Basic mouth template (x4) |
I made a cardboard ring that fit around the tube, then built everything on there, with the tube fitting on top of it at every step. I took up some hot glue and made the lips as well as some eyes. This way, when I paper mache over it, it will be easy enough to get a shape that I want. I made a gum line. I'm planning on using white fingernail press ons that I have leftover from the Audrey IIs to add the teeth.
The head itself, once the cardboard had been taped together (scotch tape), I drew on a few basic lines just to see where I needed to put the lips. The hot glue went on after that, using a low heat and slowly building up layers. As it was going to be completely covered in layers of paper mache, it was less about getting the details and more about getting the shape closer to what I wanted.
I cut out some fins to go on the back of the head/tube. And got a few layers of paper mache on the head. I may do a few more, depending on how it dries. I'd like it to be fairly solid.
Much progress! So once the paper mache layers were done and completely dry, I spray painted everything white just to get a base coat on, and most of it is white anyways. I went after doing the mouth first as it was the most awkward to reach. I had to do several coats of red to get a really deep bright mouth red. The pink of the gums came next, then the blue of the lips. The eyes got painted, and then the bold black stripes that I marked out with a pencil before attempting.
The teeth were fingernails that I glued in with hot glue. The bottom lip of the inner head I did a bit of a reinforcement as that's where the candy is going to hit or be slowed down. I tried to make it so that the teeth were relatively safe in terms of where they are pointing. Overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It definitely looks like the sandworm. Next up is to build a bit of a stand for it on both ends.
Oh the other thing I ended up doing was getting the tube ready by putting on the white stripes. I used white duct tape and measured every 2 inches (the width of the duct tape) so that the stripes were fairly even.
**UPDATE**
Next up was to actually put the chute together. I used an old pvc stand I made for Bert the dinosaur a few years ago that was already painted black and roughly sitting in a chair to pass out candy height. I put together a quick little stand for the bottom/head and spray painted it black. Some tweaking in attaching the tube to the stand. The head itself slips on and off. I wanted to make that fully removable so that I don't have to leave it outside as it was a decent amount of work. Sam helped me do a dry run--the angle wasn't originally what I wanted, but it works out well enough that it doesn't have the candy shooting out at rocket speeds. Most of the time it catches in the mouth, which is great so that I don't have to go looking for random candy in the bushes.
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