Raiders idol chamber project....

I posted this photo recently as a tease to what I might be doing next....



A few people guessed it straight away, I'm working on the back wall to the chamber. More specifically the three panels you see at the centre there. The middle one made of stone faces, the two columns on either side, then the two panels made out of boulders, and then the final two columns. This is to go with the Indiana Jones figure I've already shown you, and the golden idol & plinth from Sideshow (with Bellow figure) that should be on its way soon.

I've been doing this in my own time, snatching minutes here and there whenever I can (in the evenings, weekends etc), so as not to slow myself down any further from the things I'm working on for people already. (I'm nice like that)

I've been working on this slowly for weeks now.

First let me say.. when I worked out how tall this would be, and printed out a photo to give me something to work off I realised... this thing is BIG!!!



I wanted to start with the columns, and knew I could make just one... then make resin copies for the others saving me sculpting time. Using some Sculpey clay (but not baking it so I could re-use it saving money) I sculpted the first column. I will be using this as something to work off when I'm doing the rest of the pieces. (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the clay sculpted column... duh!)

Then I made a clay and polystyrene box around it and covered it with silicone to make the mold. (again, forgetting to take a photo... double duh!!)

As this thing is so HUGE, I had to figure out a way to save resin or it would cost me a fortune just to do these parts. I'm still figuring this out, but it worked for the first one if I make a certain amount of resin, and let it cast on one of the sides. When this is set I can make a little more, and turn the mold on its side and cast another side. and so on. I'm figuring out the best amounts of resin to use to make the pieces strong enough but not wasteful with the resin insides. Here's the silicone mold with the first piece done this way. (you can see the resin inside)



taking it out.....



ta daaaaa!



The insides are messy as I'm still getting used to rolling around the resin like this, but in principle... it works! (plus you never see the back anyway)

The front looks rather good though, I'm very happy with this even if I do say so myself





And here we are with the column against that to-scale print out that I'm using as help, alongside other screencaps from the DVD.



This thing is going to look so cool when it's painted up as rock. (this piece has now been sprayed with grey primer.. just waiting for it to dry)

Next up is casting another one of these colums, (hopefully using less resin) and then starting on with the central panel of faces. Can't wait!

Darren

p.s. I know I'm going to get asked if I'll be able to make these for people, and the honest answer at the moment is I don't have a clue. At the moment this seems like it will use a serious amount of resin, and will be very heavy. (which for me I love, as it makes it feel more like rock) however I don't know if I'd be able to do it cheap enough so people would still be willing to pay for it.

I'll look into it though, maybe the more I do the better I'll get with the casting and be able to use much less resin. I'll keep you informed anyway.