So, starting this thread to help motivate myself to not procrastinate and get started on a Genestealer Cultist costume. Goal to be done for Dragon*Con 2012 (plenty of time right?)

Starting out with brain storming then will post progress pics as they come along.

Trying to decide on doing a generic hybrid or a Magus. Thinking the Magus would offer cooler props.

Ideas so far:

Makeup/Prostetics - pale with light purple tint makeup on the skin, with some darker veins added in around the temples. Carapace plate down forhead. I'm not brave enough to shave my head for a costume, so either need to use a baldcap, or go all out and make a silicon mask off a lifecast. I kind of want to do that just because i've made smaller prostetics, but never a full mask. Silicon masks are far superior than latex as well. They show all your facial movements/expression.

Also sharp pointy evil teeth. I currently have a pair of these from an old costume


For the hypnotic gaze they have, thinking of getting bight yellow fx contacts. However, i've never worn contacts before so dunno how I would do with them.

Props - Staff, sitting at the top would be a container with a tyranid ripper in a green liquid, looking like a tyranid fetus, a beacon of the great invasion to come.
Laspistol - with defaced aquila. Thinking burnt/melted in middle like if acid was dripped (or spat) onto it.
Scroll cases - with Tyranid ouroboros symbol.

Clothing - robes, maybe some light armor. Been trying to find what the robes that have the part that covers the mouth and partial nose like this mini has:

If I don't do that, would go with the model that had the shorter / open robe so can have some extra decor added to everything.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I need to decide what to work on first.

On my lunch break went walking stores for material ideas (I have a lack of work to do at my day job :( ). Think I am going to start on the staff first. The standard miniature staff head is a sort of totem like genestealer holding onto an orb. Figure I can still do the idea of a tyranid like fetus in the staff, put it in the orb. Good thing there are lots of Christmas ornament stuff available in the stores now :)

I may go with the actual hood. Seems its part of a back armor / life support pack type aparatus. From the two model examples below I like the one on the right (also shows example of the staff)

Thinking either EVA foam, or I can make it out of wood or foam and mold/cast or vaccuform it. I'm not a fan of my current vaccuform rig as I don't have a separate heating element and have to use my oven. Tend to avoid using it if I can.

Here is a guy who made a Guyver suit using hot glue. The mini's look like the backpack is at least partially organic in style so this might be a thought.

http://www.bioweapons.com/HOW_TO_MOLDING.htm

Ooo, thank you Wookie, definatly a look into. I've seen that guys work before on deviantart.
Seems like a good cheap alternative.

Can't wait to see this one, it sounds cool.

Home from the day job, starting up netflix and getting started on the staff. Will have pics later on tonight of progress. Hopefully I don't have too many distractions (people tend to want to kidnap me a lot)

Ok, movie over. Only interruptions were a couple phone calls. Didn't get very much done, but at least it is a start.

Working on the staff first. Base pole is pvc. Wanted something hollow in case I have the need to run electronics inside. Also helps with the weight.

The orb is a plastic clear ornament from Hobby Lobby. They are premade to open up in the center, so no cutting in half necessary!

PVC is 1" thick. Picture with orb on top just for size comparison. On the final prop will have a genestealer patriarch type thing holding the orb as in the miniatures. Probably going to make that out of Apoxie Sculpt.



For the Ripper / Tyranid Fetus inside I am using Super Sculpey polymer clay over an armature of aluminum foil and wire. Didn't snap a picture with the wire, but it's mainly for the little still developing legs. I still have a lot of work to do. Have to make the mouth, smooth things out bake and paint.

armature


just added legs


fleshing it out

Wow! Nice sculpt. Great start.

Definitely like that sculpt. Very parasitic looking. :D Looking forward to seeing where this progresses.

It looks like marzipan... *chomps the head*

People eating Tyranids, what's the world coming to?

*thwaps with newspaper*
No! Do not eat the Tyranid. Going to confuse the Hive Mind doing stuff like that.

Thank you everyone for the early encouragement. Currently at the day job so have to wait until tonight to continue work.

I should be finished with the sculpt for the bug in the orb tonight and started on the headpiece of that staff holding it up.

I will be using Apoxie Sculpt for that. I have never used Apoxie Sculpt, but have heard great things about it. Will be a learning experience.

