Ah! but I have all the faith my friend. This may be a "quick, training" piece, but there is no doubt in my mind that it will be a stunning example of your creative abilities !




I'm gonna guess "I'm king of the world" pose of the kid balancing on the peak of the keel as sharks infest the surrounding waters? (clues! looking back through for clues)

Cheers,
Charles

eh eh Chris, your answer made me laugh yesterday If the muscles of my fig could grow by doing push ups, that certainly would be better for my eyesight!
And then you shouldn't laugh about your next President

Chas that's VERY well seen about the arms, they were a bit long indeed and after a few tests I had to wipe up 3 mm on each arm. And even there, when i eventually fixed fingers, I had to extra trim some bits with a file.
i think it came from the fact I used too much of a big MS lump first.
other wise, no the idea is not this one

Simon Thanks!

Greg you wise guy that part is sure true!

Charles too! You both got it partly. but remember! Spanish modeller Domi already did a great diorama called Sharks which shows -well- sharks near a boat, then this idea was already copied by a lesser diorama maker afterwards, and I am certainly not one to pick up a diorama idea from anybody else. And *yet* the dio is called "jaws".
Come on guys you're pretty close! At worse it will be appearing plainly at the end of next week


Back to the kid

The original picture was pretty poor so I had to add a bit of contrast in order for something to be seen.
After thinning again the MS lump with a scalpel, i added some small lumps of MS here and there so that i could place the muscles.
I have made some rather visible "lung cage", that's because I will add some belly later when the rest will have dried up.
Of course lots of sanding has to be done now.

Please notice the hands. i just did the palms (is it?) in Duro -well, I let the palms dry and I will fix the fingers afterwards, it's a lot more easy to do hands this way

I'm rather good with short trousers: that one took me 10mn to sculpt. Just a few adjustments to do, and extra sanding!
Now fingers are another matter.
After having sculpted the palm and let it dry, I rolled some tiny Duro sheets and flattened the base of each against the palm from the outside of the hand.
The inside of the had will be "straightened" later when the whole has dried up.

Now I sanded the whole and i will later add a bit of extra shoulders on the right..



[IMG]http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u273/jbandre/lu3_3.jpg[/*IMG]

Nice work on the figure Jean!
Wait to see more details for the figure creation

Very nice sculpting of the hands. What is the advantage of Duro over MS for this kind of work?

The arm length looks much better now.

Chas

Hi Jean !
Another masterpiece indeed !!! GREAT JOB on the figure so far, my friend ! I ALWAYS look forward to a JBA project piece. Cheers !
Kenneth

Okay JBA, Excellent sculpt on the kid so far. With part of the puzzle complete I'll give it a shot....
"Jaws" will the Elco hulk have a shark's mouth painted on it? Found this pix on the net:




Just seems like the clues lead in this direction.
C.

Awesome kit JBA!!!
Makes me want to sculpt something - but I know better.
The PT boat with jaws looks like a promising lead!
Best success to you,
Dmitry

Great sculpting, even the hands! Hands are really hard.
The proportions keep getting better and better as you go.

Wow Charles...You should be a private investigator! If JBA does not have those exact pics on his workbench, I would be surprised. And what a great reference for the bow. The saga continues.....

Jean good progress with the figure,nice proportions and balance,looks like a skinny youth or child.

Steve

Wow, the figure is really taking shape Jean. I'm looking forward to seeing the piece grow.

->thank you Petros -the finished pictures of the kid (well mostly) will be posted in a coupla days now!

->That's yet another very good question Chas! Quite a few reasons indeed: the first one is that it is extremely difficult to roll very tiny MS lumps without the small bits falling apart. then MS is not very sticky while I need this feature! The trick with the fingers is to apply them -well *flatten the tip of them* against the upper part of a palm with a modelling knife.
If you try to do the fingers and then to glue them it won't work very well because of the joint you will have to somewhat fill..
This way, I just have the inner inside of the palm to fill when the rest has dried up..

->Kenneth! Thanks my friend, your comments are always very welcomed!

->Charles, you earned it


-> Thank you Dmitry! Come on, one of these days you should dress up your T-34s with homemade figs

->Thanks Scott, well the hands you know.. not *so* hard really. If you mess up a finger you just do it again, time spent less than 2 mns for fingers.. The head is the real problem!

