Custom Ewok with Stormtrooper Helmet Ornament

Well, while I was done with Yoda ornament, I was still in the mood for another. I also had all of my tools out on my desk, why not try one more, right?

When I was looking for Stormtrooper helmet references for "Star Wars Deluxe Design a Vinyl Storm Trooper Play Set", I came across an awesome design by SKL0 and I really like it.  I knew that I could utilize that reference and get this custom ornament done ASAP.

By using sharpie, I marked certain areas so that I know where to carve/shave and build up each area. I didn't take that many photos since I just needed to complete this one as fast as I could.

Nest step... Just getting the rough shape in place.

Now a bit more detailed sculpting...

I also baked several "round" black sculpy III for his eye. I must had a dozen different sizes to figure out the best size. It's much easier for me to sculpt around hardened eye for details. I overlaid fairly thin sculpey around his body, feet and arms so that I can put lines as his fur.

Instead of spraying primer, I used Liquitex gesso to prep surface. I must have put good 3-4 layers here.  Now time to paint!

Now it's all done!!!

...now to the 360 view

Close-up/Fisheye view

...and a bonus image with watercolor.

Custom Yoda Ornament

Here i go again. On the left is a white blank PVC plastic ornament from my work. On the right is the finished custom yoda ornament.

The place I work hosts various fundraiser events. Occasionally they have an event like this and showcase how talented all these artists and designers are with custom toys, shoes, etc. This one is a blank PVC ornament and you can do whatever (and they do!).

Just like any other projects, I sat on it for days and it was in my bag for sometime. I knew it will be another Star Wars theme, but I wasn't able to decide what to do with it.

Once due date was near, i just needed to go ahead and move on.

So here I go! I always liked stylized toy Yoda from the clone wars and found a few awesome references.  So that's what i have decided to make.

Since i will be laboring and sculpting for hours, I need to secure his leg and the head.  I just didn't need these pieces to move around while i was sculpting.

I needed to have some sort of support for his ears since it will be extended more than usual. I have drilled holes for the armature wire to go thru.

I love playing around with Super Sculpey! Sometimes it feels too soft, but I can always come back hours later (or days later) to continue sculpting. I've heard about Super Sculpey FIRM, but never had a chance to use it.

His body didn't too long to sculpt than I thought. I didn't use the arms from the original parts.... they just didn't fit right for what I needed him to do.

I baked his torso first so that I would have a firm grip around his body for sculpting his head.

now this is about 80% done with his face/head. Still missing some details and hair in the back of his head.

now it's all done sculpting and ready for baking!

DING! now his baked and pretty hard (and HOT!). you can see his toe nails is getting a bit brown... that's the result of being baked twice. Small/thinnest part usually get dark if you bake more than once. I actually don't know what would happen if you bake more than twice. It might become brittle... not sure.

I thought i made the hole in his hands big enough, but it wasn't quite big enough for his lightsaber... so i used several drill bits (by hand) to widen the hole. well, i wasn't getting a good grip so i placed the bit on the power drill and tried to go slow........ well, it was way too strong and chipped his fingers and part of his hand!!  You can actually see the damage in the picture. I did consider using the air-dry epoxy (Magic Sculp), but it will take waaaaaay too long to cure it. So i just glue it back.

I think you can paint right after baking it, but I do like to prep the surface by spraying primer or some sort of gesso. I had an used can of gray primer but it didn't have enough to cover entire sculpture, so I primed it again with white.

I only waited about 1/2 day or so to let it dry and start sanding.  You can see some gray showing up. You also see my Yoda toys as reference for colors.

Now it's time to paint!

I'm about 80% done painting the figure...

Since this is an ornament for christmas, I have created standard lightsabers (with glow-in-the-dark paint) and candy cane sabers. White/Red candy cane is made out of Sculpy III.  VERY soft and it doesn't even get extremely stiff when you bake them. You can actually bend it and snap in half.  Not a big fan if you're making something detailed or small.

 

 Now it's all done!

Oh and since this is for Christmas, he gets a Santa hat too!

...and one more with watercolor.

Custom Death Star Ornament

On the left is the clear plastic ornament for $1 at the local craft store (pat catan's). On the right is the finished custom "death star" ornament.



Here is the clear ornament untouched, ready to find the center point of this so that i can slice it in half horizontally.

I simply eyeballed and did the best i could to find the half-way point so that I could split the ornament into two equal hemispheres. I wish there was an easier way without buying other craft tools. Make sure it's perpendicular - so draw a line with a sharpie, or place a thin masking tape so that you can use it as your guideline.



Here is my favorite tool - Dremel. I attached a circular cutting blade and started chopping it in half. This plastic ornament is pretty thin and flimsy once you start cutting. make sure that the blade is in deep enough and fast enough to cut the entire thing without getting caught on the rough edge.

Once it's done cutting i used sand paper to smooth the edges. I usually do this every step by using sandpaper, sand paper sponge, or a small metal file to remove any sharp/rough edges.



