A Mobile Reworking

So just a small posting today. I reworked a broken mobile.

We the mobile used when our eldest child was a baby. It was already broken at that time; the support arm that curves over the crib to hold the mobile up had been snapped and taped together with packing tape. It held up for her, as well as the next two kids. Jenni took it out again to set up for our 5(ish) month old little one.

It's one of the cross types with little dangling plush thingies on the ends. Well, one of the crossing parts got broken.

This little one really likes the mobile. We didn't want to buy another one, so we set out to make a new one using the pieces from the old. We bought a roll of wire and I was away.

This is what I built:

Instead of a four arm thing, I went with a ring. Three wires act as spokes to provide a hanging point in the middle and the three stuffed animals hang from the spoke ends. The stuffed flower hangs from the middle. The pink fluffy stuff around the ring is three of the four sleeves that covered the plastic arms of the previous mobile.

I was having trouble getting the spokes to sit still so I could wrap them with wire, so I broke out the spot welder for my first use and made them stay put. What fun!

While I was at it, I also took the time to super glue the support arm, add wire to it for more support, and wrap it all up with hockey tape to keep everything together.

Oh, and here's a random picture of the two oldest in the middle of a game of Klondike we played on Sunday. Jeanette totally won, having found the mother lode and the rich claim ($150,000 total) and both the $40,000 finds. Lawrence and I just kept pulling up all the bad cards and fool's gold.

Hard to get a good picture when the kids are moving and you are holding a squirmy baby!

SW:ED - Han and Chewie

I couldn't hold out any longer! I had to add some original trilogy characters to my little collection. And who better than everyone's favourite smuggler and his walking carpet sidekick?

Han Solo
Han starts out as Heroclix sculpt Human Target.

Human Target (pic from HeroMinis.com)

Pre-paint prep work was to shave down the pants to make the almost knee-high boots and to shorten the bottom hem of the jacket. I liked the Empire Strikes Back clothing ensemble as depicted on a display figure I came across on Google images, so that's what I used for my colour scheme. I left the original paint on face and hands. 

The finished product! Well, except for filling in and painting over the basing.

Chewbacca

Now, Chewie was a little more work. There were a couple of notably taller sculpts in my available selection. I chose the S.H.I.E.L.D. Bodyguard.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Bodyguard (pic from PopularCollections.com)

The transformation began with the removal of his folded arms. Then came the full-body layer of green stuff that I pushed, prodded, poked and otherwise pestered into a hairy humanoid...without arms.

I didn't remedy the missing limbs for a few weeks, trying to decide on how I wanted him to look. In the end I went for a casual stance holding his bowcaster. The new forearms consist of toothpick 'bones' glued to the figure and covered in green stuff. For my first foray into sculpting a mass of hair, I think he turned out rather well. The bowcaster is a shaved-down piece of bamboo skewer and bits of a paperclip with green stuff accents.

Painting consisted of a black primer, a dark brown base coat, two to three lighter brown highlighting layers to try and match the way the dominant hair colour changes in certain locations of his body. It almost worked, though the pictures here don't see it.

Han's most trusted friend.

In the end, there were two things I felt I couldn't do at my current skill level: sculpt their faces right. I did try to make a more pronounced "floof" of hair for Han, but that didn't really work. I think the point at which I could change Chewie's face to more resemble the face we all know is not too far off and I may put in another attempt.

Han Solo and Chewie: wary in the Arena of the Planeswalkers.

Side note: Yes, I purchased MtG: Arena of the Planeswalkers. I figured for $15, if I don't like the game, I got a bunch of minis for cheap. I'm already thinking of painting them up.