CMON Contest 23 -- Kisa & Scratch? No.. that won't do...

[PegaZus]

COMPLETED: CMON Contest 23 -- Kisa & Scratch? No.. that won't do...

Howdy howdy all CMONers. I figure I'll do a WIP for this contest. It's been nearly a year since I last posted a mini to my gallery, which was a Soda Pop mini as well (Candy & Cola). I've got a Wolfen from that sharing thing that's been sitting on my desk waiting for me to finish the diorama (need to make some trees and such). But there's nothing like a contest to get me off my duff. Okay, the mini for the contest has to be interesting as well.

First off, as you may know, it's Kisa and Scratch. The stock photo is okay, and is helping to figure out which fiddly bits are what.

And some of those bits are thin and weak. I pulled out what I thought was the "tail" and it was the staff instead! Some gentle pushes and pulls and I've got it straight for the most part. I'm seriously considering leaving the flash on the staff handle in order to strengthen it. Maybe give it some OSL flame effect. I worry that if I take the flash off and start painting it, the brush will bend it. It is that flimsy.

I'm going to have the same problem with the "real tail". I can sort of see a divot on the back where the tail might attach, but at the current angle it is bent at, it comes out between her legs, and looks like something it shouldn't. I believe I will leave it off completely. The spot on the back where I think it attaches won't even need to be filled in.

So now for the overall concept. Kisa? Scratch? Prepare to be renamed! They are now Kit and Kat! I think the girl is Kit, and the cat is, er, Kat. Kit is a Chocolate Priestess! So, some dark skin tones coming for her, and her outfit will be the orange, white, and yellow of the American version candy wrapper. I thought about using some Nestle wrappers instead, but think I need it to be the American. Adds in the yellow you see. Plus, it fits in with what the priestess is calling into existence!

Kit and Kat will be mounted on top of a Hershey's chocolate bar (no almonds), with the wrapper slightly torn away to reveal the brown goodness (?) underneath. I haven't decided if I'm going to use a real bar, make a plaster copy of one, or just use one of the candy toys from the kids' toybox to make a copy. She'll be standing on the wrapper side, and in front of her and coming out of the unwrapped chocolate will be little minion Kisses. I'll have several who have already found their legs and others that are forming out of the bar still yet.

So, for tonight, I'm going to settle with just getting the parts cleaned off, and while I work, ponder how to make the Minion Kisses and the bar.

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Ahh, I like the concept sounds very interesting!!

dfb

 

[PegaZus]

Decided to see about some pinning tonight. Uh, not going to happen. My smallest bit just isn't small enough, and I wouldn't have any pins small enough anyway. I'd have to chop up the bit and use it.

On the plus side, when I was trying to drill the holes, I found some more mold lines. Probably going to have some after I finish painting anyway, but better to get all that I can now.

So, tomorrow's plan is to superglue the pieces to something disposable, possibly toothpicks or Popsicle sticks, then hit it with some primer. I thought about something that would dissolve in water (stick candy, cheap lollipops, etc) but figure that wouldn't be good for the paint. So pictures tomorrow, but they'll be nothing but white. Progress at least.

Still haven't fully decided on the base yet (real bar or mold of one). I'm leaning mold, but want to use a real candy for the impression instead of the toy for two reasons. First, I can reuse the wrappers (scratch off one paint job). And second, making a mold will allow me to match the minions and the bar so they truly look like they are the same. Now for a trip to Hobby Lobby to see about some non-toxic molding makers. For some reason, I can buy a $15 hunk of metal to give a horrible paint job but I can't allow myself to ruin $1 worth of chocolate. Go figure.

 

[PegaZus]

Had a heck of a time getting these pieces glued to the popsicle sticks. Which I hope translates into being easy to remove from them at well.

Anyway, all primed and awaiting the first set of base coats.

As for the base, I stopped at Hobby Lobby yesterday to buy a molding kit. So many choices, and I finally settled on a rather nice one. $69.99 nice. Uh, that's a little pricey. But, I have time, right? So I'll wait until Sunday when they usually print a 40% coupon in the paper. Course, last Sunday's paper didn't have one... so maybe not this weekend either. Not sure what I'll do if they don't have it.

And for my last woe, I forgot that they don't make the paper & foil covers for the candy bars anymore! So now I'm stuck either using the cheesy plastic wrapper, possibly adding my own foil to it, or trying to print out a paper version and adding my own foil to it. Hmm...

