you have to have several layers of income . I cant afford a 30 60 or 90 day net on a finished project my overhead is just to high. also projects that require materials while easily done on the mainland are much more expensive to do here.the price of materials double due to shipping so there goes my profit margin , so after attempting to make freelance work as a primary here for a year I realized it needed to become a secondary income .so I opened a jewelery store in a mall and now I sell primarily wholesale to a few vendors on the Island and freelance . my wife sells timeshare at the marriott and we make it . prior to moving to Hawaii art was my primary . we will be moving back to the mainland very soon where i will resume fulltime freelance . im going to be selling some resin kits like this one starting in march. one more layer.shwa I have noticed the industry become more competative as so many companies are going to china for there work now. so there are less freelance jobs . but they are out there . and you can make a good living at it .I don't want to make this answere to wordy but I wanted to share that over the last year I havent really been trying to get freelance work . a few things have poped up but nothing serious (see attached pic) . I did something I have never done but I learned that it is the most important thing an artist can do, self evaluate and this year i did that big time. im thirty seven and I really sensed that I was not working at my prime . so I have been spending every extra minute practicing sculpture and design usually until 3 in the morning wich is hard as I have to be up at 6 but when you have little kids that pieceful time when they sleep is heaven.Also I study the work of those I admire and constantly ask myself how I rate . do I compete, would I shrink if my work were displayed beside the best and with complete honesty I painfully have to rate myslelf, I don't want to be the guy who's work suck's but is so blinded by self deception that he sees a masterpiece, that scares me Im much more critical of my work then anyone could be. and I want it that way.I see flaws in everything I do I just try to make them as small as possible . nothing is ever perfect. anyway this has truly been the most fullfilling and productive year of my life "I produced for myself" .thats all . mahalo

[Jimb0b]

Hey Kent many thanks for the insight to magic sculpt i may try some out, although its quite expensive it sounds just the thing i was looking for to suit my working times and durability needs.
Ive messed around (not seriously) with milliput quite a lot and its orrid sticky stuff to work with and sets quite fast too but its a strong as hell.

Thanks again for the info.

[pijay-brown]

Damned good good

Scales are amazing
magic sculpt is that so good?
my 2 philosophical questions if you don't mind Mister Kidwell:
Why didn't you let the hole, just the hole... ?
Why did you choose to do a man inside rather than a woman or an animal?

Well Bravo
I keep following
Thanks

[kent kidwell]

hi pijay . actually for the pod thing the I have considerd putting a female in there. but I decided on a soldier . he will be clothed with partial body armor and the like . a captured soldier just makes scense to me.I would have loved to put a female in this piece partialy clothed in a vulnerable pose but there something depressing in an attractive female about to become lunch , but a soldier they sign up for that kind of adventure .I could call it ( man the other white meat ) or (alien food storage) or ( never take point on an alien planet)
the (the few the proud the snack) still working on it but if you can come up with a good female Idea i will chuck her in im flexible .

[shwa]

Kent thank you for the reply,I know what you mean,I have wee kid too,6 month old,i'm tattooist and right now it's dead season here .So to fill the time and pockets,I also do some freelance jobs:t-shirts designs,airbrushing,etc..but it's always kinda favor for my friends(wich doesn't pay much of the bills).I 'm just renewing my web site and hoping to get some response from it. surely polishing my skills as an artist is most crucial but beside that advertising is one thing i need to work on.
About the girl as a lunch yeah why not,you can always name it "bitch that said I'm ugly".
regards
Shwa

[droidonthemoon]

Kent, I gotta say, this is THE MOST INFORMATIVE sculpt tutorial I have ever seen. What is Magic Sculpt? They dont sell it here (Tokyo).
Your skillz are awesome! Very nice! Good texturing and fine tuning. You are a seriously detail oriented dude. I know you probably said this somewhere, but what do you do? (and where are you? hawaii?) (i didnt read the whole thing - I'm supposed to be working)
J

