Harryhausen Cyclops stop-motion puppet replica

[Nial]

Man that is epic!

 

[FANTAMATION]

Well, after waiting for some upgraded replacement armature parts that I finally got today, I thought I'd post a little teaser update pic of the armature as it will be registered in the mold. The only thing I'm waiting for now is the fingers, which will be ready to pick up from my machinist on tuesday, then I'll FINALLY be ready to do the first casting towards the end of next week!!!!

 

[FANTAMATION]

Well, FINALLY, the wait is over and I was able to cast up the first Cyclops and he turned out great! I decided to cast him up in glorious technicolor orange, next up will be to replace the horn with a resin one and apply his fingernails and then the painting will begin. The last thing, of course, will be to acquire and apply the fur...... full speed ahead!!

 

[mbmcfarland]

Wow! He sure looks great.

One question: Is it solid silicone like the Taun, or padded inside like Kong? (Based on the size, I assume it's not all silicone.)

 

[FANTAMATION]

Ya know, I didn't have to worry about padding him because of the way he's built, there's not enough silicone around any of the joints to warrant padding him internally like I have to do with Kong. Since Kong is built like a barrel with twice the girth as the Cyclops I have to pad him internally with silicone foam not only to insure getting movement out of the joints but to mainly cut down on weight. The Cyclops literally weighs half as much as Kong, he's closer to the weight of the Tauntaun.

 

[IEDBOUNTYHUNTER]

Looks great, wish i could pick one up.

 

[Zombie Killer]

Pretty amazing stuff. Awesome work!!

 

[Nial]

Not checked in for a while and it's great to see the progress you have made with him. Damn i can't wait to see him complete.

 

[trekriffic]

Magnificent!

 

[welshwarrior123]

Absolutely fantastic work.
I dont know where you are located, but the london film museum has a Harryhausen exhibit on with most of the original pieces including the armature of the cyclops. I went there yesterday and they were quite strict on photos in the Harryhausen part, but I managed to get a few shots of some of the more famous pieces. Well worth the ticket price.

Cant wait to see this all finished up.

 

[nick daring]

It's always so sad to see the original sculpt get destroyed during demolding.

Did you not bake it due to the fact that you were using hard plaster for your mold material and had to worry about undercuts?

Also, any reason you use the regular pink Super Sculpey over Super Sculpey Firm or perhaps a Chavant clay?

I've always found the translucent nature of the pink stuff messes with my eyes when working on small details. You obviously do not have this problem.

Again awesome work. Masterful stuff!

Nick

 

[FANTAMATION]

Absolutely fantastic work.
I dont know where you are located, but the london film museum has a Harryhausen exhibit on with most of the original pieces including the armature of the cyclops. I went there yesterday and they were quite strict on photos in the Harryhausen part, but I managed to get a few shots of some of the more famous pieces. Well worth the ticket price.

Cant wait to see this all finished up.

Yeah, I saw the Harryhausen exhibit when it was here in LA at the Academy bldg on Wilshire about a year and a half ago or so, REMARKABLE!!!

 

[FANTAMATION]

It's always so sad to see the original sculpt get destroyed during demolding.

Did you not bake it due to the fact that you were using hard plaster for your mold material and had to worry about undercuts?

Also, any reason you use the regular pink Super Sculpey over Super Sculpey Firm or perhaps a Chavant clay?

I've always found the translucent nature of the pink stuff messes with my eyes when working on small details. You obviously do not have this problem.

Again awesome work. Masterful stuff!

Nick

That's one reason why I didn't bake it but mainly it was because I wanted to be able to re-use it after I de-molded it AND most importantly I had to be able to get the armature out.

I chose to use super sculpey for this because I already had some layin around and I thought it would be kinda neat to do the Cyclops in a medium that was kinda similar in color to the original puppet.
Thanks much everybody for all the kind words of support, there will be more update pics tomorrow with the resin horn and fingernails on and he'll have a bit of paint on him...... stay tuned

 

[FANTAMATION]

Ok, got the resin horn and fingernails on and threw a bit of paint on the legs just to darken them until I get the fur on....... then I started to pose him a little and have a bit of fun. Next step will be to start the detail painting.

 

[FANTAMATION]

Once I started it was hard to stop!

 

[animator]

This is beyond fantastic! Wonderful work!

 

[mbmcfarland]

Okay, now THAT is pretty dang cool.

 

[FANTAMATION]

Got his left leg and groin furred up, will have all the fur work done today and then it's just down to the detail painting.

 

[CaptainEO]

Wow, this looks amazing!! Awesome work! :eek

 

[FANTAMATION]

Ok, got the fur work mostly done, the original color fur I started to put on him turned out to be the wrong color (way too dark brown) so I started over and changed it to the proper auburn color. I also started the paint work, accentuating the detail and skin tones, realized I didn't have any red pigment to do the lips, nipples and slight tonal spots so will continue with the painting tomorrow after the pigment gets in my mailbox. Again, I apologize for the quality of these wip pics, the color of the fur to the naked eye is not quite this vibrant, it's a bit more muted and you're not getting the full effect of the skin tone changes...... but when I do the real photoshoot with the finished puppet all will be revealed.