Tag Archives: Sculpting

Talisman from Faery Tale Adventure

I have a second project from The Faery Tale Adventure which I recently finished. Like the Magic Seashell from a few weeks back, this was a project I used to get photographs and videos for various techniques covered in the second edition of The Prop Building Guidebook, which will be out in early 2017.

Polyurethane block
Polyurethane block

This was my first time carving into polyurethane foam, and the difference from polystyrene foam was remarkable. It does not have any of the sponginess of polystyrene. It cuts like butter but you can get really sharp, defined details.

Unfortunately, the dust may be reactive with your skin, so you need to wear gloves, sleeves, and a mask while working with it. The inertness of polystyrene dust has it beat there. But for a small piece like this, it was pretty fun.

Starting to carve
Starting to carve

The video game graphics were not helpful; the actual Talisman is only seven by nine pixels big. But the manual has some artwork which I enlarged and used as a guide.

I have some more photos and information about carving polyurethane which will be in the second edition of my book.

Form and Worbla
Form and Worbla

I tried out Worbla for the first time on this project. I have a video on Worbla coming out within the next few months, and the second edition will have a lot more information on it as well.

You can see in the photo above I coated the polyurethane with Flexcoat to give it more of a shell. I made the horns separate and attached them afterwards.

I’ve worked with Wonderflex before, so I noticed some differences between the two materials. First, Worbla smells like maple syrup when it’s heated. Really. Wonderflex seems to have much more of a transition between hard and soft. Worbla will become pliable very quickly with heat, then re-solidify quickly when cooled; Wonderflex becomes gradually more pliable as it is heated. That may be because the Worbla is thinner, or maybe because its formula is a bit different; I don’t know.

Back of Worbla
Back of Worbla

Like other thermoplastics, the benefit of Worbla is that you make a hollow shell of a prop rather than a solid chunk. My original plan was to fill the void with lights so the Talisman could glow, but I ended up putting so much paint on the outside that it became opaque.

Isometric view of Talisman
Isometric view of Talisman

For my first attempt at paint, I tried hydro-dipping. That did not work. So I covered that over with a traditional marbleing technique, which will also be in the book and in a future video.

Talisman from Faery Tale Adventure
Talisman from Faery Tale Adventure

I finished it off with a black wash for ageing and some copper metallic acrylic for highlighting, followed by a spray gloss clearcoat.

And now I have a Talisman that can keep my humble props shop safe from evil spirits and undead creatures.

Friday Tech Notes

Greetings from tech rehearsals for the first show of the season here at Triad Stage. We’re starting off with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The props are very pretty. But let’s talk about what the rest of the internet is doing.

The first big news is that the Society of Properties Artisan Managers has started a Facebook group open to all professional props people, old and new. While the organization itself remains reserved for full-time managers of prop shops, the group is a chance for prop makers and masters of all types to meet and talk shop.

Get Surrey has a news article on Graeme Lougher, a prop maker who has built props for everything from Harry Potter to Red Dwarf.

Make Magazine had two cool sculpting items recently. First, Emily Coleman shows us how to sculpt a fantasy owl with armature wire, Apoxie Sculpt and Sculpey. Second is this great video of Chris Johnson sculpting a monster.

Did you know Abercrombie & Fitch used to sell camping gear? They did. And Internet Archive has one of their catalogs from 1916 available for viewing online. If you wanted to know what kinds of duffel bags or what sort of provisions they carried in the early twentieth century, this is your resource.

Finally, this is pretty cool if you’re into cosplay. The makers of the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn have released a comprehensive guide for cosplaying the main character. It has construction details for all the little accessories and clear views of all her props.

Legend of Zelda Master Sword Take Two

About a year and a half ago, I worked with The League of Extraordinary Thespians to make a Master Sword for their Legend of Zelda musical. It was a fun project, but I had very little time or money to do it; I thought it was a bit blocky, and the paint treatment was very rudimentary. Since I gave all the original swords away, I decided I would make a new one with some improvements for myself.

I filmed nearly every step of the process and edited it into a six-minute video.

I made the blade out of wood again; on the original swords, I used plywood, which does not really make a convincing faux metal. This time I went with a solid piece of oak. After priming and sanding it, I used some Krylon Stainless Steel spray paint, which, after rubbing it with some steel wool, makes a very convincing metallic finish.

Legend of Zelda Master Sword
Legend of Zelda Master Sword

I decided I would make the hilt as a separate piece, then mold it and cast it directly onto the blade. I wanted a strong connection between hilt and sword that would not break when you played with it. Another reason was that the hilt was a very time-consuming piece, and I wanted the option of making more swords in the future.

Legend of Zelda Master Sword
Legend of Zelda Master Sword

Casting the hilt directly onto the blade was a very challenging and hairy process for me. Despite how awesome I seem, I do not have much experience with molding and casting. The process was far from perfect, but the end result was pretty satisfactory (though you can see some wibbly defects in the picture below).

Legend of Zelda Master Sword
Legend of Zelda Master Sword

I also tried sculpting the quillons out of clay, which is not something I typically do. I used an air-drying clay that was way too soft; if I were to try this again, I would look for a much harder clay. In fact, I would probably be tempted to carve most of it from a solid chunk of wood.

The yellow jewels were a separate piece which I cast in tinted epoxy. I made a video showing the mold-making process on that a few weeks back.

I finished off the hilt with a purple shimmering metallic spray paint. All in all, I was happy with how this sword turned out, and I learned a lot from the process.

Making a Life-Size Dragon

Here is a very cool video showing how Frank Ippolito made a life-sized dragon. Capcom wanted the front portion of one of their video game monsters for their booth at the E3 gaming conference, so they turned to sculptor and special effects artist Ippolito to make it happen. Tested shot this video, which shows all the stages of the build, from planning to creating the structure, and from sculpting the foam to coating it with a hard shell. If you ever wanted to create your own life-size dragon, this video is a good place to start.