Oh, and here's a quick pic. CW from top left: the staff, the loin cloth, the two-fingered salute, Kat, and at the bottom is Kit. Realized while priming her that I probably glued her to the wrong end of the stick. Would have been better for her to face me on the right hand side, as I'll want to concentrate on the front details. Oh well, I suppose I'll cope!

 

[PegaZus]

Rough day, so I didn't manage to actually paint. But did realize that I had zero clue on exactly how I was going to paint her. So, out comes da Gimp and a quick color test. I did try to swap the orange and yellow for her clothing, but it just looked wrong.

Two things I'm struggling with are the jewels and the headdress. I believe I'm going to go with white jewels, and maybe some metallic silver for the headdress. I tired using green jewels, but that just looked so off. And I think the same would be for the head and staff. So... what to do? I thought about making it just white, then laughed at the thought of putting some chocolate spots there (Cookies & Creme anyone?), but doubted that it would look right either. So maybe in my sleep tonight, I can come up with something better.

But in the meantime, here's the current color scheme (using the stock photo here on CMON):

 

[PegaZus]

Got the first set of base coats on. Little grainy on the skin, so I'll have to work that.

 

[PegaZus]

So I killed a candy bar...

No paint laid down today, but I did use my 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby to score the big Alumalite mold starter kit. I was figuring on getting the bigger size so I could let the kids and wife do some fun stuff with the extras later.

There's not a lot of extra left however. I probably used up 3/4 of the jar of silicone mold material just to cover ONE candy bar. Oh, sure, I'll be able to make resin bars out the wazoo, but I just don't think that's the same. The taste isn't really close.

Anyway, snagged a bunch of Legos, as they're pretty easy to find here. In the carpet, on the tables, stuffed in the couch, etc. Kid won't miss 'em. Made a little box around the candy bar which was glued down to the lid of a plastic box. RIP poor candy bar*. Was a bit disappointed in the clay that was used to seal off the bottom. It's super sticky and a bit oily. Still, everything is doing what I wanted it to do.

I'm hoping that I can demold it all in the morning, which would be an eight hour cure, but it is possible I'll need to wait a bit longer. And had another nasty thought: I sure hope that the curing process isn't too exothermic or else I'm going to have one big Hershey squirt.

*Still might convince myself to eat some. Knock off the non-toxic white glue, peel off the non-toxic silicon and I might have something digestible.

 

[PegaZus]

Demolded the candy bar this morning, and I don't think it'll be on the menu. Looked okay for the most part, some white residue all over the top, but the back... ew. I used some white glue on the back to keep it down on the lid figuring I could peel that off later and enjoy myself a sugary snack. It looked more like the two had melted together... so into the trash it went.

I wound up using probably twice as much silicone as I needed. I was wondering why it was so much as I mixed it late last night, as it seemed a lot. It set a lot heavier and stronger than I'd thought it would be. Guess I was thinking of those silicone oven pans. But, noob mistake that is part of the experience. And 2/3rds of the family is eying the remaining molding material. The other 1/3rd was still asleep, so it'll be unanimous by the end of the day. I'll have to save next weeks 40% coupon for more supplies.

The mold itself is beautiful. I'll have to do more of them.

Must not visit Hirst Arts. Must not visit Hirst Arts.

Didn't work. Visited.

 

[PegaZus]

Got the candy bar all cast and ready to be reworked.

The instructions had said if the mold was painted first, then resin would fuse with the paint and lift it from the mold. What you see above is the result of that. I haven't touched it up yet, so that's just the mold paint. I like it!

More newbie mistakes, as I probably should have let the paint dry quite a bit more. That's the damage you see on some parts. But, since I'm planning to cut this up a lot, I'm really not that concerned. The part that's back in the wrapper is much nicer, so that'll probably be the visible part when I get it all done.

So that's nearly it for the base. I have some work I need to do to get it and the minions to where I want them. The cheap craft paint looks like the chocolate (on sale at Michael's this week, total of 34 cents including tax!), and with the same paint the chocolate minions will match. Should look pretty cool when I am finished.

I was also going to post a pic of the mold, but decided a large white chunk isn't that exciting.

 

[JMichael]

great idea with the candy bar base and colors. Looking forward to the finished mini!

 

[PegaZus]

Got to slap some paint on last night. Highlights on the orange areas and skin.

I'm thinking I might have to redo the leg on the left in the picture. Some reason I didn't notice the dark lines on either side. But this is close to all I had planned for the skin and orange parts.

