The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => LBT Fanart => Topic started by: Malte279 on April 06, 2007, 04:56:21 AM
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There is one field of land before time fanart which has not yet been addressed in the GOF. Apart from drawing, painting, the creation of music, and music videos sculpturing land before time figures is another very interesting field of fanart. One of the interesting aspects is that, just like in case of drawing and painting, there are many different materials to work with when you want to sculpture land before time figures. Clay is one choice (and I know some of you have been working with it). Soapstone is another possibility, and so are wood, wax, and tin.
Let's put up our 3D fanart :yes
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Soapstone is a very interesting material to work with. It is a soft rock which can easily be carved, chiped, scratched, filed etc. Most kinds of soapstone are soft enough so you could scratch them with a fingernail, but they are hard enough so they won't be damaged if you just grip it (as is the case with not hardening modeling clay). Soapstone exists in a variety of colors (black, white and different shades of green, red, brown, blue, and yellow. Very often a stone consists of a pattern of different color layers which gives a very interesting look, especially if you polish the stone with very smooth grinding paper and then polish it with a special kind of resin oil which will make the stone really shiny.
To carve soapstone you should have a set of files and grinding paper. A metal bodkin is also helpful to carve out thin lines.
When grinded soapstone becomes very smooth (smooth as soap, that's where the name comes from) and is quite pleasant to touch. If you want to carve soapstone you should do it outside at a place where nobody will be bothered by the piles of stone dust produced during the carving (one gets the impression that soapstone tripples it's volume when turned into dust :lol). Some kinds of soapstone dust are carcinogen (promoting cancer), so you don't want to inhale it too deeply, but if you make sure the wind doesn't blow the dust in your face all the time you will be fine.
Soapstone comes in different qualities. Often there are small inclusions of earth or very porous stone in it which can be quite annoying. Once I was carving a soapstone figure of Spike and the stone included such a large inclusion of softer sediment that it resulted in a crack so large that I had to leave the Spike figure half-finished. Had I continued the carving the figure would have broken in two. Such large inclusions are rare though. It was just bad luck. Soapstone carving is real fun and I can recomend this hobby to all of you :yes
Having introduced the material here are some pictures of the first land before time soapstone figure I ever made. I did this one when we had a soapstone project in our schools art class (about the only interesting art project we ever had in 13 years of school <_<). I don't have any pictures of earlier stages of the project, so I cannot show you what the original rock looked like (later projects are "better documented"). The figure was carved in Fall 2002.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/Cera/Soapstone%20Cera6.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/Cera/Soapstone%20Cera4.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/Cera/Soapstone%20Cera8.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/Cera/Soapstone%20Cera12.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/Cera/Soapstone%20Cera13.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/Cera/Soapstone%20Cera5.jpg)
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well one thing you did was give me enough views to work with for a 3d max ver of cera :)
For some reason when there are large pics posted here i get no side to side scroll bar. At any rate time to open up 3d max and try to work on ceras head a bit :)
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Woa...what an interesting idea! I've made some sculptures before, but the only type of material I've used is Marblex Self-Hardening clay. It's very fun to work with, however it hardens quickly and thinner areas of the sculpture can easily crack or snap.
I've never made an LBT sculpture though, only some wolves and statues of my dog and cat. (You can get a peek of two of them here if you like: http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/081/...akikoookami.jpg (http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/081/3/d/Statues_by_akikoookami.jpg) ) I'll have to look into this Soapstone!
I must say these turned out great, the details on the spines and on Cera's mouth are really good, not to mention the overall shape of them. I really like the almost "totem" look this material gives them! This material seems to have interesting patterns about it too (the splotches and textures on it are really neat).
I saw you mentioned "later projects"; are there more of these? I'd love to see them if there are, these're really cool! What a fresh, creative idea...I think you've inspired me to attempt some of these the next time I'm playing around with sculptures too.
Great work! :)
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Novaflare, I got the same problem with the images' size in Firefox, however in Internet Explorer it gave me a scrollbar along the bottom so I could fully view them. :blink:
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Wow, those figures of your dog and your cat are just gorgeous Akiko! Especially the way you colored them with light effects and everything. Really great work! :yes
I saw you mentioned "later projects"; are there more of these? I'd love to see them if there are, these're really cool! What a fresh, creative idea...I think you've inspired me to attempt some of these the next time I'm playing around with sculptures too.
I made two soapstone figures of Petrie, the one of Spike which I already mentioned, which I never finished. Tin figures of Ducky, Littlefoot, Spike, Cera, a head of Cera (need to finish the rest of her) and a few smaller projects. I'm going to write and post more about them.
well one thing you did was give me enough views to work with for a 3d max ver of cera
I better send you pictures of the tin head of Cera as a reference, as it is much more detailed than the soapstone (which lacks for example the bumps Cera is sporting on her frill).
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Thanks, I used prismacolor markers to color those actually. Eh, whatever works :blink: :lol
Ooh, just curious but is that your Ducky tin figure in the photo on your profile page? If so, it looks awesome! Much better than any officially released LBT figurines I've seen. Can't wait to see the others
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Ooh, just curious but is that your Ducky tin figure in the photo on your profile page? If so, it looks awesome! Much better than any officially released LBT figurines I've seen. Can't wait to see the others
That's right. I took that picture right after the first tin cast. Cera was the first LBT tin figure I ever made.
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Wow, that's really great! I'd love to see it closer up sometime ;) You're really good with making figurines
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Thank you very much :)
I'll give you the closer look.
