PROP MAKING - Skull Shooter

Hillo...! I thought I'd go ahead and post a step-by-step of how I turned this into the real deal. ;D

I did as much photo-documentation as I could, but rrrgh, I still missed a lot of key steps along the way. >_0

One thing I didn't show was how I packed on the sculpey gradually, in clumps. Here's another tip: RUB VASELINE ON THE BUCK first; sculpey likes to stick to that. Also, I waxed the pipes so they could be removed without warping the sculpey (pre-baking).

Here's basically what a miter looks like (though the ones I use are made mostly of cheap, expendable MDF wood so you can run 'em through the saw without worrying about sparks ^~ )

Also, I should have mentioned the "spinal column" went on a lathe for a bit to get those slight ridges, before I cut slots out of them.

Also-also, I didn't show how the "jaw" was made; THAT took a lot of time and heavy machine-work to press it down, then bend the angles and trim the excess. I ultimately needed a real pro working at the model construction shop to finagle it and, um... it didn't feel right to snap photos of him as he worked on it (as a favor no less). ¦P;;;

Fff yeah, and I never did finish the grappling line + harpoon. Guh, gotta move on to other stufff.

And I definitely wanted to stress the importance of orthographics + building a buck for the sculpey; IT'S ALL ABOUT MAINTAINING SYMMETRY. Just packing clay together and hoping you can eyeball symmetry is one of those things only one in a million people can do (and chances are you ain't that one. >¦Ð

EDIT: fixed a stupid little typo that I finally caught... |P

And of course, thanks for checking this out.