Styracosaurus Sculpture

Using Super Sculpey polymer clay I roughed out the general size of the Styracosaur. The stop motion raptors that appear in Eric Kessler's King Kong prequel are going to be feeding on the thigh area.

Once Kessler gave the green light on the pose I stripped the armature of the Super Sculpey and prepared to begin the sculpture in Aves Apoxie Sculpt clay.

Roughing out the Styracosaurs Head

After completing the body of the armature I moved on to roughing out the Styrac's head. I carved a skull out of balsa wood and a nasal horn from a hardwood dowel. I wired the jaw to allow me to open and close the mouth. The Coke can in the photo was so that Kessler could get a sense of the scale of the head.

Styracosaurus Sculpture

Once I had the pelvis of the Styracosaur completed I began work on the rear legs. A small piece of brass rod was inserted in the Apoxie Sculpt clay before it cured. This would enable me to place the rod from the thigh in the hollow tube in the pelvis.

Kessler said he may have a scene in his Kong film where one of the attacking raptors perches on the body of the Styracosaurus. The feet of the raptor puppet would need to be anchored securely to the dead dinosaurs body. I reinforced the shoulder area of the Styrac armature with a block of wood to allow for this.

Sculpting an Apoxie Clay Styracosaurus For a King Kong Film

After completing several stop motion native puppets for his King Kong prequel Eric Kessler asked me if I would be able to sculpt him a plant eating dinosaur that could be made to have a movable neck and jaw. In his film the plant eater was to be the victim of an attack by Raptors.

It sounded like an interesting project and being a rabid fan of the original 1933 version of King Kong I jumped at the chance! While discussing the size and type of dinosaur that the Raptors would be preying on we decided to go with a Styracosaurus. Its nasal horn and head ornamentation would make it an interesting subject.

Kessler provided me with photographs and measurements of his stop motion Raptor puppets so I could design the Styracosaur to be on a similar scale. The first step was locating good reference material. I based most of my Styrac measurements on the skeletal drawings of Gregory Paul :The Official Website of Gregory S. Paul - Paleoartist, Author and Scientist

Next I began to make an armature for the sculpture. Using aluminum wire I roughed out the backbone and pelvis of the dinosaur. I drilled a hole where the hip joint would meet the thighs and glued a brass tube in place. Here is a picture of the start of the armature.

The Finished Skull Island Native Puppet

After the head was painted I glued it onto the aluminum wire armature with Zap A Gap glue. The next step was to hot glue foam rubber I had saved from an old mattress to the armature. When I thought it looked about right I used manicure scissors to carefully trim the foam rubber to the appropriate shape.

After test fitting the latex skin to see if it covered the foam rubber properly it was time to glue on the front and back skins. I used the same tinted liquid latex that I made the skins from to adhere them to the armature. I brushed a light coat of latex on the inner surface of the skin and the foam covered armature. Once it was dry I carefully tacked down the skins.

There was a little overlap of skin that had to be trimmed off. Then the puppet got a final thin coat of liquid latex over the seams and where the cast head joined the body.

When it came to dressing the puppet I settled on a straw like material I found at the local Arts and Crafts store. I hot glued it in place and wrapped it snugly around the waist with Dacron line. I applied Zap A Gap over the Dacron to lock it in place.

I made a cardboard template for the shields and traced them out on thin Bass wood. After sealing the wood with primer I painted them with acrylics and top coated them with Testor's Dull Cote spray. The spears were painted metal rods topped with Apoxie Clay spearheads.

Painting The Skull Island Natives Head

After washing all the mold release from the cast head I sprayed it with gray auto body primer. When it was dry I began brushing on acrylic paint that had been mixed to match (as closely as possible) the latex skin that would cover the stop motion puppet.

When I had the face painted to my satisfaction I gave it a coat of Testor's Dull Cote spray to protect the finish. Finally I put a drop of clear gloss on the eyes and a touch on the lips.

Sculpting A Head For The Stop Motion Native Puppet

When it came time for sculpting the natives head I again used plastilene clay. I decided on making two different heads so my puppets wouldn't all be identical. Once the heads were finished I made a two piece latex mold of both heads. Then a two piece mother mold of Apoxie Sculpt clay. The mother mold acts as a rigid support for the flexible rubber mold.

I sprayed the inner surface of the latex mold with mold release. Then reassembled my mother mold. I used Polytranspar Liquid Cast as my casting material. Here is a picture of the mold in my hand and one of the cast heads.