Tag Archives: pepper potts

My birthday is the last of a series of public holidays so she arrived the day after (ie today) but she was my birthday pressie to myself.

Her armour is the perfect metallic orange but in flash it shows as red. The silver is also a warm silver in real life.

She’s part of the Super Hero Squad line but never made it here that I can tell, she was boxed with a Hulkbuster and Captain America figure so probably didn’t do too well.
On the secondary collectors market she (and all female figures) go for very high prices which is why I hadn’t got her until now. Free shipping is more of the norn for us on eBay now so no more paying high fee and double that on shipping!
Now for some blue tac to put her on my monitor.

Only problem is now I really want to make this costume as her details are perfect even if her proportions aren’t. I have the arc and solo she appears in and yeah, this is a really good sculpt. Would love to know who did it. I wonder if there is a source for finding commercial sculptors (Hot Toys do this, not sure if Hasbro et al. do.

This was actually my first helmet project! But I set it aside for reasons soon to become apparent.

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.. so you can avoid my mistakes!

Lumps! A duct tape covered shaped foam ball that actually mimics my actual dimensions. Then the first layer of plasticine.

Spot the difference. A bit more upward flare to the left as well as more almond shaped eyes, the frown was temporarily in place. If you look closely in the mirror on the right you can see I had shaved the clay back to show a previous layer as it is a different colour.

Pretty logical process here: I started sculpting then made a plaster cast and put resin in the two halves.

Great.

Except not. I used paint and oil as mold release… sigh. It would have worked except for the fact that plaster is porous and neither the paint nor the oil had the ability to close them. I would have been fine using a wax or even solid vaseline. Sacrificing the initial mold would have been fine, but this just gripped like a limpet!

So for years the helmet remained stuck in plaster:

Slowly chipping away at the plaster got most the the RHS free except for the ear buds. And then I decided to try the scientific route! What helps break down plaster? Turns out basic solutions and the safest home method is to dump a whole lot of baking soda in to water and then soak the plaster.

And it works! It took a few days of soaking but here:

I accidentally bumped the pieces with my dremel way back before I knew what I was doing… I also flattened a few bumps from bubbles in the mold.

I have tested it on my head and it fits 🙂 The neck hole pinches a little but that is going to be closed over and filled so that I can cut it as needed later 🙂

Next I need to back fill each half with foam and then wiggle them in to place and close the seam. I may tape the whole head and just resin/glass that seam and then back fill.. I’m just not sure. I’d love to make a mold and cast/vacform but I’m not sure I could actually do so. Physically. I know better techniques now so could possibly but it’s the health investment.