The Iron Sergeant Advances

Working more on the "Sharing the Courage" series, #3: 

"The Iron Sergeant, Jesse Leach"

I've begun to color in the scenes from the storyboard...
The sequence where Sgt Leach has grabbed a wounded Marine and drags him to cover:

 Sgt Leach provides first aid to his Marine, while the Quick Reaction Force is called...

 

This was a dramatic event which happened in Iraq, to those Marines involved especially. Yet it showcases the type of day-to-day heroism that typifies Marines in combat--  the kind of thing that people back home need to know more about. That's why we are doing this series.

More to come this week... stay tuned!

I Get a Round, Again

I worked on the lathe again the other day, to craft a better miniature 81 mm mortar round:

Then I added the tail section, sans fins...

Casting the Clay "Kevlar"

Layin'  on the Latex--
As I mentioned in the previous post, I have built a 1/4-scale "Kevlar" helmet in clay, from which to cast as many helmets as I need for future sculptures of helmeted Marines.

I used latex rubber casting material to begin the mold making for my miniature helmet...

The Latex goes on an opaque, off-white color

First Coat-- the latex dries translucent yellow-tan...

Third Layer...

Sixth Layer... almost there...

Next Step: embedding it in a two-part plaster mold...

Clay Pot

 

I've been working on The Marine Rifleman lately, and began work on the Kevlar helmet in 1/4 Scale.  This was delicate work, and required a lot of shaping, squinting, smoothing, comparing, cutting, molding, etc. to get it to a workable likeness.

I made the basic "kevlar" out of modeling clay, and plan to use this mini helmet as a template, making a latex mold of it, for replicating the other helmets for the Mortar Crew sculpture I'm working on.

The helmet itself is quite a complex form, with subtle angles and curves. It's not like the "doughboy" helmet of WWI, or even the steel pot of WWII, which were basic ovals and curves. You can almost tell it was designed in a computer (I'll have to research that)!

 

Here is the helmet, as it looks before casting:

 

Building up the Uniform and "Flak"
 I also began the construction of the uniform and "flak jacket" also, with "broad brushstrokes" of wax:

 

Next I will use a heat gun and tool to smooth out the rough edges, refine the form, adding folds and wrinkles...