Tin or pewter is a more complicate material than soapstone to work with. It is more expensive, more toxic, more dangerous (liquid metal is hot), but it also holds it's own fascination. Moreover creating moulds for tin figures has the great advantage that once you have a mould ready (creating the moulds is the difficult part) you can relatively easily create several copies of one figure. With a good mould you can easily create hundreds of figures. Of course I don't need hundreds of identical land before time figures, but it is nice to be able to create more than one. Also they make great presents for fellow LBT fans.
To create a tin figure mould the first thing you need is a "positive" that is a figure of which you want to create copies of tin. The positive can be made of almost any material. I am working with a project of a tin figure of Cera using wax as a material, but so far I have only finished her head and body, while the legs are very tricky. For those projects I have finished so far I used positives which I didn't create myself. In case of the first two figures I used two brooches of Littlefoot and Ducky which were produced in 1988 (it was a very lucky catch at ebay. I'm very sure that there must be more figures of Cera, Spike, and possibly Petrie. If any one of you ever gets hold of one of those brooches I offer you the following deal. If you borrow me the brooch so I can make a mould of it you will get not only the brooch but also a tin figure back in return).
The material the moulds are made of is a heat resistant silikone caoutchouc. The stuff is liquid until you mix it with a vulcanizer which causes the caoutchouc to harden within a few minutes. The vulcanizer is very toxic and you must make sure that you put exactly the right amount 3.5% of vulcanizer with the amount of caoutchouc which you calculate by multiplying the specific weight of the caoutchouc with the volume of the mould you want to create. If you put in too much vulcanizer the caoutchouc will harden too quickly to make an accurate mould (even if you put in the right amount you really have to hurry. It would be much better if the hardening took a few hours rather than minutes) if you put in too little vulcanizer parts of the mould will never harden at all rendering the mould useless. The damage cannot be fixed and is very annoying as the caoutchouc is expensive. It is also rather messy to work with, you really need some good soap to get it of your skin and you should put on old cloth, for if it gets on cloth it will stay there. I hope the toxic nature of the volcanizer will serve as an excuse for that ridiculous protection I'm wearing on the following picture taken in January or February 2004 when I was crating my first moulds:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/creating%20moulds%202.jpg)
These first moulds were very easy if compared to more complex figures. The reason is that those brooches only had a front side to be used. In this case it was possible to make a form of just one piece (while any figure with front and backside will require at least two parts) by just puting some modelling clay on the back of the brooches, but tooth pricks in and let them dangle in a box with the liquid caoutchouc as shown on the following picture (Littlefoot on the left, Ducky on the right):
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/moulds%201.jpg)
As I mentioned before the caoutchouc begins to harden within a few minutes, but one should wait for an hour or two before you remove the positives from the mould. The mould should be put into an oven then and heated from 175 to 250 degrees celsius within two hours, gradually increasing the heat. This step is not absolutely necessary, but it will prolong the livespan of the mould, increase its heat resistance and increase the drying process. Even though the mould is hard after one or two hours one should let it rest for about two days before using it. There is the risk of the form growing unstable if used before it completely dried.
The next picture shows the two molds and the brooches which served as positives:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/moulds%202.jpg)
Before casting the tin the mold should again be heated in the oven. This will improve the fluidity of the liquid metal when cast into the mold. For the same reason the mold is powdered with talcum powder. As for the metal, what I’m using is a mixture of pewter and lead usually in a ratio of 60% to 40%, but the ratio can be varied. Pewter is harder than lead and thus prevents the figure from becoming too soft (so it would be scratched easily). It also has a higher melting temperature than lead which is one of the main reasons to add the lead. Lead is rather soft, and has a lower melting temperature which lessens the strain of the mold when the hot metal is cast in. A drawback of the lead is that it is toxic. Therefore it is important to wash your fingers every time after you touched the metal and to lacquer all the finished figures.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/melting%20tin%201.jpg)
Back then I was still melting the metal over an open flame. Meanwhile I have a tin ladle which can be heated by electricity. Apart from avoiding the risk of fire the electrical ladle is also much cleaner to work with as the open flame produces lots of sooth as you can see on this picture:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/melting%20tin%202.jpg)
At long last the liquid metal is cast into the molds:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/casting%20figures.jpg)
and left there for a few minutes to harden. One should wait for some minutes for even if the figure is already hard on the outside it may still remain very crumbly if the core of the figure is still liquid or soft. Not to mention the fact that it’s “smart” not to touch the figure while it is still extremely hot:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/casting%20figures%202.jpg)
It doesn’t take a long time for the figure to cool down enough so it can be taken from the mould. You know this picture already, it is the first LBT tin figure I ever made:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/tin%20figure%20-%20Ducky.jpg)
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The figures must be painted so one can touch them without having to wash your hands every time. One can either paint them in full colors or just use clear lacquer to keep a metal finis which can either be “brightened” by polishing the metal figure or “aged” by using a finish that accelerates the oxideing of the metal to give it an “ancient” look; I never did that though.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/painting%20figures2.JPG)
And here at last are the closer looks on the figures. Here is Ducky fully painted and in metal finis:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/Ducky%20tin%20figures.jpg)
And here is Littlefoot:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/First%20Ducky%20and%20Littlefoot/Littlefoot%20tin%20figures.jpg)
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Awesome stuff.
I my self would love to have a chomper model. Ive considered and may still atempt makign a chomper scuplture from like poplar or other soft wood. Id used a hardwood if i had the tooling to do it. Obviously it will be painted that or ill get some dieable monocoat as it has a slitghtly textured feel. And the coating wont get glossy from useing a die tint. So it could look very natural. I could prob get a near perfect match to his series coloration.
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Oh those are amazing! :wow I'm not sure I could even attempt to work with something like that, but then again I never knew I'd get so into working with sculpting clay either. ;) It's always fun to play around with new things. You've done a fantastic job on these; I can't wait to see the one of Cera!
