The Energon Pub

[Update] New pictures posted farther down.

Hi all. I've been slaving away on this for about 1 week and a half now and I finally have something to show (so I will). I've been striving to make fully articulate hands for deluxe sized figures. So far I've only completed the hand base (no fingers yet). I started with 1/100 size Gundam hands that I bought off ebay and modded it to suit my needs. I actually based them off the way Nick Roche draws his (Yeah, I'm such a fan girl...). Please forgive me if the pics are bad, I did the best I could. I hope to show more progress soon

A top down view of the backside of both hands. Right hand is on the left, left hand is on the right(confusing eh?)


A top down pic of the bottom/palms of each hand. The square notch on the bottom side of each is where the thumb will go. Groove on the tops is where the fingers will go.


This is a side view on the inside of each hand (the side the thumb is attached to). This is so you can see the shape of them a better.


This is a shot with a hand actually on a Tf (I picked Prowl because he's so awesome) so you can see the size etc. New hand is on the right side of the photo (his left).


This is like the photo above but this one shows the underside of the hands.


This is a shot showing the before and after. Original Gundam hand on the left, new modded hand on the right.


This another before and after showing the undersides. Gundam hand on the left, new hand on the right (sorry for the blurryness).


Well, that's all I got for now. I hope to post more soon. Ty for looking and I hope you like them (and I hope that I made even a little bit of sense in my descriptions) If you have and questions/comments, please feel free to post and ask.

I gotta say Sabi, I'm impressed. These look like these are gonna rock when you get them done, hope to see some more updates, and keep up the good work.

I'm guessing that this will be the humble beginnings of a future customization master. Really looking awesome sabs.

It's update time! It's been a while but I have more to show again. this hand is completely brand new and scratch built. I realized the other one just wasn't suiting my needs so I redesigned them. Keep in mind that all the pictures are just showing the base parts, they have very little/no detail and will be look a bit different next time I show them. Now on with the show

This is just a simple pic showing off my new palm design.


This is just showing the back. It's pretty much the same design as before but I added a groove around the wrist joint.


This is just a side view so you can see the shape a bit better and the slot where the thumb assembly will go.


This is showing off the thumb assembly. It will slot into the palm and be on a swivel joint. The thumb itself is 3mm wide and 2.5mm deep making them a bother to make


This is just showing off the individual parts.


These are the parts that make the index finger. They are 2.5mm wide and 2.5mm deep. It took everything I have and an insane amount of luck not to loose them... Anyway, all these parts and the thumb parts were made by sandwiching .5mm styrene sheets together.


This is just showing the underside of the above parts. You can see the layers that make them too.


That's all I have for now. If anyone is interested in more pictures feel free to visit here. Most of the base parts are done now and I will soon begin to shape them/add details. Till next time

hands down( no pun intended:P) those are awesome!..Now the question is..Any chance for some larger sized hands? Say..Combiner size? I can tell ya right now I would defintly purchase a set of those..I wish I had the time to put into crafting works of art like this..

LiKwid wrote:hands down( no pun intended:P) those are awesome!..Now the question is..Any chance for some larger sized hands? Say..Combiner size? I can tell ya right now I would defintly purchase a set of those..I wish I had the time to put into crafting works of art like this..

Once these are done it will be a long time before I do any more, they are a lot of work I don't own any combiners myself so I have no idea if they would be the right size. The size they are now is a little bit larger than regular sized hands and just about right for voyagers (at least the ones I have). Ty very much for the compliments

sabrigami wrote:

LiKwid wrote:hands down( no pun intended:P) those are awesome!..Now the question is..Any chance for some larger sized hands? Say..Combiner size? I can tell ya right now I would defintly purchase a set of those..I wish I had the time to put into crafting works of art like this..

