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.