Thursday, November 13, 2008

What the heck is taking so long!!! :D

Ok, well since I dragged him to RXR he's gotten a lot more detail... aaaaaand since I *know* people are wondering, I'll just explain some with a minor "tutorial" bent to this. I decided to go the REALLY hard route I took with the original in order to get the better hair detail that will be super crisp and lend itself to more detailed painting for the mane and tail.



I'd started at the tail in the fashion I'd done Godiva and Hazel with smooth on some epoxie and then carve and blend the detail into it.. however as I went along I realized that the carved in detail just didn't have the same effect as the rope-y mustang hair detail of the original El Embosco sculpture... sooooooooo I decided to go with giving him worms. Yes worms. lol!

If you can't imagine this, I did a mini-photo essay of it. Primarily b/c seeing the tools gives you an idea of what scale he's in (and thus why it takes so long!).

Start with a blob of expoxie the size of an asprin. Place on a very clean plastic surface (I like to use old packaging, the white and blue striped surface here is a paint brush sleeve for example).


Roll out some worms as thin as you can. Use a tool to trap em and prevent rolling back on themselves (you generally don't need too long, you need THIN)..


Dampen the area it's being added to, plop worm on, and work around until it looks nice and is "tacked" on...


You do need to "tack" it by blending the ends. THEN later, when it's hardened, I use primer and brush around to see how flowing the "hair ropes" are.... if they're flowing enough I just leave it be. Otherwise I blend in more very soft epoxie around it.

I can't even explain how time consuming it's become but I *REALLY REALLY* feel this makes him look JUST like his big brother (father?). lol! :)

A few other views;

That's a latex glove he's laying on... as if the above photos didn't give you an idea of scale.

You can click and enlarge ALL of these photos to see the mad detail even larger than life (I think even these are larger than life... his head is smaller than my thumb). This is by far my most detailed mini ever and I can't say I'll ever go this small or detailed ever again. It's SO much work. Seems worth it for all the thought I've put into him though not to cop out on those last stages.... it's fun. I have a great couple of books on tape I've been getting through lately.. ;)



Off to go tell my yahoogroup about these and give them info on price I've learned. :)

6 comments:

Melissa Sage said...

Eeeeek! The anticipation is killing me, but he will be soworth it in the end!

Celeste said...

The amount of detail is incredible! I can't wait! Oh, but I know I will have to, but it is so exciting to anticipate!

DrSteggy said...

WOW, he is really coming along nicely--I missed him at RXR somehow. Too many issues of THHN I guess!

I am amazed there is as much detail on that tiny bod as there is

~Jenn ODonnell Danza~ said...

Great tip on hairing!!! Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to share it. He looks delicious!

Xebeche said...

What kind of epoxy is that Morgen? I haven't seen pink before.

Morgen said...

Thanks guys! :D

& To answer Sarah, it's Apoxie Sculpt in "red" (yeah yeah -> it's really pink - lol!). Red rocks for manes and tails, it's gummy-ier and more oily than the others although it's closest to natural I suppose.