Torrence

After seeing Clive's wonderful work on The Return of YAF - Le Controlleur Gros I decided to pick up an old project.

This was how this figure looks like last year, before he disappeared into a box. The body is made from wrapped aluminum foil covered with Fimo clay and baked in an oven. 1 hand (and a watch) were also sculpted from Fimo.



So, last tuesday I started. I used Milliput (thanks for the idea Clive!) and start sculpting a head and some suspenders (sorry for the bad pictures!).





Followed yesterday by a little French barret, hand and little suitcase.




Because the figure reminds me very much of Inspector Torrence from the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon, I decided to call him Torrence!!

Next to do is to get rid of that alien green skin and paint some human colors on it

Paul

BTW, for those interested how Torrence would look like, I think Eric Prat was an actor that just fitted right in that character: picture of Eric Prat as Torrence.
(picture was taken from this "Maigret-o-phile" website: http://jy.depoix.free.fr/commisse.htm )
Personally I think this was the best Maigret TV series ever made and Bruno Cremer is by far the best Maigret ever seen on screen. Some like James Bond, The Saint, McGiver, The Revengers, but for me it's that grumpy big French commissar!
But that's a whole other story and hobby... or disorder as you like

Great work Paul...

That's the one thing I have always struggled with, my own sculpting from scratch of faces and hands. It's why I tend to rely on Messrs Preiser for those bits.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

He is looking very good Paul, well done. BTW those are "braces" - suspenders are for ladies, he would look very strange in those.

Excellent work - he looks just like one of the "Pompiers" from our local fire station in Montbron.

Figures я us, brilliant.

I know it might be obvious to some but when you say 'wrapped aluminium foil' what exactly do you mean? Is the aluminium foil part of his body like....a frame or skeleton?

MERCI!

Carl Hibbs wrote:

Figures я us, brilliant.

I know it might be obvious to some but when you say 'wrapped aluminium foil' what exactly do you mean? Is the aluminium foil part of his body like....a frame or skeleton?

Yes indeed:




I started sculpting my own figures a few years ago following the "Figure Classes" by Chris Wallas on MyLargeScale. It's easier than you might think and very fun to do!

Here are the direct links:
- Figure Class I (first pages all about different clays, putty, sculpting masses and baking techniques. The "real build" starts at page page 12.
- Figure Class II
- Figure Class III

The aluminum foil skeleton is "designed" to withstand the temperatures of the baking; the aluminum will expand more than the clay but because the foil is crumpled the skeleton itself keeps it size while the expansion take place "in" the crumples. If you would make a skeleton out for instance pieces of brass wire the skeleton will expand, pushing the clay away/out of its form.

I made some figures that were totally build out of Fimo clay (like the brakeman on the Margnat tanker). But for smaller detail it's just a bit too hard/stiff to work with. Sculpty would be a better option and I was planning to try it out, but now I found that Milliput is even better because it does not have to be baked!!
The Milliput can be used over the Fimo clay, so I can make a "body" out of Fimo and do the detailing with Milliput!

First base layers (all Tamiya acrylics):



Paul

Thanks Paul, interesting observations about the foil expansion.

The figure looks a dead ringer for the French philosophy teacher at my school (just missing a rollup cigarette in his mouth).

Good progress again!

I could never get to grips with that way of making armatures... hence i had to come up with an alternative to baking - Milliput and Green Stuff!

FINISHED! (I guess)

Here he is! According to the look in his eyes he is asking himself "huh, did I missed that train now or not?" (looking at the time table).





The shades in the face are done with the Andrea Flesh Paint set (waterbase/acrylic). The shades on the clothes and the eyes were done with thinned oil paint (Van Dijck's brown).

I was thinking of putting a 'baguette' under his right arm... Or is that perhaps too much?

Nice work Paul!

A baguette under his arm and a Gauloise between his lips and the scene is complete.