Full Body Cast

Once cast, I first set about in removing the flashing.  I did this in the same way I removed the excess on the other silicone elements.  I achieved this by utilizing a small pair of scissors and a Dremel.

The full silicone body set just as desired, with all joints bending in the appropriate places.

I cut slits in the silicone for the Allen keys to readjust the joints where required when animating.

I also tested the armature's foot joint by balancing the ball of the foot on a section of threaded bar.

Casting In Silicone

Once the armatures and two part moulds were made, I then prepped my workstation for the silicone process.
I began by mixing the silicon with the desired pigment and a tiny amount of cure accelerator.  I layered this mix into the mould, working up in several layers until I have created a skin almost 1mm thick.

Once these had dried, I then placed the armature in the mould, brought both sides of the mould together and finally poured in a softer silicone; which I used in order to reduce any resistance when moving the puppet's joints when it came to animating.

I braced each side of the moulds to minimize silicone leakage and reduce potential flashing on the final cast.

The moulds themselves appeared dirty once they were cast.  I believe that this is due to the conditions I had to cast them in.  As the University had temporarily closed their moulding/casting room, I had no other choice but to cast the resin outside.  Despite working under cover, the moister in the air resulted corrupted moulds.  The cracks and imperfections could be repaired with miliput. 

I wrapped the joints of the armature in tape to ensure that the silicone would not interfere with the movement.

I placed the armature carefully into position in the mould, ensuring that the joints were positioned correctly so that they would bend correctly on the final cast. 

Completed Armatures

Here are the completed Armatures, pictured side by side.
Armatures - FMP Work from Gus Kearns on Vimeo.

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.

Previous FMP and Sculpting Work

This blog contains my work produced during my second semester and I have not included the pre-production work which can be seen in my production bible.  The production bible contains all conceptual developmental and sculptural work produced during my first semester of my final year at Staffordshire University.

Here is a video of my full sculptural work completed for this project.

Sculpting Work - FMP from Gus Kearns on Vimeo.