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| Revision Log | |
| 20 October 2000 | page first published |
1,692 hits since 20 Oct 2000
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
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Ok, today was a scary day! It was time to cut the upper torsos into pieces in order to make them castable.
I'm not sure if you know this, but metal miniatures are made by pressing two halves of a rubber mould around the original sculpture, which is known as the master. Considerable pressure is required to make sure the rubber gets into every tiny bit of detail. It is therefore ideal if the master is two-dimensional, so that it doesn't get squashed out of shape when being pressed. If you collect miniatures, you will probably have noticed that they often appear to be flat - arms, swords and other weapons tend to fall along the same plane. This is because of the moulding process, though clever design and multi-part miniatures can get around this restriction. With a piece as big as the Hydra there is little option but to make it multi-part, and this is why it needs to be cut into so many pieces.
Basically, I needed to cut the arms from the torsos and - as I have said before - this is a tricky and tense process. Not only are you trying not to ruin the work you've already done, but you are also trying not to remove any of your own fingers that might be required for future sculpting! You need to apply a good deal of pressure with your modelling knife while holding it very close to the blade. There's no two ways about it, this is a dangerous task and I have cut myself a number of times.
You need to concentrate and try to avoid rushing it. I find the best method is to mark the line of the cut with a pen so that you have something to work along. Then push the tip of the blade into the model and using the handle like a lever, carefully pull the blade along the guideline. When the putty is cut, you can twist it back and forth to break the wire armature. Once separated, you need to clean up the joint so that it will locate neatly when cast.
I repeated this process with all the arms until the Hydra was thoroughly dismembered. I also cut the branching area of the torsos from the main body.