I'm afraid the only figurines I have are a couple burger king type toys and the hand puppets Pizza Hut came out with in the 80's...not sure if those are of any help, but I have the whole set of them. (the hand puppets that is) :P:
Again, wonderful work...and a plus for something so creative and original!
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Thanks a lot :)
From tin back to soapstone here are some pictures of a Petrie figure I made last year. Here are a some pictures from an earlier stage of the figure (where many details are not yet elaborated):
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie1.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie2.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie3.jpg)
The next pictures show the finished version of the little Petrie:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie4.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie5.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie6.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie7.jpg)
This is a very small Petrie figure which is why some details (e.g. elaborate feet) were left out. The reason for the limited size of this Petrie figure is that it was carved from a small chunk of soapstone which remained from a much larger block from which I made a larger Petrie figure (it takes one stone to make two Petries ;)). Here is a picture showing both the tiny and the (unfinished) larger Petrie. I'm going to post more on the larger Petrie another day:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/LittlePetrie/Petrie8.jpg)
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It is a while ago since I posted a thread asking about a series of land before time spoons (spoons with their handles shaped like LBT characters) which were issued by some restaurant "Denny's Restaurants" or "Dairy Queen Restaurants" I think. Meanwhile the quest was successful and I got four spoons with handles shaped like Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike.
Those spoon handles make for a good positive of a flatfigure (a figure with elaborate front and backsides, but still not 3D as it is very flat). The first spoon I got and turned into a figure was Spike (meanwhile I made a Cera too and plan to do Ducky while I don't like the Littlefoot spoon and don't plan to turn it into a tinfigure). This is what the Spike spoon looks like:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Loeffelvorderseite2.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Loeffelrueckseite2.jpg)
As you can see there is plastic in between the character's legs. If a tinmould was made from the spoon as it is the tinfigure too would have tin between their legs. Apart from looking stupid I wouldn't know how to paint that supposedly empty space. As I didn't want to damage the spoon though (by cutting out the space between the legs) I had to create a figure of a softer material than tin to be used as a positive for the final figure.
I created a mould of Stewalin (a kind of refined plaster). That mould would not be tight and heat resistant enough to be used for tin, but it can be used to create a wax figure of Spike which could be changed to be used as a positive for the later tin mould. This is the Stewalin mould. Notice the "air pipe" below Spike's chin. It is necessary for any mould to have "air pipes" at any spot where air bubbles would form when the mould is filled. If no "air pipes" allow the air enclosed in these spots to leafe the moulds these parts of the mould would not be filled in.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Stewalinform_%20Vorderseite.JPG)
This is the other half of the Stewalin mould; the one for Spike's back:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Stewalinform_%20Rueckseite2.jpg)
This picture shows the wax Spike I cast with the Stewalin mould.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Wachsspike-Rueckseite2.jpg)
As you can see the legs are now carved out, so the wax Spike could be used as a positive to create this caoutchouc mould for tin:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Spike_Silikonkautchukform.jpg)
In order to create such a mould of more than one part one side of the positive has to be embedded in modelling clay while the other one is covered with the silicone rubber. That way you get the first half of the mould. For the second half you put the positive in the half you already have, put a very thin layer of vaseline on the first half of the form (to prevent the second half to stick to the first) and finally you cover it all with the next load of caoutchouc (I will show those proceedings in case of another figure where I took pictures of the process). It is also important to make sure there are some notches on the first half of the mould so the second one will have fitting pegs (you can see them around Spike). Without these the two halves of the mould may slip during the casting which would not only ruin the figure but is also dangerous (the tin is hot!).
And here is the final figure:
Front:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Spike_Vorderseite.jpg)
And back:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Spike_Rueckseite.jpg)
I used some modelling clay to create a little base for the figure to stand on and covered the final base with some modelling grass. I didn't pick the colors well in case of that early figure as Spike isn't quite that green and orange. In a later version I chose better colors (I had to "pale them out" quite a bit by adding lots of white to the olive and ockre basic colors I used). I don't have a sharp picture of a figure in the more accurate color scheme, but this one should do to give an idea about the colors:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Spike_andere_Farbe.jpg)
And here all the stuff for this figure is piled up once again. Notice there are two more moulds for a wax Spike. The first two attempts (one of them with clay) didn't work out the way they should have. There is a lot of "try and error" about this hobby ;)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Spike/Alles_zusammen3.jpg)
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In case of the next soapstone figure I took photos throughout the whole carving so this one might give you a better idea of the steps from a lump of stone to a Petrie figure. As there are many pictures I will have to make several posts. You already saw a half finished version of this Petrie in a previous picture along with the much smaller Petrie I had made.
This picture was taken in August 2006 when I started carving that figure. Sadly I don't have any picture just of the raw stone. On this picture you can already recognize Petrie's beak. The smaller Petrie figure I showed you before was carved by the way from the piece of stone I'm just sawing off from the bigger Petrie's stone on this picture:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Carving%20soapstone.jpg)
During October 2006 I continued working with that figure during the holidays I spent in the Netherlands. Here are a few shots of a still rather raw Petrie figure:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie01.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie02.jpg)
On the following picture you can see a little "hole" in the back of Petrie's head. This is the result of an inclusion of softer and more porous stone in the soapstone.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie03.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie04.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie05.jpg)
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Here I'm carving the stone on the beach in Holland. A look at my pants goes to show that it is really dusty work indeed:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Carvingsoapstone3.jpg)
After the crude outlines were done I could go a bit more into detail. You can now see the eyes, beak, wings etc. are slightly more elaborate:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie06.jpg[IMG/]
The hole in Petrie's head is still there, but as it was a small inclusion it could be straightened out after all.
