WIP Crew of Firefly class ship Serenity :)

Peaches wrote:Well, today I decided that River's  head is finished until the day I strip her clean and start over again.  That won't happen any time soon, I'd rather live with imperfection

And I'm still working up the courage to take out the arms of Kaylee's iconic jumper... and layed out the patches... a bit big, but I don't think I can do better

The flash makes her red heart look yellow!  

Anyway, I have a little problem in that her head connector is ... different.  It is a full socket, and well glued in. It fits the phicen 25b ball but is slippery causing River's head to slump around.  I'm thinking a lining of... I don't know? rubbery stuff would help it make traction on the stainless steel ball, but I have no idea what to coat the socket with?  The thing is super glued in and I don't see an easy way to take it out

Ugh, that nose is driving me crazy, It's not so noticeable in person, but the  paint shows up so strongly in photos

She does look really good, you got her eyes spot on. This is as close as I ever got digitally:



The face was a custom texture and really helped the likeness. I tried and tried with existing textures, but, could never find one that looked right. I did the underlying face in Poser years ago and it took me months and months and over 9 attempts before I got to something I liked. I studied every pic of Summer I could ever find and noted every detail. She has so many imperfect features, if just one is off it stands out a mile.

You've done really well!

CHEERS!

Thanks for the wrapping stuff suggestion, unfortunately I can't get that thing out of her head so I can do that. However, I think Stryker's idea will work

@Rogerbee, Thank you for the complement. Hope I don't ruin the look finishing her up:D. Can you get your model printed in 3d?

Oh, and eyes are still dulled out...

I was talking about the general shape of the eyes. Summer has one of those faces that completely changes in appearance according to the angle of the photo and the lighting. This is the main pic I used for reference:



Her facial structure is so unique and really hard to capture. I'm not sure if I still have all the files. It's possible maybe that it could be printed.

CHEERS!

Roger, if you’re interested in seeing the subtle differences in Summer’s face. Print that photo that you usd out and do that technique I mentioned in that discussion about the Luke Skywalker likeness (be sure to do it for both sides of her face, as it will really help show the difference from one side to the other) — it’ll help your eye to see where adjustments need to be made. I’m sure it’s something that can be done right on your computer, also, as opposed to using tracing paper. Cut the picture in half, mirror the image, and merge the original image to the mirror image. Summer does indeed have a subtle difference from one side to the other — unlike someone like Shannon Doherty, who is practically a Picasso painting.

Oooh, probably not, I nearly drove myself bat crazy trying to perfect Summer. I don't think I could go through all that again!

I did discover that she's in Season 2 of Arrow though. Paramount Network have only recently wrapped up the first one, so it's an exciting prospect that I've got some kickass Summer action to look forward to that I haven't seen before.

CHEERS!

Cool, love Summer Glau as well

My comment on the eyes was meant for my figure. The store still doesn't have gloss

Saw earlier that QMX are making Firefly mini statues. There's only Simon Tam so far, but he does look pretty good.

CHEERS!

Do you mean the little damn heros?

Yes, that's the one. Mmmm, I didn't look as closely at it as I should have. It's not quite as good as I thought.

CHEERS!

Oh, I think they're cute

[quote="Peaches"]Oh, I think they're cute [/quote

I thought they were cute too! I am strongly considering getting a Jayne and River. My only hesitation is that they are a bit pricey, over here at least, considering that they are 'only' statues. But I do they think are super cute!

I'll have another look sometime. I'll take a River in any scale!

CHEERS!

Poor river, I decided to do a repaint and now she has globs of putty on her face, it's like so many things aren't right about her face, I decided to start all over with her...so I'm buying another head just in case, LOL

Aww, well i know the feeling...and also know how it goes to buy an extra as backup, lol!

Sorry to hear that, I hope the new one works out.

CHEERS!

Peaches wrote:Poor river, I decided to do a repaint and now she has globs of putty on her face, it's like so many things aren't right about her face, I decided to start all over with her...so I'm buying another head just in case, LOL

That's a bummer. I ended up buying 5 of the same head (just for that very reason). Hopefully, by the time I get to the 5th head, I'll know what I'm doing, and I'll have at least ONE that works.

Well, I haven't ruined her yet that I know of, LOL. Seems like the more putty I put on, the more she looks like river (a younger SG). There is no word in English that I know of for one of my problem areas,but for dogs it's called the 'stop' where the nose hits the forehead. It's so sharp (thin) and deep on the sculpt, but with SG, it's shallower and softer, though still thinnish. The seller calls this a Korean face, though people also call it a SG face, so I can't judge if it was done well or not? But it definitely looks too sharp and needs to be made softer and younger.

