As you may recall, Nefarious created a character called “Tippy Pig”, on account of his difficult centre of gravity resulting from an oversized head. A silicone mold was taken and plastic clones were made. So now we have a dozen new toys to play with. Here’s a “class photo”, and you can see them all in detail after the break. As I mentioned, they’re plastic, and the modifications were done with Apoxie Clay (a two-part self-hardening polymer clay) and then painted with Vallejo acrylics and given a gloss coat over that to protect them.
Go ahead and click on the pictures to view them all nice and huge.
The base toy was sculpted by Nefarious and all the sculptural changes via Apoxie Clay were done by me, although in most of them it was Nefarious’s idea — she would sketch the modifications on paper and I’d follow her directions. Painting is by me unless specified otherwise (the gypsy fortune teller pig is by Caitlin, and the boar is by Nefarious). Making these has been a lot of fun.
(Continued)
As I think I mentioned, I even found uses for toy bits that didn’t come out of the mold quite right. When I cast this torso/leg unit, there was a gap at the bottom of the mold and the liquid plastic ran out the bottom, leaving the top half filled with air and thus non-existent. So, I added some ribs, stuck it on a base, and poured some leftover plastic onto it which became blood and guts. It’s been sitting on my desk all week but I finally got around to painting it when I got home from the hospital this morning.
The molds I made turned out nicely, so here is the first toy that I cast from said molds and painted.
Here’s another couple views of the toy unassembled with all of its accessories, front and rear view:
I’ve got a growing stack of parts ready to make more of them, and whenever a piece doesn’t turn out right (say because an air bubble got trapped in it) I fill in the error with clay and sometimes do minor customization, so many are a little bit different and has unique character of its own. Anyway… I stayed up too late last night painting, and then had to get up very early to get Nefarious to the bus as she’s in ski camp all week, so maybe I can add a half hour nap before she returns to the three scant hours I got last night.
I’ve just finished the final sanding of the little child soldier toy in the previous entry and have attached a pair of sprues to each of the component parts (two arms, a body, a head, and three accessories). With any luck I’ll make the molds (out of tin catalyzed silicone putty because it’s so easy to work with) and cast the first toys tomorrow… So if anyone wants to make a suggestion on a good next project, I’m listening. As to sales, yes, it’ll happen… I am just so horrible at fulfillment. I wish I knew someone who wanted to do that for me. Speaking of “I’m listening”, go ahead and volunteer in trade for a cut.
With a sword, mwahahahaha!
Since I’ve switched to two-part self-hardening synthetic clay, any clay I prepare will be rock hard by the next day and can not be re-used like things like Fimo or Sculpey. Rather than let the clay go to total waste, here is how I’ve amused myself:
That’s a casting taken off one of Nefarious’s Barbie dolls. She now has a tool that can stamp them out of plasticine as you can see. As well as that face, I did quite a few others, including one that’s quite tiny and certainly small enough to make nice shirt buttons (or beads) out of.
When I’m pouring plastics, that of course has any even shorter cure time, so if I don’t use it inside two or three minutes of mixing it goes (potentially uselessly) solid. It’s much harder to find a casual use for, so below is the amusement that came from the last thing I made (a gunmetal — metallic — version of my recent USB stick case). It is exactly what it looks like — perpetual pouring, the cup being emptied at the very instant that it went solid.
I remember enjoying a similar sculpture as a child. In the local mall they had a functional faucet that was suspended in the air. A pipe brought the water up, and then it poured back down all around said pipe, meaning that it looked like it was hanging there, some doorway to another — extremely watery — world.
I had a doctor’s appointment today and was asked to undertake the project of doing a pain diary to track the way it changes over the day and from day to day, and how it interacts with medicine, sleep, activity, and so on. I understand its value but I’m not looking forward to it because it brings pain to the foreground of my life and I prefer to push it as far into the background as I can manage. My primary doctor is actually going on vacation so it’s longer than normal between appointments, but when he gets back I think I’ll have a volley of appointments because as my medication levels move up into the riskier toxicity levels they want to do things like an EKG to ensure that I’m not creating heart problems and so on. I don’t expect that anything negative will be found and am seeing it more as a “better safe than sorry” sort of mission.
More pleasantly, I’ve started working on a new plastic toy… Depending on how I’m feeling I hope to make the molds tomorrow.
The little guy is just a bit over 6″ tall, and he’s got swivel connections in his neck and shoulders, and his hands are able to hold accessories. Right now I’ve made a matching cardboard sword and shield, as well as a ray gun. I’ll probably cast one in a metallic look, like a statue, but most will be painted, which I am quite looking forward to. I’m very pleased so far, although I’m currently fixing the head for the third time because I keep dropping it and knocking bits off, which is a little embarrassing.
