CHICKEN TROPHY
I have a friend who is a teacher at the school where I last worked before I retired. He organises a relay race between the two school houses, where the runners carry a rubber chicken instead of a baton. This relay starts with the preschoolers and continues up through all the classes to the teachers and even to the parents who come to support their children.
He asked me if I could come up with a suitable trophy - a Chicken or Chook Trophy- to be awarded to the winning house and kept in their possession for a year. What could I say? It is such a crazy concept and should be fun to do and as I really enjoyed my time as the art teacher at that school, I was only too happy to give it a go.
This was the original idea for the trophy, a running chook in an athletic yet panicked attitude, atop a wooden base. Apart from some support items, (helping the one foot balance business), this is what they will be running for, for years to come
Here is a sketch of the model marking the hip and shoulder joints as well as the spine. These points will carry the major limbs and in this figure, they will convey all the intent of a running chicken.
As with the Clever Duck, I made two armatures, one for them and one for me. That is the original idea but the "me" one hardly ever gets made. Maybe this time?
A central plastic form was cut and strong soldered wire legs were added with a vertical extension of the middle toe to provide a join to the base.
This frontal view shows the work required to get the correct dimensions as well as strengthening elements, for what will turn out to be quite a robust figure.
Wow! A lot has happened between photos hasn't it?
1. As per most of my models, foil was added as the bulk of the body to the central spine, defining the strong thighs and the area of the shoulders.
2. Apoxie Sculpt was then moulded over the foil to give a near final shape to the body.
3. The sculpt of the head was then started and this was a lot of fun as it actually worked without a lot of hassle. I used large plastic, fake pearl beads for the eyes, as the hole in the bead is perfect for the iris.
4. Once the putty had cured, I used a thin cut-off wheel in a motor tool to make a groove on the top of the skull to accommodate a plastic chicken's comb. This was covered with more putty and the wattles were added with the same stuff.
5. I wanted the wings to be a runner's arms in that they would have an" elbow" and a" wrist", both of which are important in giving drive to the athlete. I also wanted to make only one wing. This meant of course, a master and two cast duplicates. Surprise, surprise, that did not drive me to distraction with hidden pitfalls and mistakes, and they were duly done and cast. *** This reminds me why so few pics were taken. It was the wet season (up to 400mm in one day we had) and I do not like taking my camera out of its dry box in weather like that-- I've done the mouldy lens thing too much in the past thank you.***
6. The wings, being identical (as are our arms), could then be added with the curve of the feathers acting as the nicely relaxed wrist of a sprinter.
7. You can see the balsa wood support for the raised leg and this way of dealing with the various modelling operations changed according to what needed to be done at the time. Some putty has been added to the right leg in preparation for the distinctive scaling of a chicken's leg.
It does look a bit startled but that's to be expected, it is after all, a Trophy Chook. That piece of white plastic used as its tongue did not last and was replaced with a sharp bit of flattened aluminium wire- so beware the sharp tongue of the chook!
Nearly there! The base was kindly donated by a local cabinet maker as a favour to me, my teacher friend and the school. Nice bloke.
Here you can see the aforementioned support items and wouldn't you know it, a sunflower makes another appearance. This is a smaller version of the original from Plants vs Zombies, but now that I have made a mould of it, I can do a double sunflower for my grandson's collection.
The raised leg of the chook touches a point on a leaf and the strong wire stalk and with these contacts, the whole model is stable to the point of being nearly child proof. (No guarantees).
Painting. That nice timber base was massively masked with Tamiya yellow tape and standard masking tape in readiness for a white undercoat. Ha! This is where the problems began. I did not have any Citadel Skull white spray (which is superb), and I tried to do with a cheap variety. I may as well have thrown clods of white powder on it the result was so bad. In some places it stuck, in others it formed a grainy, pebbly sticky coat and in others it was just dust. The whole thing had to be sanded and that isn't easy on a complex, organic shape.
They just don't make sanding "anythings," that can get to all the nooks and crannies that this chicken had sprouted.
A last resort was a coat of Skull white applied with the airbrush. The Citadel spray is an enamel finish which accepts the top acrylic coats really well and as I use Citadel game paints, they are, literally, made for each other.
The palette of colours for the trophy was simple and limited to, white, red,yellow and the typical sunflower colours used before. I used Red Gore then Blood Red for the comb and wattle and followed these with a coat of shiny Red ink. When this ink was sprayed with an acrylic floor polish I use for a gloss coat, it ran. The damage was limited and covered with some Vallejo glossy white, but I couldn't spray the head with the gloss and it had to be masked with a card while I finished the body and sunflower.
Here is the finished trophy, complete but for a final varnish coat on the wooden base. The whole thing stands about 250mm high.
I will glue a piece of green felt onto the bottom of the base. Nothing says "finished" better than a nice felt underlay.
BALL COLLECTING ZOMBIE
A quick diversion, back to the world of zombies.
I coach Junior golf, and the one thing that kids baulk at is ball collecting (at least to my satisfaction).
This in mind, I made a simple ball collector mounted on a bit of broom handle, but I needed about 10. I took the idea to an engineer friend and sounded him out as to a way of streamlining the production of the items. The talk was fruitful and I went back to making them, a little less laboriously. I needn't have bothered, for the next day he turned up with 7 already to fit into their handles!
You just can't beat a good friend!
This zombie, carrying said ball collector with a giant one on his head, is my way of saying thank you.
Poor bugger, doomed to roam the driving ranges of the dead, collecting ballzz which keep pouring out of his bag! Just as well he's got that big one on his head otherwise his BRAINZ would fall out!
