The brief
2019 was a busy year working for Microsoft-Rare. We had 3 Battletoads to make, some of which lit up and moved and some which were just huge. This is Zitz and his long body balanced on a very thin leg made this sculpt challenging, but we managed to make him stand firmly in his pose.
Prop process images
The Process
This sculpt needed a lot of thought due to the balance of the finished fibreglass sculpt. We had to make the armature very strong too to hold the long, unbalanced pose. With a chunky armature and about 200 kilos of clay, we prepared the surface ready to mould. We made a fibreglass mould but with a silicone section to accommodate the wide-open mouth.
Zitz was then entombed in fibreglass. The next stage is to de-mould by opening the mould and cleaning out all the clay, then waxing it and laying it up with fibreglass. Once the sculpture has been cast, we next have to sand and finish and prime with a white primer so that we can see any blemishes we’ve missed. The next step is to spray a polyurethane sprayable resin onto the sanded cast to make sure we can really fine sand the sculpt, losing any minor blemishes. Finally, Zitz was placed on his base after he was painted and lacquered.
Project Image
The Result
Zitz has a utility belt, gloves and a wrist computer that glows red. The LED lights inside Zits arm that powers the glow. We wired the glowing wrist computer to a battery pack hidden inside the arm. Zitz was then displayed at GamesCom in Germany and around the world.