X-Com Enemy Wellknow

 

No pictures from updates today.

I just wanted to share with you that I received the first two male characters in 1:24 scale. So the team of humans now is composed of 4 fellows, 2 males and 2 females.

I am still waiting the replacement from my chinese supplier of the two resin characters in 1:24 scale (1 male and 1 female) to complete team of six. I hope it will be completed before the end of july.

I haven't work on the figures in the last hours, but I want to correct or complete something that is still pending or is not yet satisfying me, for example:

The Chryssalid is still without the hands. I already sculpted the claws and palms, just need to add to the figure. The same situation is regarding the horns on the forehead and the sharp, protruding bones on the sides of the head and on the back of the skull.

By watching the picture of the Chryssalid at state of the art, it is evident that this beast is still missing scales on the tail and the upper lims. I'll work on that hopefully this night.

Coming now to the Ethereal, again by watching his picture I don't like the the end of the ribbon which is in the center of the robe.

It is too similar to a long tie, I'll cut the edge and make it less tie and more ribbon....

Also a bit of work, not that much, just some rectified lines and smoother surfaces are needed in order to make the helmet appear more technologic and less, how to say, "organic".

The metal color then will make the rest.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading me!

 

X-Com : the squad arrived devastated !!

 

Dear followers, obviously I never thought of leaving the three alien characters (Thin Man, Sectoid and the Floater) alone without a counterpart.

But I wanted to make a surprise.

Instead the surprise came for me.

The Amazon package that was supposed to contain the team of 6 characters that I carefully chose to make the X-Com strike team arrived on Saturday.

Of the 6 characters I had chosen, only 2 are what I expected. Two arrived in 1:44 scale and therefore unusable, and two never arrived.

It's as if the team returned from a mission with two dead and two seriously wounded.

This is intolerable.

I had planned to finish the whole team by July, however this unexpected delay upsets my plans a bit...

To make it up to you, I'm giving you a preview of the first two women on the team.

But I know that you are unsatisfied until you can't see any progress, so... here we go:

Here above you can see how the Floater is progressing, and I was wondering how to give the idea that he's floating in the air and not on the ground. The best idea I had was to do a support made of crystal resin.

I choose a mold that I could later adapt to the scope... se again above. Of course to calculate the quantity of resin to use was a mess and I obtained a extra earring, the base (support).. acat! And last but not least a face scale 1:24 by filling a Supersculpey made negative of a famale figurine (yellow in the picture.

Then it was time to create the bases, as I since I took out a very old box of Supersculpey... The first was colored gold metal,

a second one was a typical rural terrain....

and the third I made (above) was inspired to typical urban warfare terrain. 

In the meantime the Floater was complaining that he doesn't have a proper flight thruster, so above and below you can see how I shaped the figure.

I had the unfortunate idea of ​​putting an antenna on the back, needless to say that while I was sculpting, finishing, gluing and photographing, the antenna broke at least four times and in the end the choice was to eliminate it completely or at least to shorten it....

while I was giving attention to the Floater, the Sectoid started to complain that he doesn't have any progress.... and here we go too:

Needless to say that the Thin Man asked for the same attention...

Uh!? He doesn't have the glasses yet!

Ok, here we go. Believe me: these are really microscopic ones !!!!

Better to use a good glue (Attak from Loctite) and to leave extra lenght on glasses stems and after the glue is dry I'll remove the extra lenght and model the final part of the stems.

Let me check how the three aliens are running...

But the Sectoid is bloody dark to be appreciated.... 

Better give a first base paint to see him appropriately.

Much better this way, now.

At this pont I could close the day of sculpting, but.... what can I still do with this old Supersculpey material I found in one of my drawers??? 

I still have to make up for the fact that I will hardly finish the Xcom team before July, as anticipated.

Ok, let's make some calculations: 6 humans for the X-Com Team, and 3 aliens... Mmmhh... 

This manifest numerical inferiority of the aliens can be corrected. We see...

I think you can see above what was my choice...

I don't know if my decision was a lucky one. The Chryssalid can be really challenging to sculpt and define. 

Specially when we think that a Chrissalyd needs a speciale base, that I do not have!

Okay, I still had some drops of resin, about 50ml, and a lot of Superscupley residues and flakes, but I need a casting box. Then first thing is to create a casting box.

Ingredients:

 

-strips of rubber more or less 4cm wide, 50cm lenght

-glue (internal) and silicon (external) to seal the casting box

-lot of Supersculpey flakes and wastes (or everythingelse to fill as much is possible  the volume!)

-water

-50 ml of crystal resin (eventually to be colored with half a drop of alchool color for polyurethane resin (who doesn't have at his home at leaste a copuple of drops of this stuff dear fellows?)

How to prepare:

This is the most difficult part: cut the lenght you need according the dimension of the base you want to obtain. I told youi, this was the most though part! 😁😁😁

from the other part of the rubber, engrave the 4 letters X C O M using a cutter.

Alternatively you can carve whatever the hell you want if you're not making a base for Xcom!

But think about it, if you engrave the word "baker's house" it becomes a muuuuuuch longer, mooooore complicated job and then you'll have to explain to your followers what the hell a Chryssalid is doing in the baker's house.

Then glue the letters on the rubber strip, as a mirror image (basically from right to left, otherwise you will tragically fail).

