Bulbous nose

I am now excited and encouraged by the armature I've built. It's holding together quite splendidly. It's also clinging to the paper clay I'm using to sculpt the head.

My wife, who is a very talented artist, made some suggestions about building the area between the nose and upper lip. She pointed out that the nose actually sits IN the face rather than ON the face. She drew the profile on the right to demonstrate how I might proceed. Her drawing is very helpful.

My next dummy build will be a 3T Mr. Winkle. I've ordered the body, head, and accessories from Braylu Creations. The next test will be to see if I still know how to build one of my original characters. Stay tuned for the unboxing.

Storm Trooper

Now I think my foam armature will work. I haven't tried slapping on paper clay, but the structure is solid so far. I found that hot glue works fine to connect foam pieces. The foam does melt slightly, but enough glue remains to provide adhesion.

I've placed the original drawing in front of me. It makes it easier to make decisions about shaping the armature from here. The roll of fat I intend to add to the bottom of the chin should be doable with paper clay. I have one leftover section of foam that I plan to cut and add for the nose section. As I progress, I hope the armature will look less like a Storm Trooper and more like the guy in the drawing.

More foam

The foam troll on the left is "Step One" in the building of an armature. I'm already doubting this is going to work. The foam I bought doesn't seem dense enough. However, I'm going to push forward. Even an aborted armature attempt will show me things.

By the way, the CleanKut foam cutter worked. The thing cut right through the foam. Beware... there are brief fumes. It's a tool made by a floral supply company, so the foam I'm using is made primarily for flower arranging. The alien foam armature that was built for me was a much denser foam.

Drawing on experience

I'm not a very good drawer, so I use a combination of Photoshop and a simple shape-drawing program to draw the characters I see in my head. I'm in the process of planning an armature, but the general shape of the character needs to be established before I assemble the foam pieces. The one attribute I could not portray in the drawing is the character having a pronounced underbite. I want it to be almost pelican-like.

Having a basic drawing to work from really helped with the alien sculpture. Hope this one helps, too.

Watch him move

Ready

This little guy is almost ready to go. I'm just waiting for his snazzy Sunday outfit to arrive.  I plan to shoot photos and even make a short video of his moving mouth, side-to-side self-centering eyes, and raising eyebrows.

Shipping out

The fellas on the right are now in the box on the left. They're being shipped to Braylu Creations where they will have molds made of their smilings faces. Then polyurethane castings will emerge from the molds and figures will be made.

Space invader

 My alien sculpture is completed. I'm not sure what else I can do. He's very generic so the eventual castings can be customized with additional features. For example, weird ears can be attached, wrinkles in the forehead can be added, a different nose could be sculpted over the current nose, and antennas could be added to the top of the head.

Right now he looks friendly, but a change in the mouth and some foreboding eyebrows could change his entire attitude.

I've picked up a few tricks of the trade while sculpting this space creature. I hope to apply my new knowledge as I attempt a new sculpting project. Wonder what I'll do next...

On the stick

BACK

FRONT

Here's a look at the control stick for my recent Charlie conversion. I use a transition with a PVC pipe headstick by Braylu Creations. I also purchased the trigger and rocker from Braylu. As I recall, I may have been a beta tester for the items when designs were under discussion.
The photo on the left shows the raising eyebrow trigger (left) and the jaw trigger (right). I put the jaw trigger to the right so the ventriloquist can operate the jaw with the forefinger and the eyebrows with the thumb. The photo on the right shows the side-to-side self-centering eye control, a rocker trigger operated by a free finger or fingers.

Eventually, I will trim the bottom of the PVC pipe and add a very nice endcap with eyehook so it can be attached to the base of the body.

I'm feeling a little shy about my simple triggers-with-strings approach after watching some unboxing videos by Jimmy Vee. He has a website called thedummyblog.com with lots of videos of Jimmy unboxing and presenting some amazing figures. The mechanics in figures by past greats like the McElroys and Frank Marshal astound me. And there's the beautiful work by Chance Wolf. Their controls are so precise, compact and...look, ma... no strings. That being said, lots of folks have enjoyed my little guys over the years, so I'll just keep makin' 'em.

But do check out Jimmy Vee's website. You'll like it!

Rollin', rollin', rollin...

I'm attempting to replace brass rod and tube rollers with nylon rollers. They are larger, but easier to deal with. I've never enjoyed cutting brass rods or tubes. I don't mind sawing lengths of 1/4" wood dowels, however.

I install nylon washers on either side of the roller. I used Krazy Glue to attach the washers to the roller creating a nice spindle. It rolls nice and quietly as it opens and closes the jaw.

I also have a nylon roller set-up for the eyebrow-raising gizmo. It's located near the top of the head.

All in

In between slapping paper clay onto my alien, I'm building this Charlie conversion figure. So far, the mechanics are almost all in. The mouth opens and closes with a steel spring, the eyes move left and right and self-center, and the eyebrows wiggle up and down.

There are still details that need to be added to the mechanics, but the next push will be to paint him with a few more coats. I also need to paint in eyelashes and rosey-up his cheeks.

This is still a warm-up for my attempt to build one of my original characters. After a 5-year lay-off, I want to make sure I still know how to do it.

Foam dome from Walmart

I've enjoyed the paper clay sculpting of my friend's alien character so much, I'm anxious to do a new character. I haven't decided who I will carve out of that clay, but I have a few ideas. A 3T Cheeky Boy? A highly caricatured head of a goofy fella. Another old fart?

I've learned so much from earlier sculptures I've done, I have this inkling my next one will be really good. However, it almost never turns out that way, but any improvement will make me happy.


So, here are my supplies after hitting Walmart. I bought a large foam half-dome (top of the head), four round disks (middle of the head), and a small half-dome for the chin area. I fell for the hot tool foam cutter. I have no idea if it actually works. I also bought glue specially made for foam. I have no idea if that works either, but I'm a first-time foam armature builder. (More about that in a second).

My plan is to stack the foam pieces together in the general shape of the character's head. I  will mount the stack on a PVC pipe. I'll carve out a silhouette of the character, possibly with the aid of that hot foam cutter. Next, I'll build a pair of 3T eyes (wood knobs) mounted on an eye tray. Somehow, I will secure the tray in a cavity carved out of the foam. I may use some foam pieces to make ears and nose frames.

Once all of that is completed, I'll start laying on paper clay until some new character emerges.

Now, the reason I'm a first-time foam armature builder is that my previous characters were buillt up from blanks from Braylu Creations. It's a great way to sculpt a vent figure, but the size and shape of the blank define certain dimensions,  I can shoot for a wider range of dimensions with a foam armature.

2020

Divots

Now that the basic sculpting is completed, the task of smoothing the alien begins. The first step is to sand with 100-grit sandpaper. That will reveal even more bumps, cracks and divots. I mark the divots with pencil, then fill them with spots of paper clay. After that, more sanding.

The deep divot in the side of the head is actually an intentional dent for an ear hole. I'm not going to sculpt a full ear because I'd rather leave the option open for the figure builder. This alien could have pointy ears, small exotic ears, flappy ears... or just an earhole.