Baxter 3.0 - The Frankendog! (img int)

This is going to be a pretty long post with a lot of photos so if you want to quote any part of it afterwards, please do so sensibly, lol


Several years ago I made Max and Juno a dog - Baxter - out of wire, polymer clay and fur fabric. He was cute, and posed pretty well, but over time I was concerned about the longevity of the wire armature, and as sweet as he was, I wanted him to be a little more realistic too.

Max, Juno and Baxter by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 2.0 was born last year; this time made up of a very much homemade plastic armature of tubing and vintage Action Man joints, along with a new and greatly improved head. This worked pretty well, and after  some minor cosmetic surgery a few months later, I was really pleased with him.

Max, Juno and Baxter by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Unfortunately as time went on, the armature proved to be far less stable than I’d hoped, and his hip joints kept popping out. In addition, the padding I’d  added actually hampered the articulation, making him stand really awkwardly all the time. Whenever I go out on a walk I always take some figures with me in case the opportunity for a photoshoot presented itself, but recently I’d been deliberately avoiding bringing Baxter because he just isn’t flexible enough. I knew I’d have to do something to improve him eventually, but I just didn’t know what or indeed, when.

Seeing some of my old posts of him resurface this week gave me the motivation I needed and so, at nearly 2am one night I got out the scalpel and hacksaw and started some extreme and much needed plastic surgery.

In true ‘me’ fashion, I didn’t plan anything, or even check what supplies I had first, I just got stuck in, only to panic later on when I suddenly couldn’t remember if I had any of that exact fur fabric left. (I checked later on and by some miracle I did )

I was due to go on holiday at the weekend and I hoped I could get him done by then so I could take him with me for photos, but unfortunately I came down with the worst head cold I’ve had in years, and the holiday ended up being cancelled as a result. I ended up finishing him just in time to spend the weekend stuck in bed

To begin with I unpicked the stitches on his belly fur to reveal the armature. I’d used plastic tubing/epoxy for the joints to sink into, but they’d come loose, and upon further investigation, so had a couple on his legs. It was at this point I just thought ‘sod it’, and did a full dissection.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I’d been toying with the idea of doing something entirely different with his joints this time, which I thought would be far more effective and reliable long term. In one of my many parts boxes, I had a ‘HM Armed Forces’ figure I’d picked up at a charity shop. They’ve got really nice articulation but are a lot smaller than your average 1/6 figure, and as they're very muscular, I couldn’t even use the body for a child or teenager, so I was a little lost on what to do with him…until now.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Proportionally he wasn’t far off Baxter, so I got out my trusty hacksaw and dremel and did some chopping! (I feel it’s only right that I confess I was happily listening to true crime documentaries about serial killers whilst doing all this, and I’m not sure what that says about me )

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

The legs would make good hind legs with a few tweaks, so to begin with I dremelled away some of the bulk so they wouldn’t be so thick, and also to increase the range of motion of the joints.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

In hindsight, I wish I’d bitten the bullet and chopped up a MTM Barbie instead, as the limbs are much slimmer and would have required less work

I originally wanted to keep the swivel joint at the top of the thigh but when I tried to separate the legs from the hip, one got broken, so I had to improvise.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

My new favourite material during this build was ‘FORM card’ thermoplastic, which I used for the majority of the resculpting. I’d been lucky enough to find a pack in the charity shop a few months ago, but hadn’t used any until now, but oooft, I’m a fan! You just pop it in hot water (or pass a heat gun over it briefly) and it goes to the consistency of chewing gum, which you can then mould and shape until it cools, then reheat to undo or alter it further. This stuff is an absolute gamechanger, especially for someone like me who often doesn’t plan or think things through, and ends up making big mistakes. I did this several times during the process and if I’d used epoxy as usual, I’d have found it almost impossible to correct them. I’ve got loads of ideas for this stuff now!

The forearms were perfect as they were, but the torso was far too wide, so I chopped out a big chunk of the middle, then smooshed it together again with the FORMcard. In hindsight I should have taken more off as he turned out very broad at the front, but oh well.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

The spine was salvaged from the previous Baxter body, a section of plastic armature, and I attached the  legs to it using more of the thermoplastic.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I also made him some new feet with more action man joints, polymer clay and Apoxie sculpt. Next time I think I’d like to try making the feet entirely from thermoplastic for durability.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

All that remained of Baxter 2.0 was his head, which I’d originally sculpted onto the plastic armature, so it was easy enough to pop off and set aside for later.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Proportionally he did look pretty good - I had a dog skeleton up for reference at all times as I’m much more used to horse anatomy and I worried I’d end up making him a little too equine

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

My first attempt with the hind legs involved using some doll shoulder joints and a bamboo skewer for the swivel, but I completely forgot it would leave him with really limited hinge motion at the hips so I scrapped that idea and dunked his butt in a mug of hot water so I could get the plastic back and start again. I also didn’t like the way it looked, as the hinge was lower down than it should be and the whole thing looked super clunky, so I’m glad I did it.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Next I tried the hips and upper thighs from an Ever After High doll, which did have a better range of motion, BUT, I totally forgot about the swivel joint, and the hips themselves were too close together, so I took that apart afterwards too.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I was literally just about ready to start adding the fur when I realised my mistake!

