A fairly straightforward sculpt - but I learnt some interesting things notably creating more realistic looking drool and skin textures. If you're interested some progress shots are below. Otherwise skip to the end for finished shots.
Sculpting
Skin Textures
There are many ways to get good skin textures - A technique I learnt to get them was to first use multiple passes of sewing needles with varying levels of force in a criss-cross pattern through cling film - the cling film is to soften the edges of the marks. After that dab it over with a brush with hard bristles to uneven the surface - this seems to give the appearance of pores and blend the lines. It looked pretty cool in the end and seemed to get the random skin patterning I was after.
For the more reptile skin on the head I experimented with various dome stamped I'd made.
I pressed my stamp into a test piece of sculpey (see above). I needed a shape that wasn't too perfect otherwise it'd look mechanical (and fake). I did a whole load of tests with different shapes until I got the effect I wanted before going at it with the actual sculpture.
Moulding and Casting
To add strength to the final figure I cast the legs in resin. I used a condensation cure silicone I hadn't used before - but the results were top notch. I worried about shrinkage in the cast pieces (condensation cure silicones unlike their addition cure brethren are subject to shrinkage sometimes) I hadn't experienced any.Sculpting the legs separately from the body meant I could easily adjust the pose of the figure when it came to putting it on the display base.
The foot talons at the bottom of each leg are also done separately so that the figure can be removed from the base easily.
This was going to be a one part block mould - to save time I didn't want to have to sand away seam lines.
The master was screwed to the base to stop it coming loose from the base as the silicone is poured in - this has happened to me before by gluing in a part, dumping in silicone and then coming back a few hours later to find my master floating just under the surface of the silicone... such rage.
The mould base is sealed with hot glue to stop naughty silicone escapes. These escapes cost money - ain't nobody got time for that.
Painting and assembly
Painted with Vallejo acrylics - these pictures show the stages from priming, initial coats to highlights and contouring...
After painting the figure was sealed with Satin sealer and the mouth was glossed.
The display base it made from plywood. The ground is built up with layers of tin foil and body filler. Sand is added and painted with various shades and sealed with matt sealer.
Teeth?
They're made from Translucent Fimo - it kinda looks like enamel.Slobber?
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| poster placement anyone? |
The slobber was very interesting. It's built in layers - the first is deluxe materials 'making waves' to add a thicker drooly layer. The stringy drool is a Bostik all-purpose glue from a tube - you know when you glue something you always get a stringy bit coming out of the tube? well you can pull these thin strings of glue from the tube and connect these strings to wherever you want. The best part is the strings retain their shape and are quite strong - they'd make great miniature spider webs I reckon.
Finished Figure
Thanks for looking.
