Ragin' Cajun -- The Coattails

As I mentioned in my follow-ups below, all joins save the head have been fitted for seamless assembly, and, perhaps more importantly, a tight fit. In the interim, the figure has been completely and perma- nently pegged for mounting. This is not as straightforward as it might sound, as the left ankle is particularly thin; and I had to drill through the connecting copper tubing in the left knee/thigh. The name of the game is a steady hand, sharp bits, and staged, incremental widening of the opening.

On to the coattails! I'm perhaps jumping the gun here a bit, but this is the crux of the project--in every respect. While I could certainly finish clean-up and detailing, this all amounts to naught without the tails.

First step was transferring the figure to a spacious 3.5" round work base. This gave me the opportunity to align and secure the mounting pegs. Once securely mounted, I began to pack clay around the lower half of the figure, finger modeling as I went along to keep the amount to be removed at a manageable level. Once the clay was applied and allowed to "cool" from the kneading and handling, I began to model in earnest. . .

The purpose of the clay is to create a male molding surface, a negative impression, and a support for the epoxy putty that will be draped over it to make the coattails. The negative impression must be bold and deep enough to accommodate the thickness of the putty. There is decent amount of "guesswork"/speculation involved, but it should be constrained and logical. . .

The left half of the tails is now ~75% done. A bit more tweaking followed by clean-up, and it is a fait accompli. The right half is a bit more challenging, as it is collapsed, and anchors the flowing garment. I am about 60% done with this as I write.

More to follow. . .

UPDATE 25.09.10--The coattails are now in epoxy-putty! The pattern approach worked much better than I had anticipated, though there is still a considerable amounting of underfilling and surface finishing to be done. The figure is now in the oven, the first stage of mating the tails to the torso curing. . .

FOLLOW-UP
The coattails are now permanently attached to the torso, and the long building-out process has begun in earnest. This is where the undersurface irregularities are smoothed-out to ensure a strong x-sectional taper to the progressively thinner sections of the fabric as we approach the edges, as well as enhancing the surface drapery. As I said, this is usually a fairly drawn-out process , but there is no room for haste here.

FOLLOW-UP (2)
Save for final finishing and touch-ups, the coattails are now done! Most of you who know me know that there is still a lion's share of work to be done, but I can now 'zoom-out' and think in terms of the overall piece rather than just a portion of the same.