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I found some K’Nex parts in one of my boxes of useful things, and thought they’d make perfect swivel joints.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I shortened the purple part and scored it up to give the plastic more to grip, then sank it into the thigh part with lots of melted thermoplastic to hold it securely. This took a bit of finagling but eventually I managed to get it so the purple part sat flush with the cut of the thigh, and the green part could spin freely.

For the new hip joint I dismembered a random old Barbie Fashionista I had knocking around in the body box. In hindsight, I wish I’d used a different one as the shoulders didn’t have quite the range of motion I would have liked, but it worked better than before anyway.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I sank the green part of the swivel joint into the top of the arms with more of the thermoplastic, and once it was cool, built up the new hip muscle on top. I put some washi tape over the flat parts so that the plastic wouldn’t stick to the rest of the leg while it cooled, as I’d made that mistake earlier!

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I kept the upper back part of the torso and shaped it a little with the dremel, then fixed it to the armature with more FORMcard. The neck hole was the perfect diameter to thread the spine though which felt apt somehow.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I was so much happier with these joints; it looked far more proportional and the poseability was great. (Though as I said, the hips could have done with more, but that’s just me being picky)

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

With the head back on he was a little unbalanced, so I hot glued a few pennies under his pelvis to act as a counterweight.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Here's a quick video showing his range of motion - not too shabby I reckon!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V4jTBjTKzWATDjVw6

I painted his paws, and finished them with some matte sealer, then it was time for the most stressful part of the whole endeavour…the fur.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

As I said, I went into this project somewhat impulsively, and didn’t even check if I had enough of the matching fur fabric left. Luckily I did, but I didn’t have any more of the white fur I used for his chest and belly, so I had to scramble to reuse what was left of his old pelt. Unfortunately some of it was unsalvageable so he’s not as floofy there as he used to be. (Next time I’m at the fabric shop I’ll need to see if I can find some scraps so I can sew them on at a later date as I miss his chest floof!)

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

'Give 'em the ol' razzle dazzle'

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I sew quite a lot, usually by hand when I can’t be bothered to get the machine out, and I make patterns for doll clothes all the time, so those parts don’t faze me, but working with fur fabric really is The Worst.

I tried making a pattern, but it proved to be more time consuming and awkward than useful, so I did my usual and just made it up as I went along. I started off with the forelegs, then the hind, then one big piece over the back which linked everything together and a few random patches here and there when bits didn’t fit.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

This particular faux fur is exceptionally cheap and nasty, and I really wish I’d chosen better when I made him originally but I’m committed to it now so there’s no going back! it’s very plasticky and has a long pile which needed to be trimmed down as I went along. Despite my best efforts to cut it into a box to avoid mess, there were fibres EVERYWHERE, and I know I’ll be finding them in my stuff for weeks, even after two rounds of vacuuming!

His Godzilla stage was fun though.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

*kaiju noises intensify*

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

A considerable amount of trimming later, he was done!

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Next to the OG Baxter he looks miles more realistic, which I’m really pleased with, but next to Max and Juno he looks hilariously huge. He’s by far the biggest of the three Baxters (and lol, doesn’t that sound like an Agatha Christie novel or something? ‘The Mystery of The Three Baxters’ ) and I do regret not making him a little smaller.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I don’t know the first thing about dogs really, I’m 100% a cat person, and I don’t  have any dogs I interact with regularly, so my sense of scale has been getting gradually worse. I originally envisaged Baxter as being a collie cross of some kind, but now I’m wondering if the other half was Newfoundland or Irish Wolfhound to account for the sheer size of him! (In fact, if you Google ‘collie Irish wolfhound mix’ there’s a grey dog that bears an uncanny similarity to him, if considerably less floofy.)

He looks great from the side but I accidentally made him really bandy legged at the front which is unfortunate, and he's definitely much more chonky - I'll need to make sure Max and Juno aren't feeding him too much protein I think!