[img]http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie07.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie08.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie09.jpg)
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The next detail that had to be dealt with was Petrie's body. The work was kind of tricky as I had to carve behind Petrie's wings and had to make sure the relatively thin stone layer of the wings didn't break away. Moreover it was important not to give Petrie to small and fragile feet as (with the high center of gravity created by Petrie's head and the large beak) there was a high risk to make the figure unbalanced so it couldn't stand.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie10.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie11.jpg)
Finally Petrie was still "blind" I had to carve proper eyes and also make the whole surface of the stone as smooth as possible:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie12.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie13.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie14.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie15.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/UnfinishedPetrie16.jpg)
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simply amazing, outstanding stuff. I wish I could do things like that but it just out of my range of artiest style. I can do drawings but that as far I can do. What the heck I love drawing and even writing stories, I love doing it as I do now and what you do is top grade stuff, you do it all by yourself from the looks of it which makes things more amazing your one of a kind when it comes to this.
Top mark work Malte!
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The last step was to treat the figure with a kind of oil on resin basis which makes the whole stone shine:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2001.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2002.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2003.jpg)
The hole can still be made out if you look carefully, but it can barely be felt if you touch the figure:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2004.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2005.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2006.jpg)
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2007.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2008.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2009.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2010.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2011.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Soapstone/BigPetrie/Finished%20Petrie%2012.jpg)
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Hey look its me!!! :D :D (a very religious Petrie at that :p )
Now can that smooth surface be painted or will paint not stick to something so glossy? I like the eyes. So innocent really, just kind of standing there like "oh yeah, I'm here too...".
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Thanks a lot for the reaction! :D Thank you! Thank you! Thank you :yes
I think soapstone can be painted (by the way most of the the ancient greek and roman marble statues used to be painted though we know them in black and while only as the color flaked off over the centuries), but it would be kind of a waste as soapstone has a pattern which has really some merrits by itself. Most stones in general have. I think it was Leonardo da Vinci who said that one could discover whole landscapes in the pattern of a stone (it is a good advice for anyone looking for an interesting stage for LBT story scenes). I wonder what it would look like if the presidents at Mount Rushmore were painted :blink:... something hard to get used to and no mistake :lol
The "Oh yeah, I'm here too!" posture is one which offers itself for any soapstone figures as it includes folded wings. It would be impossible to do a Petrie with spread wings as the stone would break if turned into a too thin layer.
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I love your work Malte279! I just wish I had the time to do it too.
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Malte, the detail in your sculptures never cease to amaze me! :)
I don't know how you can get the proportions of Petrie so nice, especially in a medium where you can't really erase mistakes. Very nice detail work in the eyes!
All I can say is, "Wow". B) :lol:
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I don't know how you can get the proportions of Petrie so nice, especially in a medium where you can't really erase mistakes.
I often took a look on screenshots though I did not carve this Petrie to match a particular screenshot. It is important to keep in mind that the head of a child is much larger in ratio to the rest of the body than the head of a grownup (compare the ratio of Dinah and Dana vs. that of Cera, versus that of Topsy for example). Sometime mistakes can be erased in the stone, but depending on how deep the mistake was carved it may end up with a stone much smaller than it used to be. Therefore you are "switching tools" during the carving. For the rough shaping of the stone I use a sharp file which could reduce the whole stone to dust in a relatively short period of time. Then I switch to smaller files, to even smaller ones and finally to grinding paper. ¡s the stone won't "melt away" under the smaller files they you are not likely to carve a mistake beyond correction with them.
I love your work Malte279! I just wish I had the time to do it too.
Thank you for the comment. Maybe you do and just don't know you have the time ;). It took me from August to March to finish that Petrie figure, but mainly because I couldn't work on it from November to February at all due too too much university stuff to be dealt with. A figure as large as the big Petrie can be finished in less than a week if one really spends the days on them. The little Petrie can be finished in a day or two. It's up to us if we use the time for sculpturing or for other hobbies ;)
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Nice. ^^
When I first saw this, I thought Petrie was wearing a cape. ^^; I guess it was due to way his wings were folded.
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*makes a funny dumb face* Ooooh! Petrie statue!
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The little Petrie can be finished in a day or two
I can't even spare an hour away from my work, let alone 24-48! Where do you find the time?
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Where do you find the time?
I did in a time when there was not too much university work at hand. Moreover I didn't make them in one "shift" but rather on several hours dispersed over more than two days.
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It has been a while since I posted here. I just didn't ever have the time or muster the energy to upload the pictures of the next project.
There are more spoons such as the one of Spike which I turned into a tin figure. The second spoon I used was the one of Cera. This time I also tried a different material for creating the mold for the tin figure. I already mentioned the disadvantages of the silicone rubber (very high price, very tricky to work with as you must add exactly the right amount of volcanizer for the stuff to harden thorough but not too quickly, toxic fumes, very messy to work with etc.). So this time I tried a different material, oil sand. Oil sand is a red sand that will form almost like clay and crumble only if you really mean to crumble it. If you stomp the sand on a figure, there will be a very detailed imprint of that figure in the sand. The sand does not create any toxic fumes (you still shouldn't eat the stuff ;)) and as it can be crumbled and reused almost infinitely it is also a lot cheaper than the silicone rubber.
Here is the first picture the Cera spoon is pressed into one layer of oil sand:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Sandform1.jpg)
Next the oil sand was covered with a thin layer of talcum powder to prevent the second half of the sand mold (which was to be stomped on top of the first one) to cling to the first half.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Sandform2.jpg)
Next the spoon was removed from the mold which you can recognize as such in the next picture. The white stuff on the red sand is the talcum powder which I mentioned.
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Sandform3.jpg)
The two halves of the mould were put together and filled with tin (I posted pictures of the tin melting and casting before and I don't want to bore you by posting all that once again):
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Sandform4.jpg)
Here is the result of the first cast. As you can see there are still parts on it which would not be supposed to be on a finished tin figure, namely the parts of the spoon which filled the room between Cera's legs. Remember that in case of the Spike spoon figure I created a wax figure first, then removed the unwanted parts and then made a mold of the waxfigure:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Sandform5.jpg)
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Now here are two closer shots at the Cera I cast after I removed the unwanted parts. Here is the front:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Cera1.jpg)
And here is the back:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Cera2.jpg)
As you may see the result with the oil sand was not quite as good as the results from the silicone rubber molds. The surface of this Cera is not as smooth and there are two big holes on her rear. So I cleared that figure up a little (by filling up the holes with wax and grinding the surface of the figure smoother) to create a silicone rubber mold of that figure after all.
Here is a picture after I finished creating the first half of the silicone mold. You can clearly see some of the "patched up" spots on the Cera figure in the modeling clay on the right. You can also see that I put the caps of two felt-tip pens in the mold to create two "pegs" below Cera's feet. There is a reason for this of course:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Silikonform1.jpg)
Here is a picture of the final silicone mold:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Silikonform2.jpg)
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As for the "pegs" below Cera's feet, I made those to set Cera up on a special apron I created for this figure. In case of Spike I had just made a little base right below his feet with a bit of modeling clay. The spoon of Cera however had come with a cup and a lid of that cup shaped like a patch of Great Valley landscape. So I made a mold of that cup lid as well. As the apron is rather large I decided to cast it with a material other than pewter. It would have been very expensive to fill a large mold of that apron with pewter, and I doubt that my foundry ladle would hold enough pewter to fill such a mold. Moreover that apron would have been rather heavy. So I decided to make the apron of Stewalin, a kind of plaster refined with synthetics so it does not chalk as much or break as easily as regular plaster does. I used a cheap kind of rubber to create that mold (I wish that kind of rubber was suited for pewter as well, but it wouldn't stand the heat). Here are two pictures of that apron mold:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Apronmold1.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Apronmold2.jpg)
And here is a picture of the finished apron. The holes for Cera's pegs had to be drilled afterwards. It took a long time to paint that apron properly:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Sockel.jpg)
And here at last are some images of the final painted Cera on her apron:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Cera3.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Cera4.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Cera5.jpg)
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte2709/Tin%20Figures/Cera/Cera6.jpg)
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When someone does well on a Cera project, I can't help but feel proud of that particular someone.
You did a great job there, Malte. Good going!
I think I might actually try a little project of my own. What building material will I use, you might ask?
Well, I have quite a collection of LEGOS that I haven't touched in quite a while...
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Thank you very much for your reaction. I really appreciate it a lot. :)
Hey, I'm really looking forward to see a lego Cera :yes
Do you have orange legos, or will it be mainly about the shape rather than the color?
Please show us when your project is finished :yes
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The biggest problem with LEGOS is that you have a limited supply of colors to work with. I only have the following colors to work with:
Red, Dark Red, Yellow, Dark Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, White, Brown, Gray and Black.
So, unless I decide to paint the LEGOS, the colors will be off.
On top of that, I hold a very limited supply of Green and Brown, so the use of them HAS to be miniumal.
Furthermore, the green is more limited to a small flat stand to build on and being the "glass cover" for cockpits. Not to mention that the green pieces that don't consist of that are rather large and flat.
The Gray pieces could really help me out on the design for the jaw of Cera and Spike as there are certian pieces that can easily be used for the main build of the front for a ship. (Whether it be one for sea or space. It could also be used for the front of a plane or jet.)
There are also certian body parts of the charcters to take into account. My biggest problem is definately going to be Cera's "armor" that goes around her head.
The final thing to understand is that I'm working with a bunch of squares and rectangles, and they can only fit in certian ways. Unless I plan to go big, and break apart the model when I'm done, you're more than likely going to see something that's "off" in design.
Certian things could help me out. I do have White pieces that already have an eye painted on them. However, this would mean that the eyes would then only be seen from certian angles.
As you can see, there's alot to consider when building with LEGOS. This definately won't be easy. :^.^:
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Can't wait to see it. :D
@Malte
WOW. :wow Your sculpturing is really amazing and impressive.
You got some unique stuff there that nobody has in the world. :D
Keep up the good work. :^.^:
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A very late thank you ;)
I've been too lazy about this thread for a long time. It is partly because one project I meant (even back then) to post here next is still not finished. It is a soapstone figure of Spike with Ducky on his back. While carving it a large part of Spike (including one leg) broke of due to an enclosure in the stone. It could be glued, but ever since I did not really dare to approach the stone with a file fearing to do more harm than damage. So that project remains semi-finished for a while.
However, I did complete another project in December which I didn't post about so far. It is a tinfigure of the only one of the five main characters I hadn't done as a tinfigure so far, Petrie.
As a positive for this figure I took a little figure of Petrie which I had purchased via ebay (it is one of a series of six figures, Chomper included, so there may be more tin figures based on this series when I have more time again).
