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10/08/02-LEG ARMOUR The leg armour is detailed much more simply for
several reasons: The main reason is a very practical one-- my neck and lower
back are killing me! I'd forgotten how punishing working on detail can be, and
the last batch did me in. It's probably the way that I have to tense up, hunch
over and crane down to sculpt fine detail. The pain made a very convincing case
for doing this part quickly.
Epoxy putty forces an intense work habit since the window of opportunity is
only open for so long and you have to be where you're supposed to be as the
characteristics of the putty change. (huh?) At first, the putty is really too
sticky and soft to sculpt, but it can be blended easily and has the best adhesion.
As it cures, it becomes easier to sculpt but more difficult to affix and blend
additions. If you wait too long, additions won't stick well and might pop off
with handling. The hardening putty also changes in its interaction with your
sculpting tools, so you have to adapt. Basically, the clock is always running,
symmetrical detailing can take a long time, and there's usually not enough time
available when the putty reaches a good sculpting state. This rushed way of
working has a tendency to make the profanities fly when a putty addition insists
on adhering to your tool and not the sculpt. It really makes you appreciate
polyclay.
Doing things quickly is also unavoidable if you're as impatient as I am--
I've rushed through this because I wanted to see how they looked, painted, and
placed on the figure. The basic styrene forms give a good idea of how the part
will look-- enough to make you want to be there-- but you still have to slog
through the pain of detailing. It's like waiting for a package to arrive, except
that it requires you to work. Ugh. See what I mean?
Finally, there's a structural reason for the simplified detailing. The greaves
are constructed out of thermoformed plastic. They have a bit of flexibility
which lets them partially wrap around the back of the calf and stay in place
without straps. Putty has practically nil flexibility. Mix flexible and inflexible
together and you have a recipe for parts popping off. Therefore, the detail
needed to be centered on the greaves in the area where there's the least amount
of flexing: right down the center axis. This limited the detail design significantly,
and considering how much my back hurts, was a welcome excuse.
The greaves also gave me the opportunity to try something I hadn't done before--
use mini eyelets to articulate the armour. The most common use for these in
dollmaking seems to be decorative and as lacing holes. In this usage,
the eyelet is used to join the upper thigh and kneecap armour, which results
in a hinge between the two. I didn't join the lower armour because it was more
adjustable that way. I had doubts that the hinge points would match the legs'
and I didn't want to risk bunging it up after all that work.
Working on these once again brings up the aesthetic issue of detailing-- that's
one of the main motivation for this project. Although I would have preferred
to have made a well-designed figure by working on it with the benefit of experience
and learning, this figure is the experience and learning. I've learned
that there's much more to detailing than just pushing putty or clay around.
As I mentioned earlier, planning is important. That applies to both the overall
distribution of detail as well as the motifs and execution of detail in specific
parts. Research for inspiration should precede that to give you some ideas for
motifs. Ideally, your motif should be in harmony with the genre of your figure.
I've learned that on a functional level there are several types or levels
of detailing: The broader, more simple gestures are meant to be decoded by the
eye as recognizable shapes. These usually are defined with more depth and are
set off by plain, untextured or simply textured areas. At the other end of the
spectrum is dense, fine detail-- this is often perceived by the eye as busy,
shimmering detail, and not necessarily interpreted as individually recognizable
shapes. In the 1:1 world, we rarely notice the exact pattern of decorative flourishes,
but notice the fact that the object contains fine detail. At 1:6, that's even
more the case-- densely packed detail below a certain size is just too difficult
to see, even if it is rendered in symmetrical patterns. It looks like shimmering
"noise" (especially if you paint it with something reflective like chrome)--
but it does conveys the sense of detail. Therefore, if seeing the pattern is
important, it should be relatively large, isolated, and defined enough to be
noticed. This is especially vital when reinforcing the pattern of symmetry.
Unfortunately, my piecemeal and experimental approach has left me with a hodgepodge
of different detailing concentrations. It's not horrible or unsalvageable since
there are areas of sparse detail distributed throughout the figure to help balance
it out -- but it really could be much better if I were more experienced at this.
But that's the point I've tried to make in many articles: You learn by doing,
mistakes and all.