[kent kidwell]

hey shwa, thats better then my ideas , very funny . im actually almost done with the dude . but im making him removable so . I suppose I could offer a secondary meal possibility like a martian buffet.

droidonthemoon , thanks I appreciate that I keep thinking the stuffs not that complicated but theres no place I have found that teaches these simple techniques . very frustrating. I was taught early in my career by a master miniature sculptor named bill chilstrom. who was kind enough to take me into his home and show me much of the things I have in this tutorial. So trust me when I say I did not develop this stuff myself I learned from others and Im happy to share it.

as for work right now Im getting this piece and a few others ready for production and working on this tutorial. I live on the isle of Kauai last in the chain and most seperated from the other islands .from what I have been told kauai is the wettest spot on earth and also the most remote .3000 miles in every direction to hit land again, this is where you go if you are escapeing the mob!.
droidonthemoon if you go to www. majicsculpt.com they will give you a list of distributors closest to you. majic sculpt is just like any other 2 part epoxy but I think it has superior qualities like you can smooth with water and it has extended curing time also it is very smooth , so give it a try . its excellent for miniatures,

[shwa]

Kent,as droidonthemoon said it's one of most informative tutorials around,it seems so easy when somebody else doing it or show you how to do it correct in the first place,i remeber going on sculpting classes in art school i didn't touch anything except clay for two years never went any further,reason to hate the goddamn thing is 'couse of lack of material in the school, you destroyed every single piece you ever did so the rest of ppl could sculpt a little.well that was in communist Yugoslavia so what to be expected.Althou it gave me good basics(just basics),it was fucked knowing that most of the teachers wouldn't care to teach you everything they know,reason they were the ppl that run the art scene.So if you get to be good at what you doing automaticly you bacame rival,i know so many talented guys that were unable to go to art academy becouse of that,small minded enviroment can kill you.beeing blessed with good mentors is really important,so thank you and all the guys for sharing the knowledge.
regards
Shwa

[kent kidwell]

I have to say shwa that there are few countries producing more classically trained sculptors then the eastern block countries i wish the rest of the world took sculpture as seriously as that.I bet you are very talented .

[HISART]

Wow! Kent Kidwell you are very talented! Thanks for taking the time to show just how you do it up right!

I've wanted to jump into the poly/epoxy sculpt enviro having worked in clay for years but seeing as I'm kilnless the clay is pointless. In 3D I mostly work in wood or steel, both are better suited for outdoors due to the mess {or fire danger involved with welding steel}. This tutorial {along with Ivan_L's} has really got me wanting to dive in!

Thanks again!

[kent kidwell]

thanks hisart i have enjoyed this process very much .thanks for the feedback;.

[Vaejoun]

Waoh! A great job so far. Makes my brain boil an my fingers shiver. I wanna make something too. But all I have are the basic tools and a little piece of super sculpey (dolls).

What did you say you are using ? Resin ? Is that much different from sculpey? it looks very simmilar. Is it expensive ? I am living in germany and its hard to get good moddeling clay here.

[kent kidwell]

hi vaejoun. to answer your question about resin . that process will come after the mold process wich will be posted pretty soon. resin is really liquid plastic you can pour into a mold it hardens using a hardener mix. I sculpted this piece primarly with super sculpey wich is very common . our local hardware/ art store carries it . I also used magic sculpt for some detail work on the monsters body and the soldiers armor as well. you can find a german distributor for magic sculpt by going to www. magicsculpt.com i think I saw one there. I only use it for layering over or creating miniatures its to expensive for bulk work and it hardens to fast to do larger sections easily , but still great stuff . I talk more about this material in prior sections of this tutorial for insight on usage. thanks again for stopping in .
kent

[HISART]

Kent,
Again I'd like to say great stuff! 8)

About how tall is this piece? Also how tall would you call it quits for Sculpey? I have an armiture welded up for a figure I'm stalled on, seeing as the cost of Sculpey to do it would be $100USD plus! Any suggestions would be appreciated!