I'm still working on my characters, it turns out that there's a lot more involved than I'd anticipated. I had bought a set of 'Action Man' figures with the intention of replacing their heads and hands with ones that I made - which would mean having ready-made armatures for my male characters. The problem with that was that they're not actual 'Action man' toys but a cheaper version, with thighs like tree trunks. Not really suitable for my "men in tights" aesthetic (from the spoof film about Robin Hood, co-incidentally featuring king john himself). So I decided to make legs for the figures to replace the gigantic ones they had. This involved making a pair of suitable legs in clay, making a mould from this in plaster. and then casting the legs in coloured silicone.

 

 

The first thing I did was to build an armature to sit inside the silicone. I used aluminium wire slotted inside some lengths of plastic raw-plugs. I glued a section of wire to the pelvis section to act as a spine.

 

 

On the feet I glued a couple of M6 nuts to the looped wire (I would have used epoxy putty but I am trying to save time where possible)

 

O.k. maybe the legs I made look like a woman's, nut they're in keeping with the characters design which is tall and skinny - for King john and Troy. The others will be getting the 'Action Man' legs as they won't have tights.

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn't sure how long to leave the silicone to set so I erred on the side of caution and left it overnight. Apparently silicone dries quicker when acrylic paint is mixed with it, but exactly how long that is I don't know and I don't want to risk having to re-do stuff at this stage.

 

As you can see there is lot's of overspill to be trimmed off with this method

 

So this is the first pair of legs. The boots have to be painted and they're a bit thick - which means there isn't that much movement at the ankles, but it's not a problem as there's loads of movement (for walking) at the knees.

 

I decided to go with Alan's advice regarding the characters dialogue, which was to make replacement mouths. Well he suggested replacement faces - which usually involve replacing everything from the eyes down - but that would mean duplicating the nose accurately several times and I wasn't confident about being able to do that. So what I did was make copies of the three main characters heads (using the existing moulds) in Fimo clay. The mouth section was then sliced off with a kidney cutter, and then everything got baked to harden it - hence the tin foil.

 

A clearer version of the previous shot

 

For the characters hair I'm copying something I learned last year during my work experience with Emma Fisher, where we used unravelled rope or chord for hair strands. I had some white nylon chord lying around and I cut it into short lengths, unravelled it and painted it in a selection of colours.

 

Having made the first mouths I was able to make copies to which I added lips in a variety of open shapes - I'm hoping to have enough here to cover the dialogue.

 

 

 To secure the different mouths I drilled a small hole in the head section and fitted a small magnet. I then drilled into each mouth section and fitted a small nut - which would then stick to the magnet (in theory. Not surprisingly this didn't actually work like it was supposed to and the mouth sections were slipping and sliding around - though they did stay on the face. So I then had to drill two tiny holes in each head section and fit wires inside them. Then I had to drill corresponding holes in each of the mouth sections so that they would stay in position when placed.

 

 

As a king my character doesn't look very impressive - in fact he looks a bit menacing - but at this stage I was mostly concerned with trying out the mouths with a bit of dialogue.

 

 

So I finally got round to testing out the replacement mouths and although the timing is a little bit out I think they might work out o.k.

 

 

My female main character has the luxury of Barbie doll hair.

 

 

I had been meaning to experiment with casting silicone hands for a while. I have tried gradually building up layers of liquid latex over wire armatures but it's very time consuming. So I made a plaster mould using the most recent pair of hands I'd made with latex. They look ridiculously big on the characters but I just can't make anything smaller that will be moveable.

 

 

I made the armature by twisting five very thin wires together - for the fingers, and then twisting together again for the palm and wrist. The wires had to be matched to the mould which is a bit frustrating - or they would stick out through the silicone. So again I mixed some acrylic paint with the silicone and left the mould as long as I dared before separating it.

 

As you can see there is a lot of overspill to be trimmed off but they didn't turn out too bad for a first attempt.

 

 

A shot of the hands after trimming off the overspill

 

I also got around to making the parts for the table and chairs - well, it's now one chair and two benches. Unfortunately my hot-glue gun died so I have to replace that before I can assemble them.

 

This is King John and Troy. You'd never have guessed right? One problem with the torso's is that they tend to turn too easily - I might have to tape everything together (the torso parts - not KJ and Troy)

 

 

My plan to paint the shoes isn't working as you can see. I think I might get away with colouring some liquid latex and painting it on.

 

Just a random shot of my workspace

 

Some of the stuff I need to organize.

 

I finally made a start on the king's crown. I used a plastic bottle top, trimmed to shape, with a hair bobble glued to the bottom. It'll need a few more coats of paint - that's supposed to be gold? - and I will stick on some diamonds or something like that. At least he's nearly finished and I can start shooting his solo scene's.