Saturday, July 17, 2010

Convictions--Eve

Season 5, Episode 1: Conviction
Original Air Date: 1 October 2003
Angel and the gang adjust to life at Wolfram & Hart, while Angel lets loose the shocking contents of a package from Sunnydale.


I originally saw a figure of Sydney Bristow from Alias on ebay and I thought it would make a great Eve head that no one has done before. When I got the figure I saw she was way too big and it sat around waiting to be turned into something. I decided to make this particular Eve figure for a challenge on the Buffy Figs Forum ( http://btvsfigs.proboards.com/index.cgi? ). I had all the spare parts I needed laying around and since this figure is about an inch taller than regular figures, she had to be in a set all by herself...so it all worked out.

For Eve I used the Sydney head, torso, arms, and one hand. I used another hand from a wrestling diva figure, and the legs from a Six figure from Battlestar Galactica.

I wanted to make the scene where we first saw Eve. Angel just took over the Wolfram & Hart office and he goes into his office and sees Eve. I like the part where she introduced herself as Eve and then tosses Angel the apple (a little Biblical irony). Here is Eve on the desk, most of my motivation for the scene I wanted to make.
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I think the hardest part was trying to figure out how to get the legs to stay crossed without having to super glue them. I wanted them to be rather secure. I tried screwing them but each time the legs would shift and it wouldn't look right. I also had sculpted both legs but knew better to not boil the clay (or it would crack as I was screwing them in place). I did manage to get the legs screwed together, and then screwed into the body. Here are some pictures.

Here I was just seeing how I wanted to position the legs.

One leg is sculpted:

Legs. I did have to cut away a bit on that top leg (the bottom thigh) and then resculpt the bottom of the leg so it looked like it was being a bit smooshed when rested on the other leg.


I then sculpted her butt and molded a dress around that. This part worked out easier than I expected. The way she is leaning back, with legs crossed I had to think about how her butt would rest on the desk. I then sculpted the apple. I decided to not fight with her hand to make it look like she's holding it with a few fingers, but instead I put the apple in her hand (which did squish the apple some). Her other hand is glued to the bottom of the jacket and I sculpted a little of the wrist. I also sculpted her shoulders and hair.


I am very pleased how she turned out. This is one of my better paintings on a face. It was slightly easier since it was a 7 inch figure, not a 6 inch.



I had to make the desk. A 12:1 scale dollhouse desk would not be the correct size. I decided to use two plastic back walls base pieces. I got a mini saw from my dad which really help in my motivation in making this. In the past I would boil the plastic and cut it with a razor blade. This was so much nicer. Still hard to cut since heated plastic melts, but better. I also used a hockey player's stand for the top of the desk. I needed it to have that angle in it. The way I fit the piece together to make it look like seams was very cool. I then added some cardboard to the top to give it that edge look and also to the front so there would be like a panel in the front of the desk. I used 4 handles from an axe and glued that to the panel part. I also glued some nubs (actually plastic bone pieces from a game) to the bottom of the desk for the feet. Here are some before and after.

I painted the desk to have a wooden look which looked great. I then used scenic water to put a shiny coat over the desk. With this shine the pictures look really bad. It does not photograph well.




I also wanted to make some desk pieces to make the desk look official. First I used a Barbie chair for the office chair. I covered only the top part with clay to make it look like the expensive office chair. The rest is still pink and left undone. It is not meant to be seen from the back side so I didn't see the point in taking the time in making this look like a real chair (other than the top).


I also used a Cordelia box-like purse for a stand up piece. I used the bottom of a trophy and a piece from a weapon to make the pen holder. I also used a match box and another weapon piece to make another pen holder. For the lamp I used parts from the Kurt Kobain figure's mike stand and music stand for the lamps. I glued some bits together to make it look like lamps. I also used a piece of cardboard to make the place mat on the desk. Here are the final pictures.