What's On Your Workbench? (Winter 2024-2025)

Chris Ellerby
Chris Ellerby Admin
in General
We love seeing current projects from our community members.  Sharing your work on our forums not only gets your work seen by a large audience but also motivates and inspires other artists.  We may even feature some of your projects on our social media!

You can either share images and videos below as comments on this discussion or post your own discussion with your work.  So don't be shy, show us what you've got!

What's On Your Workbench?

Comments

  • Darrell Green
    Darrell Green ✭✭✭
    You DID IT!!!! I was fingers crossed the whole time you were going through the stages. Needing such a complex mold "system" for this and getting it right as a first project and NOT DESTROYING YOUR SCULPT......
     Hats off to you. I think you earned the title "Newb Savant". Very cool, congrats. And thank you for your process pics. Pop a thread link on therpf if you haven't already. I know some folks were following it there as well.
  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    Thank you! More work than I really anticipated. It was a good feeling pulling those first casts. Not much for cleanup either. I did try making a hollow cast of the body this past weekend, but it didn't work. Came out pockmarked with bubbles and missing details. I think the mold is too detailed for a manual rotation cast. Going to get some URE-Fill and cut the resin with that to save on casting costs. Anyway, I meant to post on therpf as well - thank you for the reminder!
  • Tracey Simmons
    Tracey Simmons ✭
    Jason, these are so cool! You did a really great job with the molds, it looks like you were really careful about setting up for success. I hope I'm as fortunate and prepared when I do my Ferengi head molds over the next few days! 
  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    Tracey Simmons said:
    Jason, these are so cool! You did a really great job with the molds, it looks like you were really careful about setting up for success. I hope I'm as fortunate and prepared when I do my Ferengi head molds over the next few days! 
    Thank you Tracey! I look forward to seeing your Ferengi molds.
  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    TJ makes stuff said:

    A fun shrunken head project the above clay is Chavant medium.
    i made a matrix mold with a rigid silicone and cast the final with Platinum silicone, I ended up tinting the silicone with smooth on pigments and flocking, and airbrushed it with smooth on paints. Am not completely finished will do a little more finishing to the paintwork and add hair. Will glue on hair but leave some spacing around the glued on hair for hair punching. Has been fun watching the videos. In the 80s I made monster masks in my bedroom, was good times. Just getting back into it. 
    These are great TJ! So cool. Would love to see the matrix mold you did for these if you have any pics.
  • John Terebetsky
    John Terebetsky ✭✭
    I finished my short capstone, Dreams of R’lyeh,  including some pictures of the Cthulhu puppet,  as well as a current werewolf puppet parts in progress for an upcoming project.  


  • TJ makes stuff
    TJ makes stuff ✭
    Cast and painted two more of these silicone heads. Has been a fun learning process. I followed  Tim Gore’s order of color application for these. One I cast too translucent which was good because now know how far is too far. Below Head # 1 is the too translucent one.




    Head # 2 below 


  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    TJ makes stuff said:
    Cast and painted two more of these silicone heads. Has been a fun learning process. I followed  Tim Gore’s order of color application for these. One I cast too translucent which was good because now know how far is too far. Below Head # 1 is the too translucent one.
    Very cool! Do you plan on punching hair on them?
  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    I finished this zombie sculpt a bit ago. In the process of molding and casting it. I've wanted to do a zombie for awhile and this was a lot of fun. I've also been trying to up my photo game a bit.







