The Predators 2018, Building The Ultimate Xmass Grinches! WIP Hot Glue Blood/Gore Effects, New Blade Weapon For FP & Next WIP Reveal..

Stryker2011 wrote:This is so incredible to watch this guy come together. So much work; I’d never have the guts to cut up, or sculpt, tiny bits like that.

They were mostly just old rough resin casts I've reused a few times and bits of the already cut up Violator fireplace Spawn dio. Just remembered the teeth on the open jaws are actually from Tyr's boots (Andromeda character in 1/6 I bought bits of from TA many years ago).

Rogerbee wrote:The Gremlin is a fully painted life size latex puppet and he looks like this:



Surprisingly they're less than £250.

BTW, nice work

CHEERS!

Very nice! What height is he?

28", I think it's based on a hero puppet. Some of them were larger for better articulation. I always thought they were no more than 18". He does look good though. I get round it by thinking that the ones that attack Billy's mum in the kitchen aren't quite fully grown.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
28", I think it's based on a hero puppet. Some of them were larger for better articulation. I always thought they were no more than 18". He does look good though. I get round it by thinking that the ones that attack Billy's mum in the kitchen aren't quite fully grown.

CHEERS!

Wow! Thought he would be 15" max! Is he articulated with an internal skeleton? Looks great.

Done black primer, got a magnetic jaw swapping system working, just needs the steel washers to be set flush or receded to eliminate any gaps. Woking on a neck system that is ironically being made from a leftover 1/12 Predator Hound's head!

Looking good,

The Gremlin is pretty simple inside, there are wires in the ears and arms and that's it. The back is open so you can pop your arm in and puppeteer the head. I suppose, if you wanted to, you could put full animatronics in there, but I won't. I've wanted a life size Gremlin for years!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
Looking good,

The Gremlin is pretty simple inside, there are wires in the ears and arms and that's it. The back is open so you can pop your arm in and puppeteer the head. I suppose, if you wanted to, you could put full animatronics in there, but I won't. I've wanted a life size Gremlin for years!

CHEERS!

Ah, literally a puppet then! Cool.

Got my new keyboard working YAY! Turns out it was just my Bluetooth dongle that needed to be upgraded as it was a £2 piece of garbage.
Been busy doing mods and tweaks to the head and neck assembly to make them fit and work properly. Lots of pics to explain.

No more gaps!





















Attached with articulation but cosmetic and structural work not completed yet





































Reinforcing the neck and covering it and the chin in skin which is blended with glues.

I guess, I'd say he was a hand puppet. Is that Scrapheap Challenge you're watching in the pics? That'd really suit you and your ingenuity. The Pred looks to be coming together now.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
I guess, I'd say he was a hand puppet. Is that Scrapheap Challenge you're watching in the pics? That'd really suit you and your ingenuity. The Pred looks to be coming together now.

CHEERS!

Yup! Been a fan of SHC since year dot.. not sure how many times I've watched all the series and its affiliates over the decades! Luckily You Tube seem to have most of it as I can't find it on DVD anywhere, might have some series burnt to DVD from torrents but not sure where they are!
Just spent ages removing and trimming all these little horn/bone bits that I'll add to his head and body for armour later, I also discovered that the Violator's eyes I'd cut out were a perfect match for the FP's helmet lenses that I'd been wondering what exactly to do with to make them sharper and less vague, I had planned to draw fine black lines vertically over the red or add mesh but the Violator's eyes took care of all that giving them a convex shape and are a perfect fit! Primered the head again and detached all the dredds so they are ready to be attached to the new head.

Man, that is one ugly MF as Arnold said, LOL

Coming together now!

CHEERS!

Peaches wrote:Man, that is one ugly MF as Arnold said, LOL

Exceptionally so! Ironically the biologist doctor/professor called the Fugitive Predator a beautiful MF! There are loads of in-jokes referring to the original movie that are corny as hell but meant to be so quite funny.

Rogerbee wrote:
Coming together now!

CHEERS!

Yup, had to dremell new holes to ad his dredds and still have quite a few of the shorter ones leftover to use on the HT head in a future build which is a bonus! Got all the black silicone and bony bumps/spikes to do next all over him..

































I still need to add actual metal copper armour plates to the stems of his dredds and little spikes to his forehead.

Really looking like a Predator now! My TOTS Gremlin arrived earlier, thread will be up shortly...

