Pee-Wee's Big Adventure Clown

BestBike

Active Member

• Oct 30, 2015

• #341

crimsonghost;3802146[ATTACH=CONFIG said:

548377[/ATTACH]View attachment 548381I found a date on a newspaper clipping used to give form to one of the arms. It is dated 1958 I believe.

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Sweet. Look at you, CG! You've jumped right in with both feet. It looks like a really early one to me. That face has a very 50s quality to it ... supported by the newspaper clipping you found. Congrats on your purchase! And the price. -- BB

PS: Happy Halloween, all.

 

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Oct 30, 2015

• #342

Trippy, I think that's scarier than than the clown, Malcolm definitely copied it, which at that price, is awesome, it will be super easy to convert, right on!

 

PeeWeeFan

Well-Known Member

• Oct 31, 2015

• #343

I put new hands on my clown this morning. They are actually leather work gloves. I highly recommend them, especially if anyone is restoring a clown with the original vinyl suit. They are white and have a nice texture that goes well with the vinyl. They should last a long time, too. I am actually surprised they originally used the die-cut plastic gloves. The rest of the clown looks so human-like to put such fake looking hands on it. A pair of work gloves cost around $11. They seem to come in calf-skin and goat-skin.

 

BestBike

Active Member

• Oct 31, 2015

• #344

PeeWeeFan said:

I put new hands on my clown this morning. They are actually leather work gloves. I highly recommend them, especially if anyone is restoring a clown with the original vinyl suit. They are white and have a nice texture that goes well with the vinyl. They should last a long time, too. I am actually surprised they originally used the die-cut plastic gloves. The rest of the clown looks so human-like to put such fake looking hands on it. A pair of work gloves cost around $11. They seem to come in calf-skin and goat-skin.

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I love that solution, PWF. Think they look much better than the original design. I can see a purist wanting to stick with the flat die-cut original construction but this looks much better. And your clown is looking fantastic. I'm impressed. -- BB

 

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Oct 31, 2015

• #345

Yep, those look better functionally and aesthetically. I haven't figured out what kind of gloves to use on my movie clown .. they look like maybe white cloth in the screencaps.

billy - What kind of gloves did you make/buy awhile back? Those looked good too.

 

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Oct 31, 2015

• #346

Those look great!, I never cared for the stock gloves either.

I bought a pair of male mannequin hands, painted them white, and a pair of white cotton honor guard, policeman, magician, marine corp dress gloves.

 

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billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Oct 31, 2015

• #347

I also started painting my clown face, I made a few subtle artistic changes and I have to add the pink in the mouth and do a little touch up, then I'm gonna wait a couple days to let it cure, mask it off and spray the flesh tone on the head, but, what do you think so far?,



P.S., the eyes and outline are dark green!

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2015

PeeWeeFan

Well-Known Member

• Oct 31, 2015

• #348

billy baloney said:

I also started painting my clown face, I made a few subtle artistic changes and I have to add the pink in the mouth and do a little touch up, then I'm gonna wait a couple days to let it cure, mask it off and spray the flash tone on the head, but, what do you think so far?,

P.S., the eyes and outline are dark green!

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Dude, that's looks awesome! Great job! You'll have to share your process. All the lines look really crisp!

 

BestBike

Active Member

• Oct 31, 2015

• #349

billy baloney said:

what do you think so far?

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Agree with PWF, BB. It looks awesome. Super nice job. Did you mask and paint it all or do steady-hand? Like your glove solution as well. -- BB

Still waiting for someone to paint the evil face.

 

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Oct 31, 2015

• #350

Thanks guys!, No secret, just alot of time and patience, I sprayed the whole head white, penciled on the face, and used various widths of stripers tape and did one feature at a time, I started with the eyes and worked my way outward, the outline was last, I brushed the face on, which worked for smaller areas, but next time, I think I'll airbrush it.


The Evil clown face is next BB, I'm building my brother's clown also, I almost did it first, but I had DB's reference shots to go off of and started this one instead, now that I'm more confident and have layed one out, it should be a snap.

 

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Nov 1, 2015

• #351

Finally finished the mechanicals tonight - hurrah! I still remember looking at my clown's innards and thinking it would take forever to clone all that. This was mostly done last weekend, just needed to put on washers and speed nuts, make adjustments, and apply lots of grease. I also grounded the metal, taped up the motor wires, and secured the cord down one leg.









