Robots? How?

[HiddenPixel]

I have a question for all you godly sculptors out there. Would you guys have any tips on sculpting robots and mechanical parts? Organic sculpting is soooo much easier than straight hard surfaces. Any know hows would be great!!

[egerie]

using a piece of glass helped me doing clean supersmooth surfaces when working in clay. I don't know anything else unfortunately.

[Deadsprite]

well when i sculpt robots i sometimes cheat. there are alot of parts out of old vcrs, computers, and the such. as for hard lines i used a lot of dental tools and things that have a spade shaped end on them.

[Deadsprite]

also, you need to think of what you want. i would do research into what your really want to do, as it pertain to materials. if you go hard edged i would look at the movie robots. they aren't really hard edged as they are stream lined. but thats more of a retro look. http://www.bennettrobotworks.com/ has alot of work thats retro robots and such ... but theres no sculpty ... good place to go from. as for more of a sci-fi ish tint ... look at anime, even though their very hard edged. they are basically formed metal plating. where you have hard edges but when up close are slightly rounded. http://gundam.anime.net/images/mecha/JDG-00X-U2.GIF is a good example. there is alot of work in that one showing how its still 'organic' but got those hard edges but thier really rounded. like i said. gotta think of what you want. also i would check out warhammer 40k miniatures like the necron or alot of the vehicles. all depict that really well.

[AnalogDoll]

If you're looking for straight-up techniques, you can't beat picking up a copy of Games Workshop's White Dwarf or even Hobby Japan. From time to time they have some great articles on scratch-built tanks, robots, etc. that ought to give you a good place to start.

I'm with Deadsprite for using whatever you can find, as long as it fits into your project. Some things may be harder to cast than others if you're going to be making reproductions of your work.

http://www.madmaxmodels.com/masterblaster.html - I lost the link to the actual walk-through construction for this piece, but if I recall correctly the artist used pieces of polyurethane plastic in the helmet of Blaster. You may want to experiment with cutting and forming plastic to create the shapes you're after.

-AD

[HiddenPixel]

Thank guys for the help.

[6thSun]

you could also try molding a basic shape ,and then casting it in plaster and sanding it down.
or even try with pieces of wood.