binky's headsculpts

Vampire Willow custom headsculpt

Here are some fuzzy photos of the headsculpts I am working on. I got too lazy to dig out my macro lens and just tried to use my regular zoom, so, fuzzy.

I started making these for myself and a friend a while back. Gotta admit, I don't feel any urgency to finish. I don't have any plans of selling copies (1. I have no illusions that they're good enough, 2., painting is a chore), so if anyone else is making an evil Willow or a Tara head for production, I'll be in the market to buy either, if it's a nice sculpt. Heck, I might buy two, one for myself, one for my friend's figure.

Human vampire Willow:


This one's half way there. It's like the 3rd draft so far (draft meaning, I have a mold of this head). She still has helmet hair, so I'm going to redo it before I make mold 4.

Tara (early draft):


Lots of work yet to do on this one, around the mouth and ears, and of course hair. Have to keep neck articulation, so it will most likely mean hair up. Maybe next week.

binky

The Tara facial features are great - especially the eyes/nose.

I can't see anything.

I can't see them either!

Just red "X"s for me as well.

I could see the human willow sculpt last night, but not this morning, odd. It was good though!

Sorry, I was trying to consolidate some directories, they should show up now. I need one big site instead of 5 little ones.

The Tara facial features are great - especially the eyes/nose.

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Thanks! After looking at more Amber Benson photos, I'm going to lower her eyebrows just a little bit.

I could see the human willow sculpt last night, but not this morning, odd. It was good though!

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That's kind of you to say HA, thanks.

hunky_artist said:

I could see the human willow sculpt last night, but not this morning, odd. It was good though!

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I was getting red crosses last night... but they're both there this morning and rather glorious they are too. Especially like the Tara; most impressive especially for an early draft - if you start selling casts you've got a definite customer here - for any bald versions too as I'll be wanting to try some wigging experiments.

Keep up the great work

Nick

Your Williow looks fantastic, SO much better than Sideshow's attempt at "human" Willow.

Can't tell so much on the Tara w/o seeing it with hair, but wow, I'll buy a Willow sculpt, painted or not, hair or not.

Your work on Willow is amazing. tara, as you well pointed out, needs some work. So far, I love her, but i can't see Amber Benson in there. I agree, the mouth and ears need to be re-done. I'm sure you will do an excellent job and I can't wait to see it!

Maybe I'm crazy but the second photo looks like the same sculpt as the Willow - without the hair. I only see two photos - am I missing something?

I'd certainly be up for one of the Willow sculpts

Hi, thought it was time to post some more pictures, even though I haven't made a lot of progress since last time. First, thanks to everyone who's commented. I'm my own toughest critic, so believe me, I'm happy to hear suggestions for improving my stuff--not necessarily bashing, cause, well, no one likes that, but constructive criticism is good.

Maybe I'm crazy but the second photo looks like the same sculpt as the Willow - without the hair. I only see two photos - am I missing something?

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FF, I have to admit, this comment kind of shocked me at first given how different the actors look, then I started laughing. I'll plead it was my fuzzy photography and hope they look more distinctive side by side.



Bald Willow (smirk/sneer):



I was going to do a re-sculpt with a more trademark AH wide-eyed expression, but I guess I'll continue my snail's pace and just wait to see what some of the talented artists like HA come up with.

Bald Tara (draft 2):



I've tried some sculpted up-dos, but I'm keen on trying a soft hair option. I admit haven't done too much work on Tara because of the hair thing. Almost every episode I remember, she had her hair down. The other thing that's holding me up is neck connections. I myself have only used either Sideshow or Dragon Eve 2.0 bodies for female customs. The Dragons aren't really widely available any more plus the necks have a horrible appearance (pencil neck, and the connection is at the base of the throat so open collar outfits don't look great) but they're by far the easiest to use. The Art Buck female can be had cheaply but they're a pain to adapt and I know some people just don't like them, especially the ones with the boot feet. The Blue Box generic CY girls have just become widely available again (yay, at least one option), and I've gone ahead and ordered a couple from goodstufftogo.net to try for Tara, but I'm not sure even the smaller breast plate would be suitable for a Willow or down the line an Anya or Fred, and I don't remember how their height(s) go. Plus I don't know how easy adapting a custom head to the neck is going to be. I also ordered a couple of Triad A-cups but from what I can tell, they're basically the same as BBI/CY girls?

Anyway I guess I'm asking if anyone has any thoughts about what neck style or body they prefer. Right now I have these flanges along with a separate neck piece that I thought would work for maximum versatility, but now find it's a PITA sanding the lip down each and every one after a cast is made for a SS or CY girl body. Is there a website somewhere that has a breakdown of the different female bodies available? I had one years ago but it's really out of date now, and I got rid of all my CY girls over a year ago.

binky

I can definitely see the difference now. I think it was the angle of Willow and Tara having a slightly crooked smile (which the actress does a lot) which made them look similar to me. I can't wait to see the finished Tara because she is one of my favorites!

I insist, your Willow is AMAZING.

Very nice work. I think it might be easier to see the resemblance with with some photoshopped hair.
Anyone good with that on the Whedonville forum?

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I got my BBI perfect bodies today and was a little surprised that they now do include an A cup as the alternate chest piece. However, the regular breastplate looks like a D, at least. It comes in at about 5' 7" in bare feet. Given all that, I don't think I'll be using it for Tara after all. The good news is that it's pretty similar to the Sideshow neck-wise. That made it easier to give up on trying to accommodate the Dragon neck, and focus exclusively on a Sideshow or CY/PB neck style. Dragon Eves are getting hard to find anyway. Since that's settled I think I'll be ready to mold VW pretty soon, after just a little more tweaking.

ETA 4/11/07 - Also got my Triads from their direct web today--wow, these are some fast vendors I've dealt with this week. I placed both orders on 4/6/07. To correct myself - The Triad 1.0 A-cup is in fact a different body than the BBI PB. It's shorter than the PB, about 5'5", which is fine for most of the Buffy actresses. The neck connector is similar to the PB, but with a little less throat. Should work out fine, especially when they come up with the larger chest sizes.

Any news on the headsculpts, Binky?

Nick

Yep. I am definitely down for a Willow - I'd even be happy with a cast of what you've done so far.

Of course it will be going to DA to paint....

Hi guys,

I have made some progress, thanks for asking. Still trying to figure out how to wig a head. I did up a couple of molded hair versions that I'm going to use for the June custom female figure challenge in the customs area (some AU versions of both characters--kinda wacky and a bit racy--think a lot of Triad pieces ), but the heads are pretty much or almost done. Here are a couple of molded hair versions:



As far as eventually casting copies? I dunno. I get really anal about perfecting a sculpt, and I think the Willow, while close, still needs work, especially on her hair part. Bald Tara's ready to go, or would be, but I've had some technical difficulties with casting (mold's done, the problems are with the resin/casting). Anyway, I hope to have a full-blown reveal of the heads in action for the June thing, and also simultaneously finalize the molds and start casting usable copies, hopefully by month's end. So I haven't abandoned it, by any means. Thanks for letting me know there's still interest in these.