The making of Iron Man

This is the process I used for making Iron man from start to finished and painted final.

I first started with a very rough sketch made out of home zen wax.No armature which is one of the cool things about working with wax.It looks very crude but I am quite impatient and I just want to quickly get a feel for the pose and attitude-the gesture.

When I'm happy with this pose I work it up.Developing the main forms.

At this stage its important to not concentrate on details which is why I took these pictures to check the silhouette.

For the next stage I needed to make a waste mould of this rough to transfer to a harder wax called TMS wax.This harder wax allows me to now work on details which the grey wax isn't that good at (its too soft or sticky) The proceeding photo's show my mould making process.The figure is cut up and each piece is moulded separately.I've always used lego bricks to build a container around the piece into which I pour the silicone rubber.This is the first time I've tried using a cheaper silicone rubber (TOMPS value range _hard shore).

cut open the mould with a sharp scalpel.

comparison of zen wax with TMS wax cast.

Once I have all my TMS wax casts, I begin to work in the details,refine the anatomy and smooth and polish the surfaces.

comparison of zen wax with TMS wax final

TMS wax work in progress

getting there

Once the figure is completed its time for the master final mould to be able to create resin casts from it.

preparing to be moulded

the final resin casts using Smooth-Cast 310

The five pieces are assembled,holes and seams filled with Milliput (fine).Sanded,primed with standard acrylic grey primer spray used for cars and then sanded again to achieve as smooth a finish as possible.

Now for the painting process.I read up about spray painting using Alclad chrome laquers.There are several steps.

1) first coat with gloss enamel black ( I used the little tins of Humbrol diluted with cellulose thinners)

Its important to get as glossy a finish as possible so the subsequent layers look shiny and chrome like.

stealth mode?

2)second coat with Alclad chrome laquer.

war machine?

Now to spray the red using Alclad enamel candy red laquer, but first I need to mask off the yellow bits.A great tip I picked up was to use Silly Putty to mask off.

silver centurion?

Almost there.Mask off the red again with the Silly putty and spray the Alclad candy golden yellow enamel.

Some bits might need touching up after but that can be done with a small paintbrush and red or yellow colour applied direct from the bottle and it's done! Finish off with a nice wooden base.

Finished!

Morbius

Morbius bust finished. Originally sculpted in homemade wax based on Gary Overman's Zen wax.
I moulded a coffee jar lid and cast it as a base for the bust.Once again I spend alot of time sculpting but then do a bit of a rush job on painting.I need to take more care in that and getting Jordu Schell's dvd on maquette painting would probably help.

resin cast painted

resin cast primed

wip wax sculpture

wip wax sculpture

The Vulture finished

The Vulture sculpted in home made '360' wax based on Gary Overman's wax recipe. I found my version of this recipe made the wax sculpture float in the silicone rubber while I was molding it.The sculture needs to be secured and anchored down properly before pouring the silicone rubber.
Painted using just brushes and not airbrush and using scraped pastel dust to add a red tint to his nose and cheeks.

home made wax

Finally got round to making wax's based on Gary's recipes.The grey one started off as Zen wax and the tan one started off as 360. I say started off as I kept modifying them (adding more carnuaba and magnesium carbonate) to try and get what I was after.I wanted something I could use like a softish clay in the initial build up and then when cooled to room temperature behaved like a hard tooling wax to take fine detail.
I don't think that perfect wax exists but these seem to be a good compromise.

Tigra finished and painted

wolverine painted

Again,handpainted but I should learn to use an airbrush properly to get a better surface finish

Tigra WIP

A wip of the Marvel character 'Tigra'. TMS wax again. Started with a head and then proceeded to get the torso right making sure the twists and tilts were there.Bought a few female anime sculpts on trip to Japan and inspired to have a go at one also because I've never sculpted a female before.
This is an 1/8th scale as most of those Japanese sculpts seem to be.Should be quick to do since it is small but hard on my failing eyesight.