Large Scale Central

Cy Crumley

Modeling Figures
#1

At long last, I have given up on making a mold for the glasses. Here is the prototype of Cy, before preping for the mold. I have fabricated a crude facimily of the glasses from 28 guage brass wire. They don’t look bad from far away, but closeup!

Another shot of my coach and Cy

And another at a slightly different angle

Even though Cy worked the ET&NWC railroad, he will look good on my OR&L. The next conductor I do will be Jesse C. Conde, the writer of Sugar Trains Pictorial. Theres a nice shot of him in a conductors uniform on the back dust jacket.

#2

Wow! The extreme closeup may not be perfect, but in all the other shots the glasses are very effective! The figure is terrific too.

If it’s not giving away any trade secrets, may I ask how you sculpt your figures? What material do you use?

#3
Ray Dunakin said:
Wow! The extreme closeup may not be perfect, but in all the other shots the glasses are very effective! The figure is terrific too.

If it’s not giving away any trade secrets, may I ask how you sculpt your figures? What material do you use?


I cheat. and use all the materials I need that will give me the detail I want. So, I use string, paper, sculpty, and even regular plasticine, white glue, epoxy, brass and steel wire, styrene, you name, if it gets me there I use it.
Its a very pricey and long process and the prototype wouldn’t stand up to the rigors of normal use, but thats ok. I make a mold from the prototype and then cast the finish pieces in resin.

#4

Looks great… I’ll vote with my wallet… look for my order to come. Geoff

#5

Yet another neat creation, Richard! I really like how he turned out and he looks great with that coach!

#6

Thanks all, Geoffry, please note that Cy, is not scheduled to ship until after December 28th. Also note that the glasses are not included. Thanks.

#7

Man that is truley incredible! how bout some how to shots on how ya set a figger for a mold? Having done it myself, I’m always looking for new more better ideas…

#8

I don’t know that it would be much help. I do a lot of unconventional stuff in that respect too. Such as using cardstock to form a cylinder around the figure and plasticine to seal the bottom. But it works for me [:D]

#9

Whats unconventional about that? Cheat to Win is our Motto! I use lego blocks for a dam myself. Do you encase the figure in a block of rubber and cut yer way in? How about pourways and air vents? A Professional caster gave me lots of good points on ‘injection castings’ using a syringe to shoot the resin in…as well as tips on making a rigid mold…

#10

Thats another unconventional approach. I use tissue paper to mask openings between legs, arms and bodies and fingers. Then I run a straight line of tissue paper down the back of the figure along what would usualy be the backbone or the seam in the shirt/jacket and trousers till it joins with the base. Its like a fin on the backs of the figures. Then I coat all the tissue paper with a coat of acrylic to stiffen it up. Then I use styrene tubing that is glued into holes drilled in the feet and then set that on clay.
I surround the whole thing with my cardstock tube. Roll 1/8 inch string of real soft clay and lay that string around the bottom of the cardstock tube and heat it with a hair dryer till it melts on the base and the cardstock tube.
After the clay cools, I pour. I use a vacumme twice to remove all the air from the mold and in 12 hours, I remove the cardstock and cut along the fin on the back of the figure pop out the prototype (usually completely intacted) let the mold set for another 12 hours, then pour resin.
I actually get less vissible seams this way, since the masks always follow seams in the clothing and are in the back for the most part.
I’ve tried 2 part molds, and use them when I’m making things like hats, but I don’t like using them on figures.