FuzzyDrawings
Active Member
Hello! Thought I'd start sharing progress on a custom TMNT build. This involves a TON of stuff that I'm learning as I go. There's been a ton of misteps, but a lot of new knowledge and has been a blast. I subscribed to stanwinstonschool.com and that's been a pretty big help. The design of Leo will be inspired by various things I like about both the original 90's film and the new films; not necessarily exact details, but concepts and ideas. I've got a LONG way to go, but here's where I'm at now. Any suggestions and critiques are 110% welcome!
The Body Suit
I originally considered doing a full body sculpt and casting in foam rubber, but quickly decided that the cost (and my apartment) wouldn't make that feasible. So, I decided to take a cue from the costumers over at predatorium.com and make a muscle suit covered in latex. Using a duct tape dummy, I created a mannequin out of polyfoam. Muscles are being carved out of upholstry foam, covered in spandex, and then stitched to a spandex body suit. Once the muscle suit is completed, that will be covered in another layer of spandex to act as "skin". This skin layer will be covered in thin latex where I'll add textures and paint. The boundary between this muscle suit and latex gloves will be covered by leather wraps and accessories, so I'm not concerned about the differences (yet, haha!)
Hands and Feet
My foam and spandex method won't work for the hands and feet, so I'm casting them in (foam?) latex. I initially planned on simple latex rubber, but really don't like the way the gloves "bend", so I'll likely cast them in foam latex (which means learning how to cast in foam latex!). I haven't sculpting anything in over a decade, and was never very good, but I've been watching a lot of videos from the Stan Winston School, and that's helped a lot. I've gone through a few sculpts of the hands, and made a few test pulls of latex to figure out the process. The hands are sculpted in Monster Clay on top of a life cast of my hands. I wasn't sure what position of my hands would be best, so I did two kinds. I prefer the slightly cupped position (for the latex rubber casting at least).
As for the feet, I'm considering taking a cue from the Bay films and making "shoes/sandals". This would cut down on time and cost for sculpting feet, and will also hold up better for conventions.
Mask
The mask will be a simple latex mask and is sculpted in WED clay. I'm doing something different, however, by making the eyes my eyes, so the head has to be sculpted to accommodate that - a more recognizable 90s era design won't work here. With that in mind, I opted to lean in the Bay films' direction. But I had some major issues with creating a mold (I'm pretty terrible at making molds), so I'll be taking another stab at it since the sculpt was destroyed. The first scuplt is a pretty neutral expression, so I think I'll try for something a little more dynamic next (this was actually the very first thing I tried sculpting for this project, so I guess I was afraid to do anything dynamic). I feel more comfertable now, however, and am thinking about sculpting an expression that pays tribute to the O.G. toy line.
Shell
I haven't done any work on the shells yet aside from some concept designs below (I'm thinking something between E and F). I'm likely going to carve the front shell out of eva foam. I'm thinking of using the last of my polyfoam to create the back shell, but I'm still mulling over how the back shell will be attached both to my body and to the "side" pieces that wrap around to the front shell. Anyone have any ideas?
Weapons
I found some really nice polypropylene katanas online. I painted them with acrylics and liquid leaf. The blade shown below was covered in aluminum tape, the look of which I loved, but there was an unforeseen problem: since the blade can be warped, this causes very ugly wrinkles in the tape that can't be fixed. This is unacceptable, so I will be experimenting with paints that will give me a similar look instead.
Painting
The costume will be painted with an airbrush (thinned rubber cement and oil paints), so I have to learn how to airbrush! I picked up some simple equipment and with the help of some tutorials, started playing around. Below is one of my test gloves, which I'm using to experiment with. This is by no means the final paint style I'll be going with; I was just getting used to the airbrush and playing with colors and techniques, but I was pleased with how it came out.
Welp, that's all I got for now. Thanks for taking a peek!
The Body Suit
I originally considered doing a full body sculpt and casting in foam rubber, but quickly decided that the cost (and my apartment) wouldn't make that feasible. So, I decided to take a cue from the costumers over at predatorium.com and make a muscle suit covered in latex. Using a duct tape dummy, I created a mannequin out of polyfoam. Muscles are being carved out of upholstry foam, covered in spandex, and then stitched to a spandex body suit. Once the muscle suit is completed, that will be covered in another layer of spandex to act as "skin". This skin layer will be covered in thin latex where I'll add textures and paint. The boundary between this muscle suit and latex gloves will be covered by leather wraps and accessories, so I'm not concerned about the differences (yet, haha!)
Hands and Feet
My foam and spandex method won't work for the hands and feet, so I'm casting them in (foam?) latex. I initially planned on simple latex rubber, but really don't like the way the gloves "bend", so I'll likely cast them in foam latex (which means learning how to cast in foam latex!). I haven't sculpting anything in over a decade, and was never very good, but I've been watching a lot of videos from the Stan Winston School, and that's helped a lot. I've gone through a few sculpts of the hands, and made a few test pulls of latex to figure out the process. The hands are sculpted in Monster Clay on top of a life cast of my hands. I wasn't sure what position of my hands would be best, so I did two kinds. I prefer the slightly cupped position (for the latex rubber casting at least).
As for the feet, I'm considering taking a cue from the Bay films and making "shoes/sandals". This would cut down on time and cost for sculpting feet, and will also hold up better for conventions.
Mask
The mask will be a simple latex mask and is sculpted in WED clay. I'm doing something different, however, by making the eyes my eyes, so the head has to be sculpted to accommodate that - a more recognizable 90s era design won't work here. With that in mind, I opted to lean in the Bay films' direction. But I had some major issues with creating a mold (I'm pretty terrible at making molds), so I'll be taking another stab at it since the sculpt was destroyed. The first scuplt is a pretty neutral expression, so I think I'll try for something a little more dynamic next (this was actually the very first thing I tried sculpting for this project, so I guess I was afraid to do anything dynamic). I feel more comfertable now, however, and am thinking about sculpting an expression that pays tribute to the O.G. toy line.
Shell
I haven't done any work on the shells yet aside from some concept designs below (I'm thinking something between E and F). I'm likely going to carve the front shell out of eva foam. I'm thinking of using the last of my polyfoam to create the back shell, but I'm still mulling over how the back shell will be attached both to my body and to the "side" pieces that wrap around to the front shell. Anyone have any ideas?
Weapons
I found some really nice polypropylene katanas online. I painted them with acrylics and liquid leaf. The blade shown below was covered in aluminum tape, the look of which I loved, but there was an unforeseen problem: since the blade can be warped, this causes very ugly wrinkles in the tape that can't be fixed. This is unacceptable, so I will be experimenting with paints that will give me a similar look instead.
Painting
The costume will be painted with an airbrush (thinned rubber cement and oil paints), so I have to learn how to airbrush! I picked up some simple equipment and with the help of some tutorials, started playing around. Below is one of my test gloves, which I'm using to experiment with. This is by no means the final paint style I'll be going with; I was just getting used to the airbrush and playing with colors and techniques, but I was pleased with how it came out.
Welp, that's all I got for now. Thanks for taking a peek!
