How to make an armature...please???

[vegeta]

Hi everyone.

I`m just starting in sculpture, and i want to make 8" to 11"
tall figures in polymer clay (super sculpey), and one of the
things that i`m investigating now is the construction of an
armature, i found a very good tutorial for that, here is the
link:

http://www.iespana.es/alterton/Needham/2bit.htm


The tutorial is very clear, showing all the process of the
construcction of an armature, but it seems to me that the
whole armature it`s made in one piece, at least with the
head joined to the rest of the body.

-What i whan`t to know is how can i make an armature, and put
the head and the hands later?....i prefer to model the head and
the hands separately from the rest of the body..

-Another question is that i see some kind of base that hold
the armature, i have seen several sculptures with this
base with a tube that go through the back of the figure,
My question is how this tube is removed from the back of
the sculpture when is finish?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME

VEGETA

[LarsAnders77]

Hi

You have to use plumbers piping, and fix the body on a T-joint, then when you are finished with the sculpt you just unscrew the stand from the T-joint and leave it in the sculpture. This only works with rather large skulpture, as the T-joint 3/4" is quite large. There is a tutorial DVD on the subjekt, from The Gnomon workshop along with other Learning DVD's. In these DVD's there is also an answer to the "removeable joint problem" using square brass tubing.

This picture is a very crude drawing af the concept.

Lars

[vegeta]

thanks LarsAnders77 :buttrock:

[beav]

Vegeta,

I went to Home Depot and picked up a 1/2 flange, 1/2-1/4 reducer, 1/4"X4" pipe and a 1/4" T fitting. After I assembled it to look like the drawing above I used 12awg solid copper wire to finish off the armature. I've heard that wire coat hangers work as well. This is my first official attempt at sculpting so take this for what it's worth :)

[LarsAnders77]

I found some pictures from the DVD i mentioned in my first reply, maybe they can help a bit.

Lars

[vegeta]

THANK YOU BOTH FOR THE HELP :buttrock:

[Lay-Z-boy]

Another method, see here : http://www.bowendesigns.com/exe/behindthescenes/modelcitizen

[vegeta]

Another method, see here : http://www.bowendesigns.com/exe/behindthescenes/modelcitizen

thanks Lay-Z-boy :buttrock: