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"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard"

Part 5: Belly of the Beast


Well, little by little, the sculpting is starting to take shape. When last we checked in, mini-Lardy had the beginnings of a torso, and I was going to try my hand at sculpting the trunks.

After trying it twice and realizing that I was making it too wide - it looked like he was wearing a diaper - it suddenly dawned on me that if I used the natural pivot of the legs, they would describe a nice arc for the trunks:



Good deal.

Now, you might notice a gap between the belly and the trunks... it's not a belt line; it's a space I intentionally left to build the rest of the belly.

This figure has an articulated torso so you can make it turn sideways. If I sculpted the torso as a continuous piece, I'd lose that, so instead - in keeping with dedman's drawing - I decided to build the belly downward so it would overhang the top line of the trunks.

Easier said than done. Because I couldn't use the figure itself a base for the clay (and still keep the waist articulation) I had to build it down from the clay I already had in place, one rung at a time, baking it in between each round:




Eventually, I got it to a nice girth that I'm satisfied with:



I still need to sand that last round, then I want to sculpt the shirt line. Slow going, I know... but we're getting there.

He's so amazingly kewl!

Your kids must adore you.

Thanks for all the nice words, Shady! I don't know that this is so much a tutorial, though, as a "watch Ex stumble through a new process, learning how to do it as he goes along"-ial.

The comedian you're thinking of was Chris Farley, and you're dead right... he had the perfect shape (so to speak) as what I'm trying to get:




You probably can't see it in the pics, but there actually is a slight indentation around the belly-button. That's a cool thing about this clay - since I'm mostly just using a wet finger to smooth it out, if I do it a bit less, it actually has more of the appearance of a fleshy body and less a perfectly smooth surface.


Thanks for the kid comment, too... but... I don't have any. The only little one in my life is that little terrier on page one and, though he does adore me, he's miffed that he can't play with the new toy daddy's making.

"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard"

Part 6: Crisis on Earth Prime


So, first things first... I finished the torso sculpt:



That shirt was way easier than I thought it would be. It was basically: add a thin line of clay, blend at the top but not the bottom, cut in a few lines on the side to make folds. It's funny that the easiest part of the sculpt is actually the part I think turned out the nicest.

So... got our guy all shaped, now it's time to prime him:



Since the thicker parts of the clay are white, and the original bits of paint still left are black, I decided to go with gray primer, so I could tell if I was getting full coverage. The tutorial I'm using said to make sure it was sandable primer... but since every can I looked at was sandable, I just went with a brand I've used for other things I've done in the past.

Obviously, I'm not going to use spraypaint inside, so I took future-Lardy out to my backyard:



The instructions said to use a fine even mist, going back and forth and overlapping layers.

Yeah, right.

This thing is like three and half inches tall... one pass and:



This primer dries to a handle-able tackiness in about 15 minutes or so, after which I bent the joints to hit the areas that weren't covered in the first pass:



Since it's still a little tacky to the touch, I've decided I want to let him dry fully overnight before sanding and hitting him with another coat.

The next image still has a few rough spots that need to be smoothed out, but you can really see him starting to come together:



Pretty nifty, eh?

wow...

Very cool, Ex!

You're so funny.
You make me laugh with your comments and details.


I'd love your next one to be Dev.
He's bald in both realities!

Deddy is bald, though, too, isn't he?

I know, you could do them both at the same time, sort of a baldy assembly line.

(Just an idle thought, s k if you ignore it.)


Sharky's kind of bald, too.

Absolutely fascinating!

^ Yeah, I'm drawn in like watching a workshop television special. It's so cool to watch you hit each new step.

Thanks, guys! I'm glad you're having as fun watching the process as I am doing it.

This next chapter in the ongoing Lard Lad action figure saga, though, will painfully demonstrate exactly why I said this project is not a tutorial.


So, when last we left headless Lardy, he was all primed up and looking pretty spiffy:



I was just waiting for the tackiness to dry up so I could sand it.

So I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Two and half days later, he was exactly the same consistency, nowhere near ready to sand. I tried using a hairdryer to hasten the drying process... but nothing.

What had I done wrong? Well... whenever I'm in need of sage advice, I consult a message board, so I started hopping around the action figure customization boards, and in short order, found out that I wasn't the first person to have this problem.