  • TJ makes stuff
    TJ makes stuff ✭
    Jason Jacobs said:
    Very cool! Do you plan on punching hair on them?
    Yes will be my next step, I bought some crape hair but am looking for something a bit thicker. So am doing some research. Here was my concept art photoshop paintover from an early sculpt photo. A few bright color experiments, may stay slighly realistic. Will still get you a few pics of my matrix mold…I watched your time lapse of you making the alien character mold. A cool technique you used by laying up an initial silicone mold before making the outter mother mold! Nice work

  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    TJ makes stuff said:
    Jason Jacobs said:
    Very cool! Do you plan on punching hair on them?
    Yes will be my next step, I bought some crape hair but am looking for something a bit thicker. So am doing some research. Here was my concept art photoshop paintover from an early sculpt photo. A few bright color experiments, may stay slighly realistic. Will still get you a few pics of my matrix mold…I watched your time lapse of you making the alien character mold. A cool technique you used by laying up an initial silicone mold before making the outter mother mold! Nice work

    Awesome - I look forward to seeing them with the hair punched. Love the ropes through the upper and lower lip. Very cool. 
    Matrix mold - Yes! Would love to see them!
    Time lapse - thanks for watching!
  • TJ makes stuff
    TJ makes stuff ✭
    Jason Jacobs said:
    TJ makes stuff said:

    A fun shrunken head project the above clay is Chavant medium.
    i made a matrix mold with a rigid silicone and cast the final with Platinum silicone, I ended up tinting the silicone with smooth on pigments and flocking, and airbrushed it with smooth on paints. Am not completely finished will do a little more finishing to the paintwork and add hair. Will glue on hair but leave some spacing around the glued on hair for hair punching. Has been fun watching the videos. In the 80s I made monster masks in my bedroom, was good times. Just getting back into it. 
    These are great TJ! So cool. Would love to see the matrix mold you did for these if you have any pics.
     Hey Jason here is a snapshot of my matrix mold….it is the first one I have made and covered the sculpture with wet paper towels and cellophane, then using a clay cutting wire layed wed clay on top making sure it was all the same thickness and added a grid like matrix on top of the thin clay then casted the plaster mother mold…then removed the clay and cellophane and wet paper towels….assembled the mother molds over the exposed sculpture then poured Smooth on Mokd star 30 into each side. 
  • Jason Jacobs
    Jason Jacobs ✭✭
    TJ makes stuff said:
    Hey Jason here is a snapshot of my matrix mold….it is the first one I have made and covered the sculpture with wet paper towels and cellophane, then using a clay cutting wire layed wed clay on top making sure it was all the same thickness and added a grid like matrix on top of the thin clay then casted the plaster mother mold…then removed the clay and cellophane and wet paper towels….assembled the mother molds over the exposed sculpture then poured Smooth on Mokd star 30 into each side. 
    These are great - thank you for sharing!
  • John Terebetsky
    John Terebetsky ✭✭
    Some work in progress pics of a stop motion puppet I’m building for a contest.  I really enjoyed David Allen’s Primevals,  and really loved the design work and animation.  Enjoy!
  • John Terebetsky
    John Terebetsky ✭✭
    It’s a fan art puppet for a film I wish I had the chance to work on!
  • Timothy Cole
    Timothy Cole ✭
    My first tabletop silicone prosthetic. Would really love any critique or comments. I know the edges are crap, I didn’t have any acetone on hand for blending when I spontaneously decided to apply it to freak out my daughter’s BFF.


  • Darrell Green
    Darrell Green ✭✭✭
    Fellow student so take this at that level, not a presenter.

    Your sculpt and your initial mold look just like the ones in class. 

    Your blood/gore is appropriate and minimalized for real world (minus the obvious continuous flow that is missing if recently wounded).

    Because you were in a hurry (and you already know you were) the hair removal wasn't done. This brings two things to my mentions:

    1) Even in a hurry, one easy way to get the hair to the side is wet and paste it out away from the wound but in the middle (under the prosthetic) paste it inward into a central point and paint over it with your adhesive (good luck getting it off).  This gives your prosthetic area less transitional hairs to break the illusion BUT were quick steps that didn't include shaving etcetera and were done while you pasted on the prosthetic anyway. You just change the direction of you adhesive strokes or makeup strokes 

    2) Because the hair can be seen (only slightly) through the prosthetic, it means you very well achieved a good skin tone but with realistic translucency.

