Rankin-Bass Rudolph puppets - re-creations?

Got his ears and tail made today, I'll post pix tomorrow. Next I will drill holes for the wire armatures in all the main body parts. Then I will make the legs. :)
 
LOVE seeing these progress pics! Looks great so far!

-B89! :D



Update, have begun making Rudolph to start with. It's going suprisingly well.

This photo shows my resizing the images of Rudolph to life size, then drawing overlays of the wire lengths needed as well as the armature sizes. The wool felt has a 3mm thickness so the armature needs to be that much less in all dimensions which will give me the correct size of the finished puppet. I drew in the wire armatures and the wood armatures for the head/torso and hooves.

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This next photo shows my armatures that I decided to create from epoxy putty via sculpting rather than carving wood. I know the wood has less weight, but I hate carving and my dremel is blown.......LOL Each armature piece is more or less identical in size to how I drew them on the photocopy. I tested the felt by wrapping a piece around each armature piece and layed it on the drawing and it is exactly the same size as the finished puppet. :)

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Here is a pic of the skeleton of Rudolph. All that's left is the wiring work and drilling a couple holes for a lower jaw. then it's just the fur.

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Thats sick man! Crazy! Can you make me one my daughter just saw yours ... im screwed! dangit Dave... nicely done my man.

Steve
 
****. Now I gotta make one. Someone send me a link for the felt!

Nice job!


I'm right there with you on that. I've collected Rudolph stuff for years and have been pushing away from making one..but after see his process , it is possible. ..Great leg work and results so far.
I also have an aversion to make life-sized busts of the Misfit toys for some reason..love those
 
Been pulling my hair out trying to figure out the eyes..........then it hit me, cut them out of a ping pong ball and voila!!!! I should always think puppet eyes = ping pong balls......LOL. Works for muppets so why not misfits?

Dave
 
If anyone finds 12V bulbs in the right shape and size for the nose, post it. I haven't found anything appropriate so far. Do a search for wool felt and look for the color butterscotch for the rudolph brown color. Natural for the neck trim etc.... Also use a pink for the inside of the ear and mouth, with the natural for the "hair" coming out of the ear interior. I used epoxy putty for the hooves and antlers as well as the head and torso bases. Use sharp "small curved" scissors to trim your polyfoam for the neck section and for the shoulders/hips of the legs. Use batting for the tail stuffing. The original eye pupil was a very thinly shaved leather stuck on the white of the eye. My leather was just too thick and I abandoned that and just used a black sharpie marker instead as I have no desire to change the pupil position on my Rudolph. For the ears, you want to cut a piece of felt in the shape of a cathedral window. Cut cut a smaller piece of pink in the same shape and sew them together. Cut tiny strip of natural "fuzzy" felt and sew on the bottom facing of the pink down at the base of the ear. I inserted a single piece of wire inside between the two pieces of ear material... lastly, at the bottom, bring the two corners of the ear together and sew in the front and this gives the ear it's correct shape. :) The tail is mostly natural with a tiny sliver of the butterscotch on the front. Everything was hand sewn on my replica. I did use a tiny bead of hot glue to hold the felt in position so that it couldn't slide about once it was sewn which worked perfectly.....just make sure to mash the hot glue flat immediately so it doesn't alter the contour of your replicas. My hooves and antlers are painted with an acrylic burnt umber "dark brown" paint. I may paint my LED for the nost with a more translucent red paint to make it look more like the original. The LED will illuminate it regardless of the paint. The original was painted over a clear bulb anyhow.

Dave :)
 

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