ANSA suit

This is the current state of Taylor's ANSA outfit. I put a lot of detail in the sleeves. Also, I had to hand sew the pockets of his pants because the sewing machine kept chewing them up. Guess it was too small...

I have to remove the front right panel and sew another one on. I cut it too small and it's buckling so it's not laying flat. Sewing a top stitch made it buckle, and ironing it out isn't helping. I thought also to add a patch of material to hide the flaw, but I'm not sure if that will work with the buckling and it's so small enough as it is right now that it's probably easier to just remove and re-do.

The other minor detail that I have done is make the top stitching in white instead of in grey because if it is sewn crookedly, the mistakes won't stand out so much.

Partial Lab Scene

Which one was wearing the strange clothes? On a side note, it was quite difficult to pose Zira without making her look like she was peeking at his shorts.

Painted New Hairdo

Got rid of the eyebrows and painted her hairdo. I have to re-do the painting of her right eye because seeing a still photo upclose is different from seeing it in person. I used a magnifying glass to work on her eye but as you can see it's still not perfect. I think she looks way better now though. In addition, I also slimmed down the flesh-colored wattle under her chin with painted hair and she looks loads better.

"Metal" bars for lab scene

These are rolled out clay. Somebody had made bars out of wire hangers, but I didn't want to deal with cutting the metal, so I decided to just roll these out myself. They are baked and a little wobbly, but once painted and strung together with wire and Apoxie clay, they should be firm enough and will be a great background for my laboratory scene.

One half minute looking away to upload these photos and I come back to half of my sticks broken in half by my toddler. Grrrr....Goes to show me that I should have removed them away from the floor where he could get to them. Oh well. More clay rolling out and baking I guess.

Zira's new hairdo

I have always been bothered by the Mego Zira hairdo, so I decided to give her additional hair. I am also going to repaint her face and get rid of those funky eyebrows!

O.R. Tables--could they be finished at last?

Here is a photo of the O.R. tables as they currently stand. I think I should leave well enough alone. I posted this photo in an older post but decided that they should have their own post. Today I may do some last minute painting on them if they don't photograph well.

I can't wait to recreate the above screenshot with my Mego dolls...

Market Scene Update

The clothes rack is slowly coming to life. Needs some more Apoxie and then a smoothing down with sandpaper and a paint job. The fruits have their first coating of paint. The melons are perfect the way they are.

Qin Warrior's Nose Job

Looks much better with a new nose. I will cut off his hair and put a Qin style hair-do with Apoxie to make him look more authentic. I also managed to pop his head onto the body (I think it was a lone ranger body, 10"), and the neck part looks a bit strange but will be camouflaged by a mandarin collar anyway.

Clothes Rack

Doesn't this look like something from Star Trek? It will look like it's made out of wood once I'm done with it. It looks very rough but the Apoxie shaves nicely with a very sharp knife so I can get a smooth surface on it if I am unsuccessful in smoothing it out while molding it.

Aves Apoxie

Finally cracked open my apoxie. I used 2 teaspoons of it, and made quite a mess. I covered my dress rack with it, but I don't think I necessarily did a good job. I tried to recreate the dress rack with sculpey but I didn't do much progress. I also had a minor papercut on my thumb, so feeling the apoxie/water go in there stung a bit.

I waited too long to paint the O.R. tables, so who knows how they will look under natural light.

Some of the fruits I tried to paint but I didn't have the right color green and whatever paints I had on hand did not mix into a very pretty green. I am afraid that there was not much done on the ape front today.

Fruits for the market

Baked clay fruit that need to be painted, including the baskets. Had to take these photos without a flash because the pictures were too washed out as the fruits are made out of white clay.

We have melons:

Bananas:

Some yams:


Mangoes:

Baskets for the market

Glued together, but still waiting to be painted.

Market Tent Status

This is how far I got with the market tent. I can't believe I ran out of sticks again. It's got a lot of glue bleeding all over the place which is an easy fix. At least the main structure is there. I don't know how much I can get done tomorrow. Probably not much. It's quite messy to do this tent.

Non-Ape-Related Future Project

I have found the ugliest doll ever. It came with a Barbie body which I have thrown away. I am going to give this doll a nose job, and convert him to a Qin Dynasty Soldier. I will taylor all his clothing and give him a spectacular armor and weaponry. He will look cool guarding my fireplace. I will customize his armor and give him a paint job that will make him look like he is made out of terracotta. I will probably also shave off his hair and give him a new hairdo that is befitting a soldier of his dignity. I need to find him a body that is suitable for the size of his head.

This doll apparently was made by Durham Industries to be sold at five and dime stores. The 8 inch figure came boxed with kicking and chopping action and looked like Bruce Lee.

Market Tent

I have definitely brought the height down a lot, but unfortunately ran out of wood. I will probably straighten out the vertical pieces of wood just so it's more pleasing to the eye. This is a rather fun project, but quite messy though, with all the wood and scrap pieces. I also glued together a basket out of the tent cloth, and it looks pretty good! I didn't photograph it though because I think I should paint it a different color. The market scene is going to look awesome when it's done.

My new beautiful mugs

Now I can really enjoy my coffee. My beautiful mugs have arrived at last--20 years in the making--it is finally realized. My own personal work printed on a mug. Oh the wonders of technology.

Market Tent

Current state of the market tent. Mego placed next to structure for sizing purposes. Oh, the instant magic of a glue gun!


This tent is being cut down tonight. It's too tall--and the ceiling portion is too high. I am trying to scheme how to work the height down without starting over.