Troll McTrollFace (part 2)

Ok let’s continue with this odyssey

At the end of part one I had just got the armature posed. The next thing to think about is how it going to be cast. Now I am absolutely not an expert in casting, but what I do know is I have avoid undercuts and I’m not going to get into a discussion of mold plans and all the theory, because I know nothing. Saying that it look to me that I have to split it into five pieces, the body with the legs, both arms, the right hand with the goblin and the head. I have marked in red on the following photos. So to make this easier to cut up when the sculpting is finished I cut halfway through the wire with a set of side snips, now I have to be careful not to weaken the structure too much.

I then gave the whole thing a skin of Green Stuff. This helps give the armature some rigidity. Eavan using 20 gauge wire springy near the top. It will also give a larger surface area for the clay to stick to.

Then I continue with some more bulking out with Green Surf. But hear I’m starting to add the major muscle groups, also places that need more bulk like the belly and bits that need an under structure such as the heads, hands and feet. I also added an extra support, the hand and goblin where moving around a bit too much.

Next it’s time to skin it with clay. I do this by first adding a thin layer of Green Stuff and before the Green cures add a layer of clay on top.I was a bit worried that if I put down the Green on the all of figure at once, the Green might cure too much before I start with the clay. Because of this, I did it in batches, mixing up just enough Green to skin a 28mm figure. You can see that I did get a bit carried away and started blacking out the muscles.

Then I started bulking out the form and roughing in the large muscle groups. It was at this point I discovered that I had made a mistake. When I was bulking out with Green Stuff, I put the bicep on the left arm in the wrong position, it should be on the opposite side from the elbow. This is why it’s important to have some good reference material and refer to it often. To fix this I had to cut out the entire upper arm, down to the wire, from just below the shoulder to just above the elbow. Starting the process agent, bulking out with Green Stuff, double checking with the reference material, then skinning with clay and finally bulking out with more clay.

Well that’s enough for today, as always I would love to hear what you think.

Ketil