|
|||||
| Revision Log | |
| 20 October 2000 | page first published |
2,001 hits since 20 Oct 2000
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?
Oh boy, what a fiddly day! Yes, as predicted, carving the crest on the tail was very tricky. It would have been easier to attach the strip of milliput to the Hydra's tail first as this would have given it support while I worked on it.
However, the technique I use to get the sharp edges for the coraline substance means that I need more access to the milliput. Basically, I use a folded sheet of abrasive paper to sand the spikes and jagged blades of the coraline. If I had attached the crest to the tail I would not have been able to get the same result.
I therefore chose the more difficult but more satisfying method of carving and sanding a long, thin and twisting piece of milliput. The crest began life as a single elegantly curving piece. It ended up as six smaller and clumsily broken pieces despite my best efforts to keep it intact. This was only a minor annoyance as it was easy to match the pieces up when it was time to glue the crest in place. And I have to say that this hard spiky crest certainly finishes the tail off nicely.
The next task was to neaten up the end of the tail, which boasts a vicious axe-like blade. I simply continued the line of the tail until the blade looked like a natural, if seriously deadly, appendage!
The end of the tail is raised up in a dynamic kind of 'flick' so this needs to be cast separately in metal. Therefore the end of the tail needs to be cut off and the join specially designed so that it will fit in place easily and neatly when people come to assemble their own bought Hydra. Cutting a model is always depressing, but you can regain some satisfaction from making a good join that 'keys' the two pieces together nicely.