->Greg, I don't have those pics actually, if I had, I would have model the fine joint line on the keel, as well as that extra detail on the jaw. My own jaws are a bit different too, but essentially I used the same material as basis

-> Steve he is exactly that, a skinny youth

->Pat, nice to see you there and thanks for the comments!


So, well, the real deal with sculpting figs is the head of course..
I did that one in 4 times,
The first step for me is to do a small lump of MS with a strong base so that I can handle the head later
Then I dress up the head roughly by having the right proportions (very hard), the right shape of the skull and jaws, more or less the right place for the eyes too and I let it dry


then the following day, I carved some extra place for the eyes with a scalpel, and I kinda dressed the head with lips, nose etc. And that's very hard and kills the eyesight, but well, "Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity"



*phew* the rest is just walk in the park, hair and ears out of Duro because it holds details better

Hi Jean-Bernard,

great progress on the figure it will look great when finnished.

I can across the following article this morning and thought it might interest you:

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=44411&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Regards,

Jerry

I will wear the medal with pride!!
You make sculpting the head look so damn easy! Why is it that when I try to make a head it looks like a bad version of the elephant man in 1:35?
The kid looks great. Can't wait to see this piece come together.
Cheers,
Charles

Thanks Jerry, I didn't have those ones! There's a pretty nice link on that page you gave, with a few really interesting pics -I like the way old wooden wrecks look like big hedgehogs with plenty of nails popping out!

Thanks too Charles, on the contrary, I would not say that this kid was easy to do, the face in particular was really very hard to create

And the the trouble is not over as I now have the neck to do and global fitting of the fig.

Now I am always really very surprised when i see some master modellers screwing the neck of their soldiers, they all have the "Hornet head disease" Which means they have some sort of long and thick telegraphic pole coming upwards from the shirt with an usual Roger Saunders grinning on the top.

Oh well, here I am inserting some bit of staple inside the neck of the little guy..


And here he is, oh dear, he's got the "Hornet Head Disease" too! I will have to thin this neck on the right, a well as put some extra shoulders on the left, but others from that, this will do!

JBA, beautiful work, as usuall.
I just wonder what you are going to do with water this time!.

Andrzej

Really impressive Jean Bernard, sculpting a child's face is top modelling!

Are you sure that the ears are not to big?

Cheers
Claude

JBA, I thought we knew your talentS, I was wrong, this is great !

Amazing work!

Martyn

I said you made it look so easy! It's like watching a really great musician playing their instrument, the music flows so easily that (as a viewer) you think you can attempt to play and it will turn out just as nicely. Then you try it and reality sets in If you were to see some of the faces on my 'attempted' sculpts you would laugh (or maybe cry?) !

Maybe I can model a turn of the century carnival side show

Cheers,
Charles

JBA
Is the kid going to climb on the edge of the wreck ???
Cheers
Seb

PT109? JFK?

->thanks Andrzej! You won't have to wait a lot of time for water as a matter of fact

->Thanks too Claude. I was wondering if anybody would notice anything about those ears. well you did, and indeed I redid them yesterday evening!
Those forums are always good for this, I ask myself "could I get away with this?"

->Guy, I still have to do my own seagulls like you did, THAT was impressive!

->thanks too Martyn!

-> Well Charles, then practise again!! I think that self confidence is the key. I say to myself, I have 2 eyes, 2 hands, why can't I be as good as Roger Saunders?

-> seb, *precisely*

-> Alex, PT103 + more like. Well the 103 series, I don't know where it stops. Just your average Pacific front Elco after having been burnt down to the waterline

Then, as I told Andrzej, we're here for the water!
Plaster water precisely, eh don't panic, that will not end up like dumb Verlinden Way plaster water!

So using my modelling matress, I build some sort of a box with leftover balsa and wood seets, holding the whole together with kid's modelling paste. I grease all the elements a lot of course.


Now let's pour some plaster



let's sculpt the plaster sea-like



we let dry the whole with the bit of boat inside...

Wow another unexpected turn in the story of this diorama!

The child looks great. (Had I logged in earlier I would've mentioned the ears first... )

Chas