This Weekend's Project: A New Wig

The goal is to progressively evolve Hotaru's structure to greater levels, beyond her humble origins of a Magic: the Gathering construct. I've been fond of her current hairstyle due to the subtle green tint used in the chemical fabrication of her black paper hair. I've yet to find a similar substance so far, thus making me hesitant in outright replacing/redoing it. However, her strands are fragile and tend to suffer from bends that lead to strands breaking. Not to mention, her hair isn't really dynamic.

So far, my first subject, Lia, had mixed results from the transition from construction paper hair to synthetics. A bit too much applied and lots of unsecured strands. Unfortunately, I didn't really keep that in mind the second time around, especially the too much hair part. Anyways, onward with the experiment!

I bought a cheap Halloween wig from Target for $10 for the purpose of making wigs out of the strands. Much more cost efficient than cannibalizing a Barbie in terms of dollars per volume. Most Halloween wigs cost $20, so I wasn't expecting anything great from this one. We'll see what fits in that "One size fits most" disclaimer on the box.

I won't digress into the details (especially since I didn't take progress pics), but I used the tried and true method of hot glue gun and fingerfulls of strands. I'll need to remember to cut back on the volume used. Too much material results in a poofy hairdo. I've actually resorted to using a twist tie to hold back the excess volume of hair. I was expecting half the strands to come loose over time, but that plan failed. I'll have to do some pruning/pulling later to get it under control.

This is the painted Pancor Jackhammer, with my new favorite color: Gunmetal Grey. The shotgun shells Hotaru is holding came from the European Shotgun set by Dragon.

I'll get some more colorful twist ties to make things look better til I control her hair.

Flightless game + Shotguns = Thanksgiving

Ever since the colonial days, future Americans have been shooting large flightless birds with really big guns. What else says Thanksgiving than paying homage to our legacy of blasting large animals with shotguns?

I've noticed that in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, if you wore a brimmed hat, statistically you had a 66% chance of holding an exotic shotgun.

Robert Muldoon. Franchi SPAS 12 shotgun. Hat.


Alan Grant. SPAS 12. Unfortunately lost his hat by this scene.

So, what better person to use to demonstrate the spirit of Thanksgiving than the Sniper?

TF2 Sniper. Franchi SPAS 12 Shotgun. Hat. CHECK!

This 1:6 scale shotgun comes from Dragon Models Limited's European Shotgun set, which I purchased for $7 at www.modelwarehouse.biz. A nice set of solid plastic with a moving pump. The SPAS 12 is one of those "looks cool, so let's use it in video games/movies" deals, which makes getting a model fairly easy. Great for picking off vicious Velociraptors. But, what if you were being overrun by lots of fast moving flightless creatures? Nothing says American like lots of firepower in large copious amounts.

This is the Pancor Jackhammer. A prototype automatic shotgun that, like the SPAS 12, is one of those "looks cool/futuristic, so let's use it in videogames" guns. Unfortunately, this gun doesn't have a 1:6 scale model out there to buy, so naturally, I had to make one.

Here's my prototype Pancor Jackhammer. 132mm long, faithfully recreated in 110lb cardstock and a few scrap Magic: the Gathering cards I needed to junk. I based the actual model off the Mk3A1 version than the US patent office submission, as the former looked better. No one's going to care, since only 2 of these shotguns actually exist in the world.

I started off with the pictures from a russian gun site, as they provided a nice side and front profile. Good reference pictures are necessary for any model you plan on making. This model was simple, as most of the parts are cylinders and blocks. For the blocky handle, I decided to laminate 10 layers of cardstock than use two sheets of Magic cards supported by a hollow tube between. It worked well due to the thin nature of the grip. The top rail was made by sandwiching two Magic cards over 7 layers of cardstock, and then punching out the holes with a 1/4" hole punch.

Here, you can see the back of the Pancor's stock. There are little grooves on the stock, made by thin strips of Magic card. At a small scale, the thickness of paper can create interesting details by itself. Magic cards are about twice as thick as 110lb cardstock, so any raised details can be achieved just by layering a card.