New starter on the CFC...

...just started this afternoon : Prospective new driver for the CFC diesel pictured above:

You'll know the format by now of course... the starter for 10:


Plainly, this unfortunate individual has suffered the indignity (and doubtless discomfort) normally reserved for UK tax payers. The reason will become clear, I hope:

As he is intending to wear shorts to work, it followed that I might attempt to model his bare legs 'from scratch, with Milliput moulded around a copper wire skeleton:


The rather inconveniently placed screw is there to act as the reference height for his bottom now that the legs have been sawn orf!

Finally for now, this is as far as I have got with the Milliput:


Be warned, he's got a whole lot more weight to gain yet!

Stay tuned for the next installment....

thats what i call attention to detail Clive. you've even modelled his willy!!

Mikey

mikeyh wrote:

thats what i call attention to detail Clive. you've even modelled his willy!!
Mikey

Indeed, the MD reckons this is the sculptor's equivalent of an artist's self-portrait!

Well, I did warn you that there would be some serious crash weight-gain on this fella! I would say that this is certainly my first attempt at modelling G-scale moobs!

It could be a match made in heaven for my MIL.

He has a name already and it is Nuncio Grisoni. He was a real Corsican and lived in the mountain chestnut forests of the 'Castaniccia'. He didn't drive a train but he always wanted to.

I was going to say that he's worth his weight in couplings but I see the trick now Clive.
The fatter you make him the more couplings you get.....he he!
Can he have a bald head or be going that way but with a moustache.

I would be interested to know how long you spend making him.
I've already made you a small batch of very slightly modified couplings which I will paint matt black unless you say not to.

carl hibbs wrote:

I was going to say that he's worth his weight in couplings but I see the trick now Clive.
The fatter you make him the more couplings you get.....he he!
Can he have a bald head or be going that way but with a moustache.

*Dammit, he's on to me!!!*
I was going to fill the 'void' where the screw is currently parked with lead shot!

I envisaged he was going to be blessed with a very receding hairline, and a long, droopy 'mexican bandit' style tache. Whilst we're on the subject, I was going to make the hair, what there was of it, black? Also, I was going to have a 'tab' hanging out of the corner of his mouth. just say if you don't want that to happen. Would he have any kind of headgear? I don't know why, but I got it into my head that Corsicans wear what amounts to a knotted hankie on their heads!!! Also, by way of an indulgence, I shall attempt (for the very first time, without a safety net) to model bare feet but wearing flip-flops!

carl hibbs wrote:

I would be interested to know how long you spend making him.

I started actual work on the figure yesterday afternoon, and I guess all told so far I'd say it's only been about a couple of hours work - 3 hours tops. I use the term 'work' in its loosest sense of course - actual paid work could never be this much fun!

carl hibbs wrote:

I've already made you a small batch of very slightly modified couplings which I will paint matt black unless you say not to.

Yep, black couplings sound just dandy to me mate!


I am aiming to get this guy ready in time for next week, so I can bring him with me.

Some progress pics from yesterday:

Sourced a right arm from my box of parts. I needed to pare away at the 'shirt sleeve' moulding, to make it look like a completely bare arm:



On the other side I didn't have a lot to go with, so spurred on by my modest success with doing legs from scratch, I set him up with a copper wire arm, ending in a left hand from my parts box. This guy was looking kind of creepy by now:



But I was able to do a bit of filling work which I needed to allow to harden - around the lower legs (cue jokes about the 'fatted calf' ho ho ho etc) and in part on the upper arms:



I also did some work on him this evening but I haven't taken any pics of that yet - hopefully tomorrow in some decent light, and you never know, maybe a bit more progress...

Nice one Clive! Excuse the lack of technical words, but is the white stuff and the brown stuff of the same hardness? Does it sand down evenly?

mikey

Yes they are a consistent hardness once the Milliput (the brown stuff) has gone off fully - after about 18 hours or so. I still have to go at it with a bit of sandpaper or a Dremel or whatever, but as I hope you'll see, it does sand down evenly - pics to follow later today!

