Making Talos Awakes – Part 2 of 20
The image below shows two bronze sculptures. Numbers one and nine of our limited editions of Talos – Frozen in Time (set on a base of 2000 year old oak) and Talos (our reproduction of Ray’s sculpture of Talos he made in the 1990s). Together they represent the end and the beginning of this project.
Talos – Frozen in Time
After I had received the 3D printed model of Talos I made a ‘save’ mould and cast a resin copy for reference. Ben and I discussed the project with Talos standing on the table in front of us. The model is fascinating, the deterioration of the latex skin is most extensive around the joints, feet and hands. You can even see the armature beneath the skin in several places.
Ray often referred to the problems of using latex rubber for his animation models as it doesn’t age well. Chapter 11 in The Art of Ray Harryhausen is titled ‘IT’S FINE STUFF BUT IT WILL ROT IN TIME’. The chapter is devoted to Ray’s battle to protect and preserve his models. Also his work to recreate many of them as enduring sculptures in bronze.
One of the phrases in the chapter really stood out to me, “the photographs in this book are perhaps the final record of how they look”. I felt it would be appropriate to immortalise Talos in bronze, exactly as he was when scanned in March 2014. Given that I had a silicone mould of him I had the perfect opportunity to do so. I discussed the possibility with The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, which led to the creation of Talos – Frozen in Time. A limited edition of nine sculptures, lost wax cast in bronze.
Restoration
The next stage of the Talos Awake project was to restore Talos and then to mould the restored model. We’ll then create a new, more youthful master to reposition into the kneeling stance. But first Ben cleaned back the print lines on the model created by the 3D printing process. He did this using graphite pencils to reveal the lines and a curved scalpel blade to carefully remove them.
This was painstaking work. Six weeks later I collected Talos and made a new mould. We cast a number of resin copies, one to use as a master and the others for spare parts. I delivered these to Ben and left him to begin the complex task of restoration. He will reveal details of the process in the following posts.
Over the next weeks and months I found myself frequently studying the model of Talos. I had many long conversations with Ben regarding various aspects of the ongoing restoration and came to know Talos quite intimately.
Bronze and cold-cast editions
We have been working for some time on perfecting the cold-casting process to offer more affordable limited edition sculptures alongside our bronze editions. They contain a very high ratio of bronze to resin in these castings and the figures are solid with around 10lbs of bronze powder in each. We patinate them by applying many of the same techniques and waxes that we use on bronze. The results are sculptures that have the heft and appearance of foundry bronze. Below are our first prototypes; we are producing cold-cast bronze limited editions of 50 Talos Awakes sculptures and 25 of Talos – Frozen in Time.
We haven’t quite reached the end, we currently setting up our first waxes of Talos Awakes for casting in bronze. We’ll finish the first bronze sculptures at the end of August 2016 and between now and then I am handing the narration of this story to Ben, who will show you how we remastered a Titan.
Simon Fearnhamm
Raven Armoury, Thaxted, England.
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.
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