I've decided that you can't really make these things run perfectly smooth and quiet without spending forever tweaking the angles of every joint. Right now it basically sounds like my other clown next to it (which isn't quiet either - like a noisy electric can opener).

Next is redoing the base. I took a bunch of photos and measurements of my Custom Displays clown base from the inside and outside - I'll post those later (no surprises inside the base, just dirt). I'll see if I can post a video of the movement too.

The arms will be repositioned once it's in the suit. The vertical placement of the right arm matches my other clowns, but I may lower it - the fact that it doesn't line up with the left arm is killing my OCD ..

 

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Nov 2, 2015

• #352

I haven't uploaded a video to YouTube in about 10 years, so here goes nothing ..

Custom Displays clown waving (since I never got around to posting this before) ..
[video]https://youtu.be/TCa-QJkkbDE[/video]

Replica waving ..
[video]https://youtu.be/E8BpDs6GENk[/video]

It's interesting how they seem to be waving at different speeds. But I've timed them and watched the clips side-by-side, and they are pretty much right on top of each other. I think having a body on would make the illusion disappear.

 

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Nov 6, 2015

• #353

Anyone working on clowns this weekend? I picked up some carpet padding for the arms/legs, threaded rods and inserts for the feet, hinges, and some bars for the wheel mounts (I still need to post photos, but my Custom Displays base welds the wheels onto 0.75" wide bars that are screwed into the sides). I also found a NOS set of Amphenol power plugs like the Custom Displays base uses .. I'll have atleast one extra if anyone is interested.

Hopefully this weekend I can get the base done and the clown mounted onto it. Stretch goal to re-pad my first clown's arms and put him all back together again.

 

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Nov 7, 2015

• #354

I'm still painting, I know he's not as menacing without his fangs, I'm not quite sure how to tackle 'em, but this is what I got so far, this one kinda gave me fits, he's fighting me all the way, I guess that's why he's the Evil one.
I'm waiting for the face paint to cure a couple of days before I extend the Evil grin, do the teeth, and the flesh tone.



P.S., it amazes me how the green outline really looks black in pictures, because in real life there is a big contrast.

 

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Nov 7, 2015

• #355

Looks good to me! One cool detail I didn't notice about the evil face until I got those frame captures is how the eyes point in crooked directions (i.e. they're not centered).

If you aren't right next to my clown, the facepaint looks dark grey / black like the movie. But up close it's plain as day how green it is.

Got my first clown's arm fixed with new padding and filament tape (I made a pattern from the original - roughly 12" wide, 36" long). I kept the original padding on the non-waving arm since it was in good shape. Torso is also re-stapled back on - I still highly recommend a pneumatic stapler for clown work, makes all this a breeze.

 

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Nov 7, 2015

• #356

DuckButt said:

One cool detail I didn't notice about the evil face until I got those frame captures is how the eyes point in crooked directions (i.e. they're not centered).

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I noticed that, and it's totally "Burton-esque", and it makes him look more twisted and maniacal, but I'm too much of a perfectionist, I just couldn't let myself deliberately make 'em not centered, the grin is crooked too, and I don't want to do that either, even though it's screen correct.

 

Last edited: Nov 7, 2015

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Nov 7, 2015

• #357

Yep .. it was all I could do to not re-pad both arms so the padding matched. OCD strikes again ..

Got my first clown mounted and suited up. Here's a photo of new school vs old school. Interesting how much taller the Custom Displays clowns were (mostly due to the neck).

 

Last edited: Nov 7, 2015

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Nov 7, 2015

• #358

Crazy how much different they actually are, cool pic, I like your mural in the archway, how tall are each of them without the bases?

 

Last edited: Nov 10, 2015

Duckbutt

Well-Known Member

• Nov 7, 2015

• #359

My arcade bouncers

The Custom Displays clown is about 68" tall from head to foot, and his base is about 7" tall. The newer clown is about 66" tall from head to foot, and his base is about 6" tall. The extra neck height accounts for pretty much all of that body height difference (1.5 - 2" roughly).

 

billy baloney

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Nov 7, 2015

• #360

Mine is 5'8", and my base is 7", it looks like more than 2" difference in the pic