In the mean time, my mohair arrived so if I can get her fixed up and painted, I can finish her

The majority of mine were one shot deals. When I first started out, I didn't have an online bank account, a Paypal account or an eBay one. I'd buy full figures off the shelf just for one part!

CHEERS!

Peaches wrote:Well, I haven't ruined her yet that I know of, LOL.  Seems like the more putty I put on, the more she looks like river (a younger SG).  There is no word in English that I know of for one of my problem areas,but for dogs it's called the 'stop' where the nose hits the forehead.  It's so sharp (thin) and deep on the sculpt, but with SG, it's shallower and softer, though still thinnish.  The seller calls this a Korean face, though people also call it a SG face, so I can't judge if it was done well or not? But it definitely looks too sharp and needs to be made softer and younger.  

In the mean time, my mohair arrived so if I can get her fixed up and painted, I can finish her

There is a word in English for that part — it’s called the “bridge” (it’s where the two nasal bones meet to join the nasal cartilage together at the brow).

That gets expensive fast, eh? @Rogerbee?

Aw shucks @Stryker2011 , I thought the bridge was the boney part of the nose! Gosh I feel stupid! LOL

Peaches wrote:That gets expensive fast, eh? @Rogerbee?

Aw shucks @Stryker2011 , I thought the bridge was the boney part of the nose!  Gosh I feel stupid!  LOL

Technically, it is the bony part of the nose. The majority of a person’s nose is just cartilage. That part of the nose between the eyes isn’t all that big, but it’s the part most folks squeeze when they get a sinus headache.

Peaches wrote:That gets expensive fast, eh? @Rogerbee?

 LOL

Not so much back in the day. I'm talking when a boxed 1/6 figure would cost £39.99. I paid that for my Gremlins! Thankfully it was a habit I got out of when I became more online savvy and figure costs went up.

CHEERS!

I´m fascinated by the likeness of Your Sculpts to Faces of the actors. Great Work !

Thank you! Fingers crossed it works out

Just a wee update,. I have shepherd's, Simon's and Inara's heads in hand. Still waiting on Kaylee's and Zoe's. In case my River doesn't pass the test, I have a second head coming in. I still need to glue her hair on. I have clothes for everyone, though some of it is imperfect and kind of a stand in. I want at least two looks for the girls in the end.

Latest big expenses are that I chose to get my Washbourne a Jiaou body in 'natural' which should be lighter than the others. I might want to do bedroom scenes with Zoe, I just love that they explored healthy committed relationships on that show which are so rare! And their cute in-bed banter scene was a favorite. So a seamless arm is going to be nice to drape over her seams with blankets doing the rest.

I also got another phicen 25b for Inara... Well actually, it's for River because I'm lazy and River is wearing Inara's outfit at the moment, LOL.
Wash's body will go to Simon and I ordered Shepherd's body which I have to wait for before painting his head. So I've mostly been spending money and working on Shepherd's sculpt. I tried taking a short cut because I was having a hard time taking off the hair of the original sculpt, LOL, and tried to overlay it but the head got too big. I gotta try dremeling it all down now. No shortcuts

Inara's head sculpt has a larger nose than I thought, so she will also need to be modified beyond her hair.

And now I come to the biggest commitment to this project... Which dioramas to build and in which order. First one is most used and everyone hangs out there so I figure it may be the most important:
1. Kitchen/lounge
2. Cockpit
3. Inara's shuttle
4. Crew cabin
5. Loading Bay
6. I really want the crew cabin hall too

I'll need to add on to the house for this! LOL. I feel like Inara's shuttle would be the easiest to accomplish, but least useful.

Looking forward to seeing what you've done.

CHEERS!

Yes, yes, and more YES to everything you're doing and planning here!! I'm rooting for you big-time!

P.S. I can think of a NUMBER of uses for Inara's shuttle....and no doubt so can she and Mal....

Wow! Coming along nicely!
I was a late comer to Firefly, though not terribly, but late enough that I could not voice my opinion to keep it alive.
Serenity is an enjoyable movie, I think it does a nice job of summing up the series for people who have never seen it, even if it doesn't fit "puzzle perfect".
Each of the actresses and actors have other work, but it think Firefly brings out so much from their talents.
I can't wait to see your progress continue. I'm loving your work on them so far. Kaylee's jumpsuit looks great! I can almost hear her saying " And don't fly in anything with a Capissen 38 engine;they fall RIGHt out of the sky."

This all sounds so cool. I also like the banter in that scene: “Here lies Zoe.. all corpsified...” Hilarious. It’ll be great to see what you accomplish on all of the different heads, too.