New Pictures, New Progress

Well, here are the pictures as promised. This little guy should turn into a nice original ventriloquist figure. I still have some minor areas to fill/patch & sand with some very fine sand paper. The ears will also be coming very soon.

I recently just picked up Joel Leder's figure building books via a victorious E-Bay win; these are very hard to find and Joel is no longer printing them. So, they are a most welcome addition to my figure building library.

Okay, back to the sanding. I gave this little guy a coat of white acryllic paint as a primer; this also serves as a nice indicator for locating any high/low spots which may need some sanding or light patching. The key is to get the head surface as smooth and spotless as possible.

In one of Joel's volumes, he mentions patching/filling some areas with spackle and then taking a very fine piece of sandpaper and sanding lightly in a circular motion until smooth.

You will also notice that I have completed the mouth which originally started out as just the front porton of the casting which was cut out with my trusty Dremel, followed by the sides which were made from a sheet of thick polystrene purchased from my local hobby shop. Since then, I have perfected the mouth, added some sculpted teeth, and a tongue. Afterwards, I sanded the heck out of the mouth in between putting it inside of the head, in order to check the arcs.

I also painted the mouth, since it will be going inside the head first and it's just easier this way. I stippled the flesh paint, which looks very nice and gives such a nice look compared to a spray can or airbrush.

As for the headstick, normally I put the self-centering control in the front, but I noticed a Joe Smith set-up on one of his figures which showed the self-centering control in the back and the mouth control in the front which I feel will also be easy to work. Also, just to the left of the self-centering eye control will be a lever for blinkers. As for the running of the mouth and blinker controls, I have decided to stick to running strings over push rods. Just personal preferance, but I feel that string run controls are easier to repair than push rods, especially in a pinch.

The blinkers will be constructed of leather over brass frames. And once again, Joel's books will come to the rescue with a nicely detailed section on installing leather blinkers/winkers; this will be my first time installing these and should be interesting. Normally, I have always used custom made shell blinkers/winkers made from polystyrene on an Al Stevens inspired/designed vacuum table.

Another reason I chose leather is due to my love of Al Semok's figures; he uses leather too, which looks fantastic on his creations.

Well, time to roll my sleeves up and get back to work...