In typical message board fashion I got the answer I was looking for:



Well, it turns out that not all sandable primers are created equal, and the brand I used has a difficult time adhering to plastic. Quite a few sites recommended that they have had much a better experience using a vinyl touch up paint.

I probably cursed myself by calling that last chapter "Crisis on Earth Prime" but if reading comics has taught me anything it's that - when faced with a Crisis - it's best to respond with a partial reboot... so:


"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard"

Part 7: Crisis on Earth Prime 2 - FINAL CRISIS!


Well, DC has the Spectre to help out during their crises, but I had to rely on a different spirit:



I stripped off all of the offending primer as best I could, leaving Lardy a bit worse for wear:



and tried the priming again, this time with the recommended paint:




I would have preferred to stick with grey, but after calling around, could only find black.

But... what a difference!

It goes on super-thin, better maintaining the detail than the original primer. It dries - not to tackiness, but to fully dry - in like 15 minutes. And... I don't have to sand it!

That means that newly primed Dark Lardy:



is now ready to paint.

Whoo-hoo!

I'm sorry you had troubles, but the process made me .
Especially the Prime comments and the picture of the mineral spirits!

Thanks, Shady. Yeah, the primer thing was a bit of a bummer (especially because I thought it looked so cool the first time) but, eh, live and learn.

I double checked the figure this morning, and noticed there was a little scuffing on his left arm, where it rubs against the belly, so I did a quick touch up before work but, overall he's looking good and I'll start painting him tonight.

Up until now I've focused on the body because I figured, since I was still getting the knack of this, I didn't want to experiment too much on the head, where little details would be more noticable. But now, since I have a little more confidence, I'll begin hatching a scheme on how best to do that. I've been debating whether or not I want to try to make his visor removable, because I think that would be a nice detail.

"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard"

Part 8: I Sing the Body Acrylic


So, I learned a couple of things about myself this past week:

1. Painting takes me a long time.

2. I find it very relaxing.

This step of the process requires so much focus on something so tiny, that I really just lose myself in the activity. I would get a section done and then look up and realize that four hours had just passed without even noticing it. Insane.


But, anyway, let's take a look at the process. First up... supplies:



I picked up a few bottles of acrylic paint at the craft store. These are super cheap, 59 cents apiece, so I got a couple shades of blue and yellow, along with a black and white to be able to mix to get what I was looking for. The tutorial I'm using said that I should use natural hair brushes, so I got a small variety pack.

Now, on to the mixing. In dedman's pic of Lardy, the majority of his costume is a sort of highlighted dark blue, but I was working on a black primer, so I figured I'd try to go a bit lighter, adding more white.

After I got a nice approximation of the color, I watered it down - both to ensure that it went on thin enough to keep the detail of the folds in his costume, and to try to keep the visible brushstrokes to a minimum. The final consistency was a little thicker than milk:



It took about three coats, and some spot touch ups to get a nice base:



After I got the base down, it was time to add some detail in the form of shadows and highlights. I mixed up both a darker and lighter version of my base color:



For the shadows, I used something called a wash, which is a very thin (2 parts water to one part paint) mixture of a darker shade of the base color. You basically just wet your brush with this wash and let it gently drip into the cracks and folds of the figure.

For the highlights, I did something called dry brushing, which means putting the tiniest bit of the lighter tint on the brush, then wiping it almost clean, and then very lightly almost "dusting" the figure on the natural light points.

This gave the figure much more definition, and really made me feel like I was making progress:



I then used the same process for all the yellow bits (which was a little bit harder, because now I had to keep a closer eye on my lines):



and then finally the white belly (which I washed by adding a couple drops of my original blue base to the white mixture):




An optional step that I decided to do at the end was to then sit in my living room admiring it and saying, "Sweetie... seriously... can you believe I actually made this?"

To which, apparently, the appropriate response is, "Yes, dear, your little doll body is very nice."


Next up: No talking, just head.

Yes, your little doll body IS very nice!

Looking great!

I hope there's adequate ventilation in that workshop, though. I don't want to show up to this thread one morning and find out that Ex has been posting nothing all week but "Wahhhh! BUGS! Bugs are crawling all over meeeeeeeee!!"

"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard

Part 9: Bring Me the Head of Anthony Taylor!


Sorry this update took a while, but I really wanted to take my time with the head, because it is so tiny and easy to mess up.

