How to make a "bronze" statue?

[KingNothing]

I'm asking for a bit of advice here on how to make a 1:1 full body faux bronze statue. I need this for a project I'm working on. It's of a person. So the face doesn't need to be sculpted, just a life cast. Now any idea's on how to do the rest? I was thinking foam, with an armature, painted with a really good bronze paint?

I'd like to keep it fairly cheap. It all depends. Any ideas?

 

[SgtFang]

How much clothing will the subject be wearing?

My partner Phil helped make a ton of lifesize statues years ago, for a local hospital, and an old Indy night spot.

The heads were lifecasts, but the bodies were just stick frames dressed up in period clothes that were stuffed till they looked right, then the whole things were brushed up really thick with plain old gelcoat. They looked great, and the ones at the hospital entrance are still in fantastic shape almost 18 years later.

For bronze finishing, just spray them dark, flat brown, mist them with gold and copper then hit all the high areas with Spanish Copper, and Antique Gold Rub n' Buff.

Hope this helps.

-Sarge

 

[KingNothing]

Gel coat eh? Why does that sound familiar?

So once it's applied and dried, it should harden everything up correct?

 

[Great_Bizarro]

Gelcoat is a thickened fiberglass resin.

There is a process you can "spray" bronze on an item that is in essece a bronze casting then. It ain't cheap but it is cheaper than doing it the old fashion way and you don't have to work with molten metal.

 

[KingNothing]

Do you know what the process is called Bizarro? I might be intereted. Again depending. I'll have to talk to my local plastic people here about the fiberglass...

 

[Hand-Schaub]

I have done traditional bronze casting and faux bronze painting. Honestly the painting sometimes looks better.
If you need a second opinion I would say Sarge has the best recipe.
You can also add bronze powder to the resin (granted that it is clear such as surf board resin) but this method can be expensive becasue you are still using real metal.

 

[KingNothing]

Yeah I'm not sure how much powder I'd need and for the little thing I have to cold cast resin, it was $20... I was hoping to have this under $1000 though, so it looks do-able.

Thanks everyone.

One other thing, does anyone have pics of the finished product with Sarge's method??