Sculpting my own GK?

>>15372917
https://youtu.be/iYv0ms0XlJs?t=50m3s

>>15372921

ty its all clear now.

If this isn't the right place, please let me know. Idk where else would fit for anime figure and stuff, but I know y'all build yer mechas and stuff.

>>15372917
Mecha GKs are not easy, man. It's advanced level. Take a look at e2046.com. They sell some units.

>>15372931
Try /a/ buyfag threads or /ic/ maybe.

These days a lot of them are sculpted digitally and then 3D printed using something like SLA printing. Professional machines can yield production-like quality and you get clean up done, but you're talking like thousands for a single print from a prototyping company.

The other option is to sculpt it in parts so you have a hard surface that won't be altered and one that you're working with, at least that's how the good Gunpla customizing nips do extensive gunpla customs that are made of polyester putty.

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>>15372917
It's not done with clay, it's done with polyester putty. Furthermore, you'll have to figure out how to use silicone molds and the proper way to cast and dry the parts without any excessive warping or air bubbles.

You'll also have to have a good understanding of mold tolerances and parts size that would be suitable to be cast.

Shit's tough.

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Make us a Gyanko figure, sculptorfag, bandai won't make one and the garage kits are either unavailable or not thicc enough.

>>15372979
You can do the same thing with a wax-simulant as polyester.

Nips love polyester because it's readily available from hobby brands and is stiff but soft enough to easily carve. They can also be used on finished modelers because they're temperature stable. But wax-simulants are more versatile, they just require different applications of heat for the hardness you want, though it's a little inconvenient to manually heat tools unless you have an expensive heated toolset.

There's also the fact that polyester putty before curing and the dust is toxic like resin... So safety wise clays and wax-likes beat it. Nips just don't give a shit, especially modelers.

>>15372957
Too bad they're all Chinese/Thai/Malaysian recasts.

>>15372962
The number of digital sculptors for both figures and mecha have been increasing, but there are people who still hand sculpt their robots.

>>15372979
It's done with pretty much anything you want.

>>15375389
But to answer OP's question, the sculpt is done in any medium that can maintain its shape well enough to have a mold made out of them. For GKs and most figures, that's most clays (water, oil, polymer) and pre-formed plastic pieces (sheets, rods, bars and whatnot). The material you choose to work with is your own preference, as you probably already know. Many people prefer to mix preformed pieces with clay depending on what they make (why bother trying to sculpt a hexagon when you can just cut one out of a sheet).

Different people divide up their parts in different ways. Some of them like to do it after the sculpt is finished because they say it keeps the overall balance of the piece better and you don't have to manage the individual pieces. Some people divide it up when they've done the basic body. In either case, you want a minimum number of parts so that it's easier on the person building the kit, while at the same time having enough parts to not make it a nightmare for masking. You also want to have your parts split up so that it'll be simple to make a mold out of. (If you're making it yourself, you would like 2-part molds for every piece.

>>15375435
The mold can be made out of any of your regular moldmaking materials. Most modelers prefer silicon because it's flexible and can pick up details well. It's also fairly expensive. For prototyping or single-production casts, some people use plaster molds, which are inexpensive but very brittle. Your average silicon mold, if made well, can survive around 30 casts before it starts to wear down, with around 50 being the maximum a (proper) recaster will take it to before recycling it.

Once you've made your mold, you usually do a test pour to see where air traps itself in your mold, which you then fix by taking a knife to it (cleaner channels can be cut into silicon molds than plaster molds, but it doesn't really matter unless you shatter the plaster mold by mistake in this step). You repeat this until you have something you're convinced of (hopefully this doesn't take too many tries) and then you can do your regular pours. There are many finer points to this (managing temperature, applying positive/negative pressure etc) that you can look up.

>>15375472
For your painted sample/product, you usually don't want to paint the original sculpt if you have copies casted because the original sculpt is usually made out of clay, which is brittle, or mixed media, which has weak points in its structure. But before you paint the cast, you have to make sure everything fits, wash it (of any mold release that you've sprayed on while casting, to increase paint adherence to the surface), take care of parting lines, fill in air bubbles, resculpt any details that have been lost/that you wish to add. You then (preferably) prime it before painting it. Depending on your style and what you're making, the methods you'll use to paint will be different.

As a final note, depending on where you live, copyright laws may or may not apply for anything you make. For example, in Japan, if I don't get expressed permission from Bandai, I'm not allowed to sell anything that's their property. This is why we don't see any Gundam GKs outside of C3 Hobby, because that's the only event where they'll allow people to sell Gundam kits (and they'll charge royalties for it). But of course China doesn't give a shit so they can recast however many copies they want in terrible quality and not give Bandai, or the person who originally made it, a cent.

>>15375435
>>15375472
>>15375500

Thank you, this is the kind of information I was looking for. It's about what I expected (I have a firm art and general fabrication background). For my first attempt, I was planning on modifying something small like a Nendoroid head by building it up to the appropriate shape with clay/putty. That seems like a good place to start.

>>15372995

Hey, maybe. I'm gay as fuck but I like me a thicc bitcch

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>>15372917

I am sure this serie of videos will help you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWWLlq32IZA&list=PLIv9RxEDmZuX7YHtQwqwsPvC_QFoA4sNF

>>15375681
You would be an hero if you started getting some of the lesser loved characters out there some solid GK's

>>15376204
He would really become an hero. The monetary investment into making a kit only to have it not sell would make you jump off a bridge. There's a reason why nobody makes GKs of minor characters in any reasonable scale.

>>15376204

Unfortunately, I'm not actually much of a Gundam fan, but I am a fan of character designs in general-- so if there's a particular design, maybe I'll like it and make one up for ya.

>>15372957
Woah, neat. Thanks man.
Exkaiser, Dunbine, even Dragon's Heaven models for 30 bux? Why have I not been buying Garage Kits my whole life?

>>15379430
E2046 casts are really terrible

>>15379430
E2046 casts are really illegal.

To expand on cast quality, many recasters use filler materials when mixing their resin (plaster is a common choice). This drives the price down by more than half at the expense of a more brittle cast that picks up less details. This is especially popular in Thailand where the humidity makes things take longer to cure and so they use plaster to help speed that process up. Which is why you'll see bad recasts often referred to as cast in "Thai resin."

>>15379862
>E2046 casts are really illegal.
No one cares though. Most mecha GK are illegal copyright infringements too, only a handful of studios have ever had the actual rights to make "official" mecha GK anyway. I can only think of Halfeye and B-Club.

>>15379936
That's like saying scanned doujinshi are okay because IP holders don't get your ass for them.

>>15379936
But everything that comes out of a Japanese event has been publisher-sanctioned for that one event.

>>15379862
>>15379457
I know, but there's no legitimate way to buy these kits, is there? Aside from moving to Japan and going to events, that is.

If a GK only has a 100 kit run and is only sold locally in Japan, what's the issue? Forget the kit itself, some of these series will never get a single product sold in the USA.

>>15380438
You'd be lucky to break 50 in most cases. And those are for the high quality kits. The fact is that nobody gains money from turning it into a "real" product because sales volumes are low overall.

Also, there are tons of foreigners who travel to Japan just for Wonfes.