Making Talos Awakes – Part 13 of 20
I turned my attention back to the upper body once I’d completed the construction of the legs.
I’d already heat-bent the neck and shoulders (as detailed in post 11). To minimise distortion, I’d grafted an unbent head from a donor cast onto the heat-rotated neck. As well as grafting a replacement arm onto the heat-rotated right shoulder.
The heat-bent sections detailed in post 11
Next I needed to assemble the upper body. As with the head and right arm, I cut an unbent section from a donor cast. Then, in three stages, I excised the areas of the torso necessary for me to fit the neck and shoulders.
Fine-tuning the grafts
I then used localised heat to correct distortions in the bent sections and align them with the new torso. After that I glued them into position.
The constructed upper and lower body halves
I would only set the positions of the elbows and hands once I’d assembled the body halves. At this stage I couldn’t gauge the final angle of the upper body. Nor could I judge the relative positions of the arms, elbows and hands in relation to the lower body. This would be key when setting the position of the sword hand in relation to the right knee. Equally the left hand in relation to the right hip.
Upper body positioning
I made a simple steel jig around the wax maquette to help me set the position of the upper body. Then I fabricated a steel upper body armature and welded it to the male connector (detailed in post 12). Using the jig, I then glued the upper body armature into the upper body.
Once the glue had set, I heat-shaped a section of the left lower back that was sticking out. Finally, I infilled the missing sections with Plasticine to give an impression of the final form.
The constructed upper and lower body halves with lower back infilled with Plasticine
These sculptures were hand made by Raven Armoury in association with The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation.
Based on effects characters created by Ray Harryhausen for a Charles H. Schneer Production.
TM & © Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
