Spudtrooper
Super Freak
A couple years ago I came across a statue of what is supposed to be Neytiri but I think due to licensing the seller couldn't label it as such. I found it on eBay from a seller out of Hong Kong. Being an Avatar fanatic I instantly saw the potential it had despite all the details that were off or missing from the piece. So I took a chance and bought it with the intent to give it a total work-over. I finally had the chance to do so over the last couple weekends and I got her all finished up.
First some before pics, which are just off of Google and are the same pictures from the eBay auction.
So like I said it was a good starting point and I loved the pose recreating the scene from the movie but it was missing a lot of key features.
It didn't have:
>The tooth on her flight goggles (even though the pictures show it)
>The fletching guard on her right arm
>The correct arm bracelet on her right bicep
>The correct looking dagger or dagger handle
>The dagger sheath
>The choker necklace she wore with the green stones
>The feather necklace to cover up the goods
>The two strands of beads that hang down to the left of her loincloth
>And in the detail department, she didn't have any nipples
I corrected/added all the missing pieces and errors and I love how it all came together. I started with a total repaint of the skin with a more correct base tone and then darkened that same color slightly for the stripes. I repainted the eyes and got rid of the eyelashes that were painted on that made it look cartoonish, and painted details like the lips, nose, ears, and finger/toe nails. It also had both of the ears gauged when Neytiri only had the right ear gauged so I had to shave off the one on the left ear and reshape it to make it look more natural.
Repainted the riding leggings with a more accurate color and weathered them slightly.
Then it was on to creating the things the statue was missing. First was the tooth for the riding goggles which was just from a tooth pick that I shaved to size then wrapped in three places with thread. I also cut out some plastic lenses for the goggles to make them pop a little more and because I didn't want to take a dremel to the other sculpted lenses and risk it jumping and screwing up the sculpt. So the plastic serves to add detail and hide the sculpted parts behind them. I also added the choker necklace but I don't know that I got a good picture of it. Then I did the feather necklace which I matched as close as possible to a photo of the prop from the scene in the movie down to color, shape, size, and quantity. The arm guard I cut out of a piece of thin leather type material I had and wrapped the arm and glued it in place. Then I went over the top of it with gel medium to give it some texture. For the arm bracelet that was incorrect, I cut a piece of floral wire into small lengths and glued them on the existing bracelet then painted them. The two strands of beads beside the loincloth I made out of twisted wire which was painted. The biggest hurdle was the dagger and sheath. I made these pieces out of baking clay and then shaved bits of it down after baking it to give it the right shape. I added threads to the dagger handle and sheath for detail and then painted it all to finish it off.
And yes, I added nipples to the sculpt using gel medium. haha
I still plan to go and add some vines and other plants to the base to give it a little more detail, but here she is as of now.
First some before pics, which are just off of Google and are the same pictures from the eBay auction.
So like I said it was a good starting point and I loved the pose recreating the scene from the movie but it was missing a lot of key features.
It didn't have:
>The tooth on her flight goggles (even though the pictures show it)
>The fletching guard on her right arm
>The correct arm bracelet on her right bicep
>The correct looking dagger or dagger handle
>The dagger sheath
>The choker necklace she wore with the green stones
>The feather necklace to cover up the goods
>The two strands of beads that hang down to the left of her loincloth
>And in the detail department, she didn't have any nipples
I corrected/added all the missing pieces and errors and I love how it all came together. I started with a total repaint of the skin with a more correct base tone and then darkened that same color slightly for the stripes. I repainted the eyes and got rid of the eyelashes that were painted on that made it look cartoonish, and painted details like the lips, nose, ears, and finger/toe nails. It also had both of the ears gauged when Neytiri only had the right ear gauged so I had to shave off the one on the left ear and reshape it to make it look more natural.
Repainted the riding leggings with a more accurate color and weathered them slightly.
Then it was on to creating the things the statue was missing. First was the tooth for the riding goggles which was just from a tooth pick that I shaved to size then wrapped in three places with thread. I also cut out some plastic lenses for the goggles to make them pop a little more and because I didn't want to take a dremel to the other sculpted lenses and risk it jumping and screwing up the sculpt. So the plastic serves to add detail and hide the sculpted parts behind them. I also added the choker necklace but I don't know that I got a good picture of it. Then I did the feather necklace which I matched as close as possible to a photo of the prop from the scene in the movie down to color, shape, size, and quantity. The arm guard I cut out of a piece of thin leather type material I had and wrapped the arm and glued it in place. Then I went over the top of it with gel medium to give it some texture. For the arm bracelet that was incorrect, I cut a piece of floral wire into small lengths and glued them on the existing bracelet then painted them. The two strands of beads beside the loincloth I made out of twisted wire which was painted. The biggest hurdle was the dagger and sheath. I made these pieces out of baking clay and then shaved bits of it down after baking it to give it the right shape. I added threads to the dagger handle and sheath for detail and then painted it all to finish it off.
And yes, I added nipples to the sculpt using gel medium. haha
I still plan to go and add some vines and other plants to the base to give it a little more detail, but here she is as of now.
