Week 34 (2 Mar - 8 Mar 2003)
Cthulhubot
"That is not dead which can eternal bleep-beep boop bop."
Above is the completed version of the Cthulhubot, nearly ready for casting. Following this shot, I sprued the pieces, managing to fit them within the size restrictions for the current Visions in Putty show. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing when I sprued them. Stefan Niehues graciously rearranged everything and made it castable, which represented quite a bit of work -- thanks again, Stefan.
I started out with a mix of green and old formula brown Kneadatite putty. I sculpted the main body in three stages, beginning with the top cone, then sculpting the bottom cone, and (after sanding vigorously) adding on the rim at the waist. The backpack was another lump of putty sanded to shape, and I added on the horrific detail using brown and green putty. The hips were sculpted under a rectangle of brass sheet to keep everything regular. The shoulder stubs are just wire of an appropriate gauge, tipped with brown putty (again sanded to shape).
I like the sort of mouthlike quality to the backpack. Unfortunately, I forgot to sculpt a winding key to go with the keyhole the tentacle encircles, so I'll have to convert my own figure first thing. . . .
The legs are copper tubing, with the smaller tube just fitting into the larger one. The hooves are brown putty again, sanded to get a more mechanical shape (though they're still too rough, unfortunately).
I've been thinking of the wide head as the primary model. . . I sculpted it on a lip balm cap, sanded the flat surfaces a bit, and added in the eyes later. I drilled out the tentacle holes and made tentacles by wrapping thin-gauge wire around thicker wire. The tips are brown putty sanded into facets. (Lots of sanding involved in this sculpt.) The alternate head is more traditionally squidlike and also works with the tentacles.
I wanted some assymetry, so I designed two different arms. The right arm is clockwork. I used a nail for the base, sculpted on the elbow and shoulder, and added on some small gears from a broken watch. The hand is also a watch piece of some kind (if I remember right) and the fingers are sculpted out of new-formula brown stuff.
The left arm is driven by pistons and runes. I used straight pins as armatures, and sculpted the forearm and upper arm out of putty. The piston is thin copper tubing, filled in to prevent casting problems. The fingers were sculpted in place on the wrist (which is green stuff), and the runes were added using new-formula brown stuff.
A series of in-progress shots is available in the Cthulhubot section of my work-in-progress page, and the painted version is up on the week 52 page.
I learned quite a bit as a result of this ViP. Thanks again to Stefan Niehues for volunteering to cast the miniatures up, Dominic Heutelbeck for administering the gallery, and the other participants for their pieces.
Back to week 33 (23 Feb - 1 Mar 2003)