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3.15.2020

fixing up the bone boi (anatomical skeleton reconstruction)

Oh boy, let's see if I remember how to do this!

With the world social distancing and all my market, roller derby, and travel plans cancelled, I've started slipping into old habits.  I do make things still, as, you know, my j.o.b.  

I guess.  

You can search  my artsy fartsy bizness name 'Pulp Anatomy' to see what I'm up to.  But without my ridiculously stuffed schedule of derby events between myself and the girl, who plays with a provincial travel team and on Team Canada (little heart baby makes good!), I haven't had an outlet for my general know-it-all-ness.

I remember blogs though.  Such a brilliant thing.  I do what I want and can turn off comments.  

Surprising, nothing has changed in formatting.  This feels very primitive.  Thank goodness because I am a matronly woman now and no longer have the ability to update my computer skills.

But I did need to update my skelly boi because he was looking a little worse for wear.  A whole lot of him just sort of fell off, Black Knight style.  Not very educational, unless he's demonstrating what happens to an extra for The Witcher.


I tried all sorts of adhesives but they couldn't take the weight of the plastics.  I've been keeping his fallen parts around in hopes I would one day find the time to put him back together.  Looks like, thanks to a pandemic, that day arrived!


What I used: wire (probably a 24 gauge, but tough), wire cut and bending tool, and what I call a hand drill, although I don't know what the people who know tools call it.


I use this little drill all the time for real animal skeleton reconstructions and with polymer clay sculpts to make the holes I need to put in supports.  For the skeleton articulations, I usually use a small brass rod instead of just wire, cut to a precise length and secured with adhesive.  It's nearly invisible and very strong when in place.  

Here is an example of an articulated rabbit skeleton I done did up last year.  Note the joints are secured with small brass rods and then a larger one for spine support in the middle.  The spine is threaded with a hard 12 gauge craft wire.


However, I needed some flex with this plastic anatomy model since it is molded plastic and I had to somehow maneuver through an already constructed rib cage.  I was also not concerned in anyway about roughly finished wire edges.  Obvious repairs add charm, right?  Like visible mending?


Off I go.  Without actually counting and accounting for all the parts.  (Foreshadowing?)

Using the hand drill (or whatever), I screw my way through the plastic (so much hard polymer, had to turn on The Witcher while drilling), and then threaded my bendy wire through the holes.  A simple operation except when Geralt was doing something violent or sexy, and then I had to stop and pay attention to the screen for a bit.


Twist ends to secure.


Here is the ribs.  One did not want to cooperate no matter how much I cursed at it.  I decided to leave it as a lesson to itself.  I could, however, later go in with an adhesive, maybe with a silicone, to force it into shape.  With the wire supports, it would probably hold up well.


For now, though, I've got my bone boi looking much more intact and conventionally educational.  And I got an entire Witcher episode inside me too, which is very satisfying.

But wait!  Half an arm missing?!


I know it's here... somewhere.  While I search, not very hard, I am contemplating making some sort of robotic substitute.  Or maybe a grass sword, a la Finn the Human style?

What do you think I should do with this opportunity?


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