The figure is quite neat, but does have some shortcomings on details which I corrected with some wax. The following picture shows the figure embedded in some modeling clay in the box in which I cast the liquid silicone rubber for the mold. You can see the blue plastic cone on one of his feed which will in the mold form the hole through which the liquid tin is cast. On his other food a piece of wood is placed to create a "Windpfeife" (an air channel through which air can "escape" while the mould is filled, so there won't be air bubbles messing up the figure. The bumbs in the four corners are meant to create notches which will allow for the two parts of the mold to be fitted exactly onto each other. If you look closely you will see some of the edits I did on the figure with wax along the back of Petrie's had and the wings:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_tin_mould_preparation1.jpg)
Here is the messy and tricky part of the work which I mentioned earlier in this thread (if you add a few drops too much hardner into the liquid rubber it will become hard too quickly to make a detailed mould of the figure while a few drops too few will leave the rubber liquid so you can throw away the figure as well). I did mess up a pair of pants on this mould :bang
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_tin_mould_preparation2.jpg)
But at least I had the amount of hardener for the rubber correct.
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_tin_mould_preparation3.jpg)
Here the first half of the mould with the figure is ready in place for the second part of the mold to be cast on top of it. To prevent the two halves from sticking together the first half needs to be greased with vaseline:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_tin_mould_preparation2_1.jpg)
Here is a picture of one half of the mold on which you can see the Windpfeifen very clearly which are running from Petrie's wings (where air enclosures would be particularly likely) to the top of the mold:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_Windpfeifen.jpg)
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The liquid tin is cast into the mold, which as you can see has to be held together in a rather peculiar manner. The problem of this mold is that you need to have pressure on the edges to prevent tin from pouring out there, but there mustn't bee to much pressure on the center, or else the wings wouldn't be filled up completely:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_mould_filled.jpg)
In spite of all this it did not work out right away from the first cast. Petrie's wings are particularly complex to cast as such a thin layer of tin gets cold very quickly even before filling up the mold completely. Also the windpipes may not have worked out correctly in this cast, the right wing (viewers perspective) is not filled up correctly:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_failed_cast.jpg)
However, it is rather normal for the first casts to fail. During the casting the mold warms up causing the tin of later casts to remain liquid for a longer time so the mold is filled up better. So behold the attack of the "clone flyers" :lol
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_clones.jpg)
The figures need to be "entgrated" that is the superfluous metal parts (tin that got into the Windpfeifen or the cone of the hole through which the tin is cast) need to be cut away and then the parts have to be smoothed with a file. The left Petrie has not yet been entgrated completely. You still see superfluous metal on his feet and beak:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/plastic_entgratet.jpg)
The following two pictures are to show the difference between the original figure and the tin cast I did. Looking at the profile you will notice that the tin figure on the left side has a larger head and beak than the plastic original on the right:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/plastic_and_tin_Petrie_side.jpg)
The wings are different as well. The plastic figure sports the "bat version" of Petrie's wings which I changed with a bit of wax:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/plastic_and_tin_Petrie_front.jpg)
From the left to right you see an unpainted tinfigure, a figure with the white basic color (which is also used to smooth out some uneven parts along the wings where the wax edged to the plastic figure), and a fully painted Petrie:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petrie_tin_white_done.jpg)
And here is a final picture showing the finished Tin Petrie from all four directions:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Tin%20Petrie/Petries.jpg)
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Nice, looks like hard work also.
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Hello:
That is a most impressice work Malte, outstanding really! :wow . It is awesome how you can make yourself the time to do those beauties. Keep it up!
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Aww hehe malte, now I see why you asked me long ago if I did anything else than drawing. This is wonderful! :D Good job on petrie! :)
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These are very well made, you must've spent a lot of time on these! Great job!
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Think you can do one of Chomper?
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Thank you everybody for your responses :)
I see why you asked me long ago if I did anything else than drawing.
Did I totally fail to mention the sculpturing back then? It was last spring or summer, wasn't it?
You do have a good memory Iris :)
Think you can do one of Chomper?
I can and (as I mentioned) I already have a positive for a Chomper figure. However, make no mistake, it will take some time before I can think of starting the next figure. No chance for anything in this field to be started before I finish my final work at the university so no chance whatsoever to start before summer if then I have the time (which depends on what tasks and chances I may or may not be offered after completing the studies).
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Sounds like you are very busy and will continue to be for quite a while.
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Wow, Malte, I never knew you sculpted! That's awesome. The craftsmanship of the figures you showed was amazing. Keep this skill up, Malte, cause this is some truely cool stuff!
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I see why you asked me long ago if I did anything else than drawing.
Did I totally fail to mention the sculpturing back then? It was last spring or summer, wasn't it?
You do have a good memory Iris :)
No I dont think you've mentioned it... Well maybe you did and I was just not paying attention, fairly possible :p
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Yesterday I made another tin mold and today for the first time in a while I cast tin figures. Actually I melted almost a kilogram of pewter today turning all of it into figures of Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike making this my most productive tin casting section so far.
Anyway, here are the proceedings.
As I mentioned in another thread I recently got so called "shoe-charms" of the five land before time main characters. I don't know about their looks on shoes, but for the purpose of tin mold creating they are quite charming indeed. They are suited for making "flat figure molds". A flat figure in this context is a figure with only one detailed and elaborate side while the other side is plain and empty (like the first two figures I have ever made which are at the beginning of this thread). The making of such a mold is easier than that of any 3D figure (which consists of at least two mold parts while the flat mold is just a single part), but the casting of them can be quite tricky.
