Rankin-Bass Rudolph puppets - re-creations?

[Freedmeep1964]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wanted to share some recent progress. I'm off for break so I have had some time to work on Sam and gather some materials for Hermey. Here is what I got done.

I was finally able to work on some more of the clothing of Sam. The vest is made out of an old jacket I got at a thrift store. I'm going to be dyeing the vest green sometime soon. I hope I can figure out embroidery for the vest pattern.

I was able to find a a mix of paints that allow for a nice snow like texture. It's no yet painted white.

I've been trying to get as close to the texture of the puppet as possible. I didn't feel I was able to achieve this well on my last Sam replica. However, this time I think I did a much better job.

That's all for this update. I hope to post again some time this week or the next. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Freedmeep1964]

Bubbles, Bubbles, BUBBLES!!! Been doing some experimenting with resin castings. Very difficult to get clean castings without a vacuum chamber. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good clean castings without a vacuum chamber before moving forward on Hermey!!! Otherwise I'll have buy myself a vacuum chamber.

 

[feek61]

Are you dusting the mold with baby power before you fill them? This will help with the bubbles if you are not using that technique.

 

[Freedmeep1964]

Are you dusting the mold with baby power before you fill them? This will help with the bubbles if you are not using that technique.

That's an interesting and sounds like a very helpful technique. Will the powder stick and merge with the resin and affect the color? Also is there another powder that can used? If not what type of baby powder is best? Thanks.

 

[feek61]

I have only used Johnson baby powder but probably any talc would work. It only takes a light dusting on the mold and yes, the powder does merge with the resin but I have never had it change the color of the resin. Basically what you want to do is dust it with powder to coat the mold and get rid of any excess. There should only be light residual left on the mold. I am sure there is a technical explanation but basically the power attracts the resin and does not allow air to stick to the mold itself. Give it a try, I believe you will see great results.

 

[Freedmeep1964]

I have only used Johnson baby powder but probably any talc would work. It only takes a light dusting on the mold and yes, the powder does merge with the resin but I have never had it change the color of the resin. Basically what you want to do is dust it with powder to coat the mold and get rid of any excess. There should only be light residual left on the mold. I am sure there is a technical explanation but basically the power attracts the resin and does not allow air to stick to the mold itself. Give it a try, I believe you will see great results.

Thank you! I can't wait to try this technique. I'll post results as soon as I get some baby powder. Thanks again.

 

[BrundelFly]

Vacuum SILICONE.....then PRESSURE cast resin.

Dont VAC the resin.

 

[Freedmeep1964]

Vacuum SILICONE.....then PRESSURE cast resin.

Dont VAC the resin.

Interesting. This makes things a bit more easier. Sorry about the mix up. I'm new to this whole thing. Thanks.

 

[BrundelFly]

Interesting. This makes things a bit more easier. Sorry about the mix up. I'm new to this whole thing. Thanks.

Thats why we are here! To offer help. Been casting stuff for a few decades. Happy to offer advice.
Also, make sure there is no moisture in your resin!
That causes bubbles also.

 

[animator]

I'm heading to see the original Santa and Rudolph puppets again. Does anyone have details they want me to get more pictures of?

don't know how they are displayed this year. Last year you could walk around the puppets which was fantastic for seeing all the angles.

 

[blewis17]

I'm heading to see the original Santa and Rudolph puppets again. Does anyone have details they want me to get more pictures of?

don't know how they are displayed this year. Last year you could walk around the puppets which was fantastic for seeing all the angles.

The story of how these two puppets were saved and restored is second only to how the original Star Wars Death Star model was found and restored!

 

[BingoMaru]

Does anyone have any resources or recommendations for making Santa’s Beard and Mustache?

 

[Freedmeep1964]

Hey, everyone!! Merry Christmas to you all!! I really wish I brought more to the thread this year, but for the majority of the year, I took a break. I know I really want to get the ball rolling in January though especially for my Hermey replica. Anyways, Here are two Hermey heads I made from a homemade wood clay technique that is often used for Japanese dolls.

 

[Pit]

Hey, everyone!! Merry Christmas to you all!! I really wish I brought more to the thread this year, but for the majority of the year, I took a break. I know I really want to get the ball rolling in January though especially for my Hermey replica. Anyways, Here are two Hermey heads I made from a homemade wood clay technique that is often used for Japanese dolls.
View attachment 1772363

Wow this is looking so on-model already!
Can you elaborate a bit more on the wood-clay technique? I'm VERY intruiged.

 

[vaderdarth]

Does anyone have any resources or recommendations for making Santa’s Beard and Mustache?

Basically you make a wire armature for the beard and mustache. The wire is typically covered with white thread/dental floss to keep the beard hair from slipping. The beard will be hooked over the ears. I glued white card stock on the armature once I was happy with the shape. Then pad with white fiber fill or batting. Once you like the bulk, you will glue white wig hair to the back of the card stock. Bring it over your armature then secure again on the back. The ear pieces will be covered the same way and it will terminate just beyond the wire. Use a glue that will not yellow. The same technique for each half of the mustache. Get the shape first with wire, then cover with thread. Dental floss works great. Helps it stick to the wire. The mustache halves are only stuck into the upper lip so they can swivel up and down. I hope that helps.

Dave

 

[Pit]

OK so my brother and I have been pretty interested in making our own little replicas that resemble the puppets in the Rudolph film, especially after 2020 and finding more information about the way they were made, which are basically covered by all of the posts in this forum thread.

