King Kong Sculpture Finally Finished!

I'm pleased to have finally completed this sculpture! To give you an idea of the size the finished piece measures 8 1/2" W X 9" L X 10 1/4" H . I had wanted to finish this sculpture on April 15th to correspond with my shaving my head as a fund raiser for the St.Baldrick's Foundation for childhood cancer research.

Unfortunately I underestimated the time needed to finish it on schedule. But on a positive note so far I've raised $ 240.00 by shaving my head and now I plan on auctioning off this King Kong sculpture with 100% of the proceeds going to St.Baldrick's.

If you click on a picture it will open to a larger image.

I'm Just About Done

I expected to have my Kong/Pteranodon sculpture finished this weekend but the rainy weather is preventing me from getting outdoors to spray paint some of the parts with primer.

Anyway I thought I'd share a couple photos of what I've been working on to this point. Here is the flying reptile with Kong's paws sculpted directly onto its body. I wanted to convey the look of him actually clutching it which I didn't think just gluing the paws on later would accomplish.

I've completed the rocky base section and I've given the Apoxie Sculpt clay a coat of thinned down acrylic wash.

Now I'm in the process of wiping it down with a section of cloth to give it an aged look and bring out the crevices in the clay.

Update On WIP

I thought I'd share a few photos of work I've completed on my Kong/Pteranodon sculpture.

Here is the beginning of the claws for the flying reptile. I used green floral wire for the toes.

This is Kong's bottom jaw. Super Sculpey teeth and tongue set in Apoxie Sculpt clay.

This is the upper half of the jaw. Again I am using baked polymer clay teeth inserted into Apoxie clay.

To make my life easier I wanted to paint the two halves of the jaw before they were assembled.

Using acrylics I base coated the interior of the mouth with a fleshy pink color.

I then began using thinned washes of color to build up the final color for the inside of the mouth.

When I was finished I sprayed it with matt clear to protect the paint. Then I used an antique wash to bring out the detail and give the teeth an aged look.

After everything had a chance to dry I brushed a coat of clear gloss on the tongue and interior of the mouth.

I am hoping I can have this sculpture finished and painted this week.

Pteranodon: Work In Progress

Sometimes when working on a piece of artwork I hit what I call the point of no return. This is when a creative decision has to be made that can't be undone.

I reached that point this weekend with my Kong battling the Pteranodon sculpture. I couldn't continue work till I committed to how the flying reptiles wings would be posed. And more importantly how Kong would be grasping his opponent.

After planning ahead I decided that the Pteranodon has to be sculpted ( and painted ) before it can be put in Kong's grasp. At the moment I'm toying with the idea of sculpting the hands directly onto the reptiles wings and attaching them to Kong near the completion of the sculpture.

Before I got to the complicated work I thought I'd insert the reptile's eyes.

Then I procrastinated a little longer by making Kong's hands. They are a block of balsa wood and braided green floral wire.

I purposely left the wires long and glued them into holes I drilled in the wood hand.

Okay I couldn't put it off any longer. I folded the Pteranodon's wing into the pose I had decided on and used a bulldog clip to keep the screen out of the way.

I then locked it in place by beginning to model Apoxie Sculpt clay over it.

The wing is delicate being made of a single strand of aluminum wire and plastic window screen.

I learned of the technique of using screen as the armature for wings in a great book titled: Dinosaur Sculpting by Allen A. Debus and Robert Morales.

Amazon.com: Dinosaur Sculpting (9780965146302): Allen A. Debus: Books

The book is a good introduction to sculpting dinosaurs in polymer clay. I found the only slight drawback was that the pictures are in B&W. I was spoiled by the color cover of the book and wanted to see more of Mr.Morale's outstanding dinosaur sculptures in color.

I'll update as work on the Pteranodon progresses.

Work In Progress Update

Before I could lay down the ground cover atop the base I tacked down a piece of wire screening with hot glue.

The screening would give the material I was using a secure foothold. Using a spatula and damp brush I then applied the pebbly ground cover.

To prevent the base from warping I clamped it tightly while it dried.

After it dried I bolted the foot of the Kong armature to the base and positioned it in the pose I wanted.

After adding Super Sculpey clay to the legs and torso I carefully removed the armature and baked the polymer clay.

Now that the Super Sculpey has hardened I'll have Kong in a fixed position. The next step will be deciding how to pose his arms as he battles the Pteranodon.

Kong Armature Update

I thought I'd share a few work in progress photos of what I've been up to. Well I've begun wrapping the Kong armature in foil preparatory to beginning sculpting today.

I also designed the mountain top cliff where Kong will battle the Pteranodon.

The base is comprised of two sheets of thin plywood sandwiched together between hunks of styrofoam.I glued a piece of thicker wood in the center of the base to add strength.

The block of wood a top the base will be where Kong rests his foot during the battle. The block is drilled to accept a bolt which gets secured in the bottom of Kong's foot.

Once the armature is secured to the base I can go about posing it in various positions till I hit on one I like. In this photo I used a rasp to shape the styrofoam into the basic shape of the rocky cliff top.

I added a thin veneer of Aves Apoxie Sculpt clay to the styrofoam to cut down on the styrofoam dust once I begin the final sculpting. I also primed the top of the base white to seal the wood before I add the stone surface to it. I'll post more photos as things progress.

Pteranodon Armature

The sculpture I am working on at the moment is going to consist of three parts. These will be my two principal characters and the base.

I have already assembled my Kong armature. Now I am in the process of cobbling together the armature for Kong's adversary - a Pteranodon!

For those of you that may not be familiar with the film King Kong(1933) the Pteranodon is the flying reptile that foolishly tries to snatch Fay Wray away from Kong.

The first step in roughing out the armature was scaling up the size of the reptile to my Kong figure. I'm lucky in that my nephew bought me the two disc special DVD put out by Warner Brothers of the film for my birthday. It proved great as reference material. I was able to freeze frame the scene where the two creatures battle each other to get an idea of their relative sizes.

Using aluminium wire I laid out the shape of the pteranodon being careful to leave extra wire in the neck,wings and leg areas. I then twisted green floral wire around the torso and added a few drops of Zap a Gap glue to lock everything together.

Next I carved a wooden skull adding Zap a Gap to the tip of the beak area to penetrate and help strengthen the wood in this delicate area. For the same reason I added a stiff piece of metal rod to the rear of the crest on the reptile's skull.

Sections of wood were added to the wing areas to insure they would bend like the actual creatures wings would. The torso was then bulked up with some aluminium foil. Now that I have my two characters fleshed out I can go about designing the base for this sculpture.