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Fabrication

06

Jul
2015

2 Comments

In Fabrication

By Steve Leeper

Body Parts II: Storm Trooper Underwear

On 06, Jul 2015 | 2 Comments | In Fabrication | By Steve Leeper

Because Br. Thomas is rather portly there was a concern that his girth would interfere with the puppets ability to pose and bend.  Especially if he were cast as a solid block of silicone rubber.

The solution was to give Thomas a rigid set of “storm trooper underwear” that could suspend a piece of lightweight upholstery foam between his chest and hips to fill out his middle without inhibiting movement.

BT PARTS-Underware1400w

I started by cutting an upper and lower section from a casting of the original pattern (see Body Parts I) and grinding away a lot of excess plastic. Did I mention that Thomas is rather portly? :-).

BT PARTS-Pattern_Foam1400w

Then I snipped away at a piece of upholstery foam. . .

BT PARTS-Foam1400w

until between the three parts I had replicated Thomas’ trunk.  Only now they could compress and bend to accommodate an armature.

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Comments

  1. Another thing we used to do with large characters, would be to take a small, sharpened tube and “core” out (or drill/cut out) many small holes in the parts that need to bend or the foam/latex that needs to compress. As long as the character has a costume, or skin, it would maintain it’s bulk and shape but compress nicely.

    • Steve Leeper

      This would be the “swiss Cheese” approach to adding flexibility. 🙂 Thanks for the tip Paul!

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