Terminator Props Finished!

[travsall ●]

Put the finishing touches on these two yesterday, FINALLY have some Terminator pieces in the collection. First up, the endo skull! This is actually a REALLY nice kit, I didn't know how much so at the time I bought it, but when i was digging around for reference I found out a few things that make it even cooler! This is a nice sharp re-cast of an old rare kit known as the M1. It was actually cast from one of the puppet heads Stan Winston studios made for part 1. So it's as accurate as any other skulls that have been made, save for one detail, because the kit was made of vinyl, and it was a straight on copy mold, the head is slightly smaller then the actual prop due to vinyl shrinkage when it dries. When I was getting screen caps, and old auction pictures from one of the heads that was sold off for paint reference I was pretty happily surprised to see just how exact my kit was, not bad for $20 It was one I figured would be a pretty basic easy build, not the case though. With a few mods I did to it, it made it fairly complex, and take longer then I had thought it would. The first thing I changed were the eyes, they were sorily lacking out of the box, just 2 large LED bulbs, didn't give close to the right look, especially when turned off. So, I ground the ends down flat, drilled out the circuit and hollowed out the back so I could attach a smaller clear LED that glows red. There's also a distinct grid pattern on the eyes of the hero head that really looks cool, so I used a little window screen to get that look. Another distinct feature on the puppet head's eyes were a slightly opaque lens, so I inset the hollowed out, screened LEDs in the eyeball housings, and used 2 part epoxy to level them out. REALLY turned out well, exactly the look I wanted! The other big change I made to the kit was the addition of the neck 'muscle' actuators. The head just looks weird without them. So in my Frankenstein like approach to building I made them out of some PVC plumbing pipe, wood dowels, and 1" long pieces from a plastic hanger For as thrown together as they are, I was leary of how they'd actually look finished and installed, again, I was pretty pleasantly surprised and I think it kinda makes the kit. Anyone who's tried to get a metal finish on plastic or vinyl knows how hard that is to do, yet another luck out with this kit I just grabbed a can of spray paint off the shelf, Rustoleum metalic finish chrome, and I'm still blown away that it actually looks like chrome LOL I had planned to do a battle worn head to cover what I expected to be typical non-metalic metalic spray paint, wasn't needed! All in all, I'm really surprised I ended up with the finished piece I did considering all the strikes against it, great to finally have a decent endo in the collection!<a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t8001.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t8001.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a> <a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t8002.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t8002.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a> <a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t8003.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t8003.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a> eyes off<a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t8006.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t8006.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a><a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t8004.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t8004.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a><a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t8005.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t8005.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a>As a nice little add on to sit beside the skull, I finally did something with the damaged CPU chip I've had for years a good friend gave me. It was in fairly rough shape, I had to rebuild a lot of it with super sculpy, and I know it's still not totally accurate. But, with the paint, it turned out pretty nice think, so made a quick little display base for it, and a pedistal from super sculpy that I could kind of mold the chip into, so it holds it pretty well. Little paint and stenciling, and blam <a href=\"http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/?action=view&current=t800cpu1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/travsall/t800cpu1.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /></a>

[hummie12 ●]

that Endo skull looks great! nice job <img src=\"style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":thumbsup:\" border=\"0\" alt=\"thumbsup.gif\" />

[b47 ●]

Cool props. Dig them a lot <img src=\"style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":thumbsup:\" border=\"0\" alt=\"thumbsup.gif\" />

[auzorann ●]

that is friggen awesome. are those models?

[monteburns ●]

That turned out awesome. <img src=\"style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":thumbsup:\" border=\"0\" alt=\"thumbsup.gif\" /> It proves that you don't have to pay $1000 to get a nice quality endo skull.

[monteburns ●]

That turned out awesome. <img src=\"style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":thumbsup:\" border=\"0\" alt=\"thumbsup.gif\" /> It proves that you don't have to pay $1000 to get a nice quality endo skull.

[Deadguy71 ●]

You did an awesome job on that thing! I totally agree that those neck rods really make it happen, and the dowels you used blend right in. If you hadn't said anything, I would have thought it was a different kit.The paintjob is great too.. thanks for the tip on what you used.I don't trust my abilites to repair those eyes as you've done, they came out great, but it looks like you've got some experience/talent with that sort of thing. Far beyond what I'd be able to pull off, I suspect.Great stuff there man, be proud of it!

[wickedbeard ●]

Those pieces are beautiful Trav, and you know I highly respect, and appreciate those Mcguyver skills.Great Job buddy!!!

[scream4me ●]

wow, thats really nice piece..

[crazydog500 ●]

really really awesome man looks sick