Patraw's Paper Shenanigans

Your work is amazing Patraw!

Here's a brief look at the construction process of the Alice in Wonderland Ace of Spades miniature action figure I made for the House of Mouse contest. I worked from two reference sources, this shot of the four aces from the film:



And the interactive polygon game model found in the Journal of Square-Enix's 2002 Kingdom Hearts Playstation 2 video game (I absolutely adore in-game bestiaries that detail all its' characters and enemies). You may have noticed that said game's version of the Ace of Spades has a flesh-toned face, black nose, and is armed with an axe, rather than a lance, but I stuck with the film image design, as I felt that looked better. The main benefit of the polygon game model is that you can rotate it to get a good look at Ace of Spades from all angles, which is immensely helpful when you're trying to reproduce something 3-dimensionally.



Once I had all the measurements and visual details I needed from the reference material noted above, I proceeded to lay out the front and back of the card body on paper and then modeled the feet.



Next, I made the arms and the spade-tipped lance. If you look closely, you can see the end of a tiny sewing needle sticking out of the bottom of the lance's handle--that's what I wrapped the paper around to create the two halves of the long, hollow shaft of the weapon (said needle was then removed, once the two lance parts were dry, glued together, and could support their own weight).



Finally, here's the fully assembled, and partially painted, Ace of Spades figure. The squiggly lines you can see in the body are the embedded wires that provide the articulation. I probably should have hidden the bulges created by the wires better, but, given how thin his card-shaped body is, that's easier said than done.

Here are six interchangeable super-deformed mini action figures, based on monsters from Konami's 2008 Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Nintendo DS video game (original Japanese title: 悪魔城ドラキュラ 奪われた刻印, which romanizes as Akumajou Dorakyura Ubawareta Kokuin, and that translates to "Demon Castle Dracula: The Stolen Seal". They're all made from the same basic "blank" body, which was then customized into each unique creature.

Below are a bunch of quick concept sketches, from my notebook, that I drew up, prior to, and during, the modeling process. Design-wise, I was shooting for a fairly simplistic body type, similar to a papercraft or collectible vinyl figurine, that could be made, over-and-over again, relatively quickly. I looked at a variety of commercial products (Funko, Minimates, Gregory Horror Show, etc.), as well as the work of other artists, for inspiration.





This is what the six creatures look like, in sprite form, from the game (left-to-right, Axe Knight, Chosen Une, Draculina, Ghoul, Grave Digger, and Ladycat):



Here are some shots of the construction process. Alas, I forgot to take a photo of the unpainted Grave Digger.

Antlion Larva construction:



Antlion Larva rotation:



Fairy Kitten rotation:

That's how posing my shelf's always goes for me

That shot was a real bugger to set up--it took me around an hour to get it done to my satisfaction. I'd almost have it the way I wanted it, then someone would fall over, knocking over several other figures in a domino effect, and I'd have to set it all up again. It got so bad I was seriously considering glueing some of the characters' feet into place (not to mention flinging the whole shebang across the room in frustration). I probably should have used a hard surface, rather than a T-shirt, for my background, as that would've have been a more stable surface for posing.

Wow!!! I love seeing all the figures you made in 2013 in one picture

Venison and fish sticks for everyone!



Below are several mid-construction photos of my Makara figurine. Until I actually sat down to work on this project, I wasn't sure if I was going to make the simpler, and cuter, DemiKids version or the more realistic Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers one, which is why you see quick reference sketches for both. Ultimately, I split the difference by doing the Soul Hackers version with the DemiKids pose, which I think worked out well.

(First photo, top-left): I messed up the measurements on my initial attempt to make the body (right), so the geometry wouldn't have folded up quite right. That's just as well, because that first version came out bigger than I wanted it to be anyway. My second attempt (left) turned out much better. If I was smart, at this stage of the process I would have colored the interior of the body black, but, because I didn't, later on I ended up having to cut a wooden plank loose on the bottom of the figure so that I could get my paint brush inside.

(Second photo, top-right): This is the figure's body, at the end of the first day of work, lying on top of a quick sketch of the railing and eye, to give myself a rough idea of the dimensions/proportions I wanted for those pieces. Later, when I made those components, I took my measurements directly from this illustration.

(Middle two photos): This is the state of the Scare-case figurine at the end of the second day of modeling. I added the railing, legs, and upper row of teeth.

(Bottom two photos): Here's the completed, but unpainted, figurine at the end of the third day of work. The arm, spiked club, and eye are the new additions. All that remains to be done are some finishing touch-ups/detailing and the paintwork. With the exceptions of the arm, teeth, eye, and spike, the figure is entirely hollow, so, it weighs very little.

Below are a series of photos depicting the Cursed Demon figure at various stages of the modeling process. I started by making the legs, which is my usual approach to quadruped creatures, then proceeded onwards to the body and tail, and finished things up with the neck, head, and horns. I then went over it with a woodburner to dry/harden/smooth the papier mache and add some textural detail (that's the brown coloration you see in the final photo).



While I didn't plan it that way, it turned out that the Cursed Demon is just the right scale for many of my miniature action figures to used as a mount:



Here's the Baphomet figure I mentioned in the Cursed Demon's contest description, which, again, ended up looking like crap, which is why I made the Cursed Demon instead:



And here's 360 degree views of the Centaur and Master Ninja figures I made for the previous two contests (I actually tried to do work-in-progress shots for both, but my camera's batteries just happened to croak on me both times, go figure).





And a Silenus digital palette swap mockup of the Centaur:

Your stuff always blows me
Away....

so awesome to see more work from a master. always love to look at your thread.

The Walking Bread:

They're actually pretty easy to make, I used a sewing needle of roughly the same diameter as the doll's fingers to build the rings on. When you're done painting and everything, you can also cut a slit in the bottom so that the ring can expand slightly to fit different finger thicknesses (the rings fit the ring and pinkie fingers fine as-is, but the middle and pointer fingers were thicker, so the rings would only go down to about the first or second knuckle until I added that slit).

That's amazing!!! I can't believe you were able to make removable rings for a doll that size!!!

Harbinger:





This is some papier mache doll jewelry (three rings, three bangles/bracelets, and a necklace) that I made for my Monster High Create-A-Monster Werewolf & Dragon set on August 20 and 21, 2013. With the exception of the black sewing thread I employed to hold the necklace and the red-and-gold bracelet together, everything is made out of paper and white glue. All the pieces are painted with acrylics, except for the woven sky-blue/pink/yellow bracelet which was braided entirely from colored paper "snakes" of those hues. Those tiny rings are incredibly easy to lose--I had to get down on my hands and knees and hunt around on the carpet, with a flashlight, more than once after dropping one, an exercise which was accompanied by a great deal of profanity.

Thanks! I generally like to leave my toys in their natural state, but, once in a great while I'll customize one, although usually it's more of a repair/replacement thing like this, rather than converting it into another character. I was into customizing Barbies for a while years ago, but my interest in that tapered off.

I did wonder when I saw you using a plastic figure....... Did I click on the wrong thread?, this can't be Patraw using a base figure can it? then I scrolled up (my down button is bust so I can only scroll up) and saw what you did and thus, my faith was restored. Great work here dude, the new appendage looks spot on!!

Along with three other small action figures and a 12" Liv doll, I found this 3-3/4" Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron Nrin Vakil at a local thrift store for a mere twenty-five cents + sales tax Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, he was missing his right forearm, so I modeled a replacement Saturday morning. I made the new appendage out of newsprint, white glue, and wire, painted it with acrylics, and sealed it with a thin coat of white glue to give it a subtle plastic-like sheen to match the rest of the figure. While my handiwork might not pass close scrutiny (I didn't quite get the skin tone to match), it's certainly good enough to fool a casual observer. And, if you're wondering, yes, the cut joint where the forearm attaches is still 100% functional.

Ultron:



Monitor:





Above are several mid-construction photos of my Monitor figure. The first picture illustrates the leg building process; seven of them are finished and the eighth is almost done. The second image shows all the legs assembled and joined together at the body (looks like a sea spider, doesn't it?) While nothing may seem amiss, I actually goofed up pretty bad here. At this stage, each pair of legs loosely rotated at the hips, like a car's wheels, instead of the individual legs moving stiffly and independently of one another, which is not at all what I wanted (in other words, when you moved the first leg on the left, its counterpart on the right also turned with it). There was an easy way to prevent that from occurring (by bending a small "catch" loop in the center of the wire running between the legs, at a 90 degree angle, which would have prevented the limb pairs from rotating as a unit), but, for whatever reason, it slipped my mind until it was too late (I think too much usage of my stock Cylin-Dra MKII humanoid body lately, which does not require that step in the leg assembly process, has made me sloppy/complacent). I was able to correct things to some extent by ripping apart the body shown and doing some rebending, but, short of completely breaking the legs down into their smaller components again and spending a considerable amount of time restringing them on new wire, which I was not willing to attempt, there was only so much I could do, and, as a result, the robot's body ended up being bigger and thicker than what I wanted it to be, although, in the end, I guess it doesn't look too shabby. The final pair of images depict the head mounted on the new lower body assembly from two different angles. I later added some more details here-and-there, but, the modeling/fabrication process was just about complete at this point.