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
Really looking like a Predator now! My TOTS Gremlin arrived earlier, thread will be up shortly...

CHEERS!

That must have been exciting to unbox! Can't wait to see your in hand pics of it!
Ordered myself a nice new toy today, been trying to track down one of these H&K MP5SD6's for yonks now, finally found a gas blowback version new here in the UK! Has a 3 round burst, semi auto, full auto, built in suppressor and recoil, a military and movie classic!

You betcha!

It's great when you find a UK retailer that has what you want. It's always wise to pounce on it when you do as they don't always carry as much stock as others do and can sell out if you wait. It was purely by chance that I found that Gremlin where I did.

Go, go, go!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
You betcha!

It's great when you find a UK retailer that has what you want. It's always wise to pounce on it when you do as they don't always carry as much stock as others do and can sell out if you wait. It was purely by chance that I found that Gremlin where I did.

Go, go, go!

CHEERS!

Try buying RIF airsoft guns! You can't get them from abroad as customs tend to seize them, defence or not, or just charge you a fortune after making you wait months (in rare cases years!) and the UK dealers are only given a fraction of what they should be since Asia and the USA have huge turn overs so get the lion's share...

Excellent work, brother...

And, well...  

shovelchop81 wrote:USA have huge turn overs so get the lion's share...

That sounds about right.  

PureEnergy wrote:Excellent work, brother...

And, well...  

shovelchop81 wrote:USA have huge turn overs so get the lion's share...

That sounds about right.  

Thanks PE! As for the lion I'm not even going to go there since I'm Irish!

Glued on loads of of bony spikes as his biomechanical armour (it retracts in the movie) and have been applying silicone to all the latex edging and any gaps, still have more to do but need to let the first lot cure first.

Looking good!

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
Looking good!

CHEERS!

Thanks! Hopefully finished with the silicone, not the nicest stuff to work with, smells bloody awful and tricky to apply as it's the high temperature engine gasket stuff. It'll all be primered matte black then painted shades of green, red etc.. Took a fair amount of dremelling to make his crotch armour wearable since it was a solid lump of plastic and not rotocast.

Funnily enough, I was advised to avoid slilcone on rubber, but, if it works for you then it works.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:
Funnily enough, I was advised to avoid slilcone on rubber, but, if it works for you then it works.

CHEERS!

WHAT? That's bonkers and really bad advice! Like I've said before silicone oil preserves rubbers and polymers/plastics, it needs to be alcohol and mineral free so not the crap people buy from automotive shops for making their dashboards and tire sidewalls shiny, that stuff contains ethanol for quick drying so it might look pretty but will do more harm than good in the long run especially in hot climates. Which is why I have always recommended airgun silicone oil which is pure and akin to putting baby lotion on dry skin. I can tell you this as a certified Harley Davidson mechanic (we use rubber 'O' rings and lines with DOT 5 brake fluid which is silicone unlike DOT 3 and 4 used by most other motorcycle and automotive companies which will literally eat off your paint so they have to use metal washers and reinforced or metal brake lines); also as a holder of a BSC(hons) having done material studies during my product design degree and further studies during my 1st year of a Beng degree in motorcycle engineering. On top of that I've been working on air guns since I was a kid and they are exactly the same, lots of rubber seals and polymer moving parts that REQUIRE silicone oil to function! Who ever told you that is obviously wrong and perhaps used the dashboard polish not knowing any better. Read my posts Roger, I told you all this on the previous page mate as well as times in the past... Sorry apparently I needed a rant and my Xanax hadn't kicked in yet!

Added his central bone ridge/crest and the metal copper (from the insides of a car aerial) armour plates he seems to have in lieu of the more traditional bone crest/frill around his head to cover the tops of his dredds.

That is so cool. Ingenious using a car antenna.

shovelchop81 wrote:

Rogerbee wrote:
Funnily enough, I was advised to avoid slilcone on rubber, but, if it works for you then it works.

CHEERS!