 

[BPI]

Nice one Pegazus, this is fun reading & the bar has come out really well. I hadn't heard of applying the paint to the mold before, doesn't look as though it could have worked any better, I'm really impressed :good:

If you've time (when's the deadline anyway?) I'd suggest highlighting the orange further & then glazing it back with yellow and/or orange ink, perhaps work some red into the shady parts? It should help to smooth your blends

If the flesh is starting to feel a bit bumpy, try applying a layer of matt varnish to smooth it a bit & then work over the top of that for further highlighting. I'm wondering if a touch of Regal Blue (or perhaps something greener) mixed in with the brown to shade her flesh a little more (underboob, etc) & to provide nice contrast with the orange robe?

Keep up the good work, cheers, B.

 

[PegaZus]

The deadline for putting up a post is Sept 30th, so I'll try another set of highlights on the orange and the gloss. Thanks for the advice!

Won't be able to do anything about it until Monday. Weekend plans have filled all the slots.

 

[PegaZus]

I went a little backwards I think. Now the highlights are too subtle. I did do the gloss on the skin, and I think it smoothed it a bit, but still going to be rough. Hopefully, it'll smooth out on the picture when everything is assembled.

Also in setbacks, I am not worried about getting the parts off of the mounts now. She fell off setting up for the picture, hitting the desk on the way down, and that's the scratch in the left leg you see. So, that's going to need to be reworked. Still, I suppose it could have been worse.

I think I'm at the point now that I reach in all my projects where I just want to start over. I'm not going to, but I'm at that point.

 

[PegaZus]

No pictures this time (running late), but I've repaired the scratch on the leg, and shaded the flesh a bit. I've also started to put some gray on the detail parts where it'll be white or light yellow. Managed to get Kat and her arms done, but then didn't get to the main body before dinner. So moved on to the chocolate bar.

And that's when the pain started.

First, I couldn't find it. I know my son offered to go upstairs and find it, as I had left it out for him to show his sister when we first made it. He rises early, she rises late. So I trudge upstairs to find it. Spend nearly thirty minutes trying to find it. Not on the wife's desk, not on the shelves, not on the counters. It just isn't here. So go back down to put things away... and it's on my painting desk, just where I told him to put it.

Fine, fine. Let's just get to cutting. I'm planning to have a slightly absorbed look to one edge as all the minions are created out of it, so I need to cut it at an angle and make it sort of roundish in spots. Since I want it to be a fairly smooth and curvy edge, I'll use my jewelry saw that I've bought for just this thing. Pull it out, start cutting, and I break the blade. Great! Where's those spare blades.

Guess what I spend the next 30 minutes looking for?

Finally find them and replace the blade. Proceed to cutting again, and snap the blade again almost immediately. The break is just on one end, so I shorten the saw and clamp the blade back down again. Time for more sawing.

And I snap it again.

Throw all the broken blades out and into the garage I go. Pull out the scroll saw with the less than fine blade and make short work of what I wanted. Brought it back in, sanded it, and took a couple of pictures. But since I stayed up so late, I overslept and now don't have time to post a picture. Tonight!

 

[PegaZus]

Don't really have a good pictures of the chocolate bar, although you can see it with the minion "kisses" below. Fresh out of the oven, ready for a light sanding to remove the finger prints. Kids did quite a few too, but no picture of them.

They will be painted the same chocolate color, as they're supposed to have been made from the bar. Then some orange and yellow eyes, with a bit of OSL to emphasize the glowing magical nature of them and they're done. I thought about trying to put little legs on them, but that just seemed to be full of frustration.

For some reason, they look a LOT bigger in the picture than they really are. Course, scale is going to be absolutely nothing when I get through with this, but I can foresee that it'll be a problem when trying to get a good fully focused picture. I also worry about how in the world I'm going to get everything together for one shot too. I don't think I've got a background big enough.

 

[PegaZus]

Sat down with the kids last night and painted the Kisses minions. They've made some as well, so we made it a family thing. They're a little upset I don't plan to include theirs in the contest submission, so I might have to make a "family" non-contest picture as well. No pictures yet, as this is another busy weekend, but I'll get some before the weekend is out.

Schedule for this weekend: eyes & mouths on the Kisses, gray over the light details on Kit and Kat, pain those light details, and then Kit's face. I probably should have done that before everything else, but I forgot. One thing I'm pondering if I have enough time for is to make a mount for the figures using the chocolate bar texture. My thinking is that I can seal off a part of the mold, pour a small amount of resin in, then put that onto the base of the figure. It'll look a little strange because I'm going to have her standing on the wrapper, so the candy-base will be a bit scene-breaking. But, then she'd be a good stand-alone.

And writing that out, I realize I don't have to have her on the bar. Put her 90 degrees, so she's at the edge, and it'll work too. Think I'll do that.

Course, I've locked myself into a side project this afternoon when we've got friend's coming over. Realized I can probably use the mold making stuff to make the kids Silly Bands (that this year's craze). And I'm so nuts about trying to make molds, I agreed to it readily. Probably shouldn't have.

 

[PegaZus]

Got the last bit of work done over this weekend. Just need to assemble the pieces together, then start working on my photography!

First up, the finished minion Kisses!

I liked the gloss coat on them, so I didn't hit them with any matte. I probably made the eyes too deep in a couple places, but not a lot I can do with them now. So they're done.

Next, played with my chocolate bar mold again. Wanted to make a nice easy disk of the bar for the base. Problem was that the clay wouldn't stick to the silicone mold, and I finally had to give up on it. Just poured a small amount of casting resin straight into the painted mold and let it harden up. Interestingly enough, when I did it the first time, the crystallization (for lack of a better word) seemed to happen all at once, yet this small pour seemed to take a more gradual approach. I'm going to say that it was because the mold was colder and the pour was small. The first time, I'd microwaved the mold to warm it up per instructions, but that bubbled the pain some (which probably wasn't dry anyway). But as I felt pressed for time, I didn't bother with the microwave. So I think having it colder made the solidification go slower.

And now, my nearly finished Kat and Kit! Probably not my best work, but my best work doesn't score that high anyway. So I'll just go off and enjoy what I've done and wait until next year's contest until I paint again.

Please, somebody drop by and slap me if I don't paint anything until next year. Completely unacceptable that I get pulled away from the things I enjoy. Well, 'cept the pulling things are usually things I enjoy too. And to believe at one point in the last decade I actually grumbled about not having any hobbies.

I'm sure they'll look better when they're in position with the rest of the diorama, so here's the closeup, warts and all.

 

[Ghiest1]

I really like the creative bend you took to this, even if the painting is not Jarhead ( I dont think anyone is, good god, looks for his talent stealing ray!) level. I also like the project because it is not olny unique, but because you drew your family into the project, which may create further modelers and painters! I am not sure how the rules go for this one, but you should get some points for creativity

 

[PegaZus]

Thanks for the words. Actually, in the last contest I entered with Soda Pop minis, I actually did get a secondary prize for the creativity, which was completely unexpected. Do I expect it this time? Of course!

Kidding, actually. I just needed a kick in the pants. Seems I only paint when I'm entering a contest, so my painting level probably has gotten worse over time. I think I remember when I was in the top 5000, not the lowly 6291 it appears that I am today. Does it bother me? Yes, but only bothersome in that I don't pull the brushes out more often. Got that mountain of minis I need to complete, ya know.

And as for the family event, I'd almost prefer a little less involvement. You've no idea the places where we've found my putty after one of the kids decides to sculpt something. However, it's such a proud papa moment when both spawn remember to properly clean their brushes between dips into the paint.

I wonder what their teachers at school think? "But Mrs Z, we don't have any inks for glazes with these finger paints! How will I ever get it painted right?!"

Anyway, Kit and Kat are assembled and I'm waiting for tomorrow's afternoon sun to illuminate the light tent. Thank god I'm not using real chocolate. That'd be a mess.

Speaking of messing, it was really a mess trying to get this mini assembled. Remember how I wrote that it was easy to get the mini parts off of the sticks? Even to the point where it fell off? No such luck last night. Guess paint has some mystical powers of adhering to superglue. The back of the loin cloth was stripped of paint down a ways, but that'll be hidden regardless. Figured it might help make the cloth glue on easier. Nope. Spent probably fifteen minutes trying to get it to stay in place. I'm really wondering if my superglue is still working right. Just seems to want to stay liquid and not solidify.

The arms were even worse as they didn't have nearly the area I would have liked. She kept wanting to point down, and it was very tiring after four minutes of trying to hold her arms in one position.

The other problem was that I bent her feet pulling her off the stick. So she didn't fit quite right, and as I was putting the arms on, she kept rocking back on her heels. I really didn't want to try to bend them back, so I got one foot flat, and the other I shoveled some white glue under her heel. I'll have to coat that a bit with the chocolate paint to hide it a bit better. Put Kat in the back, watching her back, so that'll hide things a bit as well.

So, race nearly finished. Quality pictures tomorrow with a variety of poses. I'll see which one works best and should have a submission tomorrow night. I'll probably have a family picture of the kiss minions too.

Oh, another proud papa moment? The kids wondering who in the neighborhood can become their minions. Oh, yes, my children! Conquer the world! Muhahahahahah!!!!!