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Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Captain Blood on January 02, 2020, 04:10:29 PM
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Well in giant scale anyway lol
I've done a fair bit of adapting of 28mm figures using Green Stuff (adding beards, cloaks, hats, baggy trousers, fur capes etc), but this is the first full figure I've sculpted.
Unfortunately he's not quite wargaming scale - he's 10 inches tall, and he's going to provide a master model to be cast for an upcoming stage production of the Agatha Christie classic 'And Then There Were None', which requires ten identical soldier statuettes - three of which have to get broken every performance :o
(If you're not familiar with the story - each time one of the guests on Soldier Island is horribly murdered, one of the soldier statuettes gets broken or disappears... )
So once he's finished, we'll be casting about 30 copies in plaster of Paris - don't ask me how, I'm leaving that to someone more technical than me. But I am trying to make sure there aren't too many deep undercuts which would make him difficult to cast. Which is also why the pose is deliberately simple: at attention with a sabre held down by his side, as if on guard duty.
Haven't decided yet if the finished set of cast statuettes will just be left as white plaster, or sprayed gold / silver / terracotta or whatever. I've already told the director that I'm not painting 30 figures (which I think would make them look way too much like toy soldiers anyway)
As you can see, he's bodged from a rudimentary former knocked up from styrene offcuts roughly shaped with a hot wire cutter. Onto which I'm gradually applying layers of Green Stuff to build up the detail.
Apart from a rough idea in my head of a generic mid-C19th soldier, I didn't plan him in any great detail - I rashly just started making. So he's very much emerging as he goes. At the moment he appears to be shaping into an Austrian chocolate soldier that's stepped out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Or possibly Ruritania ;)
TBH, he only has to work from stage distance, so no one is going to see any detail - the set of figurines just need to look obviously like soldiers to the audience.
(https://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/43/577-020120164138.jpeg)
I'll share the finished product in due course :)
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Looking good! Suitably generic and the moustache is a nice touch. Should look great under a coat of gloss enamel.
The bigger question is where they will find a life size avatar of Margaret Rutherford. :)
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Splendid moustache :D
He's looking good already. :)
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Looking good! Suitably generic and the moustache is a nice touch. Should look great under a coat of gloss enamel.
The bigger question is where they will find a life size avatar of Margaret Rutherford. :)
:)
Thankfully, this is one of the very few Agatha Christie works that doesn't have Miss Marple (or Poirot, or any detective unpicking the mystery). Possibly part of its enduring appeal as her 'purest' mystery - just the group of protagonists, one of whom is the murderer.
Splendid moustache :D
Obviously modelled on your own luxuriant 'tache, Nicholas ;)
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Mmmm,I think the title should read "Captain Blood Makes this sculpting lark look easy".
Cracking work Richard,you polymath(do you play a musical instrument as well?) :)
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Just realised, the play is the re-badged Ten Little (insert distasteful racial epithet here). Looks like Miss Marple is off the hook. Will it be the book version where everyone ends up brown bread or the slightly happier ending version?
I think you should paint ‘em. They really do have that toy soldier look down pat.
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Yep, it’s now on its third title in 80 years.
Interestingly Christie wrote the original novel in 1939 then adapted it herself for the stage in 1943. She gave the stage version a somewhat happy ending. The current acting edition gives both endings, as her estate approved an alternative ending for the play adapted from the ending given in the original novel. Our production will be using this dark ending :)
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It's perhaps one of her grimmest novel, Hamlet by Christie if you like regarding the death rate.
Are you playing the judge?
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I'll share the finished product in due course :)
Coolo, Blood!
I'm sure he will come out perfect!
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It's perhaps one of her grimmest novel, Hamlet by Christie if you like regarding the death rate.
Are you playing the judge?
I’d say he was born to play that part ;) :)
Charles Dance played the judge in the more recent BBC version. Richard certainly has the same gravitas ;) lol
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Modelling and theater, I love it when world collide 8)
He's coming nicely too, would be useful in 28 mm scale as a generic slightly-Hollywood soldier from tha period.
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It’s as well that they chose this rather than a production of Oh! Calcutta! The mind boggles at what Richard might have been asked to sculpt. :)
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That is a cracking start to what, I am sure , will be just the ticker when finished.