Now, I had an ideas about the top of the staff holding the orb and need to know which would be better.
Staying true to the miniatures and have a genestealer patriarch holding the orb with the main length of the staff being a blank, solid color
or
Having the part holding the orb be a tyranid skull (looking up towards the ceiling like a V) with the orb in it's mouth and a spinal cord wraping around the main length of the staff?

I'm not sure when it's best to go purley from the source material, or expand into your own ideas.

What do you all think?

*chomps newspaper*

I like the second idea, but then again, I'm not a loyal-to-the-last-letter purist.

What will you fill the orb with?

Well, I know I want an LED light in the bottom. LEDs just make things cooler after all and think green glow will help bring the creepy alien feel to it.

First thought to diffuse the light was water with some food coloring. After drilling the hole and adding the led I could cover that with clear silicone or hot glue, as well as seal the seams where the two pieces divides to make it water tight.

I have some clear polyester resin which I could add some green pigment to tint it. Afraid that may make it too heavy, but I think if I took extra care building the armature for the piece holding the orb it will work.

This is the resin I have

Maybe a stupid idea, but what about hair gel (the coloured type)? The bubbles in it would make it even cooler, and you wouldn't have to worry about the container being airtight.

Not a stupid idea at all I like it. Actually, I think the gel Aloe would be essentially the same thing, but cheaper.

Aloe is cheap? Where do you live?!

South East USA. 20oz bottle of Aloe Vera Gel is around $4 at walmart. I know the dollar store here sells Aloe, but not the green kind

However, looking online the hair gel may be cheaper depending on the brand. A lot of the hair gels are $8 or more, but The LA Looks brand is 3.88 for a 2pk of 20 oz, so half the price for the Aloe. The Mega Hold is kind of a minty green. Will have to see if stores around here carry the Mega Hold. I only remember seeing the yellow and blue in that brand.

A Target is close enough to my work for me to stop in on my lunch break. Will check them out.

Wish I could sculpt at work. We just finished up a project and next one doesn't start until Monday so have a few days of down time.

There's always Prell.

I lucked out. Stopped by the $1 store and they had Aloe Vera gel in 6 oz. I turned the corner to the next aisle.... Hand sanitizer with Aloe gel, 8 oz. The hand sanitizer was also a slightly lighter shade of green, and seemed thicker (I shook the feth out of both containers to look at movement). So, more visibility, less movement = win

Great minds think alike. Or something.

http://whydidyoubuymethat.com/post/1098042...-guess-its-kind

Well, due to interruptions and car problems, I JUST got home and may need a new tire unless it can get patched. Huzzah.

Have to scrounge up some dinner then can finish up the current sculpt. Doubt will have time to start on the piece that will hold the orb atop the staff, but at least I can get to a point to start on that tomorrow.

Hey Sept where are you located at???? i saw SE USA im stuck here in GA

I'm stuck in SC trying to move to GA funny enough. I am right on the border close to Augusta GA (I actually work in Augusta)



edit - smoothed some things out and baked what I currently have for the fetus sculpt. Great thing about super sculpey is you can bake it, add more stuff to it, then bake it again!

Doing this so when I work on the mouth I don't accidently squish work i've already done

Cool I'm over here in lawrenceville about 45mins from ATL. Dang with all the GA people showing up on here I'm getting ready to start a Ga chapter of the OC......lol just kidding.

On to another note.... I mya have to steal this idea from ya for making some plague globes for my Plague priest costume for D*C 2012. After you back the sculpty will putting into liquid cause it to dissolve?

I actually have a small costuming group around me that is into 40k. Dragon*Con 2010 we did a group of Chaos Cultists, had about 5 people from the Augusta area.

The baked sculpey should be fine. It's not water solvable.

It's a polymer clay, meaning it's basically PVC and different liquid plastics mixed in a soft, malleable state.

Now, when it is still soft, you can use rubbing alchohol to smooth it out. I don't think it will affect it once it's been baked as the heat causes a bit of a chemical change to turn it into something similar to ceramic, just a bit tougher.

Since the hand sanitizer contains some alcohol, the next round of baking I will throw in an extra bit of clay to test it on.

