Moore clothes

I have been working on some more clothes for my action figures. I finished a tank top for the "Johanna" doll but I still have to make a cardigan.. I tried to paint the head sculpt, but I haven't found the correct skin tone yet.   

My first experiment with sugar water proved to be successful. It proved very useful when working on the V-neck pullover. I found that it was possible to sew with higher precision when the fabrics were treated with the sugar water solution. When I had all the pieces in place I used hot tap water to rinse the sugar out of the fabric. And it worked perfectly! when the fabric dried there was no trace of the sugar.

I was not happy with the collar on my last shirt, so I decided to make another try.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it better and ended up with a different result.
This time I managed to make better looking collar, but I'ts not perfect and I haven't decided if it's worth the extra time to perfect the shirt collar. I have to give it a rest for a few days, if it still annoys me I will give it a new try.

If I make another try I might have time to cast some super small shirt buttons, even if they wont be seen in the end...

Experiments with textiles

I'm no expert when it comes to working with textiles, but I'm not a expert in woodworking either... I just like to learn as much as possible about the materials I need to use to reach my goals, and right now since I'm making 1:6 scale clothes I'm trying different tings to make tings easier. One thing I find very hard is soft stretchy fabric that always seem to slide away. I was thinking what if I can find something that I can make the fabric stiff to make it easy to work with and then wash it and have it back to normal? And my first thought was to go Punk! I know punkers  use sugar water to get a hard mohawk, and it should probably work on textile as well?

      

This is my first attempt and I have no idea of what the best mixture of sugar and water is yet but for the first try I used 1.5dl boiling water and 1dl sugar ( maybe a little much ).

   

I tried different methods of drying: natural air dry, microwave and ironing.
Everyting turned out pretty much the same but if you like to iron it you have to use baking paper because the heat makes the sugar sticky.
 

The sugar water works very well so far, the otherwise very soft fabric get a more firm/stiff feel to it and makes it much easier to work with.
I hope it washes out with out a trace as well.

To be continued...

Heads and clothes

A first date is not complete without the people. In this case me and what will be my wife is represented by 1:6 scale actionfigure stand-ins. I bought cheap well articulated actionfigure bodies from Ebay, even if its tempting to try to make my own actionfigure body it has to wait for another project.

I started with my own face, I made the head sculpt with Supersculpey and tried to make the haircut I had at that date back in 2005. I'm going for a semi realistic look with a comicbook touch... 

Step two, Smooth-on silicone mold and Smooth-cast 310 urethane plastic casting.
I will sand the casting before coloring it.

Same step with the Johanna head.

On my own small self there is a lot of complicated clothes to be made. I made decent attempt on the shirt, I might try to cast some small buttons and some other small details but I like the fit.
The Cheap Monday slim jeans was a lot harder. I made every part of the jeans correct to the original. but I have to rework my design a little because right now he can't sit without having his ass hanging out... It takes me about 5-6 hours to make a pair of jeans, so before making a new attempt I have to save up some more patience. But in the mean time I have a pullover, a black tie and a parkas jacket to keep me busy.

I was thinking about making my own Converse shoes, but decided to leave that for another project. I bought shoes and stockings from E-bay. But I made the dark blue shorts, I had to rework my design a few times to make them look right even when sitting down (I've learnt my lesson). I might still do some small changes or add details but over all I'm happy with how they look. I'm also working on the clothes for her top, but is still looking for the right fabrics.

Shoulder, arm and head

Time for shoulders, head and arms. Shoulders is not that much to talk about, boxes built in the same style as the rest of the robot. 

Arms was a lot more complicated, especially since the first pair I built ended up being too small.
I used balsa wood for the round formers, feels like cheating but saved a lot of time since I don't use powertools. The outer layer is the same pinewood material as the rest of the robot.

I wanted a Lego style arm and made a rounded end made from balsa wood.

I forgot to take photos when I was building the hands but I'm pretty happy with the end results.

Head and arms is in place! all the wood parts is now finished, I still have some sanding and small adjustments left.

Time for some belly furniture

It was time to build some furniture and some other parts that you need when you have a fika.

Table and chairs are made from the same pinewood that the rest of the robot is built from.

I made a tea cup and plate from super sculpey, and later I made a silicone mold to cast them in  urethane plastic.

I had no problems with casting cups, but the plate was another story...
I had to modify the silicone mold a few times before I would get a good result.

To simulate tea I filled the cups with epoxi, and I made the teabags from normal printer paper that I folded and painted i watercolor.

Since this fika is about when I was on my first date with what later would be (and is) my wife. 

I wanted to have some  pictures of us from the time before we meet on the walls behind us.

I did some research on old CDs and hard drives to find some old pictures and printed them on Inkjet Photopaper. Pictures need frames and I made some tiny frames from pinewood and painted them in different colors. 

The belly café is almost complete!
I also added a over the table light and some yellow screens for the spotlight leds for a more natural indoor light. The table light is made from paper and a plastic from a Oatly iscream box.

The robot belly need some heat!

I was a little tired of all the woodworking and decided to make some details for the belly.

Every room needs a radiator, and this room is getting a classic water based radiator in (1:6 scale of course).   I started of with two aluminium sheets, and the next step was to glue thin wood stripes.

I made 2pcs because I thought a double layer radiator would look much better than a single layer..

When I was done with gluing wood strips to the aluminium (and my fingers), I used super sculpey to shape the spaces in between the wood to the correct shape.

Here is after the first layer of spray filler. I used some more fine wall putty/filler for some areas and after some sanding and another layer of spray filler things started to look pretty good.

The radiator is white! I used standard hobby Enamel paint for a glossy look. I also added a thin aluminium pipe on the left side of the radiator. the 90 degree pipe conectors was made from supersculpey. By this time I realised that a single layer radiator would look better than a double layer...

Here is the radiator mounted to the wall, I also added some aluminium pipes with small wall mounts.
The room also have new Floor panels and floor skirts, and the window also have its trimmings in place.

Robot get legs..

Arms and legs are always the hardest to build because you have to do it twice!

The build is pretty much the same as with the body.  

I also built the lower body.

Finished leg/feets! I worked with the grain of the wood to indicate a leg joint and feet.
  

And finally the robot have legs!