tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739889552178461642026-05-14T07:24:28.333-07:00The tireless tinkerings, rampant ramblings and odd observations of Shawn Thorsson, eponymous founder of Thorsson & Associates Workshop.THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.comBlogger797125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-59331524722560502552026-05-10T15:36:00.000-07:002026-05-10T15:36:52.757-07:00

So last month we wrapped up the mad rush to build a bunch of little alien pets to sell at our vendor booth at Neotropolis.  The only thing that was missing for the cute little alien pet store was the store itself. While I could've possibly gotten away with making it work on the cheap with some draping and shelves to replicate an old-world street market or bazaar aesthetic, I really

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-34882348532926458172026-03-10T08:22:00.000-07:002026-03-10T08:22:21.227-07:00

 A while back, some friends and I put together a squad of Mobile Infantry costumes based on the science fiction classic "Starship Troopers" so we could strut around at WonderCon in Anaheim.  We had a pretty good time:The aftermath made for a fun pile of stuff in the hotel room: Now if you've been following my blog for any length of time, you'll recognize a whole lot of things that

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-67804504211259353852026-03-05T11:50:00.000-08:002026-03-05T11:50:51.373-08:00

Last year at Neotropolis I introduced the "Neobums," a gang of shiftless alien vagrants that spent the event panhandling on the streets or passed out in the bars.  It mostly got me to thinking that that particular off-world colony needed a lot more aliens.Since the location itself is usually at least a bit inhospitable, the idea of putting together a creature costume is a little daunting.&

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-86756761010944761582026-02-24T23:45:00.000-08:002026-02-24T23:45:12.030-08:00

 I've been getting way behind on bloggage again.  As usual it's because I'm completely buried under an avalanche of UnFinished Objects in the workshop.So in order to give you an idea of what I've been working on (instead of sitting down and actually writing anything worthwhile) here's the latest round-up of works in progress...First up, there's this pair of alien taxidermy mounts that

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-64297929122650790192026-01-01T17:05:00.000-08:002026-01-03T12:21:19.591-08:00

A while back I posted about the build we did for Meredith's Skeletor Throne we built on behalf of Magic Wheelchair.  I mentioned a the end of that post that we actually ended up building two Magic Wheelchair costumes in the shop simultaneously while the Magic Wheelchair team in Portland, Oregon cranked out two more.  I suppose I was feeling a bit cocky when I said, "Skeletor's

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-56087939577426155172026-01-01T13:32:00.000-08:002026-01-01T14:08:13.508-08:00

When I last posted about this project, we'd almost finished sculpting the hands. My friend Jeff Santos had done most of the sculpting on the upper hands: And my friend Walter Welsh had done most of the sculpting on the lower hands: After letting the incomplete sculpts sit on the backburner for a few months, I dusted them off and gave them some finishing touches prior to

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-65796547114007573772025-12-28T22:36:00.000-08:002025-12-29T12:36:52.152-08:00

Earlier this year I posted about the making of the "Neobums," the little alien vagrants that had been loitering around town during Neotropolis 2225.  On the last night of the event, the Sentinels of Kepler 609-c initiated a major crackdown and arrested all of them: It was a sad story.But when the event was over and folks were headed back to their home planet, it turns out many of these

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-14273462248221670382025-10-06T15:05:00.000-07:002026-01-03T12:21:41.942-08:00

A couple of years ago I made a Skeletor cosplay that I'm pretty proud of.  The character is a lot of fun to play around with and gets really great reactions from the crowd wherever I take him.  I never knew how completely I would enjoy running around as a campy 80s cartoon villain, but I love it.So when we were talking with the folks from Magic Wheelchair earlier this year about what we

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-4544916347075224912025-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:002025-10-01T23:54:24.451-07:00

Back in July I was at San Diego Comic Con unveiling a pair of Magic Wheelchair cosplays we'd built when I got a text from my contact at Games Workshop. "What would it take for you to build a wearable version of Trazyn the Infinite?" he asked.For thems of you who don't know, this is Trazyn the Infinite: "I'll need three months and here's a price," says I."Okay," he replied, "thanks

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-64233522438215636342025-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:002025-06-15T12:45:10.582-07:00

A few weeks ago I was scrolling through posts in one of my toy collectors' groups and was reminded of this guy:This was the "Hydro-Viper" one of the last G.I. Joe action figures I bought as a kid before I'd finally lost interest in that particular toy line.  Here's what the package and the action figure looked like: At this point, the G.I. Joe line had started veering hard toward goofy

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-45030180175484009942025-06-02T11:59:00.000-07:002025-06-02T12:02:04.109-07:00

 I've run behind on bloggage again.  While we can't share the main projects we're working on until the non-disclosures run out, what we can share is the scattered collection of UnFinished Objects (UFOs) in the hobby section of the workshop.First off, after my copy of the Sidon Ithano helmet met an unfortunate end in the midst of unpacking for the Maker Faire a while back, I decided it

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-87897593214258518262025-05-30T10:50:00.000-07:002025-05-30T10:50:39.359-07:00

A while back my friends at 32Ten Studios were forced to go out of business.  It was a sad day and truly the end of an era.  I was invited down to tour the facilities one last time before everything got auctioned off and get a look at what was going up for sale:32Ten was the last traces of some pretty impressive cinematic history.  If you're not familiar with this shop in San Rafael

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-57457636247274876272025-05-15T10:51:00.000-07:002025-06-03T10:06:58.214-07:00