As I mentioned a little while back, I wanted to make the mask that Lardy wears removable. Thankfully, this figure came with a ready made, snap on helmet:



The whole thing is just made out of that transparent orange that you see in the visor - just painted - so I was able to whittle it down with a dremel to the size of Lardy's mask, and still have it fit the head perfectly.

Additionally, leaving it on while I sculpted the hair and the beard gave me a nice guide as to how each should lie:



In the above sequence, you can see how I gradually added a little clay at a time (baking it in between each step), first getting the general shape, and then adding texture and detail (which I got by basically "combing" it with an X-acto knife.

In the final shot you can see that I primed the mask. I opted not to prime the head, because I had no illusions about being able to repaint the tiny eyes and not have them look ridiculous.

In any case, after I got the head fully shaped, I reattached it to the body and painted it:



I was soooo happy with how it turned out.


Here's a few glamour shots. Work it, Lardy:





aaaaaaaand... I'mmmmmmm..... spent.


Finally, I painted the mask, and invited my original model over to take a look at his plastic brother and see what he thought so far:



Thumbs up!


Up next... finishing touches.

Very awesome!

Hey, can you bounce that PM back to me?

You give me some really good head, Ex!

Curious to see a closeup of the "mask". It's not actually what I would call a mask. Lardy wears a headband similar to Lyle Norg's and a pair of lenses that rest on his nose without the arms that rest on the ears similar Kent Shakespeare's.

(I say all this at the risk of activating your O.C.D., of course, but whatever you came up with is absolutely fine! )

I assume there will be an "L" symbol...and a cape?

THAT IS ABSOLUTE TITS. ps/ total at your wife's response!

Thanks, guys!

Cool, that's actually more the way it's made, anyway. It's just a thin ring of plastic that has two little rectangles dropped down over the eyes.

It's a little difficult to get a head-on close up of it, because the majority of the figure is matte, but I painted the lenses with reflective paint, so it's hard to get the right light to show how it looks in real life.

You can probably see it better in this darker pic below (and the inset shows you how it can be worn all "Legion Lost Tyroc" style):



Absolutely. That's the final step... accoutrements. I've got to make the logo, the cape with the disks... and one other thing (not seen in deddy's pic)

So is it good luck to rub the belly?

Hoot diggitty dang!

Brilliant work Ex

Amazing! It's been a real treat to follow this process...

Thanks for all the nice words, everyone! It's really great to hear that you guys dig this so much.


I was going to lump all the final detail work into one section, but then I realized that each bit is really its own unique process, so I'll divide it up into three more sections. That'll make this whole project a sort of "12 part maxi-series" which is nice way to tie it all together.


So... into the home stretch:

"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard"

Part 10: "L" is for Lots of Things


Logo time!

I knew the chest logo was going to be a bit of difficult thing for me to do, because it requires a very crisp line. Since my hands aren't that steady, I decided it would be better to use a decal.

Additionally, although the logos that both Sketch Lad and Dedman designed are very cool, they are both designed to work as part of a stylized drawing, and I didn't know how they would translate to the more proportionate action figure. So, I decided to use a version of the Monitor Board symbol that I made last summer as part of another project:

LMB Monitor Board Symbols

The first thing I needed to do, to help me gauge where the logo should lie, was to add the preliminary placement for the discs that Lardy has on his cape. I thought about using snaps but, at this scale, I really couldn't find any that were small or thin enough.

Then it occurred to me that perhaps the best thing I could use would be something like a flat refrigerator magnet that I could cut to shape. It turns out that the craft store sells little magnetic sheets exactly like that and, what's more, they are thin enough to fit in a hole punch:



As an added bonus, they are also adhesive on the back, so I could temporarily just stick them on while I worked on the logo:



Next up, I had to adapt the logo to both a size and shape that work on the figure. Off to Photoshop, where I just traced the old logo, scaled it down, and canted it slightly so it would better fit the curved body:



After I got it where I wanted it, I printed it out onto white decal paper and sliced it out with my X-acto knife:



I got Lardy's approval that it was fit for purpose:



and then let it soak for a few minutes to remove the backing:



After a couple minutes the decal slid off the backing and I was able to adhere it. It took quite a bit a finessing to get it into the correct position (even more difficult because it is so thin and I was afraid of tearing it).

In the end, though, I was able to get it where I wanted it, and have it lie such that it follows the curves of the figure. It was a bit of a pain, but I'm glad I went this route as opposed to trying to paint it:




Up next... The Great Lardy "Cape"-r