# Hobo Joe (building a better Hobo)



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I met this gentleman in Utah around 1973 when I was hitch hiking back from South Dakota. He called himself Hobo Joe, and claimed to be the last of the hard core rail ridders (or something to that effect). He was trying his hand at hitch hiking because (he said) the rails were "becoming unreliable".  We hitched rides together for 3 days and parted ways in Eurika. He said he had "business" up in Oregon. 
The first morning we met he offered me some doughnuts. After biting in to one of the cake doughnuts and discovering that it was staled I asked.
"How long you had these doughnuts in your suitecase?"
"Well, no, ya see,,,, these donuts is fresh,,,, I just got em out the dumpster this morning."
Not wishing to appear ungrateful or upity, I finished the doughnut, but declined another, as well as a sip from a bottle he pulled from his coat pocket and claimed with a wink; "My medicine".
The image above is the sculpty and resin prototype. It is preped and ready for throwing a mold. I thought since some people expressed a little curiousity about my figure making process I would use Joe as an example of not only how I get detail, but how I prep the figure for the mold.
You will notice that in addition to the Sculpty theres a lot of paint on him.
I noticed something about paint that is left standing around too long. Sediments start to form at the bottom of the jar, and this sediments are great for adding finer details.








Here you see the fin I add to the back of the figure to help with parting.
This is to assure that the parting line will follow what appears to be a seam in the garment. 
You can also see the red clay I use at the bottom of the cardstock cylinder I make for the mold enclosure. 
It is fixed to some 1/8" styrene scrap.


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

Oh Boy!!! I really like that one! 

About what scale will he be?

Thanks,
Craig


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

1:20.3 Craig.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

Not that the rest of it isn't great, but the head and facial features are excellent. That's the part I really have the most problem with. Plus all the rest too.

I'm not quite sure if his hands are in his pockets or just down in that general vicinity? Why does his face look wet? Is that some liquid sculpy you used, as mentioned in a previous post? 

You were brave to finish the donut, though I have eaten some that I have let get in that state, but not from a dumpster!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

Amazing detail.  I look forward to the finished product.  His beard really caught my attention.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Bob, 
Thanks. He is constructed partly of pre-casted polyurethane armature that included a partially finished face, hands, nude torso and legs and arms, and shoes. The resin tends to shine a little. Then I used sculpty and paint to add more details like clothing and hair. The bottle in his pocket is carved from styrene. 
Thanks Robert, I'll post the finished pics once he is casted and painted.


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## astrayelmgod (Jan 2, 2008)

Judging from his nose, he's been hitting that bottle a lot, and for a long time. I can smell the booze on him from here. To paraphrase Mark Twain, if he ever catches fire, he'll burn like an old tar barrel.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By rkapuaala on 01/16/2008 2:43 PM









I met this gentleman in Utah around 1973 when I was hitch hiking back from South Dakota. He called himself Hobo Joe . . . 








Wow, talk about the stereotypical hobo! Marvelous piece of work, indeed.

My regards,
--Ron at the CRD, Cicely, NX-AK


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Just pulled the first one from the mold today. Broke the neck of the bottle because I forgot to make a parting line for it. The next 5 are ok


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## Duncan (Jan 2, 2008)

Here's a shot of the "original" Hobo Joe...


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Wow! Great figure. What scale is that? Hobo Joe was not that well dressed or groomed, but It looks like they both kept their medicine in the coat pocket.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Now that I have resin figure of Joe, its time to make the hat. I use sculpty and cardstock, and liquid sculpty for the proto type.
I start with the crown.








After baking the crown on the resin cast figure, I carefully remove it in preparation of the next step.








I use a drafting pencil to make an outline of the crown, and then added a dashed line for the rough openining.








I cut the inside of the brim out first, and after cutting out the outside, I glue the card stock to the sculpty crown with superglue.
Once the glue has hardened, I gently bend the brim into position and and apply a coat of liquid sculpty and bake. 
I add a little extra around the base of the crown where it joins the card stock.
I bake layers and layers of liquid sculpty till I arrive at the finished hat
.









Since most people like hats with their figures, I make a mold from this prototype and cast the hat separately.
This is actually not as easy as it sounds. To be a convincing hat, the head band can't be too thick. It must be less than 1/64".
Since I don't do injection molding, I have a lot of throw away hats because the mold shifts a micron or so and the head band disappears.
But the end result is worth the trouble I think.


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## Duncan (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By rkapuaala on 01/19/2008 11:07 PM
Wow! Great figure. What scale is that? Hobo Joe was not that well dressed or groomed, but It looks like they both kept their medicine in the coat pocket.

The scale is 1:1, as it was a promotional statue used outside of the restaurants...

There's another that was used here in Arizona, and I've been digging to find an image of that one...

More rotund, and a little less well kempt...


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Duncan, 
The Hobo Joe I met, was a little on the ripe side. His clothes were il fit, and his shirt had so many layers of grime and sweat and stains, I couldn't tell what the original color was. His sports coat looked like it was taylored to fit a child and was tattered. I'm going to paint my figure, to match what I remember of the character, but I do like the looks of the stylized Hobo Joe pic you shared.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Testi painted the busted casting and test fitted the hat as well.


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## BnEgscale (Jan 4, 2008)

The more I learn the more questions I have. What is the "card stock" you refer to? Is it paper like the 3 X 5 cards or the paper of a deck of playing cards? 

How do you apply the liquid sculpy, brush or what method. Why multiple layers: to achieve thicknes, shape, or texture? Would you use the same method for making a smooth hat like a top hat? 

Thanks for taking the time to post these step by step pictures. It is a great help in understanding the process. I'm currently working on my first nude base figure as a result of your shared process. 

Bob


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Cardstock is a type of paper used to make business cards. It comes in regular size sheets. 
You can apply sculpty any of the ways you mentioned. I want a certain bumpy sort of deformed look, so I used a pallet knife to apply it. If you don't have a pallet knife, a thin piece of styrene will do. 
If I was doing a top hat, I would probably use a brush and sculpty that was not thickened. The sculpty I used for Joe's hat was thickened by mixing in some regular sculpty 50/50. 
Good luck on your first attempt. Remember, don't bake that resin indoors, you need plenty of ventilation.


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## Guest (Jan 21, 2008)

if one looks only at the upper half of your test-hobo, he allready begins to smell!
i am curious about the finished guy.

korm
.


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