New Webstie SkylowStudio.com

Thanks everyone for visiting this site and checking out Skylow Studio on Facebook. I have recently launched an updated website at SkylowStudio.com that includes a gallery of finished work, work in progress blog, and contact forms for those interested in custom commissions. Please visit the new site as it is where I will be updating things from now on and thanks again!

Capture Trooper Suit for Killzone: Intercept

Now for my biggest and most exciting project to date. I recently had an amazing opportunity to be part of something big that I've had to keep pretty quiet about until now. A friend of mine from back in college introduced me to a friend of his by the name of Brian Curtin. You may know Brian as the man behind the incredibly popular Beyond Black Mesa and other Half Life youtube videos. The fame he gained from producing those self-made films attracted the attention of none other than Gorilla Games, the makers of the Killzone series. They supported him in creating a short live action film based on the Killzone universe which is out now 

Killzone: Intercept

Find out more about Brian's work on his facebook page here 

Infectiousdesigner 

Through a very fortunate series of events I was introduced to Brian and brought on to produce the Capture Trooper suit for the film. This was by far the most stressful, difficult, and rewarding project I have ever completed. In roughly only two months I produced the first copy of the suit from scratch to be featured in the film. This included studying references, sizing out parts, sculpting the pieces by hand, molding and casting each piece, gathering supplies, building the under suit, painting, and finishing. With that finally completed, Gorilla Games was impressed enough to request a suit of their own. This copy is the one I want to share with you now. 

This suit has been produced from the original molds I created from hand built and sculpted pieces. I am horrible about taking progress shots of my work because I tend to work too quickly to stop and take photos. I do have a few however which you will find below. Keep in mind they do not show even a fraction of the total amount of work and pieces that went into the production of this project. Now I will sit back and let you enjoy what you really want to see, the pictures.

All of the molds that make up the suit

All of the cast armor pieces.

Some of the details I would like to call attention to (because I'm proud of them) are the glowing eyes which you can see through perfectly clearly, but those outside cannot see in, they only see the glow. This was achieved with a great product called glospex which I quickly broke down and re-wired for my own purposes. All details from the in game model are present as well such as the arm blade (of course), hand grip for the arm blade, full helmet with hoses, re-breather back pack, all armor plates and protective pads, and all utility and tactical pouches.

I did have a day to dawn the suit myself and take some photos before I had to deliver it. Here are a few of those.

Thanks for reading!

Hawkgirl Helmet, Mace, and Chest Piece

A friend of mine from college contacted me not too long ago about helping out with her latest costume, an accurate Hawkgirl costume from the Brightest Day series. She is a very skilled fashion designer and has created numerous other costumes but wanted assistance with molding and prop making, which is where I came in. I started out with a mannequin head that just happened to be almost the exact size as her head. I then covered it with a thin layer of clay and began working out the basic shape using lenses from an old pair of sunglasses to serve as place holders for lenses after molding.

For the actual lenses I ordered a mirrored yellow lens for an Airsoft face mask and cut two smaller lenses from it.  The mirroring doesn't translate well enough in the photos.The rest was as simple as laying down the black and yellow color scheme. Here she is wearing the finished piece.

The other few pieces she entrusted me with were the chest emblem and the mace which also had to be made match the design of the comic. The chest emblem was cut from thin styrene plastic and set inside of a piece of PVC pipe filled using bondo. 

I then molded it to make a resin copy that would attach to her harness.

The mace was created from a foam ball coated in resin with cast spikes attached. That was then attached to a piece of pipe with styrene details, a faux leather wrap, and claw pummel.

She recently finished her costume including her hand made wings and went on to win first place in the "From the Page to the Stage: Comic Book Pagent" at Dragon Con this year. Here is a photo i managed to snag from the convention.

Thanks for reading!

Nerf Dead Space Plasma Cutter

Here is a project I did for the fun of it going back to my Nerf gun bashing roots. Underneath this plasma cutter is a Nerf Recon that got a Dead Space makeover. I simply made a few elements from scratch using varied thicknesses of styrene and attached them to the shell of the gun. I made sure I did this in such a way that the slide of the gun still functioned so that it could be pulled back and cocked. Once again I am unfortunately lacking in progress shots.

The magazine ended up being the attachment point for the elements on the underside of the gun and is able to be removed to load darts.

In the end this project was just fun and cool enough to make the cut.

Thanks for reading!

Halo Reach Noble Six Helmet

Starting things off will be the first project I created that truly ventured into the realm of prop making. This is the firs project where I ever attempted sculpting and molding back in 2009 while actively participating in a halo costuming forum known as the 405th. It was a great learning experience and really opened the door for an entirely new obsession.

The sculpt was created over the course of a few months refining details and getting sizing right with a dozen reference photos. After that came molding, which was both exciting and terrifying. There is something about spending upwards of two hundred dollars on supplies for a process you've never tried before, and hoping you get it right on the first try that can be a little nerve racking. Luckily it went smoothly and sucked me into the world of prop making forever.

Here you can see the resulting casts from the mold. I didn't always stop to take photos while I worked on projects, though that is something I will clearly have to change.

 I customized a motorcycle visor to fit inside the helmet, gave it a nice paint job, and proceeded to prance around in it (the guns sadly are not my own creation). Ignore the reflections of my lighting setup in every shot.

Since then I have made a few casts for some fans in the prop community and finished out another one myself with some LED lights. Sadly the mold is beginning to deteriorate due to improper storage and a lot of use. I will soon be casting one last helmet out of my beloved first mold to be re-molded in the future.

Thanks for reading!