Now to the superlaser dish... switch the circular blade to any drill bit to make the pilot hole. I used 1/8" drill bit, i wouldn't use anything larger than that. Once the pilot hole is drilled, i switched the drilling bit to a silicon carbide grinding stone and let the drill bit go through the entire hole. This grinding stone should leave the edge of the hole fairly smooth and you might not need to sand it at all. Now this hole is a perfect size to put the circular blade's stem*.



Put the circular cutting blade back on to make the superlaser dish. The easiest way to do this is to put the blade's stem in the ornament hole first then lock the blade into the Dremel. Yes, this sounds weird but this is how i was able to manage making the circular dish. Turn the dremel on and keep both the ornament and dremel steady and pull the dremel out. Don't use the slow speed, it will melt. you want to do this as fast as you can. MAKE SURE you don't throw away the piece you just pulled out. You will be using this piece later.

As i mentioned earlier, this plastic ornament is pretty thin and flimsy. I needed to strengthen the ornament so put the laser dish back on and put the 2 sliced pieces together. I initially wanted to use the oven-bake clay (sculpey - my favorite!), but i was quite sure that this plastic ornament will melt in the oven. So, i decided to use 2-part epoxy putty called "magic sculpt". This putty/clay comes in handy since you need 2 parts to get hardened and air dry. You can use water to smooth out the surfaces while it's still soft.

I have placed a thin layer throughout the inside of both pieces. I tried the best to spread the clay evenly so that it wouldn't be off-balance when you hang it on the tree. Make sure that you apply a touch thicker putty behind the laser dish. Once you have the putty inside of both pieces, you can reverse the piece you drilled with the circular wheel and place it over the putty.



Now, grab more putty, mix and place it in the edge of the bottom piece. I didn't use the top piece to do this since you just placed the laser dish and i'm sure it's still soft and flexible. You are only doing this to put the 2 pieces together. Make it's somewhat soft and sticky, add extra water if needed.



Place both pieces together but you will need a gap for the trench. I used 4 exacto blades - but you should at least use 6 blades to make the gap evenly throughout. You can use paperclips or other materials... you just need to be able to pull them out the next morning. Now it's time to let it harden over night.

Once this is all hardened, you should be able to pull those exacto blades. Grab a small amount of putty together and fill holes that were created by blades. You can actually water down the putty and squeeze it in with your finger and nails. this shouldn't take much time to harden. You don't really have to wait overnight for it. Maybe a few hours at the most.



Now it's time to sand and make the ornament as clean as possible from any excess putty, rough edges, etc. I used combination of 220 and 320 grade sand paper/sandpaper pads.



You will want to pay attention to the trench groove. I used a tool that i found sometime ago and i have no idea what this thing is called or where i bought it. You might be able to use concave x-acto blade or slimmest carving tool. You just need to be able to get the trench a bit deeper and make it even.



I'm a big believer of primers. Any craft work with a paint job involved, i use Krylon's primer. Very fast drying and evenly sprays. I usually have good luck with this product.



Let this primer dry for an hour or two and you're ready to sand again. Sand the entire surface and wipe it with a damp paper towel.



This is not important, but me being anal i used black Liquitex acrylic paint to get the maximum darkness for the trench. I used one of the thinnest paint brushes and painted the groove black.



The base color is silver. Since the ornament is fairly small, you don't need a full size can. I just bought one of those half size silver spray can.



One tiny trick spraying this silver paint - just don't spray straight onto the trench. you actually don't want this silver paint to cover the groove so just don't spray straight on.

According to the spray can, you should let it dry for 3 hours.



Now time for masking. I usually use Scotch's Painter's blue tape. I know there are many pin striped masking tapes for modeling and other craft project. This tape is readily available at the local home improvement stores or even at drug stores. I know it comes in different widths, but i like using thick ones and just slice it in any width. I pulled a long strip first on the cutting mat, then made about 8mm width for the first masking job over the trench. Then the rest of the masking is about 4mm in width and are placed over the ornament. Since this is circular in its shape, the masking tape will not lay all flat. I wouldn't worry too much since it will be sprayed with the glitter and it will still make nice straight lines.




Now you're ready for the final paint. I used Krylon's Glitter blast spray paint. I picked up "sliver flash" color which worked out great with the base color.



Make sure you don't over spray this glitter paint, just enough to cover the surface along with the masking tape. If you can't see the masking tape, you have over-sprayed too much... which i did for the 2nd ornament i created :(

You're not supposed to handle the surface for 24 hours, but you can actually start peeling the masking tape off carefully as long as you let this dry overnight.



Now you can put the top back on and it's all done!

To add an uniqueness to this ornament, i designed a quick custom wrapping paper. Initially this thing was created for our holiday ornament exchange party and wanted to finish it with all star wars theme :)



I repeated this pattern to fill the 11x17"canvas and printed on the laser printer. the box to this ornament is just small enough so that i wrapped it entirely.




I actually made 2 ornaments separately. The original piece was "taken" by a buddy at the ornament exchange party.... and the other was given to another friend of mine at work the following week since she didn't get it for her son at the ornament exchange.

I hope they are both happy :)