 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Buy a |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Making the original model I found the best substance to build the master model was in plastilene modelling clay. (available from TIRANTI’S 70, High St, Theale, Reading, Berks.)This is very similar to “Plasticine” but more manageable and adaptable. I got an excellent finish by smoothing it out with petroleum jelly (Vaseline) and/or lighter fuel. Both mix with the modelling clays and help to blend out unwanted marks. I found this substance easy to work; it stayed pliable and did not tend to dry out, as tends to happen with water-based clays. This is also less messy because there is no need to keep wetting the material to keep it workable. So having said that where to begin? Well first of all decide upon the size you want the model to be. I chose 1/3rd full size, giving me a completed model just under 2 feet high. There were several reasons for this choice. In order to achieve maximum realism, which was what I wanted, you need to get a certain amount of detail into the model. Below this scale it gets rather difficult. In particular the hair needs to look good, and since I used real human hair it it doesn’t look too good on smaller scales and tends to look rather more like straw. The same also applies with material for clothes. Even a really fine cloth will look out of proportion on a tiny model.
However, whatever size you decide upon, the next step is to draw out a rough sketch, or several rough sketches to get the proportions of the overall model correct. Don’t worry if you’re not that good at drawing: reference to a few pictures in invaluable. I must admit that I found the “gatefold” of a certain girlie magazine (Playboy!) very helpful! More often than not this picture is printed almost exactly 2 feet high. Next you need to make a wire support frame to build the “Plastilene” up on. Soft square-section 3/16 inch aluminium sculptors wire is readily available in art suppliers, and is really the best. The legs of your “matchstick” model must be securely fixed into a baseboard, preferable made of contiboard (that is chipboard with a white plastic laminate both sides). This baseboard needs to be about 9 inches x 5 inches. I glued mine in because there is nothing worse than the model toppling over and getting damaged when it is nearly complete.
Now comes the hard part:- There is no way that I can tell anyone how to sculpt a figure without actually showing you, so I guess it is a case of practising a little (or a lot!) before attempting the model proper. Patience is what is needed more than anything else. If you don’t have much you may as well give up now. Don’t try to get it to a fine finish immediately, just build up a basic body shape to start with, using any reference you can (including photos as previously stated!). Books on life drawing showing muscle tone etc, are invaluable. I also found Frank Frazeta and Boris Valejo’s paintings and drawings a great help. The girls painted by both men, with their exaggerated muscles and features and sensual feel, are invaluable when building a model of this type. How you make the girl look, i.e -slender, athletic, or voluptuous is, of course, up to your own taste, but do stick with it. If you have never done anything like this before, just remember, We all have to start sometime! Gemini, the girl in the blue space gear was my first attempt. She was made 20 odd years ago and it took me several attempts before I got her right. As for tools for working the Plastilene; well you can obtain these from art shops just like the Aluminium wire, but I made my own from lime wood. Now it is a case of working on the model until you are satisfied with the results.
Modelling the face Special care and time needs to be spent on the face, After all, who wants an ugly face when that’s probable the first thing you notice (?!?): Once again any pictures of girls you like though are good to follow. I was very lucky as I had rather a nice real-life model (no names mentioned.) I took photos of her from several angles: profile, straight on, back of head, and close-ups of the eyes; perhaps the most important feature of the face. Another little tip: if you can get photos the exact size of your model it is a great help, since you can use callipers to transfer facial features from the photos to the model. This also applies when getting body proportions correct. I also made the head separately, and, like the hands added them to the final body once the model was cast. It is also vital to get the eye shape in place and this is done in a very specific way. On a 1/3rd scale figure the eyes work out at approximately 5/16th inch diameter (or 7mm) –and it just so happens that the steel ball-bearings in a spray paint can are just that size. The point of this is; whatever the shape of the face, the eyes are always round, and this roundness is best retained by placing the ball bearings into the face right at the outset and then building the face up around them. This way, no matter what happens as you model the face the eyes will retain their round shape, and this is a great help, believe me! I also found when making the head that I needed to brush on the lighter fuel with a fine paintbrush to get a good finish, as my fingers are just too big.
