Armature Construction Pt 1

With the moulds completed I then set to work building the armature.  To begin with, I cut each element of K&S required following the armature template sheets I had previously drawn up.  I then filed the ends of the K&S with a diamond needle file to ensure that the male and female sections would interlock smoothly.  See above.  

I then set about cutting out the foam to be used for the interior structure.  To do this I first cut out the sections in paper, following my armature sheets I had drawn earlier.  I then used these peices of paper to make a template on the foam which I cut with care to ensure that they were the precise size as presented on the paper.  The foam will be a vital internal element as it will hold all the internal wire and K&S components as well as provide me with firm gripping points on the puppet for the animation process.

Here are the feet for the Princess puppet which have been drilled and then tapped to an M3 size in order to match the nut which will be welded on later.

I prepped a series of armature hands to be later placed in the hand mold and covered in silicone.  I spun a strip of copper wire in with the aluminium to give the fingers more durability.  I will be sure to paint the hands in a suitable flesh colour before molding so that the armature does not show through.

Everything is coming together in this image. The wire, K&S and foam is all glued together here for the boys lower body section.

Preparing the Moulds

After getting back after the new year I set to work on building the moulds for the sculpts which I had completed the over Christmas.  These were built up using WED clay.  I had a total of 10 moulds in total to put together!  See images below.

Hand Moulds.

Foot Mould

Head Mould

Full Body Mould

I would go on to build up the mould walls in foamboard and cast them up in resin.