Is there any information about the size of any other characters?
We know Rudolph (with the light-up nose) is about 5" inches tall, and I think Santa was said to be 9" tall?
I'd like to make a few other (reindeer) characters. Because they're just so cute and nostalgic.
So I've yoinked some screengrabs from the film on youtube and done simple very rough and lazy relative measurements of the characters based on the 5" Rudolph.
The mockup is very crude I'm tired from a long Christmas Day of socializing but also wanna get this jump started so it's a low energy low effort starting point hahaha. Can't be bothered for graphic design for my own silly projects.

Obviously these heights are not particularly accurate since I'm just eyeballing things and know nothing about camera lenses and how they effect the perspective of scenes which impact the way you can measure things.

We plan on making sort of a"tutorial" as we make them to share after they are finished, that way others can make them too!
Here's my initial draft plans for making a similar Rudolph Replica.
It's VERY wiggly as I was using my brother's surface pro and I am not at ALL used to handling a surface, I use my Kamvas 13 pro normally.

Spoiler: Draft

Based on this photograph of the puppet and the diagram next to it.

Spoiler: Draft

The book that people have mentioned here looks like it says the artists used 3mm wire and another size for the smaller parts like the mouth or so. I just wrote down floral wire as that's what I have on hand for my needle felting projects.
The neck was a type of foam I believe, but batting would probably work well.
The legs, depending on the scale will probably be better and more easily done with batting than foam, in my opinion.
You might not even need to fill them with anything more than a few tufts of polyfil, but that'd depend entirely on the thickness of the felt you use for the fur "skin". I am havign a hard time visualising the actual scale these are at, in my head they always seemed MUCH smaller somehow!

The "Wood" I figured we can 3D print for an easier time, as I do not have any experience with carving wood, and I am an illustrator and 3D artist so. I just would use what I know.
These would be less "Traditional" replicas and more displyable props done efficiently as we'd like to make several different characters and handle them often for fun. That also can make them more accesible since we could share the 3D model file so others can print it to jump start their own builds!
I still think it would be fun to have one made true to the original puppets sometime later.
But we can start with simpler ones for practice and if we like the result and feel inspired to go Full Fanmade Replica Mode then we can do that in the future.
If we wanna meet halfway, I suppose we could use a wood filament that uses recycled wood fibers. But we're not familiar with printing with that so it'll stick with PLA prints first hahaha.

My brother refined it based on screengrabs and less on photos of the restored puppet.

I initially thought they had been needle felted, but you can definitely see the tension of sewing thread on the puppets in the film and photos of the restored Rudolph.

We'll be trying to compensate the thickness of 1-2mm felt for the base "wood" parts, and were discussing ways the wire may be attached for a sturdy-ish build.
Like using the wire as S-hooks in the hooves or just glueing it right in like "pinning" a figure.

The originals legs seemed to be quite fragile, and I figure a way to prevent that for fun christmas decoration posing would be to have 1 wire per 2 legs instead of 1 wire per leg.
Running the wire through the "wooden" part of the body. That way no ends really would break or pull out of the body easily.
The legs would mostly just be sewn, no 3D printing of a base form needed. And it'd likely be a pretty simple pattern to sew.

But anyways, I can share updates on our personal build as we slowly meander along with it between art commissions and such!
We'd like to make a pattern for sewing his fur together and stuff and share it along with the 3D print files so others can make their own reindeer more easily.
My brother will be doing most of the 3D printing end of things, so it'd be up to him if he wants to give the files away freely or not.


I personally want to make Fireball as he was my favorite, and make some bucks because they're so fun.
Hopefully between work and other projects we can get a few reindeer made up in time for Christmas next year.

 

[Treadwell]

What's tricky is that there were different scale puppets. For instance, when Rudolph and Hermy are in shot with Cornelius, they are smaller than the puppets used when they have their own two-shots or closeups. And even smaller ones when anyone is seen alongside Bumble.

 

[Pit]

What's tricky is that there were different scale puppets. For instance, when Rudolph and Hermy are in shot with Cornelius, they are smaller than the puppets used when they have their own two-shots or closeups. And even smaller ones when anyone is seen alongside Bumble.

Oh yeaaaah. I forgot about the shots with Bumble. I was focusing on the closeups since that's where I could see more of the details, especially from a youtube upload haha.
Guess I won't worry too much about super accurate sizes since I only want to make a set based on the 5" Rudolph puppet.
I'll just stick with my "close enough" estimates and leave it at that then! :>
Thanks!

 

[Freedmeep1964]

Well we know that there are actually two Rudolph puppets for the main age we see him in. Someone by the name SpyrofoamKyle pointed this out in 2020 on the thread.

Here's a side by side comparison of the two they shared. The one that is seen on the right is in scenes like the misfit song, the reindeer games, and there's always tomorrow. The one on the left is used in scenes like trying on the fake nose, meeting Yukon Cornelius, Rudolph strikes out on his own. (This might not be entirely right as I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. I might look back at it later.

The one on the left is the one I decided to base my replica off of. It's important to know the difference between the two so your reference is of one instead of the other. Otherwise it may get confusing. I think that's why the Rudolph that was restored looks a bit off. They used reference photos of the Rudolph seen on the right when the puppet they had was the one on the left.

Since we know that the Rudolph that was restored is on the left, we know the hight of that one. 6 inches.

We can use this to help us determine the height of the other puppets.

 

[Treadwell]

I thought it was determined recently that the found/restored/displayed puppets turned out to be not screen used, that they were for publicity stills. I don't have a reference though.

Anyway, yeah I think the one on the right would be larger, due to the scaling thing I talked about. When he's with his parents, Santa, the Coach, etc, they would need a smaller puppet than in a shot all by himself or with Hermy.