A little update

Still haven't had time to get pictures. Hoping to take in my camera on Monday to see if the game shop (Who buys cameras too) will buy it. If I get enough I will get the smaller camera that doesn't need batteries and will take some pictures of what has been done.

The armature has been covered with a thin layer of clay. The clay gets really gooey and is hard to mold and shape around the armature. So I have planned to re cover the spots where you can see the wire and then pop it in the oven. It wont be as thick as I wanted it to be but after it's been baked I am going to cover the mistakes and fix the shaping with Model Magic clay. MM clay is an air dry clay that is all soft and foam like. It's awesome and I used it for my other prop, the Tsubasa sphere (As pictured below)

 This what MM clay looks like when dry

But be careful because MM clay is VERY fragile when dry. I used two-three coats of clear varnish. It makes the surface smooth and helps the clay from cracking or breaking. I highly suggest using it. When I was creating the sphere I put a coat on before painting and two after. This way the prop is strong while you turn and toss it to be painted. 

Anyway....

The cross is about 3 inches long. I went off of old Gothic rosaries as well as the original design to create something of a mix between the two. Although the details have yet to be applied I am going to add on my own touches. Such as matching pearls and smaller seed beads to make it eye catching. I may or may not use resin to coat it. Although I most likely will be so all the details and beads wont fall off. Plus I really am looking forward to trying out new techniques. 

Which brings me to my next idea. For the pieces of Abel's armor I had decided to try out the gold leaf technique. This involves brushing metal or gold leaf against an object then rubbing off the pieces. It's hard to explain. I've done it only once before. But it gives the object a wonderful metallic look. I'm still thinking about what materials to use for the armor. I'm going to test with the oven-bake clay. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it because of needing to sew it onto fabric. But then I realized if I used beads for the bolts int eh armor I could use beads and sew it into the fabric using the beads. Hopefully it works. I'm going to run a few tests which I will post on here in full detail.