sculpting the legs

for a couple of days i have been sculpting the legs, i have been using medium hardness plastiline, much better that plasticine. bellow you can see the legs.

nobly knees

bellow i have started sculpting the shoes. i started off with the socks, the idea i had was to make quite big shoes and skinny legs.

getting some form to the shoes

i made sure i made everything in pairs so each shoe should be roughly the same.

adding more shape and padding out the shoe

bellow i have added the tongue and a bit of trimming to go around the tongue.

finally i added soles and some more trimming to connect the soles and some shoelaces!

starting to create the mould.

been productive!

well it has been a couple of months since my last post, i kind of lost the flame after going on holiday and having time off, been playing a lot of golf.

i thought, today being my day off, what better time to get back into my project. it felt like i had never been away. got straight back into it. 

firstly i trimmed off the flashings around the hands i moulded a while ago and put them onto the armature. one of the hands was a bit patchy but i think they look quite good on camera. so heres a couple of pics showing them off.

next up, padding out the body. i cut a section of memory foam that will reach from the front to the back, going over the shoulders in one continuous piece. i then cut a groove in the middle where the shoulders will be to allow the shoulders to be set deeper in the foam. 

then to get the two halfs to stick together, dab dipping latex on both sides, only a small amount though. leave it for a few minutes and this will get a bit tacky.

pop the armature inside and fold the foam over.

et voila, give the whole thing a squeeze and pinch the sides, this will help the latex stick. wheres a few pics of how its all adhered.

to get the sleeves on i cut a few strips of memory foam to find a matching pair. i applied them to the body using the same techniques as before, a small amount of latex and pinch the parts together.

did the same for the shorts.

the foam was to big and balky so i trimmed it down and gave the body a bit more of a shape and definition. the next step will be to pop the clothes on. 

in my next post i will sculpt the legs, i have wrapped the joints in plumbers thread tape. this will stop any clay or silicone clogging up the joints and creating problems. it works quite well for movement, more so than shrink wrap as this can be quite rigged.

hands cast

i have finally got round to casting my hands. i found from experience brass and silicone don't mix very well so i wrapped the arms in a a thin foam wrap.

then i filled the mould with the pigmented silicone to ensure the silicone got to all the little corners and areas so there wouldn't be any air pockets.

after clamping it shut for 4 hours i pulled it apart, it came out ok apart from a few air bubbles, noticeably the ones near the elbows. I'm thinking ill just put them back in the moulds and pour more silicone in to fill the gaps.

lip sync test

to help me make my mouth replacements i searched the net for some good mouth charts and examples. i came across this one and thought it was pretty good, and a good place to start.

on my lucy break at work i broke down each mouth into single images and popped them into a timeline and made a little test lip sync. its not too bad, could be better but its missing some in-betweens. 

redesigned mouths

this is a really quick and short post, just a quick run down of where my thoughts are.

yesterday i thought really hard about how i want the mouths to look, the style. un fortunately i couldn't do anything about it due to work but in the evening i started re-sculpting. 

from top left: strong E,Y

top right: strong A, I

bottom left: soft A, O, E

bottom right: M, B, P

some of these i suspect won't work so ill have to re-do them but i will test them when i have a good selection. ill keep you all updated.

face sculpts

 today i have been racking my brain and trying to visualise how i want my mouths to look. in the mean time i made a second set of teeth mould and installed my magnets and the metal bits that will attract to the magnets.

below you can see the second set of dentures, these can be glued to the face in a high or low position so i don't have to try sculpting teeth when the mouth is open. they work quite well.

below on the right you can see where i have put the magnet and the left shows where the piece of nail goes. they way the head is designed works well for this magnet system as it can be installed in a prominent position, very effective and a good strong hold.

i have started sculpting the face masks now, i have done a couple of brow expressions and some mouth shapes. i have struggled with getting the mouth shapes looking right, this is the first time i have done lip sync and mouth replacements. i really want an almost cartoony look, i won't bake any of the clay yet, my sculpting skills are getting better so later on i might be able to sculpt them a bit better.

hand mould part deux and head casts

i have spent ages doing the hand moulds because i either had air bubbles or the plasticine/ sculpy failed me. below you can see my latest mould success. i invested in plastiline which is much better than plasticine and doesn't dent easily when removing one half of the mould, it also sculpts well. i did get a scare when trying to separate the two halfs of plastic though, needed to give the mould a good whack with the mallet and a screw driver, even with mould release sprayed on it. anyways its worked great and I'm dead happy with the outcome, i can now cast the arms. woohoo!! 

The head cast!!

i am so excited to have finally got to casting the head and masks. i bought some new moulding silicone rubber and i have to say, i will definitely be buying more. it had no air bubbles and moulds my sculpts so well. it is a really low viscosity rubber so brilliant for mould making. below you can see the mould i made for the two face masks. i did have to widen the pour holes because the were just too tight and i couldn't get the plastic in in time.

the masks sit really nicely on the head and there weren't any air bubbles so i was really happy.

once the core/head was dry i popped it all together and, it fits! the next step is to paint it up and get small magnets installed to keep the masks on.

woohoo!! so pleased with how it looks.