Lazarus Project P1

Hmm, suppose I should at least update on my week. Let's see, modeled for a friend, editing one of my novels, joined a graphic novel club, taking a pottery class, worked on Tron suit, and made cookies! Moving on to what I really care about, I needed a little break from painting the army, so pulled an old BJD project out to begin work. Up on the modding table is Lazarus, also affectionately known as my itty bitty servitor. He's not actually from the 40k universe, but he was inspired by techpriests and Necrons in his creation.

Story wise, Lazarus is a robot from a future world where humans are nearly extinct after several persistent wars. Living in a city-state where robots and androids outnumber humans 5:1, Lazarus is a systems operator where he manages the computers and machines of a war compound and later production factory during peace times. He maintains some humanistic elements to easily convey diagnostics to humans, but his programming remained relatively basic. After extensive use and facing replacement from newer models, he was reformatted with a controversial alchemic prototype to give greater depth to robotic emotions.

But to spare you extensive, boring reading, here's some concept sketches:

Design concept wise, he spends most of his life suspended from data wires, so when I translate this to doll form, I want the doll to suspend. And I'm also going to replace his feet with narrow points because he wouldn't be walking. The other thing is his vaguely steampunk look. Lazarus was a first edition created for the private collection of the founder of the company he was produced from, so has distinctly antiquated design to his newer counterparts.

I started working on his head a while ago and figured I should post that progress before I move on to the rest of the body. Lazarus's head came free with another doll and his body was kind of just a junk body I was testing some resin dying on. Part of my expertise revolves around restoration work, so let's see if I can fix what I effectively effed up! And here's a before shot of how Lazarus came to me (he's a WS WD Jude):

It's a disembodied blank face. What's so scary about this hobby again?

First order of business is get those wires in his head. He's going to need 40+ holes drilled into his head and upper back to support a variety of 12/14 gauge wire and rope I've collected from work and dead electronics. I had about 40ft of wire and it still wasn't enough to get the look I wanted *eyes her roommate's Ipod eagerly*  I digress. It's really frickin' hard to clamp down something this fragile, but somehow I managed to get the little brat steady.

World record holder for most lobotomies.

I then sawed off his ears, sanded everything down and proceeded with painting him before wires were installed. When painting the actual face of the doll, I used ground up pastel powder dry-brushed on then make line details out of water colored pencil. I use a similar method on my 40k models when I add the finishing touches. 

Painted to increase the soul sucking capabilities.

Now we can add the wires not only stemming from his head but from his eyes. The wires were epoxied into place as well as the LED system I created to light up his eyes. I tore the copper from a really thin strand of 20 gauge wire and attached it to the "audio receptive devices" at the side of his face. They're actually sewing pieces I found, and most of his parts I stole from a broken sewing machine. All of my machinery robbery leads itself to this result, which you may have seen in an earlier post:

I thought we killed this with fire a while back?

I'm pretty happy he actually lights up. I still need more wire and a clever way to hide some of the epoxy and glue in places, but he's only about 15% complete. I am also thinking of robbing my Tron suit of it's fiber-optic/LED rope to add some glowing effects. All in all, I like where this is going, but I have a lot more "going" to do.