Wednesday, June 1, 2011

GLaDOS Potato, Portal 2

This was a fun project, done as a small add-on to the third (and final!) Portal Gun commissioned by the guys at VALVe Software in Seattle. While the additional potato-GLaDOS wasn't a requested item, the release of Portal 2 prompted me to put one together before delivery.


Due to the very short timeframe, I opted against sculpting a potato from scratch. During a grocery shopping trip, my wife scoured the produce department to locate two likely candidates to live on the end of the ASHPD.


These two spuds were tossed into a mold box and molded in Smooth-On's Omoo silicone. If you're noticing the lack of a pour spout, these were designed to be hollow cast pieces. Once resin was added, the potatoes were slush cast in 65D resin to make lightweight replicas.


GLaDOS's "eye" was made on a lathe using laminated sheets of 1/2" sintra. The oversized chip on the side of the potato was cut from sintra as well.


Smaller details were added with wire and roofing nails. The whole of this build is mostly stuff that can be sourced at a local hardware store. In order to keep the scale correct, some things (like the alligator clips) had to be cut down.


The eye of the potato was molded in more omoo and cast with SmoothCast 300. After this, more wire details were added.

I found a textured Krylon tan paint that worked pretty well for a basecoat. The surface had a sort of satin feel to it.


Layers of dirt and discoloration were added with an airbrush and acrylic paint. I found that lightly scraping the high areas with a damp paper towel pulled this color off and simulated peeled potato skin rather well.

Illumination is controlled by the switches in the back of the Portal Gun itself, and GLaDOS turns on and off with the rest of the illumination. A set of power and ground lines run up through the claw and into the hollow potato for the LEDs

I wish I had taken time to document the rest of the build, because things take a bit of a jump here - unfortunately, my short timeframe meant that I spent more time cranking on the little angry spud and less time behind my camera. Illumination was provided by two 5mm yellow LEDs and two 3mm red. These are routed in the hollow cavity of the potato and shine through the chip and eye area.


More acrylic paint was added to the nails, alligator clips, and eye to weather the piece to match the (by now) ancient Portal Gun.

Better video will be coming soon, but potato GLaDOS is capable of speech! Until then, enjoy these final product shots.


The completed gun now lives at VALVe HQ, make sure to say hi if you ever get a chance to visit!


More pics available on my flickr page, thanks for looking!

16 comments:

Steve said...

That is awesome! Please post up whatever response you get from VALVe!

ilanaexelby said...

Amazing!

Jacob Cornejo said...

This was a Triumph!

pyrocord said...

I love your work, Volpin. It never ceases to amaze me. You're the reason I want to get started in replica prop making. Any tips for a beginner like me?

The Great Spaz said...

I remember When I first found out about this on your Flikr. I laughed my face off. Nice job.

Sean O said...

You win 10,000 internets.

Anonymous said...

This is amazing. I wonder if this could be made for other people or sold to others who may want a replica?

lilgantz251 said...

You should find an investor to sell these to the public, there probably wouldn't be a lack of sails

Neal said...

Jeese, you are so f**king awesome!

zanderwitaz said...

sweet! new challenge: design a potato glados that actually runs off of a potato!

sharke said...

Hello... your work is just fucking amazing! I love it. Really, congratulations. Actually i wanna know if you sell stuffs. I am very interested in buying the daft punk's helmet, both actually. If you wanna sell you can contact me by emai: joao.andrad@hotmail.com

And if you do, i wonder if you are not will do some other things by request. Please contact me either if you do or don't.

Keep the great work.

Anonymous said...

I love your props...and I was wondering if you take a request. I know its highly unlikely you would, but it would be amazing if you did do it and I would most likely buy it if it went up for sale. (already eying some portal guns replicas) What I am talking about is the VR-11 from COD Black Ops Zombie map Call of the Dead. http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/V-R11 Here is a link to the topic and you can see a lot of side shots elsewhere... Its an amazing looking weapon and an amazing one in itself. Check it out either way. ^^

Unknown said...

Beautiful work!

Monsikatzi said...

OH MY F***ING GOD!! I love this!! and I love you for being so damn talented!!!! xD

the-nta said...

awesome, now build a turrent...

tomagee said...

You are awesome in at least 37 different ways...

Post a Comment