MORE MAKING OF REVENGE-BOT!

Drawing with the sharpie was the best way to get the position of the plates rivets and other important landmarks of the figure onto the foam.

At this point I was using dowel rods to check the angles of the arms, legs, etc. Since I am used to working on the fly when I make smaller sculpts, basically tweaking various parts as I assemble to see the position and proportion.

I worked with welder Erik James who is a fantastic welder with an artists eye in the same way. As I would shape the dowel rod with pieces of flexible armature wire at the joints. Erik would take the shapes as they were and cut the metal and weld on the spot.

We put the whole body up on buckets to raise it to the approximate level of it's finished height. This also included getting the neck and head position correct. Mocking things up is the best way for me to see it. My plans were close but you never know until you get a good look. This was mocked up to the plan but in reality much too long so it was shortened by a neck link.

Also the claw had to be the right length. I was using PVC pipes over the metal stock then the flanged parts were cut from tiki torch ends. Eventually all the legs were set.

Now the feet had to be placed. They each had a flat metal plate that would finish off the foot and bear the load. I had sculpted each foot the week before and cut out plywood rectangles to fit on the bottom.

The tricky part was placing the foam foot holding it high enough so Erik could weld the plate then affix the plate to the wood with epoxy. This photo shows a bit of the plates sticking out below the raised up feet. A strong foundation was the key to holding this whole thing up. Plus the fact more weight was going to be added on.

Now came the time to fill in all the gaps with the Windlock Foam. Even with the metal plates secured with epoxy to the foot bottoms there was still empty space inside the foot that needed to be filled just for a more sound structure. Next stop, more sculpting.