Tarkin bust made from Cushing life cast

Gypsyboy

Active Hunter
This is the first casting from my new sculpture. I wanted to use a life casting of Mr Cushing in a way that honored the character for which we all remember him best. I only had the front part of the face to start with, no hair, no ears, eyes closed.

Picture025.jpg
 
That is unbelievable. I really like the bronze finish. Where do you find a face cast of someone so important, my guess is they are rare beyond comparison. If this was done in solid bronze I would make a copy for George himself as a gift for a wonderful saga. Whatever technique you used it is amazing. Did you use any of the "metallic plastic" material from smooth-on? Ive heard they have good stuff
 
Thank you guys. The casting is resin (polyurethane). The bronze finish is achieved through a process that involves several painting/rubbing techniques. I developed some of the specifics of the paint/rubbing technique myself. It is very much a "traditional" faux bronze finish, but I gave it my own little flare here and there with some of the paint and stuff.

I intend to put a short base on it with the inside of the casting filled and carved on the bottom to replicate a classical style bust.
 
Thank you again guys.

I will share the basics of my technique, as it is just basic faux finish work, but there are some specifics about paint mixture that I won't divulge because they are my own concoction that I found did something really cool that regular acrylic paint doesn't.

The technique in this case begins with a polyurethane casting that has been cast from a mold which has been pre-painted with a bronze colour spray paint. A better quality paint will work best for this - I tried a cheap paint once and ended up with a bad casting. Once that is out, you have a pre-painted resin casting, but it is all one uniform colour; in this case bronze (some paints give a more gold like bronze, while others give a more brownish/goldish/greenish colour). But real bronze is not uniform in colour. So...

Bronze is mostly copper, with varying amounts of tin added. The copper gives it the gold-like colour, the tin gives it the dark somewhat blackish tones, and the patina from the copper can give it a green hue. In some cases the green can be very dramatic. In many cases the green is not overly apparent unless you look closely. I went for a casting that just had a hint of green - not really visible in the picture. The green I used to "age it" is a mixture of green and black (but this is where I made some "special modifications" to enhance certain features of the finished look).

This was carefully applied a little bit at a time, very watered down, with a soft brush. I did small areas, wiping away the paint from the high points, so the dark lay in the deep areas of the texture, with the original bronze colour showing through on the high points. The larger/deeper the creases, the more dark I added, lightly buffing it into the texture the whole time.

After that is done you end up with a somewhat aged looking surface, but it still doesn't have the "glow" you get from real bronze. So I took some Rub'N'buff gold and gently and carefully buffed that onto just the high points - the nose bridge, the forehead, the cheekbones, the edges of the collar, around either side of seams in fabric, etc... This must be done with very very little rub'n'buff at a time, or you end up with dirty great globs of gold on your surface that won't come off unless you use a solvent. I got a few spots on that were too thick and I had to use some alcohol to rub some off. The trick is to dab tiny bits of the stuff onto the cloth and then rub it on a styrofoam tray or something to get the most of it off before you start gently buffing it onto the casting. For the areas where there is more gold tones I did this over several stages of buffing, rather than try to get it all at once.

Anyway, them's the basics.
 
I'm in the process of assembling this sculpt onto a base. I don't have pics yet - not much to see yet - but essentially it's just a post that has been fixed into place with expanding foam inside the casting. The bottom of the post will be fastened to a rectangular flat base. The hollow area under the shoulders/chest of the sculpt will be filled and contoured down to the base, after which the whole thing will be finished in the same faux bronze. I'll post pics when this is done... whenever that is. I've been out of town on work all last week so I didn't get a chance to any work on it.
 
OK, I got a chance to measure it:

Height = 20" (approx 52cm)
Width = 12" (approx 30cm)
Depth = 10" (approx 26cm)

Keep in mind that these measurements may not be exactly the same for a different casting, as the base is put on after it is cast and there may be differences in some dimensions depending on the finished length and width of the base. For instance, I may make a different style base for the next one - perhaps a bit taller and more of a "Greek pillar" style.

Michael
 
May I ask how the hell you got a life cast of Peter Cushing to create this? :confused
The only thing I can think is maybe a cast taken for his Hammer movies makeup or props?

And you've done an amazing job it really does look like a bronze cast bust you're very talented!

Oro
 
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