Figure Making Can Be Fun - Articles

   I had indicated in the previous article that I would show a fiber glass head that was cast in the same unique mold that was made in this series. This head was 'hand layed up' with gel coat, general purpose polyester resin and mat fiber glass cloth. It is a nice strong, lightweight head. Click on photo for more info.

   The next step on the head, whether made of Magic Sculp or fiber glass is to do the cut-outs of the mouth and eye areas. Small holes are drilled right next to each other, until a small saw blade (hobby shop or hardware store item) can be inserted to do the cut-outs. A combination of using a Dremel Moto Tool, sand paper and/or files will help clean up the cut-out areas. The head is then scrubbed and washed with dishwashing soap to remove all traces of mold release. Not all mold releases are washable. Some will give you problems and your paint will not adhere to the casting. My current favorite mold release is 'Parfilm' from Price Driscoll. Next it was sanded and primered (for some casting materials and paint, you do not need a primer). Click on photo for more details!

   Next a jaw assembly is made. Side pieces are cut out and glued onto the front jaw piece that was cut out of the head casting. A top piece is also cut out and glued into place. On this top piece, teeth and tongue can be sculpted or modeled, and later painted.

   Click on drawings at right for more details.

   After making such a jaw assembly, a mold could be made from it, if you intend to make additional figures from your head mold. This can save a lot of time.

   Screw eyes are bonded inside the jaw piece. Put one at the top left inside of jaw piece (for the spring) and the other one at the bottom right (for the cord) of the jaw piece (with the back of jaw piece facing you). The exact placement of the screws eyes can depend on what other mechanics you have going on inside the head. Certain mechanics can interfere with other if you are not careful. Plan ahead so everything will work together well inside the head.

   A 1/8" inch brass rod goes through the pivot holes in the jaw and then the ends of the brass rod are bonded to the inside of the head casting with 2 part epoxy putty (hardware stores carry different types). Test whatever product you use for good adhesion. Roughen the inside of head with coarse sandpaper where the rod will be attached.

   A spring is connected from the top screw eye to a screw eye down on the control stick or somewhere else down inside the neck cavity. This pulls the mouth closed. Spring should be of light to moderate tension. Too light a tension on the spring and it may not always return the mouth to the closed position consistently. If the spring tension is too tight, the control will be tiring to use for performing, and can also potentially cause more wear on the mechanism.

   The mouth cord is run over a small pulley (that is on a brass axle or pivot, like the mouth pivot) and down to the control stick. Some begining figure makers get hung up on trying to make 'rod style' mouth (or other) controls, thinking they'll be more reliable. A cord with a pulley is very reliable and quiet as many experieneced figures makers can attest to.

   A simple mouth lever can be made from brass stock and held in place with a screw on the control stick. The cord goes from the brass lever up through a hole in the control stick up to the mouth mechanism. There are many other ways that mouth levers can be made. See the book 'Figure Making Can Be Fun?!?' for more ideas. Also, see the free figure making info here Figure Making Info

   Next, a rod style eye mechanism will be shown. The first step is to make the eyes. Wood drawer pulls, wooden spheres or ping pong balls can make suitable eyes. It is also possible to cast eyes out of resin. About 1 1/2" diameter is a good size for eyeballs. Plastic irises (see here: click on suppliers) can be inseted into the eyeball or you can paint irises on the eyeballs, are two possibilities.

   The eyeballs have to have a hole drilled through the center. This has to be very accurate or they will not rotate correctly when installed inside the head. A sphere drilling jig from a hardware store or home building center is one way to drill such a hole in the eyeballs.

   One method of installing the eyes is with the use of an eye tray. This is just a small rectangle of wood, plastic or even metal. Eyes can be attached to the eye tray with rods or brass machine screws. The rules in figure making are, "there are no rules!". It's whatever works best and will be long lasting in the end. There are certainly dozens of different ways the eyes could be attached inside the head.

   A wood or plastic post can be attached to the back of each eyeball. Attached to the eyeposts is a bent brass rod (about 3/16" diameter). See the series of illustrations at right. The eyeball tray can be attached to the inside of the head using two part epoxy compound (test for suitability).

   The control stick needs to have a slot cut in it. This can be done with a router table or possibly a table saw. Extreme care needs to used when doing this cut. You don't want to lose a finger in the process! You can use 1/8" brass rod for the rod control. This fits inside of a brass tube of corresponding size. Brass rods and tubes are available at most hobby shops and some hardware stores as well as some home building centers.

   The brass tube can be covered over with epoxy putty (Magic Sculp or other similar compound). This can be sanded smooth after the epoxy putty cures completely. A wood or plastic bead can be glued to the eye control rod. Pushing the eye control on the control stick from side to side causes the eyes to move from side to side. With the setup shown, when you push the eye control to the right the eyes turn to the right, and when pushed to the left, the eyes turn to the left.

   These are just some of the basics for some simple mechanics inside the head. There are many ways the mechanics can be done. I sincerely hope this series of articles have been a good resource for getting started on one of the more difficult parts of the figure making process, i.e., making a cast head. You can get in depth info on molding and casting heads as well as hands, feet, body, eyeballs and numerous mechanics in my 200 page book on figure making. It is much, much more detailed than the web site and covers all aspects of the figure making process. You can also find more free info by going to the Figure Making Info page.

   I wish you the best of success with all of your figure making projects. Just remember.......... , when you get bitten by the figure making bug........, there's a good chance you will never fully recover. Few ever do. But that's okay. There's a lot of fun and rewards that go along with the insanity!

   Mike Brose