In the last post I had got as far as trying to make a silicone head for one of the characters. I've since made several attempts to get this right but there are always flaws in the face i.e. gaps and cracks. I think this is probably due to the way I'm applying the silicone to the mould, which is by forcing it into the mould on the back of a spoon. I figured the spoon would work as it has the same curve as the inside of the mould. I can only guess that the silicone is sticking to the spoon more easily than it is to the mould, and allowing for movement and consequently gaps on the surface,

 

I decided to try and cast some of the characters faces in glue - hot glue resembles plastic when it cools and I thought this might be a cheaper alternative to resin. The blue eyes are cheap wooden beads which will be replaced with 'fake' pearl beads. In my first attempt I used pearl beads but forgot that they would end up stuck to the glue. When I tried to loosen them they disintegrated.

 

This is one with the wooden beads replaced with pearl beads. I will be painting the pupils again - they are recycled from a previous animation. You might notice that these heads are also smaller, and so harder to work with.

 

I made a start on the horses head by carving into some foam board.

 

The armature is a combination of beads and raw-plug sections.

 

A close-up shot of one of the glue faces shows that this method isn't great either - there's still holes and cracks on the surface.

 

Another armature that I'm working on

 

I am attempting to make smaller hands, this time with very thin wire. I've used some hot glue for the palms instead of epoxy as the epoxy tends to crumble when used in small amounts.

 

After a few coats of liquid latex the wire is still showing through as it seems to have rusted already.

 

 

This is an experimental shot for one of my scenes - it will make sense later

 

I will be having lot's of wall torches for lighting, so I'm going to try adding flames to this plasticine model in After Effects.

 

For the horses torso I carved the rough shape in foam board and sanded it smooth.

 

I then cut it down the centre so I can hollow out the section where the armature will fit.

 

The two halves will be joined over the armature spine

 

 

This is the result so far. I have made some ears which I will stick on with bits of wire

 

I had to cut a few bits from the front to fit this, but it will all be covered anyway

 

I started to add soft foam to the legs, I cut some strips of foam and glued them together at each side of the leg armature. I ended up trying loads of different glues as I didn't have the spray on adhesive that I've seen used in tutorials online. I managed to buy some today which should speed things up from now on.

 

 I had a go at trimming the foam into s the right shape, which seems to be working out o.k. Now I need to find some material (that resembles hair) to cover this with. It would be nice to have at least one knight and horse finished, and I hope to vary him with different accessories as I will need loads of them (for a five second shot - thank god for After Effects)