Hello RPF!
Well, having 'read the signs' I beelive it's time to get aonther old friend out of storage and recreate it better than before!
This time around we're re-tackling the Skele-Gro bottle!
I was so lucky to have folks who were grabbing pictures of the prop at the newly opened Universal, and we were able to get a great replica made!
This was a succesfull run back in 2011, that did have it's share of problems, but nothing that wasn't solvable!!
So here we go . . .
I have been deep cleaning my studio recently, and have begun finding a lot of stuff that got shelved and unfinished. I stumbled across the final pull from my beaten to death mold, and could see across the years all the mistakes I had made.
My first stops are the difficult ones: the bottle/main body and the clever base (no treble) I had come up with to help deal with the top heavy issues.
The main body was a pretty good sculpt, but casting in resin and back filling with foam can produce negative results if you're rushing or your supplies aren't treated well. I had some shrinkage sometimes in the foam, and sometimes my resin was too thin. As the mold aged, bubbles started showing up, as this was my first jacketed split mold. So having an old copy in my hand (and as it happened, the original 3M spray bottle I sculpted over) it was time to make some changes!
"Regrowing bones is a nasty business!"
The main body
One of the things people really reacted to negatively was the 'crockery' style of the base of the bottle. Wavy, dented and bulgy in some spots, what I thought was a handmade look was interpreted as sloppy sculpting. I also thought the shoulder 'sockets' were a tad small, which gave the bottle's skeleton arms more of a C-3PO look to them than a skeleton with his hands on his hips.
So, after making a quick split mold of the upper bottle and casting up the things that wouldn't change and gluing those in their original spots, I completely resculpted the sternum, shoulder sockets (now with hex shaped slots for the arms), and a completely smooth and round crock section, with some nice water spun clay texture. I also made the lip on the bottom a touch stronger and more accurate.
The base
I also had some time last night between other projects to tackle the base. It was also a final casting from a beat up mold, and had very soft details, and some funky resin curing issues (probably moisture). A quick one part Oomoo mold would give me a nice new base to work with. Simple carving, sanding, and puttying fixed bubbles and soft details. I flattened the seat and made it look more handmade, and redid the texturing around the legs.
More to come as I correct and ad to the arms, and restyle the head!
Well, having 'read the signs' I beelive it's time to get aonther old friend out of storage and recreate it better than before!
This time around we're re-tackling the Skele-Gro bottle!
I was so lucky to have folks who were grabbing pictures of the prop at the newly opened Universal, and we were able to get a great replica made!
This was a succesfull run back in 2011, that did have it's share of problems, but nothing that wasn't solvable!!
So here we go . . .
I have been deep cleaning my studio recently, and have begun finding a lot of stuff that got shelved and unfinished. I stumbled across the final pull from my beaten to death mold, and could see across the years all the mistakes I had made.
My first stops are the difficult ones: the bottle/main body and the clever base (no treble) I had come up with to help deal with the top heavy issues.
The main body was a pretty good sculpt, but casting in resin and back filling with foam can produce negative results if you're rushing or your supplies aren't treated well. I had some shrinkage sometimes in the foam, and sometimes my resin was too thin. As the mold aged, bubbles started showing up, as this was my first jacketed split mold. So having an old copy in my hand (and as it happened, the original 3M spray bottle I sculpted over) it was time to make some changes!
"Regrowing bones is a nasty business!"
The main body
One of the things people really reacted to negatively was the 'crockery' style of the base of the bottle. Wavy, dented and bulgy in some spots, what I thought was a handmade look was interpreted as sloppy sculpting. I also thought the shoulder 'sockets' were a tad small, which gave the bottle's skeleton arms more of a C-3PO look to them than a skeleton with his hands on his hips.
So, after making a quick split mold of the upper bottle and casting up the things that wouldn't change and gluing those in their original spots, I completely resculpted the sternum, shoulder sockets (now with hex shaped slots for the arms), and a completely smooth and round crock section, with some nice water spun clay texture. I also made the lip on the bottom a touch stronger and more accurate.
The base
I also had some time last night between other projects to tackle the base. It was also a final casting from a beat up mold, and had very soft details, and some funky resin curing issues (probably moisture). A quick one part Oomoo mold would give me a nice new base to work with. Simple carving, sanding, and puttying fixed bubbles and soft details. I flattened the seat and made it look more handmade, and redid the texturing around the legs.
More to come as I correct and ad to the arms, and restyle the head!
