Thursday, March 10, 2011

A Stiff Arm Block

I've been working on my latest groundbreaker, mache-ing the arms into their proper position. It took a little longer than I anticipated because while the left arm is twisted back behind it helping to lift the corpse out of the ground, the right arm is stretched out in front of it, reaching forward to grasp at any passersby.

Because the arm does reach forward I wanted to make sure it was sturdy enough that it wouldn't droop over time or worse break off. Also, because I am thinking about storage afterwards, I thought to make the arm removable and figured a PVC joint (the arm itself is mache-covered PVC) would be best.

I quickly discovered that since I didn't plan for this ahead of time soon enough, the shoulder where it would join would eventually weaken. So this arm will be "welded" into the rest of the body to make it secure. Next time, however, since I'm building more of the infrastructure of my groundbreakers with PVC I'll incorporate the appropriate joints into the framework from the beginning rather than trying to stick it on as an afterthought.

But the underlying mache is now complete and following a coat of spar varnish to protect the mache from the elements, the corpsification will begin. Feels good getting back into the groove.

2 comments:

  1. Hey JT, thanks for stopping by.

    Prop making keeps me outta trouble. Sort of. I see all the stuff everyone else is doing -- hell, even Baker makes a truckload of stuff besides putting Hauntcast together --so I feel like a loser for not getting more done.

    Good show this month, BTW, though I'm not such a fan of those blaxploitation movies myself. Definitely an acquired taste!

    Cheers,
    Rich

    ReplyDelete

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