Wooden Armature - Part 4 - Hands

Hands. I started by bending animation wire into shape.  I thought his hands would be too wide with four fingers, so I am only making three fingers and a thumb for this model.

I twisted the wire to form the fingers and the wrist.

You have to be very careful not to leave tool marks on the fingers. They are very susceptible to breakage being that they are so small.

I added epoxy putty to the palm of the hand to make the whole more solid. At this point it is import that you remember that you are making a left a right hands so you can position the fingers correctly.

I added common self adhesive bandages to flesh out the fingers. I will making gloves to put on the hands so the fingers will be covered in the end. 

I then used my dremel to sand down the dry epoxy putty to a more pleasing shape. You must be very carful not to hit the animation wire or you will need to start over.

Then I wrapped the wrist in heat shrink and attached it to the arm using more epoxy putty.

Now he's starting to look like something.

Up next... Clothes.

Wooden Armature - Part 3 - Feet

Feet. I started by cutting out a basic foot shape from two 1x6x13 of pine glued together. It only took a couple of minutes with my new used scroll saw. I then separated the pieces so I would have two shoes the exact same size.

I drilled a hole on top to stick the animation wire in. I then used a dremel to round of the sides and sanded the shoes smooth with a detail sander.

Then I painted the shoes black.

Next, I drilled a hole in the bottom for a nut. The nut will be used to hold the model in position when animating.

To attach the nut to the bottom of the shoe, I first screwed the nut onto a threaded rod.

Then I filled the holes with epoxy putty and pushed the nut into the bottom of the shoe. I then unscrewed the threaded rod and removed the excess putty.

To attach the shoe to the armature, I started by twisting together five pieces of animation wire. I used epoxy putty to secure the animation wire to the legs of the armature.

I cut the wire down to size and covered the exposed portion with heat shrink.

Finally I filled the holes on the top of the shoes with epoxy putty and attached them to the bottom of the armature.

Up next... Hands.

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.