Making the hands Similar care needs to be taken when modelling the hands. I made the hands separately and then attached them to the model once it was cast in resin. (more of that process later) The hands on “Gemini” were in fact gloved, so I modelled gloves rather than hands (this was also much easier!) Any 2D artist will tell you hands are probably the most difficult thing to draw, and modelling them correctly is just the same! So as a basis to build on make two wire frames leaving the wrists overlong so that you have something to hold. This time use a much finer wire than that for the body. Once again patience is needed until a reasonably realistic hand is modelled. So after all this you should hopefully end up with a main model ending at the wrists and neck and two hands. Making the Moulds Because I used a material for my model which melts when warm the choice of what to make a mould from is very limited. It really needs to be in rubber, preferably of the cold cure silicone variety. A rubber, which is heated to become molten and then allowed to set as it cools, will also melt the “Plastilene” when poured over your carefully prepared original. This cold cure rubber is the only real expense incurred in the model as quite a bit is needed I found I needed eight pounds. (4 Kilos) It may be that some people will say why not make the originals in clay and fire it to get a solid model, hence disposing with moulds altogether. Well yes you can do that if you wish, but you will get nowhere near as good a finish as with the “Plastilene” model. With a final model cast in resin and/or glass fibre (because that is what I used for the final model) it can be rubbed down, painted, rubbed down and painted and so on to obtain a really smooth, fine finish. Also a more realistic eye can be made if it is fitted after painting, something not possible with a solid head.
The next step is to build an open box in wood just big enough to surround the model: four sides and a bottom screwed on for reasons that will become apparent. By laying the figure down, the base becomes the bottom side of the box. The next stage is to build up in plasticene to a level half way up the model, effectively covering the back half of the model. This is so the top half of the mould can be poured first. The ‘fill-in’ plasticene should only touch the model at the centre line so as little damage as possible is done to it. Any dents caused can always be removed later before pouring the bottom half. If you attempt to pour the bottom half of the mould first, i.e. pouring straight into the box until the level of rubber reaches half way around the figure, it is quicker, but all the air bubbles in the rubber rise up and settle against the bottom of the model and spoil the finish of the mould which will, in turn, be transferred to the final model. Similar boxes need to be made for the head and the hands. No one said this was going to be easy! When the top half has set (it takes anywhere up from 2 to 24 hours depending on the make of rubber you use) turn the box over with the model inside, laying it face down on a flat surface. Unscrew the bottom half of the mould, remove the ‘fill-in’ Plastilene and repair any dents that may have occurred. You then repeat the process and pour the bottom half of the mould (now of course the top) directly on to the model. But YOU MUST USE A RELEASE AGENT! If you don’t the two halves of the mould will stick together and the model you have invested so many hours making will be permanently stuck inside a solid block of rubber! Finally, when the second half is dry, dismantle the box, peel the two rubber moulds apart and you can dispose of the “Plastilene” model. You have the moulds. The same technique should now be followed for the hands and head.
The next step is to make your glass-fibre model. There are many books and pamphlets explaining the ins and out’s of fibre glassing. So I will assume that you can refer to one of these if you have not done it before. After applying the release wax to all the moulds proceed with the glass fibre until you have a thin layer in the head and body moulds. The hands however should be moulded in resin or car body filler, like ISOPON. If you do use such fillers as Isopon remember it needs to be thinned 50/50 with fibreglass resin in order to make it thin enough to pour. Finishing and Primer painting Trim off the glass fibre to the edge of the mould before it is completely dry. Then when thoroughly dry remove the two halves from the rubber moulds. Clean the pieces thoroughly with cellulose thinners and then soap and water and you are ready to stick the model together; including the head and hands, the moulding and construction of which is explained below. Filler paste and resin are both good glues, and once the two body halves are stuck together you can attach the head and hands and fill in any lines or holes along the join line with “Isopon” car filler used in its natural thick state. Now rub the entire model down with 120 grade wet-and-dry paper until you are satisfied with the result and then give the entire model several coats of spray car primer, giving several thin coats until you build up a good thickness. When this has dried, (I gave my model over 24 hours to dry) rub down the model with finer grade wet-and-dry paper. (I went down to 400 grade) until a really smooth finish is obtained. Indeed, it may be necessary to add more coats of paint and repeat the above process, but you are aiming for a completely smooth figure in grey primer, and no matter how many coats of paint and rub downs it takes, you must get this final model very smooth.
