LABYRINTH - Goblin Cannonball build - body progress

[zorg]

"I HIT SOMETHING YES? NO?"

having a well earned rest from star wars related subjects, decided to tackle a goblin cannonball from henson's LABYRINTH movie.

i've seen several attempts at this item subject, most seem..........under par, in my opinion.

i'm doing this part 3d printed, part scratchbuildy. i have reasons for this, such as tinkercad is rather limited and so is my knowledge on better resources.

here is what i'm basing my model on,

my version is around 4/5 scale (i think)maybe slightly smaller, i didn't want it to take up too much space, even at this scale the head spikes take up about a square foot when attached.
i may also do a different version where it could be hung from a wall by the top of his head. looking like he is partially embedded.
i left a lot of stuff off the main spheres because i want to get a rough cast iron ball texture over the whole thing then start adding the bits n bobs.
i also didn't want 3d printed rivets n stuff as they would be a nightmare to clean up,
stay tuned.

z

 

[McKeePhoto]

This was one of my fav goblins from the movie! I’m looking forward to seeing your process.

 

[russellsch]

Oh maaan, I can't wait to see this project progress!!!

 

[The Cog]

I will be following this. Love the idea.

 

[zorg]

i'm just going to do this in 2 parts, the upper head then the body n arms/legs, i have the upper legs printed already,

here is the reason i am doing the parts separately, i hate having to work around printed parts, this way i can add things like the iron cast texture on the ball surface.

i wanted the lower ring around the base and the spike bases to look like seperate pieces. the top spike base is slightly larger with 10 rivets unlike the lower ones which have 9, i am waiting on alu dome rivets from ebay....

the cast texture was done with 3m spot putty applied with finger wearing a glove, dragging the paste back n forth an stippling it slightly, once dry knocking off the high spots with 320 grit paper then a final polish with paper towel, very convincing effect right?

here is the lower head ring and a couple of different sized rear hinges, i think i will be cutting the hinge in half, it looks like its joined with a strip of leather.

since this is all new to me i'm printing out several different iterations of the same part trying and modifying as i go.

z

 

[KOMakesThings]

I can't wait to see how this one turns out, so far your proportions seem spot on. I've made 2 cannonball goblins for myself so far and both times I haven't been able to nail the proportions (Or the texture for that matter, great job on that as well!)


How are you planning on doing the arms and legs, are you going to build any articulation into them?

 

[N2darkness]

Awesome build! looking forward to seeing your finished piece. Here are a few screen grabs if you don't have them.

 

[zorg]

I can't wait to see how this one turns out, so far your proportions seem spot on. I've made 2 cannonball goblins for myself so far and both times I haven't been able to nail the proportions (Or the texture for that matter, great job on that as well!)


How are you planning on doing the arms and legs, are you going to build any articulation into them?

thanks, i'm not going for out and out screen accuracy, "good enough" will suffice. i'm already seeing things slightly out but i'm not too bothered, as long as it's presentable.

no plans for articulation at this stage, once i'm further along i can look into it. i thought if i did the wall hanging version i could rig something up that could wiggle his legs. please share your cannonball attempts.

 

[zorg]

Awesome build! looking forward to seeing your finished piece. Here are a few screen grabs if you don't have them.
View attachment 1365989View attachment 1365990View attachment 1365991

excellent thanks for those, can see the colours much better, most of the paint has come off the surviving pieces today. i plan on using rub n buff or something like that, i have a few tubes laying around.

 

[N2darkness]

excellent thanks for those, can see the colours much better, most of the paint has come off the surviving pieces today. i plan on using rub n buff or something like that, i have a few tubes laying around.

The colors are a little muted as these are screen grabs from the 4K HDR version of Labyrinth and the player doesn't capture it correctly unless you have a 4K monitor with HDR.

 

[zorg]

The colors are a little muted as these are screen grabs from the 4K HDR version of Labyrinth and the player doesn't capture it correctly unless you have a 4K monitor with HDR.

they are fine thanks, as long as i can see what the colours are meant to be like and where.

 

[Dreamscape]

While not as large, these show the colours better.

It's clear the body was a mixture of an steel/iron colour, but with a lot of rusting - making them almost all bronze or copper looking.

The bits that attach the spike to the body are brass / gold - with the spikes themselves looking more like steel.

 

[zorg]

While not as large, these show the colours better.

View attachment 1366030

View attachment 1366031

It's clear the body was a mixture of an steel/iron colour, but with a lot of rusting - making them almost all bronze or copper looking.

The bits that attach the spike to the body are brass / gold - with the spikes themselves looking more like steel.

thanks

i was thinking more of an antique gold for the body. i'm going to undercoat everything in black then build up the metallics on top with some of the black showing through. agree with you on the other colours,

z

 

[davidnagel]

Oh damn, this is going to amazing! I look forward to seeing this.

Now I wanna make one but I have far too many things on the list and no space

 

[zorg]

ok, i can't go any further with the head until i get the rivets in,

i changed them for steel ones as i think they might have better head diameters. should be here thursday.
the spike bases are done primed ready for the rivets, i'll fit the rivets then the bases into the head then the spikes last.

i also ditched the lower ball and printed out a new one, the first one was a bit flimsy and i made an error with that split line about a third down from the top, my initial one had it horizontal but in closer inspection it is angled down at the back.
i wanted to include this line as there are little plates and stuff "holding" the pieces together, why they did that i don't know. having this line printed into the ball saved me a ton of time.
i drilled a breathing hole pattern similar to the screen bomb but made the centerline of holes bigger for a bit of visual interest.
i will be calling in the big guns.......... "mother!" to do the sleeve work for his arms when i get around to it.

-z

 

[KOMakesThings]

please share your cannonball attempts.

As you wish! I'll preface this with saying mine are definitely no where near as sophisticated as yours. These are just styrofoam spheres covered with drywall mud, foam for the horns/raised details, googly eyes for the rivets...

The Goblin on the left is V1, made a few years ago, and V2 is pretty much the same construction method but I ended up taking a page from ball-jointed dolls and using elastics to string the legs and arms through the torso. It's not perfect (His hands are a bit heavy so his arms won't stay upright without support). His legs are pretty solid though, once you get him balanced he can stand up right, sit down, etc. His arms and legs are popsicle sticks and screws so there's articulation at the elbow/knee and wrist/ankle. The wrist can swivel but the ankle can only bend up and down.

 

[zorg]

thanks, i had planned on using styrofoam spheres as well then remembered i have a 3d printer!

so the rivets arrived earlier than expected, because they were steel they were covered in light oil which i had to soak and clean individually.

very pleased with them installed, nothing looks like real rivets than real rivets right?

the center one is the top spike base which is slightly larger and has slightly larger rivets, these looked a bit more in proportion with the larger base.

just rounding off the spikes and getting 2 small rivets installed in each one then should be ready to assemble everything to complete the head.

z

 

[zorg]

head construction is complete, now i can concentrate on the body....everything is turning out as well as i would like. keeping the parts seperate really helped with achieving the texture on the ball surface.

fun build

z

 

[zorg]

body is well underway, pics soon....but first....

it just might be my monitor but i can see the dark bands on the sleeves as a dark/deep purple, what do you see?

 

[KOMakesThings]

Personally I figured they were black, and it's a combination of the lighting in the room and the age of the prop that's making the colour look a bit purple.

On that note, it's been really interesting to see people post screenshots from the actual film to see how much the colour of this little dude has changed over the years! I'm definitely rethinking the paintjob of my own Goblin after seeing this thread.

Here's another couple of images to compare, all coming from this blog post. At least in these images they read pretty strongly as black to me.