This is a LONG running, marathon of a project. It's not currently a priority, and work keeps getting in the way! I first started it in early summer 2011 I think, and I'm still a fair way off finishing, but I think there's enough progress to share now, and a thread might help motivate me to finish her off. I've got a TON of photos of this, so I'm going to drip feed them, so as not to overwhelm you!
So this is work in progress thread, and I guess will be a tutorial too. It's a fair amount of work, but not too expensive, and should be achievable for most makers here if they fancy having their own Angel in their life.
It started off in a pretty brutal way, hacking up a nice new mannequin. I managed to snap this up for £20 on ebay, and didn't have to drive too far to pick her up. This was a great piece of luck, as not only was she cheap, but she was also standing in a helpful, neutral pose. She wasn't standing with her hand on her hip or anything.
The first thing was to alter her nice straight back, and have her stoop a little. So I picked up a hack saw, and cut a wedge out of the fibreglass along her stomach
As the fibreglass was fairly thin, I was able to bend her back over slightly, once I had removed the wedge, and thus close up the gap I had made. I then used some polyester bridging compound to seal up this new join. This is , essentially, a fibreglass paste. Think polyester resin, mixed up with glass fibre "chop"
At this point, I just want to note that my wife has recently given birth to our first baby, by emergency C-Section, and that last image above now has horrible new connotations for me!
I then repeated the process, higher up the torso, to further arch the mannequin's back.
I used some good old duct tape to hold her in place while the bridger went off.
Next was her arms. The same process, hack saw, bridger, tape etc.
At this point, I also fixed her, permanently, to her heavy steel plate base. You can see, beneath the bridger that I scratched up the back of her leg to give a nice deep key for the resin to penetrate.
Thats all your getting for now. Next up will be some cleaning up of the new joints, and the beginnings of her clothes.
Thanks for looking!