Waddle Dee

Was messing with a piece of tin foil and it turned into a perfect shape that looked a lot like Kirby. That's when I grabbed my clay and started sculpting around it. 

I've been messing with polymer for about 7 years now. I never made a custom figurine or anything at this size, always stuck with the miniatures. It's a little intimidating, but a great learning project for myself.

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I wanted to give myself a little more of a challenge make it into Waddle Dee instead of Kirby.

Jumped the gun a little and didn't bother taking any photos until this point.

After shaping the clay around the body, I baked and wet sanded it. Then, primer and first coat of paint.

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Originally, I was going to paint on the face, but after tons of procrastinating, I decided to sculpt the eyes and cheeks, bake, and then glue it onto him. 

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For his parasol, I used wire to shape it before adding the clay to keep it sturdy. Then the same stages as the body. Bake, water sand, prime then paint.

For his base, I used scrap clay, a circle cookie cutter, and black paint.

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Once it came to the part where I had to assemble everything, that's when I learned an important lesson. Super glue hates acrylic paint! I just assumed it would stick. Nope, ate the paint right off.

I fixed it by sanding down the areas that needed to be glued and retouched it after it fully dried. 

Last step was adding gloss.

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Not perfect but not terrible either. He's my new little buddy.

Stands about 3" tall, 5" with the parasol.

Will keep practicing and working on more in the future.