Here are the five shoe charms on a board which belongs to a disassembleable wooden box speciffically for the purpose of making molds:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1161.jpg)
Looking at it from the side you will see that all of the shoe charms are put on light-blue modeling clay. There are two reasons for this. One is that there is kind of a "button" behind the figures to attach them to shoes. That one is not to be molded. The main reason however is that the mold must be deeper than the actual figures are. If the mold was as shallow as the figures themselves there would be a high likelihood of the tin "spilling over" thereby making the figure unusable (apart from a certain risk). Moreover In case of these flat molds you need to be able to pour a relatively large amount of tin into the mold. The weight of the liquid metal presses the metal further down in the mold into the tight spots (such as Petrie's wings or any tail) which might otherwise remain empty which also renders the figure useless. In case of 3d molds you have a large usually conic hole into which the liquid metal is poured to fill up the form and provide the pressure on the metal down below. Flat figures lack such a cone which makes casting with them somewhat tricky at times:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1162.jpg)
The next two pictures show the wooden "walls" of the molding box assembled and fixed around the figures. Note the tape along the walls which is meant to prevent any of the liquid caoutchouc (still need to look up the spelling of that word) from which the mold is made from pouring out at the side:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1166.jpg)
The modeling clay at the side is another measure to prevent the possibility of caoutchouc leaking out there:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1177.jpg)
The red stuff is responsible for most of the mess that inevitably results from this work. It is the liquid caoutchouc. Never wear anything you still want to wear while anyone is looking when you do this work. There is NO chance in the world to ever get a stain of caoutchouc from any clothes. The blue liquid is responsible for most of the toxic and smelly vapors (gee how I wished I had an actual large hobby room with a BIG window for ventilation). It is the volcanizer which, mixed under the caoutchouc causes the later to become hard. In addition to that a so called "entl¸fter" (dunno the English term) is mixed into the caoutchouc to limit the risk of it creating air-bubbles:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1178.jpg)
A further measure to limit the risk of air bubbles on the figures in the mold is to attach some of the caoutchouc right onto the figures with a brush...
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1180.jpg)
...before pouring the rest of the caoutchouc onto it filling up the whole mold box:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1182.jpg)
Next you need to wait for a day for the caoutchouc to harden (and I will finish this message here and continue in another because I'm afraid I might otherwise reach the limit for images in one message).
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It looks pretty complicated and time consuming, but you do seem to enjoy it. Good luck. Hope it all works out for you & hope you continue to keep us updated. Be careful.
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I was distracted (by a most enjoyable chat) yesterday evening and did therefore not write and post the continuation of the above post. Right now I don't have the time to do that either (got to rush to catch a bus in a few minutes), but I'll post it as soon as I can.
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No need to hurry. This way it means you can have an even longer post then you first intended since you can plan out the post mentally. :yes
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wow :wow awesome stuff Malte
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Hi,
I apologize for the delay in updating this thread (as well as some others). I had feared that once my university papers were finished I would end up not knowing what to do with all my time (a state which I really dislike), but now I'm ending up with so many things to do that I can't manage everything as quickly as I mean to :)
Anyway here we go on with the next step after the mold making, namely the casting of the figures.
After I let the silicon caoutchouc harden over night I could remove the walls fot the box:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1187.jpg)
And turn around the mold in which the original figures (the shoe charms) were still stuck. You can also see that the mold left an "imprint" on the bottom board of the box. I guess I should have sealed that one of to protect it, but no real damage came from it:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1188.jpg)
Next the figures had to be removed from the mold, so at last the actual "mold-holes" become visible:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1189.jpg)
Same procedure as every time the mold is "powdered" with talcum (which allows for the liquid tin to flow better) and the tin is molten in the electric ladle. I guess some day I'll have to consider getting a better tin boiler than this ladle. A melting pot which allows for an more precise pouring out of the metal (there it is always a rather "exciting" hit or miss kind of business with that ladle), a more exact dosing of the metal (pouring out too little cause the mold not to be properly filled up while pouring out too much may cause the liquid tin to spill over which is not just dangerous but also ruins the figure), and which would allow for the metal to be brought to higher temperatures (so it would flow easier and fill up the mold with greater precision). The casts in the following picture were messed up. In case of the Littlefoot at the lower left the metal spilled over at the tail while the head is not properly filled up (this is something that may happen especially in early casts when the mold is not "warmed up" by hot metal already. In such a still cold mold the metal may harden quicker than you want it to, resulting in such casting failures). In case of the Ducky on the lower right the metal poured over at the head. The Ducky in the other mold at the top is a proper cast, but in a larger mold so she is easier to cast. The white stuff in the molds that are not filled with metal is the talcum powder:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1194.jpg)
In the next image Cera, Petrie, and Ducky have been cast properly. On the left you see the ladle with some tin still in it:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1197.jpg)
That day was my largest single tin casting "session" so far. I melt and cast almost a kilogram of high quality food save pure tin (not that the figures were edible, but you don't need to wash your fingers after touching them as is the case with figures which contain a higher percentage of lead). The result were these figures:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1205.jpg)
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Here are some close shots of the individual figures.
Littlefoot:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1208.jpg)
Cera:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1209.jpg)
Ducky (she was definitely the most difficult of these figures to cast as filling up her arms without making the mold spill over was really difficult):
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1211.jpg)
Petrie:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1212.jpg)
and Spike:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1214.jpg)
I'm not yet done painting all these figures (the most time consuming part of the whole business) but once I am I'll post pictures of it.
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Looks very difficult to to and get it right. Good luck with the future steps.
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Coloring the figures is the most lengthy part of the whole figure business. First of all, the figures are all primed in white for to reasons. One is that it will make the other colors more even looking another is that it is a good idea to have the whole figure covered with at least one layer of color or laquer so there is no need to wash your fingers every time after you toush them in case of figures with a higher percentage of lead in them (in case of these particular cast it was so pure tin that one could have made tableware from it though). Then the different layers of color are applied. I usually work down my way from the largest to the smallest layer of color (the later often being the white spot within the pupils of a figure's eye).
Here is an overall view of the figures with the priming white and the first layer of color applied:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1228.jpg)
I took quite a few pictures of the different steps from color layer to color layer, but I'm afraid I would bore you to death if now I started posting pictures of every single figure at every single color layer, so here is just a selection.
