Westlake Publishing Forums

Russ, I haven't been in the corner in awhile, are there snacks?

Yes, if you bring them with you. If you have additional questions, ask Nick. He's the expert. -- Russ

Those figures are way beyond anything available!
Jealous.
MJinTN

Here's yet another figure Frithjof and I have been working on for my gas station, a young fellow enjoying a sip of orange soda while reading his comic book. 

This figure has been more of a challenge on several fronts.  The first issue was trying to get the distance from his posterior to the bottom of his feet to match the height of the bench. Part of the problem was that his coat tails extended beyond his posterior instead of resting evenly at bench level.  I went ahead and printed the figure hoping I could sand down the coat tails sufficiently so that he could sit properly on the bench.  That method worked but still his feet floated in the air just above ground level. 

That correction took a little more engineering.  I printed a second figure then cut the feet off just above his pant cuff.  I then sanded away the pant cuff to match the rest of his ankle thus creating an extended length of his leg.  With careful sanding and much testing, I eventually managed to create two new feet with extended ankles to attach to the original footless figure.  I didn't feel this was too objectionable as most boys his age experience growth spirts that leave their trousers shorter than what parents can keep up with.





And then as I have been prone to do lately, I presented the photograph to ChatGPT to do its magic.  Here's hoping what the final outcome will be.





Stuart

An excellent figure. It's good to see well-defined eyes, clear separation between items of clothing and shoes that don't merge into his ankles. Some commercial 3D-print figures (cough Model cough U) tend to fall a bit short on these sort of details, which makes painting them somewhat more difficult than with the better hand-sculpted figures.

Stuart, the boy is an excellent addition to the gas station. Your solution to keeping his feet on the ground is a good one, though since he's reading Adventure magazine, it's likely his feet would be floating off the ground.
I'm curious to see how you tackle the orange soda bottle and the magazine cover.

This is how the figure looked prior to "foot surgery".





Stuart

Why not just slide a couple of 1:12 scale magazines under his toes?

Oh, yeah, that's really not the point of good modeling, is it?

Russ

The floating feet read as not fully grown. Either way works.

There is part of me that would love for this kid to be sitting outside Wilson's Garage reading The Great Gatsby.

Quote from: Bill Gill on September 01, 2026, 05:15:48 AMI'm curious to see how you tackle the orange soda bottle and the magazine cover.

Bill -- Yes, the transparent bottle of orange soda will present a challenge.  My solution will be to very carefully cut and grind away the current opaque bottle using my rotary grinding tools.  This will be a delicate operation as the printing resin I am using is quite brittle.  The hope is that I can remove the current soda bottle, leaving his hand and fingers intact.  Then, I will reprint the soda bottle in clear resin leaving a hollow core to insert some orange resin to simulate the orange soda and slip it into his open hand.  The comic book cover can be resolved with the application of a decal which I will need to create and print.  Oh, the efforts we modelers make to carry out our exacting desires!!

Quote from: nk on September 01, 2026, 12:04:48 PMThe floating feet read as not fully grown. 

NK -- The attached photo will show that his heels are still raised to their original position with only his toes making contact with the ground.  He still has some growing to do before full foot contact can be made from his perch on the bench.





Stuart

As you demonstrated with the extended foot, it would certainly be worth trying to replace just the part of the bottle above the fingers.
Or what do you think about printing the entire figure out of clear resin?
I could also imagine a dog that might further enhance the whole scene ;-).

I think the solution involving the foot operation is very authentic. In German, we call them 'Hochwasserhosen' (high-water trousers). They're often worn by boys going through the growth spurt.

Bernhard

Quote from: fspg2 on September 01, 2026, 10:25:47 PMI could also imagine a dog that might further enhance the whole scene ;-).

Frithjof -- Funny you should mention the dog idea. My sister-in-law, when she saw what I was doing, had the same thought.  We'll see.

Stuart

It might look something like this...

file_000000003e7881f4b30a6666cb2ad279 (fspg2)