Sculpting a GM from scratch...ground up

[redkraytdragon]

Hi there everyone,

Well, I felt that it's finally time that I introduced myself to you all over here. I've been around here and there in the RC section on Ct.net for a while, but I've long been aspiring to build a GM (cause I just love that costume) and after a short stint with sculpting Mando/Boba Fett armor I feel comfortable enough to move forward with this project.

I've LONG looked at doing this costume, but until recently have felt confident in attempting a complete scratch sculpt/build of the armor...I've attempted, to the best of my abilities, to stay as true as possible to the screen caps while balancing a real world feel/practicality to the look of the armor. As we all know in the clone world, that's a difficult thing to do.

I've been feverishly working on this shin armor for the last 3 weeks (after a short setback) and now feel like I've gotten to the point where I'm confident in sharing my progress with you all.

So here it is, my interpretation of the GM/Kashyyk shins (so far.... more armor pieces are in my plans).

I've sculpted these with my own body style in mind while trying to stay true to the original movie stills as much as possible (cause I'm anal like that ) I cut these out and taped them together to try them on...granted these are not KC boots that they're sitting on so keep that in mind (I'll be getting a set soon to put them on to see where they're at), but so far I'm VERY pleased with the results and the look.

This set is pre assembled to my foot as a seamless cut cause I wanted to see how they look slipped on like a sock. These have quite a bit more of a slender/curved look which was what I was shooting for. The first pics you'll see are of the first attempt at a narrow set. I've also sculpted a wider set per the recommendation of others over on CT

So without boring you any further, please take a look at the pics below

Pics of the narrow set

[redkraytdragon]

Here's some pics of the wide set (please ignore the chicken legs )
Boot armor courtesy of MB

[redkraytdragon]

[redkraytdragon]

And here's a few shots of the wide vs. narrow side by side for comparison:

[redkraytdragon]

These knees I actually made a few years back, but here they are anyway for the sake of the thread

[redkraytdragon]

And here's the latest addition to the family, the chest. This is still a work in progress but I was excited to share it with you all so here it is!









Let me know what you all think so far! Thanks for looking

[berzerker]

You know what I think....

Love that RKD GM armour. Glad to see you are going beyond the lower legs. It looks great.

[variant]

Glad ya made it over here Will. Yep I've got a set of RKD's GM shins. Love em. I also own all his Mando armor,His sculpts and attention to detail are fantastic.

[danrodjr]

Looks great, RKD your really moving forward.

[redkraytdragon]

Thanks all for the kind and warm welcomes! Took me a while but I finally made it over here. I've been wanting to do a GM for so long I can't even remember lol. Anyway, more pics to come very soon! I hope to have this chest mold done in about a week or so. Stay tuned!!
Will

[redkraytdragon]

Got this knocked out this morning so I wanted to share real quick. I did a preliminary test pull for a master and was fairly pleased with the results...still got a few nitpicky things to do to it, but they're minor so shouldn't take long.

Hope to have this done by the end of the week. Take a look:

[Kylar]

Your pulls look excellent! And it is good to have another supplier to add to the list of GM parts makers.

[redkraytdragon]

Thanks kylar More good stuff on the way so stay tuned!

[redkraytdragon]

Here's a test fit with me wearing V1


Barry over on CT informed me that the arch on the flat area was too tall. After thinking it over while at work last night I decided to take the plunge and correct it. Got home this morning and knocked out the necessary corrections...after ha humming and walking around the garage for about ten minutes and looking at the mold and the ref pics I finally balled up and did it. I still hung onto the old master just in case, but as I started sanding it down I became very pleased with what I was starting to see. Here's the results:

Comparison side by side with the old V1

I also decided to slope down the upper chest area just a bit more so it didn't look so bulbous and for more ergonomic conformity (correction version in the background)



Let me know what you all think!
I'll post pics later with me test fitting V2

[Tango Fett]

Welcome, and congratulations for your work. I've been following your shin advance in CT and it is amazing, specially the fact that you are able to thermo mold those sizes, that is amazing.

I also absolutely agree and feel the same when you say that you try to balance the few and lo quality screen caps with the real world. I'm following the same path.

The problem with the GM is that the references are so few or so lo quality that is hard to create an accurate one, and everybody who builds who builds from scratch, does it with the small variations of it's own interpretation of the armor.

So I wish you the best luck with your build and welcome to the 53rd!.