Saturday, January 9, 2010

Magenta (head part 3)

So I ran out of Sculpey Firm just as I was about to start head no. 4 I scrounged my stash and found some normal sculpey (which I feel is too soft for small details) and some old Fimo. I decided to use the Fiom and re-constituted it with some isopropyl alcohol and diluent, I shaped a cube around some wire and baked it. This was then carved and sanded down to an oval shape close to the size I wanted the head to be. I then proceeded to sculpt details on top with more unbaked Fimo.

Fimo has a different consistency compared to sculpey. It's firmer and rubbery akin to duro epoxy putty while sculpey feels more like magic-sculp. After a couple of attempts, I switched back to some normal sculpey to which a I mixed a very small amount of Fimo to reduce the softness. This was much better and I proceeded to my second bake.
Not wanting to be over emotional but - aaarrrrgggghhhhh! Some bumps appeared on the surface caused by airbubbles. I suspect it's the underlying Fimo not getting properly conditioned, no more Fimo for me. Plus the neutral gray color of sculpey firm reflects the light in a way that shows off the surface shape better.
I decided to carve holes to get to rid of the bumps and then fill this in with magic-sculp. I also made some refinements to the overall shape of the head and mouth. I wasn't happy with the ears either so these were sliced off. This also made it easier to shape the side of the head. We won't need ears under the helmet anyway.
At last I was getting closer to what I imagined the head to look like. At this point I decided I had worked on it enough and that further refinement might actually do more harm than good. It's still not a hundred percent but I can still make refinements later once it's been cast. All 3 heads were prepped up for casting so I could have more options later on. These were glued on to bar of resin as can be seen below.
Next step moulding and casting! stay tuned...

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