And, if anybody's interested, here's a link to my SaGa 3 colored sprite bestiary, if you'd like to see all the enemies in the game (maybe one of the designs will appeal to you for a custom--if you've got an extra Marvel Comics Thing lying around, Chaos would be an easy project).

No, I don't pre-treat the paper in any way, I just cut or tear it directly off the sheet.

The paper is generally soft enough to take indentations/impressions from tools, but I don't completely soak my paper strips like most papier mache artists do. I only cover one side of the paper with undiluted white glue, I don't use water at all. I seldom use a woodburner anymore, for health reasons (inhaling all that smoke, even with an open window, isn't good for my lungs, and I was always giving my poor fingers nasty burns to boot). I mostly use my fingers, sewing needles, tweezers, and pliers, to shape the paper.

I seldom use molds, although I do experiments with them on occasion like the Monster High body above. I've often found that it takes more time for me to make the molds, do the casts, and then wait for them to dry than it would have to just sculpt all the pieces individually the hard way.

I don't know how to fix the Mozilla difficulties you're having (I'd speculate that it's likely connected to Photobucket, my image host)--I've always used Internet Explorer, so that's what I test my pages out with when I update my site or work on it offline at home. I still do all my html coding the old school way, in Microsoft Notepad, so maybe my web page design is just too archaic for newer browsers, I dunno...

As I mentioned in my PM to you ...wonderful and inspirational work

Questions: Are you pre treating your paper in any way (I.e. boiling, soaking, softening, etc.) before applying glue and beginning the layering process?

Also..is the glue soaked paper soft enough to make organic indentations I.e. is that how you are sculpting detail with your wood burner / soldering iron (especially with regard to the face and torso of figures) or are you making molds for the small parts like you did for the Monster High figure above?

I'd like to try your paper method before going back to the way I make my poseable miniature figures but I want to make a paper figure test piece to see which is the better medium for me (and my level of patience lol) so answers to the questions above will help in that regard.

I had a chance to take a look at your website gallery and there are some pieces on it that I consider art. Wonderful execution!

P.S. For some reason I can't see your website pictures when using Mozilla Firefox (only I.E.).

Resident Evil: Outbreak Regis Licker




Here are several mid-construction photos of the Regis Licker figure. The top picture is a shot of the finished, but unpainted, model. You can also see several intestine pieces (most of which I didn't use), and other debris, lying around her feet. The next image, in the lower left, shows the disassembled pieces, secured by clamps, drying after receiving their first two coats of paint. The third photo, in the lower right, depicts the reassembled figure almost finished. All that's missing are the dangling intestines, hair, and tattered tanktop.

Outlaw Tennis Afrodite




Above is a photo of my Afrodite figure midway through the assembly and painting processes. On the left are some colored pencil test patterns for her dress (I went with the lower one).

Here are several mid-construction photos taken on Day 1 (7/10/13). The first picture, in the upper left, is a shot of all of Cindy's unassembled parts. The next image, in the upper right, is Cindy partially assembled. The third photo, in the lower left is the fishnet stocking pattern that will eventually be applied to her legs. And the final picture, in the lower right, is Cindy in the middle of the painting and final assembly processes.

Here are some mid-construction photos of the Alien figure at the end of Day 1 (6/26/13). The legs, body, tentacles, and head are finished and have received their first two coats of paint, but the arms are still incomplete, and I have yet to make the cape or shoulder pads.









Here are a couple of mid-construction photos taken on Day 2 (7/5/13). The picture on the left depicts the finished figure, partially assembled, immediately before painting. The image on the right was taken several hours later, mid-way through the painting and final assembly processes. I hadn't made the tattered shirt accessory at this point and I later modified the head a bit as well. I think the face turned out a bit too happy-looking (I keep seeing Hobbes, from the classic Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, in that visage instead of a ferocious therianthrope), but, considering that you can actually encounter friendly Weretigers in the game, it's not entirely inappropriate.


