MAKING MARLEY: PART 4

Resins: “Tis better to gate in abundance, than to labor over a faulty resin.” These days, I probably over gate. I’ve become less ambitious when it comes to casting and cleaning resins than I used to be. The trick to good gating is to think like resin. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve been outsmarted by urethane more times than I’d like to admit. The torso was a direct pour, cast with the neck pin in place. The base, too, was a direct pour, with the pivot pin cast in place. Both were swapped out with a steel peg. I ran a lot of little gates for the hair on both heads, pins cast in place. Both hands were loaded molds and then tapped to dislodge trapped air. For Marley’s props, I sculpted two locks, to keys and one ledger. The larger lock has my initials on one side and my wife’s on the reverse. The smaller lock has my son and daughter’s initials. I had intended to have these figures produced as cold cast collectibles and so needed to keep the props down to a manageable assortment, otherwise, I would have probably done a couple more keys and locks and a smaller ledger. His glasses were cast in clear and the frames painted in. I used the same ponytail for both heads. PART 5 - PAINT MASTER, wil be posted on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving, all!