Gentlemen, I'm already telling you now that I'm writing on the blog and I haven't baked this base from the mold yet... I don't know, I don't have the faintest idea of ​​how this stuff of the letters XCOM will come!!!!

Now make a ring with the rubber, please use your brain to understand that the type XCOM must be in the inside. Glue the two ends of the ring very well. There must be no gaps between them otherwise the resin will leak out.

Paste the created ring on a rubber base of the same material (I used three strips sealing the joints).

Again: no gap.

Now since luck is blind but bad luck can see very well, reseal the whole exterior well with silicone and let it dry for a few hours.

Fill with water to make a leak test: the water level must remain constant, no leaks are allowed otherwise the resin will leak out. Take it filled with water at least 30 minutes, then, if it was succesfull, empty the water and leave it to dry well: water is not friend of resin! 

Put all those Supersculpey or whatever stuff into your new casting box, add half a drop of color to the resin (I used half drop of orange color into 50 ml of transparent resin, if you use more you risk that the resin becomes opaque (colored) and is no longer transparent.

Leave it a day to dry completely.

Don't eat it, even if it reminds you a good mixed grilled meat and pork ribs. Please.

While the base for the Chrysallid is drying, I started another figure....

Did you got it? Yes, the Ethereal.

But, where is now the Chryssalid at??

Hope you like it. see you soon, for the next post!

X-Com: Thin Man. Sectoid and Floater

 

The Thin Man :

I cut off the wrists, too long and too large.

I filed down the sleeves of the jacket because they were actually too wide. I made the Thin Man thinner, he was too thick to be a real Thin Man...

Added the tie and the collar of the shirt. I fixed the neck and filed the shoes.

A part, I'm preparing the sunglasses... a very microscopic ones... hopefuly this evening I can try to add to the face.

Here is a general view of the three charcters.

Specific picture for the Floater : added the breathing tube, and worked separately on the hands. Now I have to think of a way to make the idea that he is floating, nor am I thinking of a support made with super transparent two-component epoxy resin, will see....

I had to work specially on one feet of the Sectoid which pose was absolutely unnatural. Finally he gots his hands and a gun (on top of right arm).

I added the eyes. 

I am still unsatisfied about the fingers of the right foot that appear too rigid compared to the general pose, maybe it would be better to give to the final part of the foot (the fingers) at least a frontal bend like if  as if only the final part of the foot were supported in the act of taking a step, while the heel could remain raised with respect to the toes.

In general, perhaps to make it more similar to the image from which I started, I could think of a modification by rotating the entire right leg outwards. But this would be a very invasive change!

I hope you like it, see you soon on next X-Com progress!

X-Com: Alien forms

 

I'd say it's going well.

Thin Man finally has ears... while the Sectoid starts moving his hands and taking shape.

I am proceeding very slowly, I want to take all the time necessary to make as few mistakes as possible on the first sculpt.

It seems to me that the proportions are respected, I think that in the second round of modeling I will have to review the pose of the joints and work on the faces. 

Unfortunately at this stage you are not able to apreciate the proportion of the Sectoid because the body position I choose for him is a little bit  complicated, but when this figure is standing it is nice to see and I can't wait to see him painted and on a proper base!

 

At the same time I also started to give a minimum of shape to the aliens' weapons.

Surely you will notice that a weapon is entirely made from a stick for cleaning interdental spaces.... yes, that's right...

X-com: enemy begins!

As promised, I started working on the X-Com series.

While waiting for a very special delivery of figures from China, which are needed to custom my X-Com squad, I started modelling three classic alien villains from the game.

I'm trying to do my best to have at least:

one Sectoid...

... at least one Thin Man...

and last but not least....  a fascinating Floater...

Those survivors that follow my blog since the beginning... they know I'm not a good teller... I prefer to post images of my progress, and eventually to reply any welcome comment from your side:

See... the old style of mine, sort of a brand: a plastic cup with water, some green milliput and a thootpick! 😇

That's all I need to sculpt!

Ops! You probably noticed The Spot, from Marvel Comics, guarding the area of work... yeah yeah he's there only to remind me that I am a 1/24 modeler ...and he is suggesting me the right needed proportions...

Giving some form to the buddies.

I prefer to work in the same time the three of them, so that while milliput is drying one figure I am able to continue to work on another one...

Starting from scratch cut is much longer and the beginning is really frustrating. 

It is much more easier to custom a base (suitable and choosen carefully!), it takes just some milliput to model the base and give the peculiar details and later to paint according the figure you wish to have. But in this case I preferred to start from scratch the three characters.

I consider this more rewarding and the final result makes me prouder.

After Green Milliput dried, I could refine some detail...

I always prefer to model arms and legs separately from the body.

This is because it is not easy to model the arms and the legs when they are connected to the body due to interference within the model itself and the tool I use (mainly a toothpick and my fingers...). 

At least, in the very beginning I'm doing this way. And this is my suggestion to those that like to start the same kind of modelling. 

Specially when we talk about 1/24 mm scale, that is quite little and difficult to manipulate compared to biggare scales.

After connecting the limbs to the body I only refine them, but I try to do the biggest part of them individually and before.

When the bodies start to have a sense... and they recall more or less the charcater's peculiarities, so that I can clearly recognize what the hell I'm doing... I start to add particulars to the bodies, and to better define the arms and legs...

To give (hopefully) a better idea, I made a patchwork here in order to show the progress for example of Thin Man:

Hope you liked this post. Please come soon to see the further progress.

Yours Skif.