Beginning online customizing class
Lesson 1

 I hope everyone is ready to have a great class and have lots of fun. Don't be shy about asking questions, I will be checking in several times every day and will answer those that have been posted.

I will be using the Stone Arab but you can use anything that you have to work on, preferably traditional scale. It will probably be helpful to print the lessons so you can have them at hand while you are working. Be sure to read through the entire lesson before starting. That way you will have an idea of the sequence of work.

Let's start with some rules:

1. When using the Dremel tool, please all of you with long hair, tie it back. It
isn't very fun to have the tool grab your hair and wind it up all the way to your head. OUCH!

2. PLEASE use eye protection!

3. PLEASE wear a dust/fumes mask! The fumes and dust can be quite toxic to
your lungs.

4. Optional gloves to protect your hands. I don't usually use them but if you do don't use cloth gloves. They could get caught up in the tool.

Now for some hints on using the dremel tool for the first time.

I like to hold mine like a pencil most of the time when I am doing small areas.
You can hold it any way it feels comfortable and steady in your hand. If you have trouble controling it at first you can brace the hand you are holding the horse with on a table top or anything that is flat and stable. You can also brace your dremeling hand /arm against your body.

It is not that the dremel tool is going to whip you all over the place, but when you are doing small areas sometimes it likes to just zip off there if your hand isn't steady. Once you get the feel of it you probably won't have to do this anymore. If you have an old body to practice on that would be great.

Well, let's get started. The most important thing in learning to customize is take
your time, don't try to rush. You have a whole week to complete this lesson.



I will be working on this guy, see him shaking with fear? :)


Fig 1
Detail of dremeled belly - Fig 1

Note that the area that is sanded on the left has
scratch marks from the sandpaper. The right side does not because it has been sanded over
with #220 sandpaper and then steel wool. Looks much nicer don't you think?
 
OK, let's start with my favorite part of
customizing...........sanding.
Yikes! I hate sanding!!

Sand or scrape all the seams on the horse. both front and back of all legs, the belly including between the front and hind legs, down one ear and along the mane, down the back to the tail and down the tail. Don't forget the head and hooves.

If you have a carbide scraper you can just run it over the seams. They will still need sanding afterwards.

Start with a #120 (or 150)
sandpaper. Go over all the seams until there is no body color showing. All you will see is white plastic. There are some exceptions to the "all white" rule. If it appears that there is a colored spot where you have sanded make sure it isn't a seam but an actual part of the original sculpting. Those areas are OK to leave. See Fig 1 on the right of the sanded area there where there are a couple of blue areas. Those are actually part of the original and may not need to be removed.

 
Fig 2 There should not be any marks from the sandpaper left. It should just blend into the remaining paint.

After you have done all the
seams, go over them again
with # 220 sandpaper. Then again with fine steel wool.

The reason for all this
sanding etc is to get the seam as smooth as possible and without sanding marks.

If it doesn't look like there is a seam on some areas of the horse, lightly sand over with a #220 and if there is an unseen seam it will show up.
Go over the entire horse to get any bumps, blips or gouges sanded.

You don't need to sand every inch of the horse, just spots where there are blemishes.

Notice that on Fig 2 you can see where it is sanded but there are no obvious "lines" or scrapes from the previous step.

 

Here is another example of how the seams should look after you finish your sanding. Notice that I have not sanded into the areas that are a part of the muscling on  this leg.

Small areas like the dots and lines are OK to leave if they are a part of the sculpting. (see knee)

Now take your emery board and put it flat on the bottom of the foot and sand the bottom surface of the hoof walls until they are pretty even.

OK, we have the sanding done, let's start dremeling.

The first thing you need to know is safety. You really can't hurt yourself too badly on a Dremel tool unless it "grabs" your hair and zips it up to your scalp, so please if you have long hair, tie it back.

You should also wear a mask for dust and fumes. Dremeling plastic is pretty nasty so be sure and do this.

You should also wear some eye protection to keep pieces of plastic from ending up in your eye.

OK, that done, let's go.

 
  Let's start with the ear. You want to dremel out the plastic from the base of the ear to the tip. Start at the base with your largest bit. You will want to slowly draw the bit away from the base of the ear to the tip. You can see in the illustration that you want the deepest carving at the base.

 
The red line next to the black line is as far as you want to go with the bit. Only dremel out the red/pink areas
  

 

These are my ears done to this point.When you have this much done you can gently draw the bit from the red line over the black to soften the edge a bit

Notice that the ears on this model are not in line with each other so I will have to use the heat gun to move them a bit.

OK, next lesson will be on carving the nostrils and feet.
If you finish this lesson, please post pix of your work on the Yahoo classroom. You each have a folder in the photos section to post them. CU next week!


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