Wolpertinger

The Wolpertinger--this one's an actual cryptid that people have actually looked for (and have actually made into--or out of--terrible taxidermy).  I'm told it's also a pet you can have in World of Warcraft, so... there's that, I guess.

The wings are separate pieces, and I'm still working on the fit.  Since they'll be secured into their sockets on the finished toys I'm not too concerned, but the left wing isn't as snug and derps down a little in the pictures.

First Mate

Here's a one-off toy sculpt I did for a class, although I'm thinking of making him the first toy in a series of drunken, seafaring aquatic creatures.

Actually, yeah.  That sounds awesome.  I'm definitely going to do that now.

Bighorn Penguin

Here's another critter from the spliced-up cryptid series--for lack of a more clever name, it's a Bighorn Penguin.

I'm planning to do a quick mold of him soon, just to make sure his tootsies don't need more definition and sanding, but otherwise he's pretty much done and ready for toydom.

Just a little bit o' cuteness for your eyeholes.

Dogrus

I'm working on a series of vinyl toys, based loosely on the idea of a nutty cryptozoologist who splices animals together and unleashes them in remote locations as job security.  The first--and debatably cutest--of these is Canis odobenidae, also known as the common dogrus.

Here's the original sculpt with a prototype toy:

Thus far, this little guy is the only one I've tried casting, and only in a block mold.  Still working on getting a rotocasting machine built so I can turn out a batch of them, but in the meantime I'll be making two-part molds of all my finished toy sculpts.  Keep an eye out for that.  There might be pictures.

Axe Bass

For Halloween last year I attempted to build Marceline's axe bass from Adventure Time, but due to limited materials and time, it wasn't finished to quite the standard that I wanted.  I decided to refinish it for Heroes Con this past weekend.  Once again, I had limited time (about 12 hours, including drying time), but luckily this time I had a can of Bondo and loads of sheets for my power sander.

The paint job looked pretty good on the axe bass already, but the understructure was a flimsy blend of carved pink foam covered in paper clay and spray resin with a thin layer of wall spackle as filler.

Because of the strange cocktail of materials--and the lack of adequate drying time between layers of paint--I also ended up with an unwanted crackly texture.

Another problem was that some areas were thin after sanding, and they sunk in when spray-resined and painted.

So, first things first, I gave the whole thing a good sanding...

... Followed closely by ALL OF THE BONDO.

Seriously, all of it.  I wore that can OUT.

I also built up the silver bits (the pickups and the pointy thing at the end) with apoxie sculpt and gave those a good sanding, then sprayed them silver.

I taped off the silver bits for the rest of the process and crossed my fingers that they'd stay all nice and shiny.  The next step was sanding... followed by sanding, then more sanding.

The sad part is that, really, I should have sanded a touch more.

I sprayed the whole thing with a deep red paint, after which (not pictured) I taped off everything but the back and front faces and sprayed those with a brighter red.

Since I was running wildly out of time, at this point I stopped taking pictures.  What I can tell you is that I painted the frets and other markings, then sealed the whole business with a matte spray.  I added the strings and pegs (which I'd already made) with a wonderfully messy epoxy and called it done.

Oh, and here's me with it.

Heroes Con... oh yeah, it happened

Just got back home from Heroes Con.  I'm far too exhausted for a proper update, so I'll just assure you that in the next few days you'll be seeing pictures of the finished axe bass (as well as pictures of it in action with the full costume), and I'll also be posting pictures of some toy sculpts and maquettes that I've had finished for a while.

So, that'll be happening soon.  But not now.  Now I'm going to bed.

Dirty Trash Can Full of Poop, Bro.

So... it looks like, because of working 16 straight days and not currently having a vehicle with which to drive myself to Home Depot anytime I want, I'm just barely not going to be able to complete my Portal pieces with the solidity and finesse that I'd like in time for HeroesCon.

Bummer.

That being said, I am going to finish them soon (mostly so that I can finally clean my house), and I'll continue to post my progress here.

Also, from now 'til Thursday I'll be trying to complete my Adventure Time axe bass in time to dress as Marceline instead, so that's something to look forward to.  More on that very soon.

Until then, make good decisions, kids.