Hello everyone! This is my first real attempt at sculpting the female body and working on scratch building with brass/copper wire and solder. As always, I'm looking for critique so fire away.

The scene is to have a lady walking her bike. I hope it will come together as the weeks progress.

Let's get this picture-show on the road!



Same frequency as before, bend wire and make a skeleton. I begin to core-putty the legs with Super Sculpey. I can't continue to pose the upper body as I don't know where the bike is going to be at. So this puts me at a stalemate with the sculpting. However, I can ambitiously begin to build a bicycle!



Math sucks. Turns out I would have to use it outside of math class, guess I owe my arithmetic instructors a brew after all. Without an actual bicycle to measure and go off of, I just winged it with the help of measurements from about 3 different bikes. It came out alright and looks about to scale.



My first task was to bend the wire to a circle and solder the joint. I filed the soldered joint as round as I could. I did this twice.




Measure once and cut twice! Or was it the other way around? Either way, I screwed up the back triangular bits
as it wouldn't come anywhere near the center of the wheel. I cut the ends of the triangle out and soldered on extensions.



With the extensions on, I checked my measurements. This time it looked satisfactory. I soldered on the rear wheel.
If you thought this wheel was going to spin, I gotta tell you that I ain't THAT crazy..... yet.




I bent out some rudimentary handle bars and had to bring out a second "third-hand" to get the positioning just right.



Voila! A little 1/16th scale bicycle. Now the really fun part begins. Soldering the spokes on the wheels.

More to come, stay tuned.

Looking really good so far, don't envy you doing the spokes!!!!! But it will look good. My only note is that most bikes have different thickness tubes for the frame. This probably wont be really noticeable once its all together. Will this be a modern theme or historical?
Ben

Looks great love the fact that it's not me that makes these cock ups then has to spend longer putting it right than it would have to start over
Steve

I dont seem to have any pics!!

Hi Ben, thanks for the kind words! I have procured some different gauges of wire to help balance things out. This is a modern themed piece.

Hi Steve, that's more or less the story of my life.

Valiant, I'm sorry. I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to see the pictures :\

Great start and good choise of scotch Hiroshi.

I am looking forward to see how this young lady sculpt works out.

Good luck, Keith

Thanks! Nothing like the smell of styrene weld and scotch to make a build session more enjoyable.

Spokes!



This took forever but was pretty rewarding as I got to learn how my new Hakko works and practice my skills of soldering. One spoke at a time!



This was pretty painful actually. I tried my best to find shortcuts but I had to push forward. I can't scrap it now anyway, I've already posted pictures on the internet.



It took a total of 4 hours to spoke that wheel.



Same process on the back wheel. It didn't come out as nice as the front wheel, which could explain why it only took 3 hours instead of 4.



I soldered on a thicker piece of wire to help be the armature for the seat I will sculpt for it later. I also soldered together a luggage rack for the back of the bike. It all starts to come together.

Until next time,
- Hiroshi

Nice progress Hiroshi.

Those spokes look really good and must have been a pig to solder.
As you say, it's coming together.

Good work my friend, following your progress with real interest,

Keith

Well it took a whole month, but I finally found some time away from a busy work schedule. For starters, I have completed the bicycle to 90% and have made some strides on the figure.


I've added some cranks, pedals to come soon.


I bought some cogs and gears from the local jewellery supply store. Steampunk is always a fun subject for many hobbies and crafts.


I thought about fabricating a chain for it, but my career often saps motivation from my hobbies and free time. So instead I took some copper wire and dented it with sprue cutters. I then soldered the chain to the cog.


This is the part I realized I had completely lost my sanity. Getting the back part of the chain to wrap around and be soldered without moving took about an hour and a half.


And here she is, 90ish % complete.


The apple bottom jeans and the boots without the fur. (Man, I hate that song) This was all done in one go when I had a second wind while sculpting.






The pose I'm going for and the inspiration for the project. Excuse the goofy looking face.

Until next time,
- Hiroshi

What a work! Waiting what's next!
Javier

An ambitious adventure in sculpting! Excellent and fun!

All the best,
Dan

Well work has been pretty aggressive recently, but I have been doing some sculpting here and there. Unfortunately I've neglected to take pictures. So here we are at the current time. She's got primer on her and I will begin painting a base coat here soon. I decided to wait on sculpting the forearm and hands until I get the figure and the bike mounted on the base. Also, there's nothing like a good shot of primer to show all the flaws in your sculpture.... man that face gives me nightmares.

It is the eyes - they too high - only by about 1 eye - drop them down slightly and drop the brow down and will look more feminine- hope that helps
- I have got this wrong so many times myself

I will certainly give that a try, thanks for the tip! I knew it looked off but I couldn't pinpoint it, thanks.

I agree. Keep it up and all the best

Hello everyone, this project is finally put to a close. Work has been getting almost unmanageable and has me traveling more and more now. I rushed to get her done before I completely lost the will to finish it. After sculpting was finished, I painted in oils again trying to figure out blending techniques. Although it's not that great, there have been improvements as far as painting with oils go. I made a crude base out of styrene for the sidewalk and sandpaper for the street.

If it wasn't for work and training, I would have loved to put more effort into blending shadows and highlights. I think I understand the concept, just not in practice. I also would have loved to put more into the base itself but I have rolled the lessons learned into the books and will try a little harder on the next project.

Thanks for sticking around!