Hi guys, I know there are a couple of very good replicas of this out there already (produced by two of the most respected members of our community no less) but I thought I’d take a crack at making my own version of the Copperbones.
I spent an enjoyable afternoon scanning through the goonies blu-ray trying to capture pictures of the prop but as it turns out you never get to see the Copperbones very clearly in the movie itself.
Since this was a bust I resorted to the 80's magazine article for reference which thankfully has a nice clear photo.
I started by rolling out a piece of Chavant Medium NSP. We’d been having some particularly cold weather here in the UK and the plasteline was proving somewhat stiffer than usual so I had to use a fair bit of elbow grease to get it rolled out flat.
Once I'd got a piece approximately the right size I stuck a rough sketch to it and used a sharp knife to trim out the outline.
Using a scalpel I traced the lines through the paper and marked them into the clay below.
My clay sculpting tools were the next victim of the cold weather, unable to withstand the stresses involved in removing the chilled plasteline they started to fall apart on me! A bit of tape and we were back in business though.
I was careful to try to capture as much detail as possible. I exaggerated the depths slightly thinking that if I cold cast the piece I would have to rub it back to bring out the shine.
I re-sculpted the circle at the bottom a couple of times as it was a bit of a struggle to keep the shape regular.
I tried to copy every dink and surface detail with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
When it got to the point I was happy with it I built a mould box and dropped a load of silicone on the sculpt. I could have (and perhaps should have) spent a little more time setting this up but I was getting kinda impatient. I'd considered using lego for the mould box but I couldn't convince myself it wouldn't leak so I went with my usual foam board and hot glue.
Due to my lack of prep I had to trim the edges of the mould a bit but turned out nice!
First pull from the mould was in a black resin. I didn't expect this to be any good, just wanted to clear the mould of any clay residue but was happily surprised with how it turned out.
Next pull was a lot cleaner. I mixed some brass powder in with the resin but the effect wasn't quite what I had in mind so I went over it with some paint and rub'n'buff to replicate the appearance of the prop in the magazine.
TBC...
I spent an enjoyable afternoon scanning through the goonies blu-ray trying to capture pictures of the prop but as it turns out you never get to see the Copperbones very clearly in the movie itself.
Since this was a bust I resorted to the 80's magazine article for reference which thankfully has a nice clear photo.
I started by rolling out a piece of Chavant Medium NSP. We’d been having some particularly cold weather here in the UK and the plasteline was proving somewhat stiffer than usual so I had to use a fair bit of elbow grease to get it rolled out flat.
Once I'd got a piece approximately the right size I stuck a rough sketch to it and used a sharp knife to trim out the outline.
Using a scalpel I traced the lines through the paper and marked them into the clay below.
My clay sculpting tools were the next victim of the cold weather, unable to withstand the stresses involved in removing the chilled plasteline they started to fall apart on me! A bit of tape and we were back in business though.
I was careful to try to capture as much detail as possible. I exaggerated the depths slightly thinking that if I cold cast the piece I would have to rub it back to bring out the shine.
I re-sculpted the circle at the bottom a couple of times as it was a bit of a struggle to keep the shape regular.
I tried to copy every dink and surface detail with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
When it got to the point I was happy with it I built a mould box and dropped a load of silicone on the sculpt. I could have (and perhaps should have) spent a little more time setting this up but I was getting kinda impatient. I'd considered using lego for the mould box but I couldn't convince myself it wouldn't leak so I went with my usual foam board and hot glue.
Due to my lack of prep I had to trim the edges of the mould a bit but turned out nice!
First pull from the mould was in a black resin. I didn't expect this to be any good, just wanted to clear the mould of any clay residue but was happily surprised with how it turned out.
Next pull was a lot cleaner. I mixed some brass powder in with the resin but the effect wasn't quite what I had in mind so I went over it with some paint and rub'n'buff to replicate the appearance of the prop in the magazine.
TBC...