Once these are done it will be a long time before I do any more, they are a lot of work I don't own any combiners myself so I have no idea if they would be the right size. The size they are now is a little bit larger than regular sized hands and just about right for voyagers (at least the ones I have). Ty very much for the compliments

I totally understand. I havent yet tried to tackle actual scratchbuilding objects but Im anxious too. I can give ya link to a guy who makes custom hands( or at least used too)..His stuff is awesome!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Customs-By-Zildjian/124395977576572

It's update time again Sorry it's been so long since the last one, the parts I needed had problems getting to me so it took a long time. Just thought I would take a wip shot. Please note that the fingers and some of the parts are not completely done. I just put everything together so you can see the general idea. Still a lot of tweaking to do but I'm hitting the final stretch now.

I decided to change the joints I made previously to ball joints. This way I could have a much better range of motion between the parts. I took the joints themselves off a Gundam hand (why reinvent the wheel right?). I've been cutting and splicing together parts like a mad scientist

Next up is actually casting these with resin. I hope to do that this weekend. Once that is done I can begin fixing and detailing and get much closer to a finished product.

HOLY CRAP GIRL!!!!!!! Those are amazing! Great job on all the work and I can't wait to see the finished product.

AutobotMR2 wrote:HOLY CRAP GIRL!!!!!!! Those are amazing! Great job on all the work and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Ty, ty. Sad news is after I posted that I actually had a bit of a misshap (as in broke parts and cats lost parts) and I need to get new parts again. Fate is so cruel Oh well, shouldn't take so long this time. That means I get to try new things in the mean time

I would have killed the cat. Well good luck anyway!

Ah yes I've had a couple of my cats seal the fate of many customs..Little bugers. The work is spot on though. I love to see WIP pics over time, its like watching a child grow up Im sure this project will turn out magnificent , your progress so far guarantees it

LiKwid wrote:Ah yes I've had a couple of my cats seal the fate of many customs..Little bugers. The work is spot on though. I love to see WIP pics over time, its like watching a child grow up Im sure this project will turn out magnificent , your progress so far guarantees it

Oh my, ty for the compliments Well, I love my babies (despite their meddling ways), and I just take this as a sign to try some ideas I head floating around. It surprises me how different they are now compared to when I started. I Imagine when I'm done they'll be different from now as well. Ty for taking a look

Np

Some of my best customs started out as one thing but ended up as another due to some unforseen accident. Like you said it gives you oppurtunities to try new things with the knowledge already in hand. Im eventually going to try making my own stuff once I get the space..Right now Im working on turning a City commander into a "Shattered Kommander" for the Botcon Sg prime. It's been a project ive been wanting to do for some time now..

LiKwid wrote:Np

Some of my best customs started out as one thing but ended up as another due to some unforseen accident. Like you said it gives you oppurtunities to try new things with the knowledge already in hand. Im eventually going to try making my own stuff once I get the space..Right now Im working on turning a City commander into a "Shattered Kommander" for the Botcon Sg prime. It's been a project ive been wanting to do for some time now..

I would LOVE to see pics of that when it's done!

It's update time all Well, since last time I've decided to got in a bit of a different direction with my hands. I've based the design of my new parts on ball jointed dolls (BJDs), meaning the finger parts at least, will be held together by elastic string. These parts have been hell to make, but they are working out quite nicely. without further ado, here are some pics.
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This is just a quick sketch that shows the front underside and side view of the parts. The dotted line in the middle represents the string that hold it together. This is just to give a general idea of how they are shaped and how they fit together.
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Sorry about the slight blurryness in this one. You can see the parts a bit clearer in the other shots. Anywho this is just a straight up side view of all the parts strung together. Keep in mind these are just the base parts and I'm not done with them yet, but you get the idea. (PS. you can see the feet of one of my Tfs in the top right corner. Can you guess who he is? )
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his is another side view of all the parts strung together. This one is just to show the movement of the parts a little better.
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This is another side view of all the parts strung together. This one is just to shows the parts in their closed position.

Well that's all for now. If you have any questions or comments don't hesiate to post. Ty for looking

Very interesting idea using the elastic strings! keep up the good work girl!

AutobotMR2 wrote:Very interesting idea using the elastic strings! keep up the good work girl!