Moulding the Face Particular care should be taken with the face. You will find that from the inside the face looks rather odd, but you will see small hollows where the eyes are. Place the front face mould on a flat surface face down and just using a minute amount of glue (NOT SUPERGLUE! –UHU glue is ideal for this) glue two more ball-bearings into the shallow hollows. I suggest you do not use any actual fibreglass on the head. I used the 50/50 Isopon/ resin mixture for the entire head. I carefully prepaired a thick creamy mixture and painted it into the head mould. As with the paint, it is better to apply several thin layers rather than one thick one, and so after 4 coats I had a head about 1/8th inch (3mm) thick. When you have laid up the back and front of the head in resin, and it has set, cut a small slice approximately 1 inch in diameter off the back of the head above the hairline. This is so that you can now, with pliers or tweezers, remove the ball bearings from the eye sockets. This is why I stressed the small amount if glue needed. Too much glue will make removing the head from the mould very difficult. You only need enough glue to keep the ball bearings in place to retain the eye socket while you are moulding the head. These ball bearings will be replaced once the head is painted and the ball bearings are painted to look like eyes. It is possible you may be able to obtain realistic dolls eyes the same diameter, but I could no longer find these some 20 years ago, so the chance of finding them now is remote, to say the least. Painting the Model The model can now be painted. I used matt oil paint (HUMBROL) sprayed with an airbrush. A small spray gun can be used, or it can be brush-painted, but an airbrush obviously gives a far better finish. The airbrush is also very useful for shading the model and adding complexion to the face. When the paint is dry the eyes can be fitted from behind, through the hole cut at the back of the head. I made the eyes by painting the ball bearings mentioned earlier and giving them two coats of glaze. Afterwards stick the back of the head back on. For eyelashes I cut down very fine human false ones as thick heavy lashes look completely out of scale at this size. The eyebrows were just painted on.
Adding the Hair (and “Clothes”!) Finally the hair: I was lucky in finding some very fine human hair but if you can not get this then mohair is also very good. Indeed this was used for the puppets in Thunderbirds and is very fine, but applying it is a VERY tedious task, although come to think of it, so is using the human hair! There is really no other way to attach the hair than that which I’ll now describe: Firstly, glue the hair into small bunches about 1/8 inch across, leaving It over- long. Then when you have a large number of these start sticking them on the scalp area, starting at the bottom and working up so that each layer of hair covers the glue on the layer below it. Work up finally to the parting, where great care must be taken, as excess glue will spoil the whole job. Now give her a haircut and you should have a completed model albeit naked! Maybe you prefer her that way (!) however, the clothes on my models were made from a fine nylon material and all I will say about them is that I made and sewed them directly on to the model.
That way they fitted really well. I decided after completing my first model, Gemini, to go one stage further and start equipping her with all kinds of futuristic weapons and devices. Since I decided that the girl was perhaps the pilot of some futuristic plane or spacecraft I give her a small oxygen pack, made from a plastic disposable syringe cover decorated with tape. The pipes and hoses I made from very fine coiled springs but plastic tubing would do equally well. The ray gun however was built from scratch and was a whole model in itself as was the small direction finder she is holding. Finally her sunglasses were made from a section cut out of a blue transparent plastic container, I admit I was lucky that it was the right size! After all this was done I took the photos shown here. One photo was subsequently sold and used to publicise the TV puppet series “Terrahawks”, although I stress I had nothing whatever to do with that show, and my model girls were never used other than to sell the series. (see the photos accompanying this article) “Jungle Girl” was my second model made from the same moulds. After moulding I cut the fibreglass model and altered her pose. The head was a new one made from scratch like the first. Initially the second girl was used in a jungle setting clad only in a scanty bikini and equipped | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
