Apocalypse Now Bunny Carrie Foster Project

[Jim Barry]

My first Vbench!

So, this is day one with a project to create a figure from one of my favorite movies, Apocalypse Now. She's not directly modeled from the movie, but rather from the graphic designer's sketch of the character (on the left). I don't know why exactly, but the sketch is very appealing and reminds me of a blueprint, or something . So far, her "bones" are super sculpey (hardened) and drilled out to accept wire. Once I set the pose, I put epoxy in her joints . I will probably finish it from here with Magic Sculpt, though that medium is new to me.
Oh, Susie Q..

 

[CBDesign]

Cool looking forward to the next posts..
Happy painting,
Chris

 

[Pilgrim53]

Interesting start and material selection; have never used super sculpey, is that hardened in the oven? Looking forward to see the development. I use Magic Sculpt, find it very flexible. Would probably bulk the figure out initially though with A&B or Milliput.
Steve

 

[Jim Barry]

Thanks Chris and Steve. Super Sculpey, yes hardened at 275. It can burn though so it's got risks if you forget about it. You must set a timer, I found. I got the idea of the epoxy to fix the joints from being here on the forum, so I'm really happy I found this place. I was sort of stuck making bad armatures until that breathrough. I'm still waiting on the Magic Sculpt to arrive and in some impatient moment I decided to start to bulk her in with Super Sculpey. It's working well and I'm super impressed with how tough she is. Perhaps I'll stop and wait for the material to arrive. I should be finishing the soldier project anyway.

 

[Scotty]

Very good, what scale is it?

 

[Jim Barry]

Thanks Scotty. It's funny I did not make a scale for her starting out, but rather just printed the drawing on a portrait letter paper and just built her bones off the drawing. She's about 8" tall so if she's 5' 6" (66") then that's like 1/8th scale.

 

[Jim Barry]

Massing out the face/head and doing up the eyes, eyeballs first.

 

[peedee]

Looks great.
So far so good
looking forward to more.


Paul.

 

[Jim Barry]

Worked on her head more today. Also had to reinstall her arm after realizing her shoulder was not elevated as it should be. Spine also needed some adjustments

 

[Jim Barry]

Tonight's progress: Her hat. Built the core of the at first and baked it, then added the brim and baked that. At first I tried to build it all in one go, but that was just one mess after another. Without a firm core, the brim had nothing to purchase really.

 

[Jim Barry]

Ok, so some progress on the figure front. Making enough mistakes to say I'm learning a lot here. The shoulder was remarkably complex. I had to learn how the scapula moves relative to the rib cage to get the right place for her arm to pivot from. Sculpting certainly demands quite a bit more anatomy study. I think I what I learned is that the armature has to reflect much of this, and that then the massing just sort of follows that form as long as you have the muscles reasonably well placed. Still working with Sculpey but I did get Magic Sculpt over the weekend and build a quick figure to get an understanding of that medium. It is better, but there are tricks to that I'll need more practice on before I commit a project to it.

 

[Jim Barry]

clearly experimenting with some paint. I had to redo her arm.

 

[Jim Barry]

Redoing her legs. This time Magic Sculpt and one leg at a time, so I can work on them without the other one getting in the way. Still need to consider they do interact so the other leg is also being built to place fit. I'm happy with this correction,but it's slower going.

 

[garyjd]

I usually bake sculpey at 230-250 degrees. You risk burning the sculpey at anything beyond that, especially if you leave it in the oven for long periods of time. I'll bake it for 30-45 minutes then turn the oven off and then let it cool for 30 minutes or so, then bake another 30-45 minutes.

 

[Jim Barry]

Gary, Thanks for weighing in on the temp. I had a sense that lower temps were a safer way to go. I've read your step by step on the head and found it very useful.

 

[Jim Barry]

Here's progress on a leg and boot. This is much more time consuming than expected but I think that's just me getting used to Magic Sculpt. I like it though may add a little more thickness tomorrow

 

[Jim Barry]

Thigh too long. Had to cut it down.

 

[Jim Barry]

And more progress.

 

[theBaron]

WOW! Excellent work so far, and very instructive for me to see each step.

I got the idea of the epoxy to fix the joints from being here on the forum...

I picked up a similar tip, watching one of Alan Ball's build blogs. I was stuck with the dilemma of cutting apart a figure made with putty over an armature, when I wanted to make a mold. I learned to make the armature of putty, makes it much easier to cut it apart cleanly just with the razor saw.

I look forward to seeing your next installment!

Prost!
Brad

 

[Jim Barry]

Thanks Brad. It's been a bit of stumble from a hastily constructed armature . It's a cruel thing and will direct a considerable amount of almost all the build after wards. Get it right and it's easy street, get it wrong and it's a whole lotta sawing.......

Thanks for the support.