So I was clicking around coolminiornot one evening and I came across this ‘Treewoman’ – and was instantly hooked. It was out of stock, though. I got to thinking it would be cool to do something similiar in a larger scale, and thus the idea of a dryad/forest nymp/tree-chickie was born.
I looked through the piles of resin kits I was in the process of boxing up for storage and came across a 1/6-ish Belldandy I thought might fit the bill. I’m not sure of the kit’s origin; I know I bought it from a former member of my local model club when he was selling off a bunch of his kits when he had run into some financial troubles. I’d ditched the box and bagged it for easier storage … and then pretty much forgotten about it when something shinier came along.
I started by gluing her torso, legs and part of an arm together. I should have waited a bit, because the next step was to cover her with textured epoxy putty to simulate bark. It’s been a real pain getting putty in between her legs and between her arm and torso. Most of the ‘bark’ was made using blue Aves Apoxy Sculpt (because that’s what I had). I’ve been mixing up a ball about the size of a pea, mashing it against her body, and texturing it by pressing sandpaper or a paper towel into the putty, or by scribing it with an old hobby blade before the putty sets up. Some of the areas where it’s hard to get my fingertips or craft sticks in to add putty, like her inner thighs, were painted with Mr Surfacer 500 that had started to gel in the bottle. This was then textured with a disposable microbrush. I tried painting on some Aves paste heavily thinned with their solvent, but it doesn’t really stick well.
My goal with the texturing was to have varied surfaces – rough, ragged bark along her body and limbs, with smoother areas on her tummy, face and inner thighs – using a tree in the backyard as a guide. I added a couple limb stumps to her lower leg and shoulder using sticks from that same tree, blended with more putty. Smaller branches were made from braided copper wire coated with black CA, placed into holes I drilled into her arm and leg.
I decided to make her fingers and toes longer and more ‘branch-like’. I sawed off the kit parts, drilled appropriately-sized holes, and super-glued brass rod to act as armatures. I started making knuckle joints from balls of putty, but that quickly became an exercise in frustration. I finished roughing in the joints with layers of black CA. I’ve since been slowly sculpting the rest of her fingers and toes using small bits of Aves. These are pressed into place then shaped with a wet toothpick, microbrush or that old hobby blade, and blended into the rest of the hand or foot with water.
I’m very nearly done with her body – when the toes are done there will just be a few more areas of ‘bark’ to do, plus attaching her left arm and right hand. I’ll have to do a bit of painting – at least the base coat – before I can attach those as I won’t be able to paint the inner surfaces once they are in place. I also need to finish up her familiar – a little squirrel – that I got from a place that sells dollhouse miniatures. I need to change his stance a bit so it looks like he’s riding on her shoulder.
Then it’s time for hair and I still don’t know how I will do that. Suggestions from the forums have pointed me in the direction of spanish moss …. but how to do that? Real spanish moss (from the craft store) is too coarse and fragile. I’ve pulled apart some scouring pads and it looks OK, but it’s very hard to shape (I want her hair to flow, not stick out everywhere like she has her fingers in a light socket) and paint doesn’t stick well to the material. Perhaps I’ll try some steel wool over a wire armature.
I’d like to have this finished for Wonderfest, but with the move less than a month a way ….
