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lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 5th, 2017, 11:24 pm
by rob_van_riel
A friend of mine is, to put it mildly, a David Bowie fan in general, and a Labyrinth fan in particular. Little surprise than that when someone brought out a board game based on the movie, it had to be added to the collection. The set contains five figures of main characters for use as game pieces, supplied in boring plastic grey of course. Cue hints that a bit of colour on them would be nice, and a certain fool volunteering to make it happen.

This is what I got to work with:

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The figures are roughly 1/35, maybe a bit smaller, so big enough to get some decent detail in.
Ludo and Hoggle are quite acceptable. For some reason Sir Didymus lost his eyepatch, and his bristling moustache has been reduced to roughly hair shaped blobs to the sides of his muzzle. What really bugged me though, were Sarah and Jareth. Observe the uncanny similarities between the figures on the right and the originals on the left :evil:

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I realise it's not realistic to expect top grade figures in a set like this, but this looks like they didn't even try. Not so bad, of course, they're game pieces, not match grade figures, except that it gave me a really bad case of AMS ambition. I'm going to try to rip the faces off, and re-sculpt them; it hard to make them worse, so I have a chance to improve things even without any measurable sculpting skills :roll:

Of course, that's when my survival instincts kicked in, and pointed out to me that I was dead if I irreparably messed up the figures. OK, fine, I'll take the long way to this then. Enter a bucket of rubber and resin. I may not be a great sculptor, but I'm a decent copycat.

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I'll make a bunch more casts (hey, they're almost free), and then start ripping faces of and replacing them with (hopefully) properly shaped blobs of Milliput/Green Stuff. Meanwhile, the plastic originals will be kept safely out of harm's/my way.

While the copying was going on, I started work on Ludo:

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There's artist's oil paint on there, so he'll have to spend some time drying before I start adding reddish brown highlights to his fur, but so far, I'm pleased.

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 6th, 2017, 9:12 am
by VickersVandal
Excellent project!
You're right, that goblin king face needs to look far more freaky...

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 6th, 2017, 9:13 pm
by rob_van_riel
VickersVandal wrote:You're right, that goblin king face needs to look far more freaky...
I can pretty much guarantee that. Whether it will look more like the original is another matter :???:

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 6th, 2017, 11:45 pm
by rob_van_riel
This is actually not the first time I've tangled with Sir Didymus. Ages ago, I sculpted a figure of him in 25mm scale for a tabletop roleplaying campaign, while another one of the gang did the paintwork.

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The poor chap is a bit the worse for wear these days; his staff is gone, and most of his rather impressive whiskers haven't survived either. Still, for a hard used first attempt at scratchbuilding figures, I'm rather happy with the way he looks even now.

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 11th, 2017, 6:37 pm
by rob_van_riel
I've taken a first shot at putting a new face on Sarah. My camera is flat out refusing to produce a non-blurry picture of the face, but I think you'll take my word for it when I say I clearly need more practise. A lot more practise :roll:

Still, a few interesting lessons learned:
- A 1:1 mixture of silver Milliput and Green Stuff seems to produce the best of both worlds; the malleability of Milliput and the smoothness of Green Stuff. I'll do some further experiments of course, but this looks like an excellent start.
- My tools are ridiculously oversized for the job. I'll have to take a sidestep, and produce my own, far smaller versions.

To be continued, as they say..

Edit: gave the camera a good talking to. Behold the result in all it's uglyness :sad:

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Unlike the hidious troll an earlier attempt at face replacement produced, this can actually pass as a face, albeit not a pretty one. With lots of practise, there might be hope for me yet.

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 11th, 2017, 9:55 pm
by rob_van_riel
Ludo's been drybrushed with burnt sienna. Other than the excessive shine, which will later be dealt with with varnish, I like the fur.

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Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 11th, 2017, 10:46 pm
by iggie
reminds me of my ex wife.....

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 11th, 2017, 10:53 pm
by rob_van_riel
iggie wrote:reminds me of my ex wife.....
Ludo or Sarah?

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 11th, 2017, 11:10 pm
by iggie
rob_van_riel wrote:
iggie wrote:reminds me of my ex wife.....
Ludo or Sarah?
Ludo...I think..... :shock:

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 12th, 2017, 9:26 am
by rob_van_riel
iggie wrote:Ludo...I think..... :shock:
Oh dear...

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 12th, 2017, 2:36 pm
by MarkyM607
rob_van_riel wrote:
iggie wrote:Ludo...I think..... :shock:
Oh dear...
Should have gone to specsavers! :ha:

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 12th, 2017, 3:09 pm
by iggie
MarkyM607 wrote:
rob_van_riel wrote:
iggie wrote:Ludo...I think..... :shock:
Oh dear...
Should have gone to specsavers! :ha:
Now you tell me........ :roll: :-D :-D

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 19th, 2017, 5:39 pm
by rob_van_riel
Given the quality of my first attempt at putting a new face on Sarah, and that I want to have a presentable set before the end of the century, I've decided to paint up a pair of the cast figures as well, to be replaced with updated versions later.
A shot of primer reveals that while the casts are certainly workable, I have a problem with very small airpockets, as can be seen in the picture. In view of the many casts I've done before that didn't have this issue, I'll blame this on the less than fresh resin I'm using, and the fact that the rubber I'm using is not the recommended type for resin. No real issue for "short run" items ;-)
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Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 21st, 2017, 12:34 pm
by Old_Tonto
They look super Rob.

Re: lost in the labyrinth

Posted: November 26th, 2017, 4:10 pm
by rob_van_riel
rob_van_riel wrote:Unlike the hidious troll an earlier attempt at face replacement produced, this can actually pass as a face, albeit not a pretty one. With lots of practise, there might be hope for me yet.
Another day, another Sarah.

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I think that, with a bit of post-processing after the putty has cured and a decent paint job, this one might actually do..