Work continues…

On both movie and the V-2 Rocket with great sucess.

I finally ran the prosthetic molds for the Hitler makeup. I got perfect prosthetics the first time. It’s been a while since I ran encapsulated silicone pieces but it all came back to me. Today I’ll run a few more sets for back up and we are good for the makeup test next week in full wardrobe with Robb. When I run them again I’ll video the entire process for “How To make a Monster Part 5” of our subscriber only video series.

In addition I cast up another customers Crater Lake Monster kit. And parts for the V-2 Rocket from my newly opened silicone molds.

Today I’m going to assemble and primer a V-2. All parts are resin. No balsa fins on this pone. Again thanks Mark Helmick for printing these parts for me!!

Crater Lake Monster at Home with Mark Siegel

My long time, dear friend Mark Siegel, got one of our finished and signed Crater Lake Monsters figures. Mark actually played one of the characters in the film named Mitch. Mark has also had a brilliant career in the visual effects film industry for many years.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796878/ This is Mark’s IMDB where you can see his list of many credits on films you love and may not have known he contributed to with his long stay at ILM.

We are honored to have Mark as a friend and a proud owner of our product!

  • Mark with his monster
  • Where it rest on his shelf of dinosaurs
  • Mark in The Crater Lake Monster

Wednesday’s work

I didn’t get to run silicone in the molds but I did finish off all my Crater Lake Monster orders. Customers come first always.

The dental acrylic worked very well for the teeth. No white water this time just a wet look for the base.

I spent some time on our film project. There’s much work to do and in the film there’s a scene with the being from the famous book “Communion”. She appears briefly out of a dream like fog of soft focus and removes one of her black eye covers reveling she has actual eyes behind them.

It’s a quick shot. I considered making a practical puppet that I puppeteer. But the shot is so brief and soft focus I thought it might be more work than I needed to do. I quickly built up a wire frame mesh of her in Lightwave. Once this has a boned armature I’ll be able to animate her and get the shot.

We start shooting on the stage in less than 3 weeks and I’m happy to report I have much of what’s needed, and built for the production. She’s not exact to the book cover but once moving in animation and lighted correctly she will sell the shot.

I also worked on the dreamtime sets. These sets are all digital backgrounds. Our actors will be sitting on benches inside this place. In the background the spirits of the dead walk the halls and can be seen passing behind our actors. At points in the film some stop, materialize as passed loved ones to our main character. This is where the conversation happens between Mark and Hitler.

The building or place is also dream like, soft focus and surreal. Early tests I did have a camera move which shows the entire set. The walks will be slowed down but the test shows much promise.

I did all of this in Unreal Engine 4 by Epic Games. I did two passes. One with the BKG and the other with the spirits. This way I could control the blur, transparency, and other aspects of the shot in After Effects. There is still much to tweak but it’s getting close enough to what I had envisioned in my script to work well.

I’m very excited to make a new film. It’s been 3 years since “But Something is There” and about time. This is a sequel to the first and a very different film.

I’m writing a new script called “The Gateway”. This one is about a child that plays with rockets under much adversity growing up. Where it takes him in life is a lesson to every parent who raises there children to reach to the stars. Nothing is impossible! This will begin production soon after the finish of “The Dreamtime”

Work in the studio yesterday

Mostly I spent the day working on filling orders. A few Crater Lake Monsters. One nearly finished and another in the box as a kit to be shipped.

You can see with the kits I’m signing the bases. I couldn’t think of where else to do it. The painted one has yet to get his teeth and looks a bit like Cecil without them. I found a way to get the tiny teeth out of the silicone molds without bubbles. I used dental acrylic powder and placed it in the mold first and then dripped the liquid monomer to the powder. This worked and 90 % of them come out successfully and they are stronger than the two part resin.

I had time at the end of the day I prepped the molds for Robbs Hitler makeup. I’ll be running the first set of prosthetics today. Here you see what if takes materials wise to make and run the silicone prosthetics.

I also worked on the V-2 some more and the masters are ready to start making molds of.

It was a good day all around. I even took the car cover off my 1985 300zx, dusted her off and started her up. I need to drive the car more often. It is now officially a classic and runs like a top. She looks brand new still inside and out. I had it restored 3 years ago.

Rockets and Laser Blast

I got this poseable 1/6 figure yesterday in the mail. It comes with different hands in different poses perfect for locking off and sculpting me as the Laser Blast Alien. But first I have to rough out the gun to get the pose right. But at least I can finally start this project as promised.

You can see the bag of hand and body joints and parts in the BKG.

I also got more done on the V-2 rocket kit. Soon I’ll be able to mold these masters and get the kit on the market and flying!

More scribing to do but just about there.

Mixed Bag Day

It was yesterday. I opened the molds for the prosthetics. They came out very well. Cleaned them and they are ready to run next week.

Next I ran two orders I have for the Crater Lake Monster. One is a kit and the other is a pre-fab fully built and signed version.

Last I worked on the V-2 masters for our new V-2 kit. I used chart tap to make scale details, panel lines, and hatches. I then placed a lot of primer over the tape, nearly a half can if not more. This smooths out the surface and captures the tape. Once lightly sanded, the tape is removed. The surface is sanded again lightly which gives you crisp details without having to hand scribe. I also filled and primed the one tail fin. A mold will be made off the fin once detailed. 4 will be made from that mold and a new gang mold of all four I cast for a production mold.

It was a great day of fun and production.