{"id":8048,"date":"2021-12-11T14:28:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T19:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=8048"},"modified":"2022-01-22T11:18:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T16:18:30","slug":"completed-flocked-rabbit-bjds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/completed-flocked-rabbit-bjds\/","title":{"rendered":"Completed \u00bb Flocked Rabbit BJDs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Before I had started this particular project, I had sculpted a number of ping-pong ball sized rabbit heads for use with a small plastic cartoonish human action-figure body that ended up being either cancelled or postponed by its producer. (I should find out because I still want to sue them for something) Every time I opened one of my project drawers to get materials, there they were… mocking me. I decided that instead of waiting and using an obviously human body for them, would simply make an all new anthropomorphic rabbit body and matching head-sculpt myself using elastic tension for the joints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After sculpting the figure from Super Sculpey, then molding\/casting a few copies, I put together a completed white rabbit with albino eyes. This build has ended up being asked for enough that I may use the more recent version of the design which I sculpted in 3D to make a small batch of completed figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I ended up Initially I had no plans to add any fur to these, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to attempt to do just that. The trick of course would be how to do it so that it looked natural. Making a faux fur-suit like I had for my Errgan figure would not look right as that would make the body look quite puffy and misshapen. Instead I decided that I would pick up a basic static-grass applicator which uses static electricity to make the static grass or flocking fibers stand on end on the adhesive base. The hardest part was finding flocking in natural tones. Lots of greens and such available to use for railroad terrain, but grays and brownish tones, not so much. Eventually I found a source (unfortunately due to shipping $$$) located in the UK and ordered a variety of flocking that would work well as fur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This led to another issue… how to apply flocking to make the character look natural\/seamless\/jointless with the fur. The solution was to pattern and sew a stretchy pair of leggings to apply the flocking to that could remain unattached to the body beneath. Because I had already planned to give the rabbits top-clothing, I only had to worry about the lower body. After quite a few tests I was using Super 77 spray adhesive, flocking, and my static applicator to successfully flock a number of these rabbit figures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The black and white rabbits needed no further work on their fur, however I found that the natural brown\/gray ticked fur rabbit benefited from some airbrushing after application in order to get markings similar to the wild rabbits frequently running amok in my back yard. This was applied using Tamiya Acrylics thinned with alcohol. Partly because that’s one of my typical paints for airbrushing, but also because I knew it would dry quick, minimizing the risk of wet paint wicking into the fibers and spreading uncontrolled ruining the finish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had two plans for these furred rabbits. The first was as characters in a post-apocalyptic magic world where woodland creatures replaced humans or something and utilized the scraps of our civilization as raw materials. The other was to just make cool one-off rabbit characters such as variations of Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit. I ended up completing 4 different rabbits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sentry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Sentry guards the entrance to his community warren using a magic-dust enhanced gem-spear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Knight of Havana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Knight of Havana is based on one of my actual pets, a black rabbit named Kiki whose breed is a Havana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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White Rabbit Blue\/Bronze version<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Based on the White rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, this version of my character has blue and warm-metal toned clothing and accessories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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White Rabbit Black\/White\/Red version<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Based on the White rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, this version of my character has a more monochromatic approach using black and white clothing and accessories with red highlights as a nod to the Queen of Hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below you’ll find all of the images I took when constructing these figures, both progress and beauty shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n