    And finally, you already mentioned the blending needs done followed by any no color powder and final makeup in the transition areas. All of which you can totally do now because you have an AWESOME REUSABLE MOLD!!!
  • BoBn
    BoBn ✭
    I just completed a small overlapping prosthetic application for a film I was making for fun. It was a piece to exaggerate some of the actor's facial features, so he didn't look the same. This is the first semi-successful prosthetic application I have made. The unfortunate part was I made my mold out of plastic and did not have enough money to reinforce it with epoxy putty, so I had to be careful with the amount of pressure I used when I cast the prosthetic in the silicone. This means the edge of the prosthetic was not good, so I added pros aid and setting powder mixture on top to hopefully smooth the edges. When that didn't work, I just added a mustache and hid all the edges. The painting worked out decently, I pre painted with narrative cosmetics alcohol airbrush makeups and then later added a base layer of makeup to die down the harsh tones. I ended by adding the wig to cover other edges and called it good.

  • Darrell Green
    Darrell Green ✭✭✭
    edited February 2025
    I have been working with a group on therpf towards completing a Jude Law, Jod/Silvo cosplay. I clay sculpted his buckle (with a lot of input from the group) and then 3d scanned it in and worked in blender. A buddy pushed it through zbrush to fix a lot of the brokenness from the scanning and once more when finished because I had overworked the fractals in blender.

    Then I created a screen accurate one and a truly flat one for ease of printing. After printing it was surprisingly close to the onscreen version:

    Due to copyright, there was no intention of selling copies nor files and yes I have heard all the excuses about getting away with it but honor and integrity are worth way more than profit. 

    But, with that said, our finished print was snagged and up for sale on Etsy within 2 days:

    That is an overlay of our buckle on top of the etsy sale. Only the picture angle shows any change. Sigh.
  • Alexander H
    Alexander H ✭✭✭
    Yep, unfortunately the internet is a vicious place for people hosting 3D models. There's still someone selling prints of a free model I uploaded, though they claim it's theirs and even countered the Etsy cease and desist order.

    Best you can do is show the world what you've got and that, hey, it's actually free!
  • Darrell Green
    Darrell Green ✭✭✭
    edited March 2025
    Truly impressive and now you can make a ferengi army. I saw the first pour and immediately realized you just made an injured Ferengi, roll with it. I love your work on fixing it after.
  • Darrell Green
    Darrell Green ✭✭✭
    edited March 2025
    The 3d saga continues. After a groaning month of learning 3d sculpting, I found that my game software was throttling (quotas) my gpu, so Blender was failing to remesh anything other than onscreen view (for video presentation only). After I found the issue (thanks going to skiffy ) and freed up my gpu, my remeshes worked perfectly and the buckle came out the other side smooth. Here is the file as smooth (still not completely flat on surface, I am not that good) and with an updated center post that will slip into the belt notch much better and not result in serious torque on the post (in link section at bottom of this post). This can then be used to create a top open casting.

    And here is a screencap of the buckle in the slicer/print program:



    And you can print your very own because I posted the file here:

    Post in thread 'Adam Ant, Then and now' https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/adam-ant-then-and-now.352898/post-5612291
  • Darrell Green
    Darrell Green ✭✭✭
    Alexander H said:
    Yep, unfortunately the internet is a vicious place for people hosting 3D models. There's still someone selling prints of a free model I uploaded, though they claim it's theirs and even countered the Etsy cease and desist order.

    Best you can do is show the world what you've got and that, hey, it's actually free!
    I have now taken this on as a hobby thanks to you. I go to the print file sales pages where I find my stuff being sold by others and I post it for free with my historic docs showing me making the original.
  • Tracey Simmons
    Tracey Simmons ✭
    I started airbrushing tonight, and wow, it does a lot! I’m waiting for this pass to dry a little overnight before I go over it again. It’s shiny when wet, so I can’t quite see how it looks until it cures more. 

  • Tracey Simmons
    Tracey Simmons ✭
    I’m calling it done on airbrushing. Tomorrow I will trim it, powder it, and finally try it on! 


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