Here is a large figure of Ducky with the first color layer applied. I include this one mainly to show you that the color used on her is rather shiny. While this has kind of its own charm I did dull the colors on the figures of this cast to make them matt later on, with the exception of parts like the eyes or opened mouths where light reflections are realistic.
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1229.jpg)
Here come several figures with the second layer of color applied.
Cera:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1278.jpg)
Petrie:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1281.jpg)
Another Petrie, but unlike all of the other figures this one is a three dimensional figure:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1285.jpg)
And a small Littlefoot:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1288.jpg)
(Okay another post as I think I am reaching the picture limit).
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This picture shows the figures where only some details need to be added:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1290.jpg)
One of these details however are the eyes, and they are crucial. Nothing can ruin the overall picture as much as a squinting Ducky ;)
Here are the completed figures with eyes and everything:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1300.jpg)
And here are some images of the individual completed figures.
Large Littlefoot:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1322.jpg)
Little Littlefoot (sorry, I noticed too late how blurry the picture was):
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1323.jpg)
Cera (sorry, not quite the final version of her. The eyes in the final version have another white sparkle in the pupil):
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1308.jpg)
Large Petrie:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1314.jpg)
Small Petrie:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1311.jpg)
Spike:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1310.jpg)
Large Ducky:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1302.jpg)
Little Ducky:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/Mould%20of%20Five/IMG_1305.jpg)
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Those look neat. What will you do with all of those? Add them to your collection of LBT stuff?
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One sample of each will definitely go into my collection. As for the others, they are going to be put to good purpose as well.
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Dang, those are good. I think sculpting is probably the most time-consuming form of fan art, and the fact that you're willing to go through all the time to make so many shows you're one of the most dedicated LBT fans. Great work!
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I have a littlefoot figure that I really want to make sculptures out of it. but I dont know how
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It depends on what type of figure it is. three dimensional figures are always more complex than figures that are flat on one side. There are some figures of which no molds could be made without destroying the original figure. If you post a figure of the Littlefoot figure here I might be able to say something on how suited it may be to be the positive for a tin mold.
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I'll never get over how awesome your work is, Malte. Your dedication is most impressive! :o :D
Just one more thing:
Thanks mate, the Petrie is adorable :p :D
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Thank you and you're welcome Tim ;)
Since I started casting and painting land before time figures the coloring has changed quite a bit and I thought it funny to post a little "evolutionary chain" of my two oldest tinfigures.
First we have Ducky (the very first successful cast with that mold is still in my profile):
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/TinDuckyEvolution.jpg)
On the top left is the brooch on which the mould was based (that one is of course not colored by me). Next there is a pure unpainted tinfigure. Next comes one of my earliest paintings which seems to have been influenced more by the colors of the brooch than Ducky's colors in the movie (she appears to be much darker). The other Ducky's (from left to right top to bottom in the order in which they have been painted) are all much lighter than this first one. Her green was changed from a deep green to one with a slightly paler more yellowish tone. Her "yellow belly parts" were also changed from a sandy color to a paler tone. In general it is remarkable how much white one needs to add to the original colors (I am using mostly Revell and Humbrol model painting colors by the way) to "pale them out" enough to resemble the colors in the movies. One of the main differences between the last two figures is that while the last but one is colored in semi-gloss colors while the last one is mostly mat (excepting moist parts like the eyes and the open mouth). Here is a second picture of the Ducky's taken from an angle that allows for a better view on the color changes that took place on Ducky's darker back:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/TinDuckyEvolution2.jpg)
The next evolutionary chain is Littlefoot's:
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh475/Malte279/The%20Land%20before%20Time/Zinnfiguren/TinLittlefootEvolution.jpg)
Again the upper left is the original brooch followed by an uncolored tin sample, and the first figure which seems to have been influenced by the brooch rather than the movies with that strong brown color. The left figure lower row already comes closer to Littlefoot but the color is still relatively strong I think I used quite a few different colors to get that mix together. The next one was relatively simple. I figured out that a mixture of roughly 50% white and rust color will create a color fairly close to Littlefoot's main skin color. The mixture for Littlefoot's lower parts used to be another mixture that was given up for plain human skin color (sometimes I am surprised myself). Again the last but one and the last figure differ mainly in being semi-gloss respectively mat.
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That's really so awesome, haha. :)
Who did the very first Ducky, if I may ask?
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Looks like well made figures and a good job of painting that you did. I like the evolution you show, including an unpainted one and the original figure you go the mold from.
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Who did the very first Ducky, if I may ask?
I don't know who made or painted the brooches which served as a positive for the molds. All that an inscription on a little tape on the back of the brooches says is "1988 UCS & Amblin". I suppose that it was prodiced in China, but this is only a guess as there is no "made in..." inscription.
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Okay, well that's alright. They did a great job for a model :)
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Maybe one of Chomper would be nice, and Guido too.
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Thing is that I would like to make one of Chomper and of Ruby based on the shoe charms of which I made the last four figures. But while Chomper is usually available on ebay Ruby is not and I do not want to order them separately paying double shipping (provided that Ruby ever does get available on ebay). I checked out the manufacturer's page (http://www.surfanddirt.com/Search2.aspx?search_freetext=land%20before%20time) where I could order the shoe charms (I would get two each of Chomper and Ruby) but when I checked it out I found that these nutcases would ask for almost $50 shipping costs to Germany! :blink:
Those four figures weigh only a few grams and they are smaller than an inch. The shipping costs of ten other figures I had ordered via ebay were mere six dollars. I don't know why their shipping is so ridiculously high to Germany, but I am not going to pay that much for the figures while on the other hand I am not going to get the Chomper figure only either.
As for Guido, I don't have any plans to make a figure of him.