Making a head out of spare parts

Putting together the pieces for fixing a halfway headless raptor figure.

Like I mentioned, I've already trimmed away the worst of the chewed up parts, and so this is what we're starting with.

I still cut away a bit more material to better fit the new polymer clay parts I've made. I carved the palate to be higher and more concave (and since some of it is going to remain visible, I painted it pink after the carving,) and I cut off the awkwardly shaped point of the snout stump. Alright, enough looking at this poor boy all chopped up, let's give him a face already.

Most of the attaching parts and sculpting from here on is done with epoxy putty. As I try to remember to mention when talking about using this material, it comes with health hazards you should take proper precautions for if you want to use it yourself. This video does a good job of going over them. Consider the need for safety precautions to apply to all epoxy products (check specifics depending on the exact product), as they all set by chemical reaction.

I attached the jaw part first. I added putty over the hole at the end of the jaw stump, and stuck the exposed wire of the new jaw piece through the putty into the niche under the little ledge (the ledge is there to support the inside of the mouth, which was a separate part in the figure's original state as well). With the wire inside the jaw stump, I stuck it to the inner wall with putty. That already kept the jaw piece in place pretty well, but I added putty to the whole seam between the figure and the new jaw piece. I'll go over that later to add detail and texture, this is just to attach the jaw.

Then I applied bits of putty inside the hollow parts of the jaw, and glue to the ledge, and put the mouth piece in place. I went over the seam of that and the jaw with more putty, and that's going to get more detail later as well.

I thought I might need to come up with some kind of support for the jaw while it cures, but it stayed in place with the figure just sitting on the table.

I mixed a fresh batch of putty, and used it to attach the upper jaw right after. I figured if the lower jaw still needs to be adjusted a bit and I won't be able to tell until I've got the upper jaw on there, too, I'll be able to do those adjustments while the putty on the lower jaw is still somewhat soft. Didn't need to, but just in case.

The new palate is glued to the old one, and elsewhere the putty acts as both a sculpting medium and an adhesive again.

The zigzag seam on the jaw as seen from below.

And with the putty fully cured 24 hours later, the snout and jaw stay firmly in place. The action feature also still works! Even better than it did when I got the figure, actually, I think some of the squished parts were in the way. I'm really pleased with how the lower teeth just fit inside the upper ones when the mouth is closed (or, ajar, it doesn't close fully on these figures). But we're far from done.

Next pass of sculpting with the putty (third, if counting the attaching of the snout and the jaw separately). Under the jaw and the jawline on the left side are shaped and textured and done! I started on shaping the jaw elsewhere, and the snout on the right side, and filled in the scratch across one side of the right eye.

Fourth pass. I filled in the gaps in the lips between the original figure and the added parts, and also continued the lower lip a bit forward.

Before adding more material, I cut some off again. The moving head part is warped a bit after the treatment this poor figure has gotten, and is in a more upright position than it should be, resulting in the corners of the mouth seeming to point downwards more. To compensate for that and hopefully make him look a bit less grumpy, I trimmed off a small bit of plastic from the lower corners of the head part. I also cut out the remainder of the original left eye, before gluing on the new one I'd made, and leaving the glue to dry overnight.

Fifth pass. The right side received a small addition to the lower lip directly below the eye. On the left, I sculpted eyelids and filled in the shape of the brow arch, and added spots of putty here and there to smooth out the scratches and one toothmark. I also cut off a bit more from the corner of the head part, but it doesn't show very well in this photo. It's now less of a sharp 90 degree angle, and more rounded.

Sixth pass. I smoothed the right eye, and sculpted the stuff around it, as well as the right brow arch, and added some material to the left one, too. The upper eyelid on the left near the inner corner and the right lower lip also received teeny, tiny additions. I textured the top of the head, and filled in the dip there still was between the figure's original head part and the top of the snout. There was also a seventh pass, but I just added a small amount of material to both brows, and instead focused on sculpting things about the body, more on that later.

Then it's time to attach the replacement part for that flap on the side of the head that he's missing on the right. I glued it on first, with the figure and the part propped up on this makeshift support while the glue dried.

And with an eighth pass of epoxy putty to reinforce and blend the seam, the sculpting on the head is done! The flap isn't as much of a colour match as I thought, but I'll paint most of the head anyway.