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Luxan warrior Ka D'argo, from the best TV show ever made, Farscape.
I started with an Ultimate Soldier "Tank Commander" figure, foisted on me by a friend who had
no use for it. The reason is that he prefers Dragon and Blue Box figures, which are even more articulated than the US
line. Also, the good commander's face had been sculpted to accommodate a removable cigar. One cheek was further
out than the other, and there was a hole in the side of his mouth. Worst of all, he didn't look like any actor!
Or did he?? Looking over pics I had of Anthony Simcoe out of makeup, I had a "By George...!"
moment. The features were similar enough for a start. I sanded down the bulge in his right cheek and filled in
the mouth hole with Magic Sculpt, shaping lips to match the left side. From there it
was just a matter of playing makeup artist. Again using Magic Sculpt, I sculpted the "prosthetics" to make him into
D'argo.
The body was donated by Sideshow Toys "Kanamit" from their Twilight Zone collection. Although
the figure is lovely, I needed a much taller figure for D'argo than a typical 1/6 doll, so off went its head. After
all, with makeup and lifts, Mr. Simcoe is about 7 feet tall.
The robe was a fairly simple sewing job from a maroon T-shirt. In fact, I used the
T-shirt's original hems to save time. >:-D
The Qualta Blade was handmade from wood and Sculpey. I would've preferred converting something,
but swords are difficult to come by, alas.
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The tentacles were another matter. D'argo has 5 total (that we know
of!) not counting his elongated chin. My goal was to make the tentacles flexible enough to allow for head movement.
A friend suggested, of all things, rubber fish lures. I tried that, buying wiggly lures that pretty much looked like
little tentacles. Problem: painting them. Rubber does NOT like to be painted. Special effects houses
use silicon paints for rubbers and foams, but at the time, I'd forgotten this. Plus, I don't know where to get silicon
paints. Solution? The thinnest vinyl I could find at the fabric stores, painted D'argo Flesh, then rolled and
glued into the tightest tentacles I could make.
I'd made stop points in the clay for attaching the tentacles. