Yoda Puppet July 17 2004 This is my attempt to make an animatronic Yoda. I managed to get a Latex Yoda head, arms and feet off of ebay. It was a custom sculpt. The size was a bit small but it was a start. The face was in a frown and I waned to make the mouth movable. To do this I had to make a mould and cast new latex masks. Before the casting I had to modify the mouth to a neutral position and then do something about making it openable. I thought about just cutting the mouth open after casting but decided to give another method a try. |
Here is the mould made from plaster of Paris. The thing sure was heavy. To get into the mouth to modify it I had to cut a chunk of the mould away. |
Not easy to get into to work on the mouth |
Close up of the mould |
Here is the part I am going to put at the mouth to make it openable. |
Th styrene sheet installed |
Close up. How easy it would be to pull the mask out I do not know. |
Here is a test with plastercine to see if the shape of the mouth looks good. |
Another view |
Start to prime the inside to try and get a smooth finish and see where areas have to be fixed |
Pouring moulds. |
Lots of heavy mould for the hands and feet |
Pouring the head. I put green paint into the latex before pouring it to get the mask a base coat of green. Paint does not like to stick to latex so this will help the painting process if my base is already green |
Now to make the eyes I needed to fine something to use. I could not get to the plastic store until the weekend and I did not want to waste a week so I went to the dollar store to see if I can find something I can use. I found some ping pong balls but they were too big. I found a toy gun that show some plastic balls but the plastic was very light and the surface finish bumpy. I went to the gumball machine to see if the plastic bubble things can be used but they were too big. Finally I found these bingo page markers. This has 2 colours and the caps were the perfect size for my Yoda. |
Now from this angle it looks nasty |
here is the back side of the frame I am building for the eyes. It will allow the eyes to move up and down and side to side. The frame is made from brass soldered together. |
Another angle. |
The front side. Looks good so far until I tried to put it in the head and the frame is too wide as it hits the inner structure. Now I have to modify this frame, |
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