Some other notes with Super Sculpey - have found that it does not like Enamel based paints. Go with things that bond with plastic like Krylon for your base coats and acrylic paints.

You can keep baking it and adding to it and rebaking it as many times as you want as long as you don't go over the max temperature or leave it in too long.

Oops, I responded to an old post.

Wow.... Thanks for all the info on that. Now I just need to figure what would look good in a plague globe.... Thanks again for this great idea.

Maggots, or any other random nasty looking insects (millipedes are creepy)
Small body parts - tongue, eyeballs, teeth?
Cicada skin shells? (I actually have a small bubble gum machine filled with these)
a Nurgling?
http://septs-shadow.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2vs6n2 - selfish plug of my nurgling I made from super sculpey

So, got home from work with no interruptions. Time to get some dinner, pick something on netflix and get to work. Tonight there WILL be progress pictures.

Have a top row of teeth done. Baked it so when I add the bottom row, the top doesn't get squished. Think i bumped the teeth when putting it into the oven as two are touching. Don't think it will be too horrible though considering this is going to be encased in an orb of goo.

I'm happy with the eyes, looks sleepy :)

Waiting for this to cool so I can add the bottom teeth and do the final baking.

Ok, sculpt is done, ready for paint. Paint can come later though, need to build everything first. Sadly I had to smush the mouth up some so that it will fit inside of the globe. I'm still happy with how it turned out.



For the rest of the staff. Thinking of sitting it inside of a Genestealer skull with it's spinal cord wrapping down around the staff.

Problem with this is, the Genestealer's vertebrae is fused with it's ribs. May be too wide to fully wrap around. I could take off the rib sections though and just have the center vertebrae, or build them on halfway so it looks like they were cut off to fit.

The globe will be in the skulls mouth looking forward. Wire, power supply and switch for the LED light will be housed in the back of the skull.

Thoughts on design?

As a base for the Genestealer skull, I first thought "hey, it's Halloween, skulls abound to build up!" but alas, they are either child size or OMG GIANT! size.
Next thought is a gourd. I've made masks with gourds before. If I can find one the right size I think this would be the best thing. Cheap, sturdy, hollow, can drill / sand etc..

Anyway, here is rough sketching of idea for the staff.

So, been out of commission this weekend due to stomach telling me I am not allowed to do anything but hug the toilet.

Bought a gourd today to start on the armature for the head so hopefully feeling well enough tomorrow to start adding material as framework for the jaw.

I did a test of the alcohol and baked super sculpey. Left it in a cup of alcohol for about 3 days (which is when all the alcohol evaporated). No effect on it. So will be safe inside of the hand sanitizer goo ball.

Your staff ideas are great. I can't wait to see how this turns out. that sculpt is nice.

Thank you :)


Not much of an update, but I guess something is better than nothing.

Started on the base for the genestealer head for the staff.

Using a gourd as the base. Gourds are basically a fibrous wood when you get down to it. You can cut, sand, glue and you can even change their shape with steam.

I found this one at hobby lobby on sale for under $2. It is about 12" tall.



After cutting off the thin top, if anyone has wondering what the inside of a gourd looks like.


I cut it in half as I plan to house electronics inside for the glowing orb. Will be much easier putting everything in there.

After removing the seeds





Trying to find something suitable for the jaw. Don't know if I want to do it out of wood or something lighter. I also thought of getting two cheap halloween skulls and using the bottom jaws as a base (then I can have materials for two servo skulls as left over!)

Going to bulk up the size with clay. I have some Apoxie Sculpt, but never used it. Think I am going to wait on the Apoxie Sculpt for something smaller, afraid to waste material. Going to go with Super Sculpey polymer clay.

Have overtime this week so killing my craft time. Throwing clay down on it tonight, hopefully can get some shape to it by tomorrow.

Using a gourd is a genius idea! That looks like it should do the trick nicely. I know what you mean about overtime :(

Genius!!! :tzeentch: :tzeentch: :tzeentch:

Last day of overtime today, wooo!

Got a little bit of clay down to start forming some shape to the top half.

Nice!

Great improvisation! :D I like the direction this is heading. The gourd idea was inspired! :o

http://youtu.be/3n3LL338aGA?t=1m40s
sorry, couldn't resist.

But what a briliant idea!
Looking forward to the finished costume