Many moons ago I was a young lieutenant junior grade wrapping up my first sea tour aboard the USS CUSHING (DD-985).  CUSHING was an old Spruance-class destroyer that was over thirty years old and I'd been on board for nearly two years.  It was not a happy time for me.  I'd gotten on the captain's bad side and it seemed like everything I did just dug that hole deeper.  So when

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-11481514545149457692025-05-10T19:00:00.000-07:002025-05-10T19:01:26.422-07:00

Well once again it's been longer than I'd like since my last update on this project.  Mostly that's just because I've been completely buried under a bunch of other projects that have actual deadlines.The good news is that, while I've been drowning in projects, Jeff has still been able to come in to the shop a couple of times to tinker with sculpting out the new hands.  He's started on

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-77307799024231824062025-05-10T10:45:00.000-07:002025-05-10T10:45:25.197-07:00

A few years back I made a handful of First Order TIE Fighter Pilot costumes.  You can read about them here: LINK.But ever since we saw the AT-AT and AT-M9 walkers in Episode 8: The Last Jedi, I've been hoping we'd see what their crew's costumes look like so I can take a stab at those as well.  Over the years there were a few toys an bits of concept art that came out that seemed like

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-22761470113306292322025-03-22T14:21:00.000-07:002025-03-22T14:21:49.521-07:00

While I've been posting a lot of progress updates on the ongoing Genestealer build, I don't want people to think that's the only thing we're working on the shop.With that in mind, here's just a handful of the UnFinished Objects (or UFOs) currently rolling around on the to-do list that we can talk about publicly.First off, the Genestealer isn't the only 40K project we're tinkering with. 

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-6232088035509951322025-03-15T11:15:00.000-07:002025-03-15T11:15:46.985-07:00

 When we last updated this project, we had finished texturing the sculptures for the knees, elbow, and tail:Since then, we made molds for all of them and started casting rubber parts: To see how it was done, read onWith the clay sculpts done, the next step was to make molds.  Since we'd be making rubber parts, we'd need rigid molds.  In this case, we're making hollow silicone

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-64907606480977624112025-03-02T16:44:00.000-08:002025-03-02T16:44:11.526-08:00

 A few years back we made a handful of Starship Troopers Morita assault rifle replicas.  They were pretty nifty: But there were a few other weapons available in the Mobile Infantry's arsenals.  Since I'm apparently on track to fit out an entire platoon of troopers, I'm going to need more different armaments.So we cast another copy of the Morita assault rifle and hacked off the

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-68504467783492039072025-03-02T15:24:00.000-08:002025-03-02T15:24:09.349-08:00

 Like many Star Wars fans, while watching Ahsoka on Disney+ I was really taken with this particular character's look:This is Captain Enoch, leader of Grand Admiral Thrawn's personal guard of "Night Troopers" that also appeared for the first time in the same scene.  Here's a promotional image of him: I knew right away that I was going to have to make myself this helmet.Some time

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-34231645172552483542025-02-26T01:04:00.000-08:002025-02-26T01:04:36.023-08:00

 I know.  It's been way too long since I updated this project.When I last posted, we had just finished printing, mounting, and epoxy coating the sculpting armatures for the knees, elbow, and hands.  They looked about like so:The next step was to cover them completely with an 1/8" thick layer of oil-based clay.  Here you can see Jeff warming up a slice with a heat gun to make

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-78098595795081516022025-01-25T14:49:00.000-08:002025-01-25T14:59:12.299-08:00

A long long time ago I was thrilled to purchase my first ever CNC machine.  It was a Carvewright CNC machine which we named "Lopez the Robot Whittler."Over the years we've picked up a few more of these machines and made a few upgrades along the way.  We've gotten a lot of use out of them and they've been instrumental in building countless props, costumes, and scenic elements.Recently I

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-28298914350624258232025-01-13T13:08:00.000-08:002025-01-13T13:08:13.924-08:00

So we're back to work on the Genestealer project.  A while back (update 17) we ran into a bit of a snag because the sculpting armature I was using for one of the lower hands wasn't quite ideal.  It was made from a lifecast of my own hand and there were a few technical details that made it tricky to work with.So we decided to go a slightly more high-tech route and start by scanning

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-60285803476688182912025-01-06T14:23:00.000-08:002025-01-06T14:31:02.684-08:00

I've been posting somewhat regularly about the Genestealer build.  It helps to have the head hanging on the wall above one of my printers to serve as a reminder that it needs more work:But that's not all I'm working on.  We also have a handful of things on the bench that I'm not allowed to talk about (yet).  But I still feel compelled to post an update about something other than

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-81600348080061777452024-12-30T13:19:00.000-08:002024-12-30T13:19:16.271-08:00

 In my last update, we'd just started painting the hard shell parts blue:But you may have noticed there were a lot of holes in them.  Like these little windows in the forearms: In the reference artwork, those parts are gaps in the hard shells where the soft, meaty parts can be seen.  So we need to start making soft, meaty parts that will be the same color and texture as the head,

THORSSOLIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05516438163774818381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273988955217846164.post-15343471521899069072024-12-19T23:02:00.000-08:002024-12-19T23:02:46.194-08:00

 At the end of the last update on this project I'd laid up the lower rib section of the chest.  Here's that piece out of the mold before any trimming or cleanup:It turns out it fit into place beautifully: Then the assembly sat around the shop getting in the way a lot: Meanwhile, we decided to get back to work on the rubber parts.  The misstep with the hands made me realize that,

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