Such as, the addition of the forearm armour. It's not a huge improvement,
but IMO better balances the distribution of simple and complex detail. As
I've experimented with styles of detailing-- first the fine stuff, then
the simpler stuff-- it's gotten distributed in weird concentrations. The
forearm armour helps establish the simple detailing motif of the leg armour
and spreads it around. Hey, doing the helmet like that would probably help
too! (heh heh)
This time I did the armour's piping the right way: I had used a
flexible PVC-ish piping around the edges of the leg armour. It seemed like
a good idea at the time, since it was easy to attach and was extremely flexible.
Unfortunately, it wasn't compatible with the chrome paint, and remained
tacky after the rest of it was dry. Duh... that's Customizing 101. I certainly
wasn't thinking of that and it didn't cross my mind to test the combo.
Instead of rebuilding the leg armour, I took the quick & easy way out--
I sealed the mess with Dullcoat and repainted: It's really just a lazy,
makeshift solution since the nasty chemical reaction is still going on under
the Dullcote. Sure enough, the undersurface mushiness bothered me enough
so that I ended up carefully stripping the paint from the ribbing and painting
it with acrylic. (I made sure to use styrene rods for the forearm armour.)
The sword was cut out of brass and nickel plated, with an attempt to engrave
some meaningless runes in the blade, just for the heckuvit.... The hand
guard was fashioned out of putty over a wire armature and the handle is
a simple leather-covered rod-- It's fat and plain, but the main objective
was to make it so that the figure could grip the handle. A sheath was made
out of basswood, soaked and bound around the blade to conform to the curvature.
After gluing it and sanding it down it looked pretty neat, but I decided
not to use it because it looked too bulky: The blade's kinda big and I was
sure it would be impossible to grind the sheath thin enough without making
it too weak. Styrene is probably the answer, but sticking the naked sword
through a belt (or later, chain) also works for me.
Since this picture, I've done a few more things which aren't very noticible
in the final picture below -- the limb armour was fitted with straps and
rivets, and the oval centers of the main decoration was finished with silver
foil (it's not terribly noticible, but it is slightly shinier). I'll probably
experiment some more with the metallic foils-- as long as you're not doing
a large clean area which demands absolute perfection, you can get some interesting
effects. She's been given upper arm braclets (cloned from the neck armor)
and her sword was attached to the existing belt via a chain. The Hannya
devil masks on the angular shoulder armour were recast for better detail
and inlaid where the originals were grinded out-- this time, they're drybrushed
with an antique brass paste and stand out much better. The fact that they're
separate, added-on pieces is noticible in a subtle way: It makes the whole
piece look more like it was constructed than a single casting which is painted
to look like it's made of separate parts.
10/11/02-
Okay, okay... enuf of these pointless incremental pics, huh? Sorry. I know
it's hard to see the changes. I've had so much fun adding stuff and being
pleasantly surprised by the results... so I take pictures and then add more
stuff to the figure. I'm including yesterday's picture to the left because
it shows a few thing more clearly.
Valkyrie? Amazon Warrior Queen? Battle Queen? She's got the armour for the job but she's not blond & blue-eyed so the Valkyrie title is loose-fitting (I wasn't trying to have her fit into Norse mythology either, but it was a shorter, descriptive name). The fact that she's tall makes her an Amazon by one definition, and her outfit is fancier than any of the other gals so she might be their Queen... Or maybe... who cares?
For some reason (auto white balance?), the purple cape shows up as blue outdoors. Weird. Taking photos outdoors is aggravating: The ground is mushy and figures fall over. Bugs hound you and figures fall over. The exposure gets whacked by the sun peeking through the trees and figures fall over. You take a picture and notice something's not posed quite right. Figures fall over. Of course, I was one shot shy of taking the really good picture... As I was adjusting Gretchen's helmet, Bunny fell over and since I was being devoured by mosquitos, I gave up.
(Jeez, I gotta do something about those Cool Girl gloves!)
SPECIAL BONUS MATERIAL FOR NON-MEMBERS
 10/12/02
INTERVIEW WITH GRETCHEN
Okay, I admit it... I was intimidated. I don't routinely get called to interview a six-foot amazon with basketball-sized breasts, and even with her rumored breast-reduction surgery, what are you supposed to talk about? Where are you supposed to look? As if that weren't bad enough, my intimidation was heightened by the studio's ridiculously strict security measures. I understand that safety is on everyone's minds these days and that studios are secretive places, but having to conduct an interview in one's skivvies is really taking it too far. Gretchen: I see that you're happy to see me.
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