Museum exhibit for WW 1 display in the fall

[wotan]

I sit on the board of our local museum, and we happen to have a great collection of WW 1 artifacts. For our fall display this year as well as re-enactors etc we will be staging a special exhibit on the Return Home after the end of hostilities. I have been asked to produce a maquette of our local war memorial.



I am going to attempt to sculpt this at a little more than 1/5th scale to include in the exhibit. I have never sculpted at this size before so there is lots of scope for this to go wrong. Anyway nothing ventured......

John

 

[Jim R]

Hi John
You must be very proud to be asked and I'm certain you will do a fine job.
Jim

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looking forward to this, it will be huge....and you have this sculpture lark down tight...

 

[Mickc1440]

Nice one John, I too look forward to seeing how you tackle such a large sculpt.

 

[scottie3158]

John,
Count me in.

 

[wotan]

Welcome aboard chaps.

I can certainly say that this is going to be a challenge. If anyone ever tries something of this size I have two tips straight off the bat.

1. It is bigger than you think, and this means every detail.
2. It is as much about engineering as it is about sculpting, in order to support itself.

Anyway here is the first steps. I put a Tamiya paint pot in to show the size.



This is done in a form of air drying clay. I like the way this can be sculpted but I am still skeptical about its eventual strength.

John

 

[Jim R]

Hi John
That is certainly bigger than I imagined. I can see how it will need all the detail. Great start. Is there some kind of solid armature inside?
Jim

 

[scottie3158]

John,
You are off to a great start.

 

[SimonT]

Looking good John

Also interested to know if it has an armature inside

I have aluminium armature wire in three diameters, just can’t sculpt

 

[wotan]

Thanks guys

Simon There is an armature made from coat hanger wire but I really need something larger to support the weight of this size model.

This air drying clay is great to work with but its structural strength is not great and it does a lot of cracking when drying. I have been constantly filling cracks. Any small detail has to be done in Magic Sculpt.



John

 

[Steve Brodie]

WOW simply WOW

 

[Jim R]

Hi John
Looking good. I imagine that the shrinking and cracking is a real problem and also may weaken the figure.
Jim

 

[scottie3158]

John
Looking great.

 

[wotan]

Jim It's a real pain I have filled cracks at least 6-7 times but eventually they go away. The finish remains porous and any water contact softens it up. I have started to seal it with a coat of mat Mod Podge which seems to help. It will have to be painted eventually to try to seal it up.

Thanks Paul

I have almost finished the sculpt of the soldier. A very rough finish but that is the best I can get with this medium. The rifle is made of wood and some bits of metal, his head and hat are made of Magic Sculpt since at least that will hold some finer detail. Just his right hand to go and his bayonet then I have to start thinking about the angel figure.



John

 

[scottie3158]

John,
Lovely work.

 

[wotan]

Thanks Paul

I finished the soldier figure and painted him with a coat of gesso. It will need more coats. I quite like the white finish for a museum exhibit. It reminds me of the magnificent Vimy memorial figure sketches that are in our national war museum. It also reminds me of the magnificent Korean war memorial in Washington DC.
I started to work on the Nike figure. Having learnt the lesson of the importance of strong armatures at this scale I inserted more 6" screws and 12" long bolts into the wooden base and I decided to do the whole thing in Magic Sculpt since the air dry clay is too unreliable. Here she is so far, I have embedded some metal tubes in the torso so that her wings can be sculpted off the figure and attached later.

Oh and she will get some clothes eventually/



John

 

[Jim R]

Hi John
That is looking great. The white finish does look good.
Jim

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Great work so far John. Quite an undertaking - not for the fainthearted.

 

[scottie3158]

John,
Mighty fine work.

 

[Richard48]

Really nice John.A real labour of love and really nice sculpting.Ive used air drying clay for sculpting craft projects for folk and its a pain for the cracking.Has a nice feel but frustrating with hairline cracks.Then again if polymer clays and epoxy were used you would be looking at a lot of expenditure.Gesso!!,Havent seen that used since 1980s at school!!!!,I seem to recall the teacher adding size to it?,.Watching with interest.
Richard.