And finally, the answer you’ve been looking for…

FACT:
Hot dogs come in packs of 10. Donuts are boxed by the dozen. Add those together and you get 22. Replace one regular sized donut with two powdered donettes (making 23, one of the numbers!) and remove 9 hot dogs. The result is 14 (one less than the third number and when added together (5) and multiplied by the place in the series (3) it becomes 15 which IS the third number!). But that’s not even the most remarkable part. Take away 10 of the regular sized donuts. What you have left is one hot dog, one donut, and two donettes. FOUR items.. The first number in the series! The kicker is, after all is said and done, take a step back and look at what’s left… A single hotdog shaped | , a single donut shaped O , and two small donuts, one atop the other… |  O 8 !!!!!!!! MIND BLOWING!

Chef by scragz

One of Matt’s requests was for ChefBot to break the cliche chef statue attributes: short fat guy with a mustache holding a plate of spaghetti. I knew right off that this robot’s main parts would need to be something found in a kitchen. It only makes sense, right? So in keeping with Matt’s request and my gut feeling, I went in search of a kitchen item that would fit the bill. A drink mixer!

Wonky

On a warm, sunny weekend I went to a flea market that was having a swap meet in the front parking lot. I found some cool, wonky wrenches, but no mixer outside. After getting the wrenches I headed inside knowing I’d find the main part of the new robot. Sure enough, past the musty smelling Barbie doll graveyard and around the corner from the lacquered slabs of wood depicting loverly scenes of cabins and barns with clocks where waterwheels would be, I found it! There he was, the unsuspecting future ChefBot. It was meant to be.

I picked up some other treasures in the flea market as well… some kitchen utensils, skewers, and a tackle/organizer box with miscellaneous washers and metal bits. I passed on the decaying Barbies. I’m sure it’s safer for everyone if they stay taped in their individual sandwich baggies. With my new found robot parts I was able to get started. I needed arms though.

New idea for robot arms… by Scottoons

I have a vision of ChefBot with several long, serpentine, metal arms flailing all about with surgical precision dissecting meats and vegetables, prepping a whole meal in a matter of minutes. The FUTURE of COOKING!

So, yeah… arms. My original thought was the bendy parts of gooseneck desk lamps. I found a few lamps at a thrift store. I quickly found out it was going to be tough to get just the bendy portions apart, much less find several more with the same lengths. I remembered a whole different material I saw on a post from a tool blog, Toolmonger (great site, by the way). It was a modular hose which came in separate Lego-like pieces that you could use to shoot air at your drill press or other piece of machinery to blow the waste debris away from your work. I did some searching and found Loc-Line pieces which work great for the arms!

ChefBot: clay knife hand by Scottoons

I sculpted a chef’s knife out of a two-part compound clay called Magic-Sculpt. Great stuff! You mix equal parts resin and hardener and work it like modeling clay. Then you simply let it dry over night and it cures extremely strong. You can then carve and sand it and paint it. Like I said, great stuff!

I’ve added two more arms, making him an octo-bot (maybe he can get on Oprah). I carved on a wooden spoon for one hand, chef knife for another, whisk becomes a third hand, and a hand mixer beater for a fourth. I cut down one of the skewers so he has an opposing fork hand to compliment the knife. Hm, haven’t quite decided what the sixth hand will be yet. I am designing the remaining two robot hands to have finger-like pincers. I’ve been experimenting with riveting copper tubing together to create two fingers and a thumb that hinge. ChefBot needs to be able to crack eggs and add spices… how can you have a pinch of salt if you have no extremities to pinch with?!

While the robot-manufacturing is going on, I’ve been dreaming up his outfit. It’s not easy coming up with a pattern for a chef’s jacket to go on an eight-armed robot! We’ll just have to see how that comes out. As I continue working on him, I’ll continue to document the creation of ChefBot.

G.E. Supply, TV trailer by The Library of Virginia

And now for something totally unrelated to the art front… I’ve cut the cord on cable/satellite slavery. Yup, I’m now going commando. Well, as far as TV channels, that is. Gotta say, it feels good. Hanging on to my TiVo addiction, however.

Tituz (www.tituz.de) has started a great collaboration project with select artists and character designers. It’s called the Monster Totem Pole Fun Project. I am honored to be a part of it. I am anxious to see what the other artists add and to see the other pieces!

New idea for robot arms… by Scottoons

These are my new experimental pieces-parts for robot arms! They are actually a modular hose system made for directing streams of air onto machine tools. The idea is to blow away waste material and debris while cutting or drilling. When I saw these, I immediately thought they’d be perfect for robot arms. Not only will they look cool, but the arms will also be posable! ChefBot is the first victim volunteer for the new pieces. Thank you ChefBot for being such a sport! The snap together pieces are made by Loc-Line, who also offer many connector pieces. I got these from modularhose.com. I’m excited to test them out!