8) 8)
P.S. Please send me the email address of your director so that I can suggest you do 'The Six Napoleons' as your next production.
:D
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lol Thanks Pablo
Well, he's about halfway done.
It's blinking tricky working with Green Stuff, because every piece you add, you then have to leave overnight to harden, otherwise you're constantly putting fingerprints all over the bits you've worked on. Plus you can't really overlay new detail over soft putty. So it's painfully slow progress. Frustrating TBH.
I know that's the case with sculpting 28mm figures too, but at least you can stick those onto a cork to handle. In this giant scale, you really need to keep turning the figure round and round in your mitt...
Also working hard to keep the detail shallow enough so as not to cause any trouble when it comes to making the cast...
(Truthfully, the detail won't be seen from stage distance. But I'll know... ::))
Anyway, here he is so far...
I think he's looking a bit less like an Austro-Hungarian and a bit more South American now... I think I might make him Paraguayan... ;) ;) ;)
(https://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/43/577-070120144345-432792315.jpeg)
(https://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/43/577-070120144345-432781559.jpeg)
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How many show? if you stay true to the script the number of statues to smash will add up quite rapidly.
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He's coming out fine and dandy!
You give him a name?
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You give him a name?
lol Not yet. But he could well be a Raymondo... ;)
How many show? if you stay true to the script the number of statues to smash will add up quite rapidly.
Eight performances I think, Peder.
But actually, although the play starts with 10 figurines on view, most of them 'disappear' as the murders occur. So a core set will be re-used night after night.
Only one 'little soldier' is actually seen getting smashed on stage in real time, and another is brought in as already smashed (so we'll use the same broken one for that every night).
So allowing for tech and dress rehearsals etc. plus any accidental breakages, I think we'll need to cast 25 in total. Maybe a couple more to be on the safe side. It's a long time since I've used plaster of Paris, so I'm not sure how long that's going to take... One a day maybe?
Luckily, the production isn't on until the end of March, so hopefully we'll have long enough.
That's why I'm making the master now though! Because I suspect making the mould and getting the casting process right is going to be the tricky bit... ::)
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lol Not yet. But he could well be a Raymondo... ;)
Eight performances I think, Peder.
But actually, although the play starts with 10 figurines on view, most of them 'disappear' as the murders occur. So a core set will be re-used night after night.
Only one 'little soldier' is actually seen getting smashed on stage in real time, and another is brought in as already smashed (so we'll use the same broken one for that every night).
So allowing for tech and dress rehearsals etc. plus any accidental breakages, I think we'll need to cast 25 in total. Maybe a couple more to be on the safe side. It's a long time since I've used plaster of Paris, so I'm not sure how long that's going to take... One a day maybe?
Luckily, the production isn't on until the end of March, so hopefully we'll have long enough.
That's why I'm making the master now though! Because I suspect making the mould and getting the casting process right is going to be the tricky bit... ::)
I suppose you will be casting it in plaster?
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I suppose you will be casting it in plaster?
That's the plan :)
Anyone with any advice on using plaster-resin, dental plaster etc., vs good old-fashioned Plaster of Paris etc., gratefully received!
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The finished master...
(https://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/43/577-110120145021.jpeg)
The boots are deliberately lumpy and vestigial - he needs to have some bottom-weight in order to stand up stably.
I got the attitude of the right hand within the sword basket hilt completely wrong - it should have been modelled with the hand turned back on the wrist at a much more acute angle, but unfortunately I didn't have time to redo it as I had to hand it over to the practical fellow who has agreed to work out how to cast it. To be fair, at stage distance, no-one will ever see it, but still irritating >:( lol
Apparently it's now calculated that 35 breakable statuettes and 10 'solids' will be required. The guy who has agreed to work out how to cast it, has a cunning plan... We shall see... ::) ;)
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That’s worked out nicely! Bugger the wrist angle, they look perfectly serviceable to me.
Of course if your chap’s ‘cunning plan’ doesn’t succeed, the producer could always change the title to ‘Ten Little Garden Gnomes’ and whip down to the nearest garden centre. It’s not like the play’s author will object. :D
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Lovely work Richard. Just been watching the TV series you are working on.
Best regards,
Helen
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Well done! :-*