The Empire Shoots Back...

Hello Moonbasers! 

Last night was a tumultuous time for me, as I laboured late into the night to complete my first puppet prototype. 

Admittedly, the head mechs aren't included, the ankle joint needs more work and the performance controls aren't sorted either, but I got a real sense of achievement that the physical look of the puppet is actually 90% of what I've had inside my head for several years now!

Sewing the costumes has finally come together, with a flash of inspiration by turning the corduroy fabric inside out, to give a much better pinstripe effect!.

Getting a suitable facial likeness to sit on my generic internal puppet head, has been more challenging than I expected. For the longest time, I couldn't get the nose right and he kept looking like Telly Savalis!

A hand sculpted Cambridge Boater has worked much better than an previous AI generated attempt.

Applying actual ribbon to the final print has created a much more convincing effect than trying to sculpt it.

I'm really happy with the face paint. I used clear UV resin to put a deep gloss on the eyes and teeth. The skin texture is actually watered down crimson and deep blue artist acrylics, spattered into the shadows and onto the highlights, with an old toothbrush.

I personally think the final effect is much more pleasing than the smooth paint finish of Brains or Mr. Tracy!

The painted head and finished hat (before I wrapped it in cling wrap to keep it clean and ground out the inside, in a last minute attempt to make it fit lower on his brow!)

The 3D printed body with additional holes cut into the chest, to allow the arms to assume a shooting pose. An attempt at 3D printing flexible hands, to grip the tommy gun failed twice. In despetation, I cut the thumbs off the original polyclay sculpts, bodged them together with blu-tac and repainted over the top, to hide the butchery!

Finding a blue ribbon with white dots for the spotted bow tie worked out well, if a bit lighter than envisioned. As this is only a display model, I inserted some 3mm aluminium wire inside the jacket, across the shoulders and down both sleeves to hold the shooting pose...

I ended up stuffing a tissue under the jacket to create an even more thickset body effect.

As midnight loomed, I decided to attach the jacket buttons with blu-tac!

The Thunderbirds enlarged head has created a slightly surreal bobble-head look, but I think it was a better stylistic choice, than the Captain Scarlet small heads, where I could never sculpt the desired look to my satisfaction.

" May I enquire as to whether you feel lucky, punk?"

"Who, me, Prime Minister?"

"No, Sonny Jim, that Mister Hister cowering in his Fuhrerbunker!

Stick with me and this may be our finest hour!"

Looey,

Oz