Making Talos Awakes – Part 3 of 20
It’s not often an opportunity to work on such a fascinating project comes your way. It’s always a pleasure of to collaborate with Simon Fearnhamm of Raven Armoury, my good friend and undoubted master craftsman.
Over the following series of posts I’ll explain the meticulous restoration process, completed in February 2015. Then the complex and challenging repositioning process, completed in July 2016. In which the restored standing figure was reconfigured into the kneeling Talos Awakes position.
Initial repair of surface cracks and misalignments
Raven Armoury had moulded the Talos 3D print after I removed the print lines as much as was practically possible. They gave me a number of resin casts so I could start reconstructing the surface. With the aim of repair the deterioration the animation model had suffered over the last 50 years.
Calf transplant
First I reinstated an area of the left calf, removed during casting to fill the hollow resin cast. To do this I cut a graft from a spare resin Talos.
Calf cut out for graft | Calf after graft and wax repair
Skirt transplant
Next I addressed a section of the skirt has cracked and moved out of position. I excised the section and glued a graft into the correct position.
Skirt front before wax repairs | Skirt and loincloth after graft and wax repairs
Wax repairs
Finally I melted specialist casting wax into the surface cracks. Areas of more significant damage required building up before I could model as close to the original form as possible.
Back before wax repairs | Back and upper arms after wax repairs
Back of skirt before repairs | Back of skirt after wax repairs
Front of skirt and loin cloth before repairs | Front of skirt and loin cloth after wax repairs
Chest and abdomen before wax repairs | Chest and abdomen after wax repairs
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.
