Black Forest - Part 8

In our last instalment we finished off the knight figures and now it is time to take a look at the sign’s bracket. We start with custom steel plates that will hold the finished sign in place. Then, we fired up our hydraulic bender and bent up a heavy 1.125" thick steel rod. This will serve as the sign’s primary support. The smaller curl (on the top left) is 1" solid steel. It is a two person job with one steadying things and one welding everything securely in place. We also welded a temporary stand to hold the sign securely while we work on it and for transport to the site.

While we would love to invest in a forge at some point, it just wasn’t in the cards for this project. (To be fair, If I listed all the tools we’d like to have, it might rival the Old Testament for length.) For this project, we opted to duplicate the look with sculpted epoxy.

We bent up the primary steel in our hydraulic bender and welded it up good and strong. Then we used some lighter steel to form the framework for the leaves and other decorative elements and welded them in place. Over this, we added a quick form with sculpting epoxy. After this we added a final decorative layer to make it look like wrought steel - complete with 'hammer and tool' marks.

We also broke out our die grinder and added texture to the faces corners, and edges of the sign.

At this point we still have the decorative finale to put on the top faces and a few more details before the paint is started. However, with the large cornice moulding, the sign looks pretty substantial!

Black Forest - Part 7

With the designing and routing out of the way, it is time to have a little old fashioned fun. It dioes’t take long to squeeze on a rough coat of sculpting epoxy and then we are on to the detailed layer. In the shot below you can see Dan working from the knight’s 'steel' boots upward. Ideally, on a sculpt like this, you don’t want to get too caught up in detail - you want to create the illusion of detail. We also want plenty of texture left on the surface so it takes glazes real well. Remember, he has to look old when we are done.

Here's a comparison of the two knights, one still largely bare Precision Board HDU and the other one with the sculpting process finished.

And as always, we placed him into position to check out how things will look when they are all done.

The sign will hang fairly high when it is finished, so the knight will lean slightly out, proudly standing guard over the entrance.

In our next instalment, we will take a look at the sign’s bracket.

Black Forest - Part 6

Once the clamps came the knight blanks, we fired up the air powered die grinder and whacked off the seams. A smooth and finish simply isn’t necessary; it will al be covered with the sculpting epoxy! If we had needed more than two copies I might have considered getting a scan done of one finished piece and then route the extra copies... but with only two knights to fabricate it is simpler and faster to sculpt the second copy from scratch. (The routed mannequin will keep the two knights scale and pose in line with one another.)

As per usual, before we put too much work into the piece, we do a test fit. We do make mistakes occasionally, but this time everything looks great.

In our next instalment, we will finish sculpting the knights.