Well, one of the biggest problems I've had with this project is figuring out how to easily put things together. I either had to use materials that were hard to find in the right size, have machine like precision (which ain't happening) or use tons of glue and drilling until the cow come home. This method gives me really good range of motion and the supplies I can get at WM for cheap. Plus, I've always loved BJDs, so this was a way to do incorporate that too .

Ty, I'm glad you like them, bout time these things are working out right lol!

I got to say it's classics/universe sunstreaker? That yellow seems very sunstreaker-ish

Those hands look amazing and I love the new direction. Innovative and the poseability will be epic! No need to worry about stress marks. Do you have a website of your previous work?

LiKwid wrote:I got to say it's classics/universe sunstreaker? That yellow seems very sunstreaker-ish

Those hands look amazing and I love the new direction. Innovative and the poseability will be epic! No need to worry about stress marks. Do you have a website of your previous work?

Wow you're good, it is indeed Sunny (he's my model for the hands lol). Well, I don't really have a site, all I have is a Deviantart account (http://sabrigami.deviantart.com/). Not that you'll find much there lol. This is my first attempt at something like this so my account doesn't have much of this kind of thing Ty very much for the kind words. I'm glad you guys are liking it

I want to buy your hands.
Seriously, are these something you can make with regularity? I did a 3 month focus study in art school on hands. I did 100's of drawings, I love hands. Nothing but a face can portray what hands can. These are so impressive. I would love buy a set if you would like to sell them.

GetRightRobot wrote:I want to buy your hands.
Seriously, are these something you can make with regularity? I did a 3 month focus study in art school on hands. I did 100's of drawings, I love hands. Nothing but a face can portray what hands can. These are so impressive. I would love buy a set if you would like to sell them.

Funny you should mention that. Once I finish all my pieces I plan to cast these in resin (I honestly can't make them from scratch each time, it would kill me ). When that happens I may sell some if I can, just to make up for some of the costs I've accrued in the materials to make these. I can't give an estimate on when that will be but I'm aiming to wrap this up in the next few months. Ty very much for your kind words.

Well, It's update time folks I'm back after dealing with some very crappy situations and starting a new job and I finally have some new things to show.

Since my last post I've descided to scrap the old plans and go in a different direction. Not much to say about why I changed the design/mechanics of it again other than the old plans just weren't working. As much as it pained me to do so, I had to do a 360 and do them a different way if I ever hoped to get these done.

I've now decided to go a much more simple and minimalist route. That's not to say I'm sacrificing when it comes to the design and purpose, but more along the lines of simplifying the artistic design of it. I've decided to do a more simple and blocky design (inspiration taken from Ashley Wood's Mecha designs). What it lacks in the detail department, it makes up for in function. These parts work as intended, and that's good enough for me at this point
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Pic is just a simple top down view of the parts fitted together.


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Just another top down view, this time featuring the parts separated. Just to give you an idea of the shapes etc.


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Ah, now this is were the magic happens. This pic is all about the new joint design (as seen from the side). The most important piece in the fingers is the middle joint there. As you can see, I've ditched the stringing system and adopted a simple "c" joint. Essential, the tip and base parts will just have a bar that the middle joint can just snap on to (think how Lego men hold things in their hands). No fuss no muss, just a simple snap on system that makes my life easier


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Just a shot from the side. This is just to show what the parts look like jointed and in their closed position. It may not look like they have much range of motion but I wasn't going for absolute flexibitity. My main goal was to make it realistic to how human fingers etc move. Curl up your finger and you will see the shape and positioning is pretty close to what I got here


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That's all I got for now. Things are starting to settle down now and I'm really going to try and chug away at these things. Ty for looking and feel free to comment/ ask questions

Love it.. I've had to reel in some of my customs sometimes because I try andmake things to complicated. Sometimes the simple, functional approach is best. I can see these on a bot..Anytime Ive wanted to make hands i always use Armada unicrons hands as a guide. Although the end results vary