WHAT? That's bonkers and really bad advice! Like I've said before silicone oil preserves rubbers and polymers/plastics, it needs to be alcohol and mineral free so not the crap people buy from automotive shops for making their dashboards and tire sidewalls shiny, that stuff contains ethanol for quick drying so it might look pretty but will do more harm than good in the long run especially in hot climates. Which is why I have always recommended airgun silicone oil which is pure and akin to putting baby lotion on dry skin. I can tell you this as a certified Harley Davidson mechanic (we use rubber 'O' rings and lines with DOT 5 brake fluid which is silicone unlike DOT 3 and 4 used by most other motorcycle and automotive companies which will literally eat off your paint so they have to use metal washers and reinforced or metal brake lines); also as a holder of a BSC(hons) having done material studies during my product design degree and further studies during my 1st year of a Beng degree in motorcycle engineering. On top of that I've been working on air guns since I was a kid and they are exactly the same, lots of rubber seals and polymer moving parts that REQUIRE silicone oil to function! Who ever told you that is obviously wrong and perhaps used the dashboard polish not knowing any better. Read my posts Roger, I told you all this on the previous page mate as well as times in the past... Sorry apparently I needed a rant and my Xanax hadn't kicked in yet!

Ahh, it was probably the automotive stuff that was being referred to, like Armor All. Gotcha! Sorry!

CHEERS!

He's coming along really well now.

CHEERS!

Stryker2011 wrote:That is so cool. Ingenious using a car antenna.

Lucky I kept them! Wish I had more..

Rogerbee wrote:
Funnily enough, I was advised to avoid slilcone on rubber, but, if it works for you then it works.

CHEERS!]


Ahh, it was probably the automotive stuff that was being referred to, like Armor All. Gotcha! Sorry!

CHEERS!

Most likely they used the wrong stuff and had a bad experience due to the ethanol drying out the rubber, stops it being slippery which kind of makes the lubrication and 'nourishment' properties moot. People ignoring my silicone advice has turned into a bit of a pet peeve over the years as SO many 1/6 figure and Transformers You Tube reviewers ask for a solution to either preserving rubber figures or quietening squeaky plastic/polymer joints and I've always told them about airgun silicone oil but not one has ever acknowledged my advice and seem to dismiss it which drives me nuts!    
Guess I dumped all that pent up frustration on you Roger, sorry! Friends always get the crap to put up with!    

Rogerbee wrote:
He's coming along really well now.

CHEERS!

Thank you! Paint today!

NECA just released their pictures of their Assassin (Hulk) Predator for the 7" line, he'll be nearly 12" apparently but doesn't look it in the pics. My FP is 13" and my HP is 16".

That’s the one thing I never got from the newer Pred movies, is why they would hunt each other... Guess they must get bored hunting species lesser than them.

That NECA figure looks quite good, but, their regular predators are the same size as humans. Gives you a bit more reference though.

CHEERS!

Stryker2011 wrote:That’s the one thing I never got from the newer Pred movies, is why they would hunt each other... Guess they must get bored hunting species lesser than them.

It's a bit more complicated than that, I'm no fountain of knowledge on Predator lore (only watched the movies and came across some info in my figure research etc..) but they have clans that like any society tend to clash now and again especially over tradition it seems, I believe this is loosely based on the Japanese Samurai Bushido type situation which is in conflict with change and breaking tradition. In this case an unknown clan (to me that is) have started experimenting with genetic modification of themselves using DNA from their most resilient prey (taken in the form of trophies like the skull with spine containing all the brain matter and nervous system). The Fugitive Predator turns out to have some human DNA which is perhaps why he travels to Earth (betraying his clan) to try to warn the humans of the imminent new genetically boosted Predators soon to come their way, he also brings a special gift to help the humans fight the advanced giant Predators (like the Assassin/Hulk Predator) in the form of a MECH/Iron Man type suit to even the odds a bit. Of course his clan would be furious of his betrayal of their banned experiments (causing problems for them on their home world as well as ruining their plans to breed genetically enhanced hunters that would have been secretly sent off world to be tested against even bigger prey) so they sent the already genetically enhanced Assassin Predator to eliminate the Fugitive Predator (recovering his DNA for analysis with the traditional 'ripping his head and spine out of his body' collection process, this is conjecture on my part but it is what he does). The Assassin also needs to locate all their stolen technology (by the Fugitive Predator) and take it from any humans who may have found it (FP's spaceship crashed when they shot it down thinking it was a threat so they did find loads). The Assassin Predator is also tasked with finding new useful DNA for his clan's experiments, which in this case is a little boy who is autistic but with a genius IQ, making me conclude that they want their enhanced ultimate hunters to be brains and brawn. Damn am I glad you asked this question after I'd got my new keyboard working!!!

Primered the entire figure in black now so it's just waiting for paint apps. There is a flaking problem due to the latex but that's better that the paint never curing which is what happens with some primers on rubber based builds..