Final Pics of the Star Wars Crystal Fox

I was going to make a base dio for the fox, and started to build the doorway that you see in the film. But taking a 2nd and 3rd look, I was making it under scale by a whole lot. In the end I thought it would look dumb, and scrapped it for a simpler base of the salt encrusted Crait.  
I used Vallejo's Snow Effects, and made footprints to reveal the red soil under the salt by pushing the animal's feet into the still wet putty. A deep V Red was used for the soil color.  Thanks for looking. 

 

The Last Jedi's Crystal Fox

Named Vulptex by the creators, this animal jumped right out at me while watching the movie. Then I saw a video on YouTube where one was created with clay. Thinking I could do that, I started out. 
Looking thru the various images, aside from fan art, there wasn't very much. I found one screen grab, and a few images of the robotic fox the SFX guys built. Oddly both animals looked different. I ened up using the one you see on the screen.

First thing I needed was the clay. I picked up FIMO Glitter White figuring this would look good as it'll mimic of the crystals from the planet. Next I had to get a skeleton diagram for the wire armature -

Epoxy was used on the head, chest and hips to attach the wires.

For thosae that haven't worked with polymer clay, the instructions says you shouldn't use on any more than 1/2" of clay without baking. So to keep from baking all the time, clay artists will use aluminum foil to bulk out the figure. So I used the foil to fill in the neck and abdomen areas. Then more clay was added over the foil -

If it was a regular fox, you could add some texture with one of the tools and you's be done. But being we have to add crystals, I textured the model, and then into the toaster oven for it's first bake.

while he was baking I was thinking about exactly how to add the crystals. First thing I thought of was to make them like teeth, bake them and then add them to the skin.  After two failed baking attempts  - both times they burned,  My thoughts were that the individual crystals were just too small and even using less temp that required and a shorter time, it burned. 
I decided to just add the clay crystals to the clay raw and then bake.
for this step I needed Sculpey's Liquid Bakable Clay. It looks like PVA glue and helps the new clay stick to the baked clay. I added another thin layer, and then started rolling and sticking in all the "crystals one by one. After 2 days of doing it on and off, I was done. 

Next I felt he needed some sort of base, So I applied some Vallejo snow effects to a piece of foam, and then pressed his feet into the snow around the base as if they were running all around.  Then according to the movie, there was a layer of red salt under the white top layer, so I painted the footprints a deep red. I also painted his eyes, nose and mouth with black and I was done. Thanks for looking. 

 

Trying Something New: Clay Plants

I've been getting into clays and sculpting lately. So I found a number of artists on You Tube such as Dugosaurus, Toby Wayne, Chis Darga*, Jordu Schell* and even western sculptor David Lemon. Then there's the miniature artists like Tom Mason, and a woman who's channel goes by the name Sugar Charm shop  Who has excellent tutorials that show you how to "fur" animals.
 But there was another miniature artist, Stephanie Kilgast,  that caught my attention when she did a few videos on plants. I figured I could use them on dios.  So after watching the VID a few times, I gave it a try. Seeing a number of artists use the colored clay, I went out and bought two colors of green and white and gave it a try - 

Then didn't turn out terrible. I used Sculpey III, and found it very brittle once baked. You can't really see it in the pic, but while sanding on of the leaves of the dark green plant I snapped a leaf. I'll have to look for a clay with a little more give...  Thanks for looking.