Back row, left-to-right: Katt (Breath of Fire II), Razorclaw (Transformers), and Byakko (Plasma Sword).
Middle row, left-to-right: Gimme Cat (Final Fantasy IX), Purse Cat (original design), Zenene (Final Fantasy VII), and Chewy Cat (original design).
Front row, left-to-right: Cham Cham - 2P Colors (Samurai Shodown 2), Weretiger (Wizardry Side Story II: Curse of the Ancient Emperor), Scratch (TMNT III: The Radical Rescue), and Jagwar (Archie TMNT Comics).


My Samurai Shodown 2 Cham Cham (2P colors) figure's real hair got eaten(!) by some inconsiderate beetles while it was in storage, so, I replaced her original dyed cat hair tresses with colored paper locks on 7/7/13, which I know said insects won't devour. The new hair hides the pointy ears, but I guess it looks all right--it's better than being bald at any rate.

Simply amazing!!!

Because I wanted a consistent scale/look for the "Lethal Ladies" project, all five of the characters were made from the same mini action figure template, shown below, and then modified as necessary (extra arms for Kali, a completely different lower body for Gorgon, wings for Morrigan and Sylph, etc.) This design is essentially a smaller/slimmer version of my "Cylin-dra" female base body that I've used a couple of times in the past.



These are a couple of other mini action figure prototypes I made a while ago.


Some 360 degree views of recent contest entries:

Very nice stuff as usual, the newspaper on the original sculpt of the last figure gives it a certain charm to it.

And personally, I like the proportions of the batwing (and love the final result). I think the build helps give it a retro look, feels like there's a big cockpit with not much body around it (aside from the wing itself) which feels nicely 60s.

So, here's the Batwing. In retrospect, I think I should have built the center of the bat symbol (the cockpit) up a bit thicker--the Batwing is supposed to be a slim craft, but I think mine ended up being a bit too skinny...






Here are some casting exercises that I did several days ago. The figure is a smaller version of Mattel's 11" Monster High female body that I modeled from scratch (I added ankle articulation, but, other than that, it's a pretty similar build). I only made molds for the head and torso, and, while everything worked out pretty well, I'm probably not going to make any actual figures out of all this stuff, despite wasting many hours on the project (I did briefly consider making a Monster High version of Cheetah for the DC Nation custom contest). I have no idea why, but I've kind of been obsessed with Monster High in general since I watched the "Mom-ster Day" marathon of Monster High movies/specials that Nickelodeon played on Mother's Day.




I didn't take any mid-construction photos of my Resident Evil: Code Veronica Albinoid figure, but here's the 360 degree rotation, which I think came out very well. Psycho Crusher!!!

riginal">

That sword (in truth, a dagger, but Kobolds are so small, it's functionally a sword for them) is actually pretty simplistic in form and didn't take very long to make. There's really nothing more to it than the flat blade, crossguard, hilt, and O-ring pommel.

I love that detail you put on the sword of the Skeleton Kobold. I can't wait to see your next creation.

this is so awesome, great work again bud.

loving all the projects. I am so impressed with everything, perfect on all accounts and even your sketches are epic. keep em coming.

Lovely figures, great anatomy considering their size.

Great work as usual, I am always amazed by the amount of detail you put in these little guys!!!

******

Wow! That's amazing!!!

Muttshroom

Raptor Mech [1997 Turok: Dinosaur Hunter video game.]



More photos/information: http://www.angelfire.com/ult/ace/raptor_mech.html

wow....very creative

Phantom Fencer














Divebomb

Donatello! Gotta love the turtles. He looks great. Tyrant looks fantastic painted too.

spider-mvc: Sometimes I just lose interest in things while I'm making them, even if they're almost finished. It's highly unlikely that I'll complete that Silent Hill Romper figure, as I've already moved on and made several other figures since then.

terryzom: I finished the Frankenstein figure some time ago, it's posted here in Figure Realm's Custom Showcase, or you can view it at my web site:

Beautiful work as always. Your horror/fantasy works always inspire me, but the C'vania ones especially hit home. Can't wait to check out Frank and the Hunchback.

still more greatness from the master of minatures, always love your work.