progress

today i have managed to do a bit more work on the new armature. i have made the feet and chest plate. there are a few areas that need to be smoothed and sanded down but apart from that, its coming along nicely.

also, my plastic arrived yesterday so this morning i finished off the mould that has been sat on my desk for weeks. i gave it a couple of hours to properly set but it actually worked which is brilliant. i need to clean it up then i can pop out a cast, probably do that on sunday.

i forgot!

i forgot to add these pics ages ago! i sprayed the boys faces, bit of a tan. unfortunately when i put them in my storage box the nose was to close to the lid and left a flat area on the end of the nose. so they will need to be sanded and resprayed.

on a happier note, the trees, i think, look great, exactly what i wanted.

new armature

i have started work on the new armature, its taken a bit longer than the other one because i had to get used to making everything a bit smaller. 

originally this armature was going to be the girl (Charlotte) but after doing some work on the story and character development i decided i wanted the girl to be moody and older than the boy, so she needed to be taller to fit with her age. 

because the original armature is fairly big i didnt want to make another armature that is bigger, so i have made one that is smaller. 

my idea now was to make the new armature the boy and use the original armature as the girl. as i have been thinking about it, I'm not sure this will work. as the images show, the new armature is quite a bit smaller so, will the boys head look too big on the new armature? also will the armature be able to perform under the weight of the oversized head? i have already made the head and faces for the boy so i dont want to remake any of those.

because of these things i think the easiest thing to do and the cheapest thing, is to change the story.

so, the plan is to finish this armature and see if the head looks stupid on it and if it can even handle the weight of the head, if it can't, this armature will become the girl and a few changes will happen to her character and personality.

with this armature i have decided to not use the surgical steel threaded balls in stead i have bought some brass bead spacers, basically brass balls drilled all the way through. they are 4mm and because they are brass, so much easier to solder to the brass bar. 

it is a bit tricksy to drill the holes because you cant apply to much pressure with the vice because they are quite soft, but i think they work fine and its a lot quicker. 

because of their size its allowing me to make everything a lot slimmer and smaller but still has a lot of strength. 

bellow, the armature in process and a picture of the original boy puppet alongside the new armature to show sizes. the original puppet is measured at 9inches.

also, my liquid plastic arrived late today. because its cold weather i have left it indoors to warm up and tomorrow i will start the day by finishing off my mould cast. very exciting. i hope it works, the sculpt has been sat in 3/4 of a finished mould for about 2-3 weeks, will the release agent still be active? i bloody hope so!

ill keep you posted. 

wow this is probably my longest post, thats what Thatchers Gold cider does. 

house prototype

this month has been a long one financially. i am very low on materials and can not afford to buy more. annoyingly my armature is in a sculpt which is in half a moulds worth of plastic, frustrating! because the armature is unavailable i have not been able to do any tests. i think i need to re-spray the faces too, when i put them into the compartments in the box, the lid must have pushed down on the noses because there is a flat round spot on the end. i have started making another armature for the other character but thats been on hold for a while due to late post thanks to the snow.

anyways, in the mean time i thought i would make a prototype of the house that the children live in. its all made from 5mm foam board and designed on an actual house i liked the look of and i thought would look great in the film.

its a slow old process but i do love making things. its creating new challenges such as angles and getting everything to the right measurements as its done on 1/2 scale.

christmas present!

for xmas i was lucky enough to get a bandsaw which is an awesome addition to my work shop, i think i have everything i need now.

i have sculpted the new body which will be the body for the girl, i will make another smaller one for the boy.

this is the sculpt in plastic.

i have redesigned the girl, i want her to be older than the boy, moody and uninterested in things.

i have started making the wire part that will be inside the hair, this will be sculpted and moulded then cast in rubber. the hair is removable and slots into the back of the head with K&S.