Professor Pericles Statuette

Hey, I finished a project!

Character: Professor Pericles is a villain from the animated show Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated, which is brilliant and you all should watch it.  From the wikipedia page: this show features "two elements that have never been used in a Scooby-Doo series before: a serial format with an ongoing story arc featuring many dark plot elements that are treated with near-total seriousness, and ongoing relationship drama between the characters."

Pericles is "The Smartest Criminal Parrot in the World". I made this little statue as a Christmas present.

Construction: 

This is a free-handed sculpture. The only thing underneath the Magic Sculpt is aluminum foil and a long sturdy twist-tie.

In progress:

These pictures are after the first sculpting session. I went back in a few days later to sand down the rough parts and add more Magic Sculpt to smooth out sections. Then he just needed a few painting sessions and a bunch of coats of sealant to finish.

It's not a large piece, or terribly fancy, but I like how it came out. 

DinoBride and ZombieGroom

Character: Two good friends of mine recently got married. As they are crazy fabulous people, I created this duo to commemorate their special day.

Construction: 
The Bride is made from a Wedding Dress Ariel Zizzlinger, and a Jurassic Park Raptor:

I carefully carved the face out of the Ariel, shortening the bangs to fit the dinosaur head. I used Magic Sculpt and pins to attach the new piece and added new sculpted hair to blend it into the edges. The doll portion got a full repaint as well.

 The Groom is made entirely from a GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Storm Shadow:

I carved away the bangs and much of the hair, and used my Dremel drill to add the empty eyesocket. Kneadatite was added to create his mangy Zombie-style hair. I cut down the ninja star in Storm Shadow's hand and smoothed it into a disk with Kneadatite, then added a small crystal bead to create a ring.

He also got a repaint, except I just touched up the eye area, leaving that mostly original.

As it got closer to the wedding, I picked up a display case to keep the figures safe, but decided it was missing something. A base!

I sculpted a base out of Sculpy, adding plastic poles after baking.

The marble look is only on the top level, and is in the Sculpy itself, created by careful blending of white and dark clay. A heavy cardboard base level was painted and glued to the bottom to support the Sculpy.

Testing the size of the base in the box:

I strung some ribbons between the poles, and sculpted tiny bees out of Kneadatite to "hold up" the banner.

In Progress

After Painting

Complete display:

Completed 2011

More Pictures:

Robotic Rabbit Demon

Character: Erin asked me to come up with a handmade present for a friend.  I poked around in the bins, and started to get inspired. I therefore present a Mutant Toy: the Robot Rabbit Demon.

Construction: Essentially he's a complicated kit-bash. I picked out a bunch of pieces that I thought worked together.

Pile of possible pieces (not all used):

The main body is a Spiderman Movie Green Goblin, the head is from the "Robotic Rabbit" that came with a B:tAS Mad Hatter. I also cut two little claws off the rabbit and affixed them to the left foot. I replaced Goblin's right arm below the joint with an arm from another figure... I think it was called "She Demon", but I'm not sure.

The tail is a modified tentacle from a Spiderman/Doctor Octopus playset, and the wings are from a female demon-type action figure.  

I cut holes in the back of the Goblin to attach the wings and tail, and used Kneadatite to create a new elbow on the right arm.

Careful use of super-glue secured all the pieces.  The head is loose so that it can be turned during posing.  

The head was entirely repainted, everything else just got detail paint-work and some color wash.  Final touches were gloss on the eye and claws, and matte sealant. Completed 2010

Raven

Character:
Raven from DC comics Teen Titans. Here Raven is seen in an interpretation of her original look from New Teen Titans in the 80's.


Construction:
Raven began toyhood as a Planetary figure:

(more pictures here.)

I chose this figure as a base because of the clean hip lines (despite the lack of articulation), and the shape of the face.

I removed the raised red lines, elbow and knee pads of the original jumpsuit, and pared back the line of the breasts. I also carved away some of the stomach and rear, to partially correct the odd way the original figure was posed. I trimmed down the area of the feet and cut up a raised heel for the shoe.

In Progress:

Then I used Magic Sculpt to smooth over the body shape, and Kneadatite to add the shoes, dress, and gloves. The front of her hair was trimmed way back and replaced with Kneadatite, which was also used to extend the hair in the back. Her cape is a separate piece, made of vinyl, Kneadatite, and two small plastic disks I had left over.


I was trying to build another separate piece for her characteristic hood, but the sculpting didn't come out as nice as I would have liked. It looks okay at this angle:

I really wanted to have the option to display her in several ways, instead of just sculpting the hood, cape and hair into one piece.

Paint and sealant and she's done. I have a new very fine brush which I used here, and I'm very pleased with the face paint.

Created as a gift for Erin.

(Pictured here with DCUC Nightwing)

Completed 2009

THEM!

Character:
When I was small, my dad and I used to watch monster movies together. I liked all the Godzilla flicks and their relations, but the one I remember the most is THEM. Those giant radioactive ants scared me thoroughly when I was little. It's a very well made movie, good creepy tension building, the ant puppets are super for their time, and the sound design is great. So for this holiday, I decided to commemorate this experience with a diorama as a gift for my dad.


Construction:
Pile of stuff I bought for this project (didn't end up using all of it):


The Ant:


The Ant (the most important part, obviously) has a base of a tarantula purchased at Michaels. Details of the figure here. I made a head out of Sculpey to slide over the pedipalps, turning a spider (two body segments) into an ant (three body segments), then joined it with some Magic Sculpt. The thorax was filled out and given segments with some more Magic Sculpt, and small pieces of cheap paintbrush bristle were stuck into the clay for the back bristles.


I cut off the rear legs of the spider, carved down the lower segments of the legs and added small spikes at the joint out of Kneadatite. The internal part of the eyes was sculpted and painted, and then a plastic outer eye was added, made of the clear portion of a "wiggly" or "googly" eye. The jaws are Kneadatite, with a wire embedded to keep them stiffer. They are slightly hinged, connected to the head with pins. Antenna are just heavy craft wire covered in "fur". Most of the fur on the ant is craft marabou, with some doll hair for texture on the back segment.



The Army Guys:


The Army Men, meant to represent the guys who invade the final giant ant base at the end of the movie, are from two sets of "Forces of Valor" figures, scale 1:32. They are sold as WWII army guys, and are highly detailed. I decided that if their details are slightly different than the National Guardsmen or whoever from the movie, it's subtle enough not to matter to anyone but students of military history. All I did to these guys was pick the ones I wanted and paint them in a detailed grayscale.


Set up from when I was trying out the guys before painting: (I didn't end up using all of them)



The Base:


The Base is built on the base of a large model car case (about 9" by 13"). The Forces of Valor sets came with some broken scale walls and rubble that I glued down and painted. The large rocks are from a plaster rock kit intended for school projects. The plaster kit also came with a bag of small gravel, which I colored and added throughout. The base was finished off with a layer of sand and plaster mix, sprinkled with rocks, and imprinted with a few ant-footprints, which ties it nicely into one piece. Only the walls and rocks are attached to the base, the army men and the ant are able to be moved.

The Sign:


Final touch, I sculpted the letters out of Magic Sculpt and glued them to a sheet of thick plastic packaging.


The most complicated piece I've done in some time. If only I'd had time to add sound effects. Completed Dec 2008