One of the main reasons I create props and models is a desire to build a collection that represents my favourite movies, games and franchises. I also use each project as an opportunity to learn new creative skills as well as improving existing ones. In recent years, my hobby projects have focussed on creating full-size prop replicas, moving away from my roots in miniature painting and model making. I decided to take on this project as a chance to get back to some of those approaches, and to have a backup project on my desk for days I didn’t feel like spending at the workbench.

Bioshock: Infinite is a game that is near and dear to me, and Elizabeth is one of my favourite video game characters. Rather than making a replica of one of the weapons from Infinite, I felt that Elizabeth herself was the most iconic part of the game for me, and creating a statue of her was the perfect excuse to learn some traditional organic sculpting skills. After several years on the backburner, I have finally returned to my unfinished sculpt and completed it.

For the dress, I attached wire to the waist of the armature and shaped it to the high points of the dress’s folds. I rolled out a sheet of Sculpey and draped it over this skeleton dress, defining the basic shape of the material’s folds. Once the piece had been baked, I could go over it with a second layer of Sculpey to add detailed folds and a stitching line along one side, as well as the frilled white under-layer, which was achieved by crumpling a sheet of Sculpey and blending it in to the inside of the dress.

Her upper torso, including the upper dress and neck, were sculpted on top of the dress, then baked before the jacket and arms were added. I attached a ball of foil to the armature, then roughed out the overall shape of the head before indenting the eye sockets and raising the nose. For her eyes and mouth, I added some Sculpey Living Doll to my clay to soften it and make it easier to blend in the details.

I had initially planned on sculpting the hair as a separate piece, but after I had baked the head I realised that it made more sense to build it up on top of the model. I bulked out the basic volume, adding layers of clay to get the shape right before sculpting in the hair strands. For the hair and other fine line details on the sculpt, I found that attaching a stitching needle to the handle of a craft scalpel made a great precision tool.

The hands proved the most difficult part of the sculpt, and after several failed attempts, I shelved the model while I turned my attention to other hobby projects. When I returned, I did some research and went through some good tutorials before sculpting a successful pair of hands. At the scale I was working at, the hands were quite small and delicate, so I mixed Living Doll into the Super Sculpey Firm so that the clay would require less working while remaining somewhat firm. Using tools wasn’t really viable, as there wasn’t anything on the opposite side of the clay to press against, so most of the shaping was done by carefully manipulating the piece between my fingers. The clay was left to rest before the fine details, such as the knuckles, were added with pure Living Doll. With the hands complete, including the thimble over Elizabeth’s missing pinkie finger, the final details to be added were the jacket’s cuffs.

I wanted to cast the piece in plastic as Sculpey can be delicate and brittle, so I filled, primed and sanded the piece to make it ready for mold-making. I removed the feet and molded them separately along with the hands, as the details on these small pieces would be difficult to work with in a large mold. I had a small incident molding the figure itself – when I was preparing to pour the second half of the mold, I chipped the corner off one of the jacket’s cuffs and lost it. Unable to sculpt a new one while the figure was in the mold, I had to pour the second half with the flaw intact, cast the model in plastic, then sculpt in the cuff corner on the final piece.

The final casting was prepared for painting, filling any bubbles and flaws and attaching the feet. I sculpted in the laces and bows for her shoes and dress, which I hadn’t done previously as they wouldn’t have worked in the mold. Painting the figure was an interesting challenge, testing out my new Iwata Eclipse airbrush and learning some airbrushing skills. I masked off sections and painted the model in blocks, creating subtle colour gradients for the highlights. The hair was given a basecoat of black, and delicately drybrushed with lightening layers of brown to give it some depth. Some of the finer details, including the eyes, lips and the brooch around her neck were handpainted with a fine brush and steady hand. These pieces were also given a coat of gloss varnish to give them some shine and reflectivity.

The base was cut out of 6mm MDF using the scroll saw, then layered with Apoxie Sculpt. Once the Apoxie Sculpt had cured, I sanded it flat, then marked in the cobblestones with a scalpel and widened the lines with a set of files. Once I had the basic shape of the cobblestones complete, I went at them with the scalpel, cutting chips and cracks into the piece to add some age and weathering. The base was primed and undercoated, then layered with earthy browns and creams. I used several techniques to create the look I was happy with, including airbrushing, drybrushing and washes, taking care to use several different shades so that the cobbles didn’t look to uniform.

Thanks for reading,

Terry