thebeerbaron
Progress with foam and clay
by , 03-13-2011 at 10:36 PM (1481 Views)
It's been a long, quiet week on the blog front, but finally, some poorly-documented progress for you. I'll start by apologizing for the poor quality of the pictures - as a former photo major, I should be ashamed. They'll get better when I get a new phone (hopefully soon) and I'll rent/borrow a real professional rig for the final pictures.
To reiterate my plan (I think I outlined this in the initial blog post): This is a 1/5 scale model, cut in half so I don't have to duplicate my work from left to right. I'll set up a nice photo shoot at the end and submit pictures of the model as my entry. I'll use a mirror to give the effect of a full-width model for the shoot. I'm hoping to be able to paint the clay when I'm done to give the full effect.
During the week, I planned, measured, and cut up the foam board and glued it together to make a basic form. It would be an utter bear to make this thing entirely out of clay, so I need a rough form to apply an outer layer of clay to. I'll be able to shape and carve the clay to my heart's content, but important things like the wheels and engine will be unmovable.
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Here's the foam on a turntable I borrowed from a friend. You're looking at the left hand side of the car. The front wheels will be centered at the leftmost edge of the main box. The main box vaguely represents the passenger compartment. Behind (to the right in the pic) that is my approximation of the engine and transmission. I didn't have a compass with which to make the wheels, but they need to get attached soon.
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Here's the clay, with some of it attached to the door area. I'm expecting to put down clay about 1" deep here, so there's a ways to go here. My tool of the day is this "pear tool", which we use in pottery to shape bowls and trim the foot into the bottom of things (usually bowls). Today I was using it to shave off clay from the sticks I bought. This stuff carves [i]beautifully[/i] at room temperature, but you can move it with your hands. So my tactic, based on my positive experience with the hot-water bath last week, is to shave the clay into thin strips (more surface area!), dump them in a ziplock, and submerge that in a bowl of water I've microwaved up to about 160F. This is a laborious process, to say the least. I only got one stick applied to the form this evening. I was interrupted a lot, but overall it was just slow going. And I realized that once it's on the form, I'll still need to move it around occasionally, so I need some way of warming it on the form. Amazon will be delivering a heat gun on Wednesday. Hopefully it won't just incinerate the clay.
Here's the foam form with one stick (1.75lbs) of clay applied.
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I have one stick left. Pretty sure I'm going to have to buy more!
That's it for now. I won't get to work on this until Wednesday, maybe I'll buy some more clay then. I'll have the heat gun then too, so hopefully things will proceed a little faster. I need to dedicate some serious time to this soon - my goal is to submit my finished design by early-mid May. No working until the last minute for me!
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