Wooden Armature - Part 2 - Arms and Legs

Arms and Legs. For the arms and legs the first thing I did was cheat. I was going to carve the arms and legs out pine just like the head and the torso but then I thought "Don't they make round pieces of wood and sell them at a reasonable price at the hardware store?". Turns out you can buy wooden dowels just about anywhere for pretty cheap. I got some poplar dowels of various sizes for about a dollar a piece.

I cut the dowels to size and drilled holes in the ends. I drilled the holes first because I am going to round the ends and it is extremely difficult to drill holes on a rounded surface.

I used my dremel to shape and round the ends of the dowels. They will be covered in clothing in the end so was not to concerned about the appearance.

To attach the arms to the torso, I started by first twisting the animation wire together,

then filling the holes with epoxy putty,

and finally pushing the wire into the putty. The epoxy putty is only workable for a couple on minutes after you mix the two compounds together. After the putty becomes hard it is extremely hard to work with and can damage your model.

For the legs, I twisted together 5 pieces of animation wire. This will make the joints in the legs strong enough to hold up the rest of the body. As I was finishing up the last limb I realized that I had forgotten to cover the exposed wire. It is good practice to cover any exposed animation wire as it can break more easily if it is damaged. The best way I have found to do this is to use heat shrink. You can buy heat shrink in the electrical section at any hardware store. Unfortunately, I cannot put any on now that the model is together, so I am just going to use electrical tape. Since the model will be clothed I don't think it will be a big problem.

Up next... Hands and Feet.

Wooden Armature - Part 1 - The Torso

The Torso. I started off the with the same 1"x6"x13" pieces of pine I used for the head. I only needed three pieces glued together this time. I got a new used scroll saw from a coworker so I decided I might as well try it out. The wood was probably a little too tall for the this type of saw but I took it slow and It worked pretty well.

Next I used the a chisel to round out the sides of the block. Unfortunately I cut the block upside down so instead of chiseling top to bottom I had to chisel bottom to top. Although it's wasn't the end of the world, it was annoying.

It kind of looks like a giant thumb.

I used my smaller chisels to carve out the basic shape for the torso. I made a couple more cuts with the scroll saw to give the shoulders a little more definition.

Then I took my dremel to it. By the way, you should never chisel after you start sanding. The little bits of wood from the sanding process can get in the way of your chisel and cause all sorts of problems. I ended up taking quite a bit off as you can see. I think my original idea of the torso changed as worked with the wood. 

I then sanded down the rough edges with a detail sander.

I drilled holes for the limbs and neck in the torso. The hole for the neck is about 1" deep and the holes for the arms and legs are about 1/2" deep.

To attach to head to the torso, I used pieces of animation wire twisted together.

You must be careful not to leave tool marks on the wire. Tool marks creates weak points and can lead to breakage.

I used epoxy putty to attach to wire to the torso. This stuff works great and smells terrible. I kneaded the two compounds together for a minute or so before putting it into the holes I drilled earlier. I then stuck the animation wire into the hole. After about an hour the epoxy putty is dry enough to test the joints.

I attached the head in the same way. Now he's a real boy.

Up next... Various appendages.

Head Creation - Part 5 - Painting and Accessories

Painting and Accessories. I did a little reshaping of the head after the glue dried. The table saw takes out about 1/8" from the middle so it actually changes to height of the head, which in turn changes the shape. I used a little wood putty to fill in the gaps made by the saw and then did a final sanding of the head. After covering the eyes with a bit of scrap paper so they didn't receive any paint, I was ready to go.

I changed the eyes out on two of my previous heads so I needed to paint all three at once.

I started with a black base coat. More on that in a minute.

Then I added a cream colored layer.

And finally a white layer just to the face.

I did a bit of sanding to make the head look aged. The black base coat will show through making the age lines much more pronounced. 

Lastly, I added some red paint for the makeup and a pair of glasses. The glasses were made by bending a piece of wire into shape. I used a tourch to age the wire to match the rest of the head.

Coming soon... Body parts.

Head Creation - Part 4 - Assembly

Assembly. Now comes the tricky part. In order to get the eyes into the head I need to saw it in half. I made a line right through the center of the eyes horizontally. This will be my cut line.

I used a table saw to make the cut. There are two things you need to remember when using a saw like that on a project like this. First, make the cut straight. If it's not straight the first time, you may as well start over because it never will be. Second, oh shit this thing could cut my fingers off!

After the cut is made I need to make a spot for the eyes to go. For this I used my Dremel with the sanding drum and 60 grit paper. I could probably cut it out but sanding it out gives you a lot more control.

And slowly...

carve out a socket for the eyes. You have to continually make sure that the socket in the top of the head and the socket in the bottom of the head match up. Otherwise...  well you know.

I put a little piece of foam weather stripping at the back of the eye socket to make sure the eyes stays in place when animating. Finally, I glued the two halves back together with wood glue.

I think he needs glasses.

Up next.. Clean up, paint and accessories.

Head Creation - Part 3 - Eyes

Eyes. The original idea for these eyes came from Marina's Art Dolls Blog. I have changed it up some to better suit my needs. I started out with some 1" round pine balls I got from a craft store.

Using amy Dremel, I made hole on the top of the ball the size of an iris. This turned out to be a lot harder than I had imagined. The ball really wanted to fly out of my hand so I ended up with several mistakes. Anyways, I drilled a hole through the center of the iris to the back of the ball. I did this for two reasons. First, I needed to put the ball on a post in order to paint it. Second, I need there to be a hole in the center of the iris so I can move the eyes back and forth when animating. From there I painted the balls white and inserted the irises.

I did not paint the irises myself. Instead I used photoshop to create them and then printed them out. After putting the irises in, I covered the eyes in epoxy resin. This will make the eyes shiny and somewhat reflective as you can see in the above photo.

The last step is to drill a hole in the center of the iris that connects with the hole I had previously drilled.

Up Next... Head Assembly.

Head Creation - Part 2 - Carving

Carving. This part takes the longest but is definitely the most fun. I found a set of Yasutomo Niji woodcarving chisels on Amazon for about 10 bucks and they are perfect for this size project.  Just remember to sharpen them before each use.

Speaking of sharpening, I cut my thumb about half way through so I decided to use my Dremel for the second half. I was wearing gloves and all, but these chisels can cut through anything if they are sharp enough. I made a time lapse video of the carving of the head to better illustrate the process.

At the end, I used a detail sander to smooth out the head. I really like the look of the wood once the sanding is completed. It is a almost a shame that I have to paint it.

Up next... Eyes

Head Creation - Part 1 - Wood

Wood. I get these 1x6's is pine for basically free so I use them for just about everything. They are only 13 inches long, but that is enough for most of my projects.

I stacked four on top of one another to get the height I wanted, then used regular wood glue to stick them together.

Using a table saw I cut the wood down to size.

I drew a rough draft of the final face on the front and side of the block to determine what to cut next. I started with the front and cut the edges off using a hand saw.

I did the same with sides.

From there, I used a flat chisel and a vice to round out the head.

Congratulations! That took an hour, and looks like a big wooden turd. At least I know I'm spending my time wisely.

Up next... Head Creation - Part 2

Wooden Head with Movable Eyes

This is a wooden marionette head I made for an upcoming project. It was my first model made out of wood and the first with actual eyes. The eyes are made of wood and are movable.