Size aside, I’m super happy with his articulation.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

The only parts which might fail are his ankles, but having already repaired one with thermoplastic when it decided to break juuuust as I was finishing up, I think they’ll be easy enough to fix if there’s any problems.

Baxter 3.0 WIP by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

I deliberately left those joints exposed this time, and simply glued on chopped up fur ‘flock’ rather than cover with the fur fabric. This allows for a much wider range of motion and leaves easy access in case of issues.

All in all he took about a solid week to do, with the fur taking the longest. The resculpting flew by, and I actually bought some more thermoplastic pellets to play with afterwards as I have so many ideas of how to use them in future projects. If epoxy intimidates you but you want to do some drastic resculpts, I’d highly recommend this stuff!

I can’t wait to do some proper photoshoots with new Baxter soon, and I’m so glad my impulsive decision to remake him worked out so well! I want to do a little more trimming here and there though, he's still a little scruffy in places, lol

I did a quick stopmotion test yesterday, which by my own exacting standards isn’t great, but I just wanted to see how he’d look animated and I love him so much!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Uwi38YQZwe3hpco59

Hopefully I’ll be over the lurgy soon and can take him out on a walk, but for now I’m just vegetating in bed with all the chicken soup and painkillers I can get my hands on.

What a beautiful, legendary creature! I loved how he looked after you did his hair. Overall, great that you took so many beautifully disturbing WIP pics. I am most impressed with the multiple jointed paw ankles.

I remember using old K'nex on my first Skeletonzombieperson. It has some great uses, good sturdy ball joints etc, a Lego Technic alternative.

I love how he can wiggle his tongue around in the video!

The best things often happen at night, unplanned. xD

Oh an RIP Baxter 2.0, sort of.

This is totally incredible
Amazing ideas and passionate patience to get this project done.
Thanks for all the WIP pics. I will have to have some closer second and third looks.

He did end up at the tall side, but what the heck… it is our worlds with our creatures the figures live in

Wow! That was quite the read. Thanks for all the behind the scenes photos and description. Brilliant work, Christine. I actually didn’t mind the last stop motion short. Looks like your hard work paid off — even if B3 is a bit bigger than you’re used to. I agree he might be a bit wide from front view, but overall he’s still good.

Cheers, all!

lol yeah, I bought a big box of K’Nex from the charity shop a couple of years ago - I never had any as a kid, so I had great fun just playing with it for a while His tongue is actually magnetic, but it isn’t as strong as I intended, so it’s easy to move around. I’ve got a couple of different posed ones in a wee bag for different expressions.
Yeah, my biggest regret is that 2.0 no longer exists, aside from his head, and, somewhat disturbingly, his skin.

Hopefully this will be his last transformation, but if it isn’t, Baxter 4.0 will probably end up being a werewolf as he’s halfway there already

Thank you for the detailed and fun look at your newest and glorious creation. Your humor might be occasionally somewhat macabre, but once again you show yourself the inventive visionary. Baxter 3.0 is awesome, and I was thinking wolfhound from the start -- and these can get pretty big. You make me want to try things; not least the thermoplastic cards -- I got some, but haven't done much with them. I hope the new Baxter is reasonably sturdy and long-lasting and we'll see him around.

This is awesome! You are a genius with figuring out what dolls and figures to carve up to use for the various joints. That's the sort of thing I have no mind for at all so I definitely admire your skills, creativity, and sheer tenacity. And then how it all came together! I'm so glad he has more articulation now....maybe being able to go on walkies again he'll lose some of that weight.

skywalkersaga wrote:...maybe being able to go on walkies again he'll lose some of that weight.

Me and him both!

Holy Cow ! So much work, but it was definitly worth it. I really love the fact You don´t give up. I have soo many projects. If i failed by one, i give it up and do the next. For sure Baxter is a Star and diserve it. He looks really great now. I loveed his first version too. But now he is perfect. Anantomical correct to me. I think he is a herding dog ? The Headsculpt is fantastic and i love the furr.

Cheers

Eph

Oh wow that is very cool!

My dad was a trapper for a long time, some of those shots gave me some serious flashbacks of him harvesting fur.

Very impressive work, Lynkhart! It's always astonishing what highly talented people like you can build from scratch.      

Very impressive and above all, creative work. Baxter is a cool guy, and I don't think he's that wide, I've met some big dogs including a "sato" (mutt) that my uncle had who was huge.

Superb work! truly inspiring!

Didn't know who he reminded me of. Many Years ago i had a ride by boat in a disneyland pirates of the carribbean tunnel. He´s the famous prison Dog.



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Omg he really does! I’ll have to make M&J some pirate costumes for Halloween now, and I actually made a set of keys just like those recently for one of my fantasy figures!