Monday, 15 December 2014

Cool Dude Zombie with Pawpaw

 



You must admit this is as cool a dude that a zombie ever gets and the top hat from the Clever Duck did not go astray. Hang on,yes it did, I had to make another one because the duck's was too small. Can't take a single trick!
 


Why isn't there a font size between these two? Anyway, what is the significance of the pawpaw? That is between me and my great neice and there it will stay but believe me, it does mean a lot.



Some details of the build from the final photos is the best I can do as my computer went from Apple to PC and the transition was not smooth. I  was not taking progress shots, I was not modelling, actually everything came to a halt while the Apple was on the blink.
The base is a grooved piece of plaster, the pawpaw is Apoxie Sculpt as are the clothes. All pretty standard stuff. I added his arms attached to the toothpick cane, as a unit, to the body after sculpting the front of his tuxedo and adding a fine chain for that extra bit of class.


He seems a bit leery of the fruit, probably never having been confronted in this manner before. Who has?


An undercoat of Citadel white for both parties.


When was the last time you saw spats or even thought about them? I could remember Uncle Scrooge McDuck wore them, so I googled"cartoon characters wearing spats" and there he was with many more besides. Amazing! Of course then it had to be" Spats" by themselves and, well it blows your mind that the rest of the fashion world is obviously wearing them and it has just passed you by.





Well there he stands,be-spatted and ultra cool while the fruit of the moment just sits quietly ripening (cleverly balanced as its pin took to the super glue just a bit too quickly).
What will happen next? They have just about the same level of intelligence,probably a standoff.











Sunday, 14 December 2014

Orc Droid final form


THIS EARLY ENTRY IS BEING RE-WRITTEN AS I INADVERTENTLY DELETED ALL 748 PHOTOS FROM MY BLOGS.

This vignette called "Unwelcome Visitor"was to be my entry into the 2011 Games Workshop Golden Daemon competition, however due to a misunderstanding regarding its inclusion and transport, it never made it to Sydney.






 
 
 
 



The above pics give an all round views of the piece and as I did not keep a detailed photo log of the build,I will be describing features as they can be seen in their final form.
 
What we basically have is an Imperial tower being visited by an Orc Droid, that is an orc warrior in a huge exoskeleton. It has been discovered by an Imperial Guardsman who is very sensibly, staying out of sight.
 
 
This was the first model I had built where I used silicon moulds and resin casting. After the bust of the Araby Ogre where I needed 12 skulls, I figured there had to be a better way of doing the same detail over and over. The tower,being Imperial, had to be ornate and skull bedecked so I decided to make two masters for the walls. The above pic shows the master, mould in pink silicon and the resin cast in cream. The master used styrene plastic, lead solder, a button battery,corrugated cardboard and a previously cast techmarine badge.
 
 

More casting here with the master in the middle made up of 5 individual skull casts joined. This set formed a frieze around the base of the building and separate skulls were used any where I felt I needed a detail.
 
 
 
 
 
 



These pics show various aspects of the building.The top shows one of the four sides of the base and this panel, although not repeated, was a casting of disparate details in one piece. You can see the use of individual skulls in the second pic as well as the frieze used in the third. Our Imperial Guard hero can also be seen in the last two pics.The second pic shows the other panel I made for the tower, still with a bit of a Mechanicum theme. 
 
 
 
I wanted different heights to be available to the eye,so that there would be something of interest at every level. The tower is so solid so I made the gantry above to seem flimsy and yet fit with the overarching idea. Thin pipes at the corners of the building lead to the complex top and every structure,be it a support or bracket or junction had to be thought about. People see the entirety of a model and don't think about the fact that EVERYTHING they see has to designed and then fabricated.
 
 
 
 
 
Here are two views which show the complexity of that roof.especially how those rising pipes join the upper dome. Yes there skulls here as well as jewels, tubes, brackets and fastenings.
 



 




Here is the bad guy. An ordinary  orc boy was put into a suit of armour which would justify a complete build description by itself but it was done some years ago that I rarely look at it anymore and am only writing about it now because I was so stupid as to delete the original blog. Suffiice it to say that I am quite proud of the bulbous burner receptacle, it looks proper mek boy mad and no self respecting Goff Nob could be upset by the righteous black and white paint job. 

I hope these photos alone convey all the detail work that goes into scratchbuilding such a scene as this.