/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.68002]

Thinking of making an artist's mannequin out of air-dry corn starch clay and some sort of posable armature.

Any recommendations for what material to use for the armature? I'll need something that can stand being bent and rebent without weakening or breaking.

[Anonymous No.68009]

i want to say, try a wire hanger, but i'm pretty sure a wire hanger would break if you bend it over and over. the plus side would be, though, that it'd be really cheap to just make another one.

[eNon No.68010]

You can buy armature skeletons on ebay or make a skeleton out of a thin wire, like aluminum.

In this pic, this type of plastic armature is commonly used in teddy bears and dolls, and sometimes by furry costumes.

[Anony-Mouse !oH4Xx2Olmo No.68029]

I've been thinkin' of doing the same thing.
You could try looking into getting some Revoltech joints.
They're joints used for Revoltech action figures, and allow a good range of movement granted you don't glue the joints into the holes. Really they're just ratchet joints, but you can buy them by themselves for fairly cheap. They even come in different sizes, and I believe you can even buy the double-joint kind. You can find some here: http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist?Word=revoltech&Dis=2&DisplayMode=images&Sort=std&
qid=AWO7IMTVS3Q&set=1&q=1&MacroType2=dolcloth
They're usually 4 dollars for 6 of them.
What you can do is make your mannequin, cut out the places where you want movement, and make snug holes to put the Revoltech joints in.

The problem with mire armatures is that they eventually snap off, same with the plastic if you're constantly moving it. With action figure joints you can interchange them or replace them if they ever break, so you won't ruin your whole mannequin.