Impy
The initial concept was to modify a kidrobot Mini Munny into a swingin’, martini drinkin’, cigar smokin’ hip-imp, one who’s too cool for full-fledged demon status.

I started out sketching directly on the vinyl figure. Once I had the face laid out I began sculpting the main features; nose, brows, horns and beard. I also added points to his ears.

Impy Munny in the making

For the relief modeling I use Magic-Sculpt, a two-part epoxy putty that comes as separate resin and hardener. You mix it 1-to-1 and it hardens at room temperature. It’s truly some wonderful stuff. You can smooth it with water and work it with your hands and art tools. After it’s cured (in about an hour depending on room temp) it is easy to sand and paint. After the face, I shaped hooves and a tail.

Impy Munny X-acto Surgery

Impy gettin’ his Purple on

The stock Mini Munny arms can rotate forward and backward a bit and allow room for the accessories they come with, but not necessarily for a martini glass. I cut the peg off of the right arm and sculpted my own fitting at the end so Impy can hold is ‘tini out to the side. While the new arm piece was curing I sanded and painted the other pieces. I use acrylic paints. I like the quick drying time of acrylics. Tool handles and paintbrushes in the small holes of the pieces worked great for handling and drying. It allows you to rotate and paint the parts without touching the wet paint. To dry, just put the tools in a cup or jar with the parts sticking out the top.

Impy Munny with base paint colors

After the purple base coat dried, I applied the base blue for his suit, and white for his devilish toothy grin. I also primed his eyes. This figure came with the pitchfork accessory. I didn’t want to leave it stock so I carved and nicked it up and painted it to resemble wood. Later I decided he was too cool for toting around an old wooden pitchfork. Wouldn’t want to cramp his style, so the pitchfork got pitched. Suit details came next. I painted cuffs, shirt, tie, and buttons. The eyes took a few painting and waiting-to-dry steps. First a yellow tint going more opaque toward the edges, then a green iris, and finally a darker green ring around the iris.

Impy Munny …almost complete

I painted light purple highlights on his brows, horns, and beard. When everything was dry, I used a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (size B) to outline his eyes, define his teeth, and stripe his suit. I like that marker because it’s filled with waterproof Indian ink and has a brush-like tip. I then painted the shadows in his teeth. The cigar is made out of Magic-Sculpt and painted with acrylics. I used the same marker-pen on the ashes. I created the martini glass from a small plastic part for the stem and layers of clear packing tape for the top. I made a tiny olive out of Magic-Sculpt and whittled down a toothpick to the proper size. The martini is a cocktail of awful smelling Quick Hold Craft all-purpose contact adhesive.

Impy Munny by Scottoons

That sums up this peek into the making of a Scottoons custom Mini Munny figure. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I do others’ works. Cheers!

Speedy Delivery by Scottoons

Munny and Mythos by Scottoons

Some new blanks recently arrived! Yay! Ideas are already spinning in my head. The glasses accessory for the Mini Munny is new to me, so that will be neat and fun to create something with them. This will also be my first Mythos Buddies custom. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with him yet, I like his wings and claw hands. Since they shipped together, they’ve probably already formed some kind of talking box-to-box kind of bond. So perhaps they’ll be created as a pair.

Wrenches by Scottoons

I found these cool wrenches bundled together at a swap meet. With the wonky curved ones included, I couldn’t resist. I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to use them all for, but I’m sure they’ll come in handy at just the right times! There are some robot arms in that pile for sure.

Work table by Scottoons

Here’s the current condition of the main work table. Various tools and bot bits are laying about. The drink mixer is the main body and head piece for the new commissioned robot assemblage; ChefBot. He’ll be made from various cooking materials and will be quite handy (bad pun foreshadowing there, don’t groan yet, but remember to later).

Work pad by Scottoons

I like to work on a large pad of newsprint. It’s great for doing many things: tearing apart, assembling, cutting, sanding, painting, and even (gasp) doodling or drawing on. When it gets too messy or cut up, I tear off the top sheet and instantly have a fresh new work surface. I recommend you give it a go. The pads are relatively cheap and it saves your desk or table from countless dings, dents, scratches, and marks! It also makes clean up a snap!

Sparky the robo-mutt got a hardware upgrade!

His chops weren’t looking doggy enough, so he went back to the Scottoons Robot Factory for some retooling. He was lucky enough to receive innovative dyna-flow whisker vents, lucky pup!

His panting-function-generator had been working too hard, so his new vents should help alleviate that.

Sparky pre-upgrade.

Sparky is a Scottoons original robot assemblage sculpture.

He is  made from recycled found objects such as an authentic 1980’s joystick, a large square flashlight housing, PVC pipe connectors, film canister lids, forks, coat hook, and other odds-and-ends and miscellaneous doodads. After I applied a few layers of metallic paint, I let him dry then “rust-i-fied” him with oil paints.