Actually, whilst I'm about it, can I drop in a shameless plug here:

[shameless plug]
I have made some very recent updates to my website; I did a page on sculpting a figure, which has lots of useful links in it:

http://www.scampington-chipside.co.uk/figuresculpt.htm

Also I now have a "Who's Who" page profiling all the various figures I've made over the past 9 months or so:

http://www.scampington-chipside.co.uk/whoswho.htm

[/shameless plug]

Excellent 'who's who' Clive! like a 'Models Re-united'

Mikey

Latest update:

Firstly, here's how he looked by the start of today:



I've attached a head, had a first stab at fattening the face up a bit, and also given him a quick undercoat spray to highlight any bits that need sanding.

I didn't like the hat - so it had to go. Here's a picture after I'd removed the hat, and given him a good Dremeling:



Finally, I felt I was able to apply the standard Corsican uniform (as I sees it). Vest, shorts, flip-flops:



I'm still not 100% happy with the face, but I think I can fatten him up a bit more, and maybe put some sort of grubby rag around his neck. Oh and I need to sort out something for him to hold in his right hand!

If you ever meet my friend Lucien who lives in the mountain village of Ota near Portu you will realise how close imagination and reality can be......

So yesterday I fattened the face a bit, and added a tache and a sweat-rag round the neck. Then another going over with the spray primer:



And then, finally yesterday evening - 5 days after starting him, he was painted.



As a finishing touch I had made a bottle for him to hold, on which I wanted to put a 'Ricard' label - but couldn't find a suitable one on the net to copy and print small enough to fit.

the Family is growing Clive!! what did you make the bottle from? (try googling just 'pastis' there are thousands of labels)

mikey

To be really accurate the most popular label for Pastis that they drink in Marseille or Corsica is '51'.



I think I'll have one now actually....Cheers!....Saluté !

Cheers Carl, I have grabbed that so if you feel you need to remove it, please do.

Mikey, the bottle was made using a tip I unearthed on another figure-making site: to make 'glass' bottles, you need to have a clear plastic moulding sprue from an old plastic kit that has clear plastic parts in them e.g. aircraft cockpit canopy or similar. I had some from an old Pola kit (with clear plastic for window glass). Because it was 'trapezoidal' in section, instead of the preferred round section, I had to pare it down and then sand it to a rough round section. I then heated it gently over a candle flame, and slowly pulled the ends of the sprue apart to get a rough 'bottle-neck' shape. Trouble was because of all the paring and sanding I needed, it was quite opaque.So I dipped it into some 'Clear-Fix' and allowed that to run very slowly down the bottle. I then allowed that to dry a bit before rolling it to a more cylindrical shape. Then applied the label of course.

... and now I have pleasure in presenting Msr. Nuncio Grisoni. He is, as I type, waiting at Scampington for the train to take him to chelles-sur-Marne! I suspect he will need some assistance getting to his feet, never mind getting into the train, judging by the empty bottle he is clutching!

I know a lot of people who are going to be very amused at 'ExpoRail'.

Excellent.

I wonder what the Gendarme is going to say?

His full name is Nuncio Gianfranco Pasquale Grisoni.
His family come from Ortiporio but working in the chestnut forests (castagniccia) 2 hours a day was rather too much.
He then tried goat herding with his friend Paoli Fattinu but that meant getting up early so after staggering along the track home one day and meeting 'U Trinighellu' coming the other way he decided to try his non-drinking hand on the trains.
That was ideal.
With just one wobbly railcar a day from Ponte Leccia to Bastia in the winter, he didn't need to do anything exept press two buttons (marche/arrêt) and shout obscenities at the odd passing motorist at level crossings.
Life has never been so good.

Brilliant! Love it when theres a story as well! Thanks for that tip Clive. One wonders now whats next?

Mikey ( sipping a perroquet ;pastis and menthe, tastes like mouthwash,but has a pleasant result!)