The John Deere Tractor was found around the house after the kids grew up. The farmer and his wife were made from Sculpy, a polymer clay. It is soft and easy to use. After it is baked in the oven it becomes a hard substance that is practically indestructable, like PVC pipe, but you can sand it and carve it to get it just right!

Heads arms and legs and bodies were sculpted and baked and sorted. Then the heads and limbs were glued to bodies and allowed to dry. Have some that are sitting and some that will stand. If you leave the part flat that you want to glue to a chair or against a wall or tree, they will stay up better. It's really hard to get the feet big enough and flat enough to make them freestanding. If you want you can sculpt the legs, feet and a small mound as one piece to glue down later. Like plastic army men have those little stands they are molded with. I guess the figures you buy have them too. You can have kneelers and crawlers too!
I didn't mess with too many details since was my first try at scaled people. Some of the heads and torsos were sculpted and baked together. Not having to glue heads on was a step I didn't miss except I forgot to have them looking down or up so they look a little zombie-like. Oh well Trial and Error!

All the people were then coated with gesso an artists canvas primer. When we ran out we changed to ZAP a fairly inexpensive acrylic primer. It was quite thick. It could have easily covered over the details like noses and eyes so we made some last minute brush strokes to thin the excess off.

The big desicions on how to paint the clothes was next. The way the bodies and expressions came about was pure luck.
They needed hair. Sawdust with acrylic paint stirred into it made great hair and beards. Check out the farmer.

The glue we used was Gem-Tac. Nothing else compared with it. Since I had to go to work in between steps, (what a drag) most of the time the drying time was 2-3 days but I think 24 hrs is a safe drying time. One other thing about gluing. Take your X-acto knife and pare a bit of the paint off if you glue things onto them like accesories. Gem-tac to sculpy is a better joint, other wise the painted surfaces tend to peel apart. The hair can be glued over the paint with no problem, just be sure to follow the next step.

After everyone is painted and glued and haired (?) we get them ready to face the elements.
Each one was dipped in Minwax polycrylic Clear Satin finish. I recommend that they be dipped in head first and very gently brush off the excess from the head down. Hold the head up so they don't have a gob of it dried on their head or face from drips. It looks awful. Either hang them or lay them on wax paper or freezer wrap. They will dry and be stuck to anything else. Don't lay them on their face, because if it does peel after drying, that is the worst to have to redo. Make sure there is enough around the joints and any horizontal areas. When you glue them down outside, it would be a good idea to pare down to the sculpy for a good joint. Then take a brush of the clear finish to the new joints, be generous without puddling. Once the glue is dry you can coat their feet with the finish.

One very important tip, don't touch them until they are dry if you can. The paint may peel or wrinkle as the finish dries. Almost everytime they were fine when dry, but I got impatient to see how they were doing and found out the hard way. When they are out in the fog or rain, don't touch them or they might get cloudy spots. Also, if they get really soaked, sometimes the glue that is exposed shows up as white. Wait until they dry out and give them a coat of finish, right there where they sit. If you can't get to them just leave well enough alone.

The 2002 people of Chipmunk Falls This is how I went about making the new people. I started with a roll of Sculpy and made the legs, arms and torsos at once. The hands were shaped by cutting fingers from the sort of mitten like hands we had before. Faces were made after attaching the heads and the feet were added last.

After baking and applying gesso, clothes were added as well as expressions and hair.

Now as for the cow. The cow was one of many farm animals in a plastic bag at Wal-Mart. The paint jobs were terrible. After scraping the loose paint off I used acrylic paint to make it brighter and a little more realistic. I have ducks and geese and a few other animals too. After the paint job they were dipped in the clear finish and allowed to dry like the people.
I know, the people are more doll like, especially the details or lack of. Thats fine with me because I enjoy the doll house aspect of the hobby. Some of the houses have rooms with peek-a-boo windows, and little furnished scenes inside. If you have only these people in one scene or diarama or section of the layout it is fine. Humorous, whimsy at its finest. I don't think mixing the home made people with the perfect ones you can buy look quite right but hey! Have fun! It's a hobby! Good Luck!

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws