Metropolis robot

More epoxy goodness. I'm attaching the line details on the legs, and starting on the shoes.

added thigh detail | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
body on lifts | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
shoe lift 1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I'm also having to do some repairs. As the epoxy has hardened and completely set, I'm finding it has started to become a bit brittle.

I'm also finding that the articulation of the base figure is wearing out. Putting the leg flares on, with all the carving and sanding involved, has put so much stress on the figure's hip sockets that they have become loose and floppy. I wish the arms and legs had been removeable. It would have made the process a lot easier. Live and learn.
 
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I'm halfway through the leg detail. I painted it silver again to get a sense of how it's looking all together:

all in silver | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

It needs a lot of sanding, and it won't be this silver for long. I wish the face looked more like the original, but at this scale, and with the underlying model, I don't think it's worth trying to fix. The waist is way too thin, the legs are way too long, and the head is way too big to match exactly. Also, the epoxy is much heavier than the figure's original plastic and this affects the balance as well.

If I really want to get it as exact as possible I might have to go the route of Kropsercle and just build it from the ground up around a fixed armature. Then it wouldn't be articulated, though, and I don't know how to begin creating functional joints.

The articulation on this one is really broken down. I have to be careful when standing it up because there's no stability in the hips anymore: it will fall over forward or backward if it gets out of balance. I've also (finally) discovered an unexpected problem of why I've never been able to get it to stand up really straight: one of the figure's legs is shorter than the other.

I will finish this one up, but I'm already thinking I might want to give it another go. I've learned so much from this one: maybe the next will look closer to the original.
 
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Let me try that, then. Here's the latest from Flickr:
5537737637
 
It's been a while, but for a good reason: employment. I started this build when I wasn't finding much work: as of April I've been pretty busy. Well, I found some time this weekend, so I'm pushing to get it finished. It's pretty far along.
 
Here are some progressin pictures. The model looks a lot sketchier than it used to, beut I've had some issues with the epoxy sticking correctly to the vinyl and paint. I 've been drilling holes through the place where I want to add detail and pushing the epoxy through to get a firm base for the new part. I use a lot of black paint as a kind of Bondo.
 
I've finally gotten to carving out the neck trim detail. It looks so much cooler and art deco with this detail added.
 
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