Grenadier Death Giant Skull-Work

Attention moved to the skull. The jaw is cast as a separate piece and needed some good adhesion to the skull. With a fine drill bit, and fine brass wire, the piece was pinned into place.

The trick of it was perfecting the final pose, so that jaw looked natural. I wanted it to be slightly open. A few shims of thin wood were placed in between the teeth, a bit of clay helped keep it in place before it was strapped with rubber bands for drilling.

Again I went straight through the two pieces from one side, making true the alignment of the pins. Green Stuff fills any offending holes. The yellow lines show where the pins are.

It's the little things, like this tiny jaw, that take a lot of time. Big things seem to take care of themselves. I considered leaving the jaw out, making him look really messed up from past battles, a little scarier perhaps... but my instinct told me to stay true to the model as it was cast.

Last part to getting the head right was to 'register' it on the top of the spine, so it would peer out in the right direction. I worked with the steel pin I installed many years ago, but the head tended to swing down to a silly pose. I created a special notch out of Green Stuff, with a corresponding notch on the skull. This makes sure that there will be no wiggle-room at all when the skull is glued into place.

I tell you it was a devil getting the 'look' right, I felt like a fashion photographer posing my subject, a push here, and move there, and perfect. Except in fashion photography the models are typically much skinnier than the relatively plump Death Giant.

Cheers. Maybe I'll actually post some smaller minis soon too.