|
Started |
: |
--Unrecorded-- |
|
Finished |
: |
October 2009 |
|
Base |
: |
|
|
Parts |
: |
Head
of Spawn Warrior Lilith |
|
Materials |
: |
Apoxy Sculpt, Glues, |
|
Points of |
: |
~ 34 |
Character & Intent
What would an exceptional tale be without an exceptional
villain?
Well, "Gargoyles" had several. But of course, Demona had her own
way
of standing out. She was manipulative, powerful, independent,
viscious
and cunning. But it is not as much this deluxe package of evil
properties
that makes her so fascinating. It's her unique dispositions.
With all she has gone through - The losses, the betrayal, the
loneliness
and constant fight for survival - it would be easy to feel sorry for
her...
If she did not keep going this one step too far in her reactions time
and
time again. In her hatred for mankind, her quest for vengeance and
power,
she ends up betraying her former ideals and culture and finally even
her
own species, just to reach a goal that has long become obsession:
The eradication of the human species.
After making a Goliath, I knew
that I had to make a Demona to go with
him... or, more appropriately, up against him. And I started
work on her
just about right away. But unfortunately, I kept running into
problems and
long, long luls in motivation, so that I ended up taking so long
that I forgot
a lot of what I did over the course of the creation by the time
that I put the
final touches on her. So, if this summary seems a little short and
murky...
Well, forgive a buffon, will you?
Creation
Disassembling Anne O'Brien, the first problem did not take long to
rear it's head
- Or shoulders. To my great surprise, Toybiz had tried an entirely
unusual system
of intertwined plastic loops to articulate the jacketed shoulders. It
took quite a bit
of effort to jank those things out and naturally left the original
joints unsalvagable.
Fortunately, it was not too difficult to replace these with the arms
of ML Mr. Fantastic.
For reasons unrelated to this custom, I think I ended up
using a cobbled-together hybrid
of the arms from ML7 and the Fantastic Four boxset. Minus one finger
each and plust
sculpted (wire-enforced) elbow spikes, of course. Her bicep bracelet
is obviously
nothing more than wire.
Her torso was sanded to remove the clothing details and resculpted
for Demona's
tattered outfit and her musculature. One might not notice it right
away, but she has
always been depicted as rather muscular on the show, and
I sought to match that look.
The loincloth and belt are made of liquid latex, the belt buckle is
just painted wire.
The wings were another huge problem. Since I could not find
any readily-available wings
(let alone affordable ones), I decided to craft them on my own,
which lead to a ton of
unexpected issues. After I aborted a totally new sculpt,
I used X-23 arms for the basic
structure. It took quite a bit of drilling, cursing and Green Stuff
to finally get those things
to stay attached securely... enough to the back. The arms were
extended with
sculpted-over wire and the clawtips from a cheap, no-brand dinosaur
skeleton toy.
The "skin" of the wings was another stumbling block. After
several attempts
with latex and silicone, I stumbled upon some vinyl, which
finally made the cut.
If you've ever heard someone talking about how hard it is to "get
some tail"...
Chances are, he doesn't know half of it. Once again lacking
luxurious
factory-made parts, I spend countless hours trying to craft a
befitting tail
from scratch. For quite a while, I had hoped to be able to make
it bendy,
but with the materials available to me (the "B-Yellow" solution
and liquid
latex), I just could not make it work. And even a rigid tail
turned out to be
quite a challenge. It takes someone like me a long time to get such a
thing
to look even remotely smooth enough. However, I was able to
include some
very basic articulation by sculpting it's base around a
shoulderjoint.
(If you're counting - That's the fifth arm that this project
absorbed).
The head was merely a chore when it came to figuring out a
base
to use and procuring it in an affordable manner. I finally
settled on
Warrior Lillith - Naturally with some extensive
resculpting.
The very back of the hair came from a Buffy Deluxe Faith
(For flexibility), while the earrings are merely bits of plastic
bands. I pierced those bands with thumbtacks for
circular holes and heated them in this state so that
the shape would be conserved. Then I cut around
those holes.
The legs might be the part that took me the longest to
complete.
It took me a long, long time to properly add and secure
digitigrade
feet and calves, and the final result isn't even very pleasing to the
eyes.
I couldn't even tell you at this point what exactly I did,
but the part
that I remember - Because it's recent and irks me - is that her
left
foot did actually have an aditional cut joint which I had to
glue fused
after some breakage that occured after the paintjob was done.
(To main)