Rubel Final Prototype

My first piece using Super Sculpey, and also my favorite. This will eventually be cast in resin and duplicated a whole lot.

We hope :)

Varkias is a separate piece and will be redone before casting, as he did not survive the initial attempt to cast the statues smaller parts. Fortunately the rifle did. What you see here is digitally touched up version of a very glued together imp.

The hair came out much better this time and I think it's finally at a point I'm happy with. This makes least 5 times so far that I've done the boots and legwraps and I think I've seen quite enough of them, thank you very much.

In between the first prototype and this one there were actually 2 other tries at a finished design. The first was based on the Dream Garden issues, and sadly fell victim to the limitations of regular Sculpey. The second was a pose very similar to this one but without the rifle and barrel. That poor piece was consumed by my first steps into moldmaking. It did not survive removal from the mold and the first disastrous casting destroyed it's destroyer as well.

Super Sculpey is a much more durable medium, and takes far greater detail. I really wish I'd started using it sooner. Had Varkias been made out of normal Sculpey, he'd probably be dust right now, and so would the far more complex rifle.

In the original sketch below, you can see I tend to draw Rubel as a late teenager, since I've found I simply cannot seem to draw kids. I had to keep changing the pose during sculpting to shorten the limbs and give him a younger look.

At the time I was still attempting to make Varkias a part of Rubel's shoulder to make him easier to cast. However at the suggestion of his creator, I redesigned his sculpt to look like he's just landing. He really does look much better now.

Since I'm so obsessive about base design, it took me a while to find one I liked. In the end it just made sense to use rubble, considering the young thief's habit of causing massive property damage on a regular basis. I may add a few more random bits of stone chips scattered about before it's ready to be cast.

The rifle is a hand cranked springbox design which Mark usually draws without the box and crank. The box and crank, as well as the rifle itself are separate pieces, though they will probably be attached in the finished product.

This is the type most often seen with the royal soldiers in the series, and Rubel has relieved them of such weapons on more than one occasion. The Iron Guard uses a heavier 5 barrel version of this weapon, which I ham-handedly sculpted as part of the dubious Quinton's Tower piece, back in my early days...

The barrel has a solid core of scrap Sculpey for it's basic shape, and the boards were sculpted and baked on one side at a time then the steel bands added. I don't recommend this method though, as the difference in expansion between Sculpey and Super Sculpey is pretty evident afterwards. The giant crack will have to be repaired before the final cast, and it would have been better had I not caused it in the first place by skimping on the S-Sculpey.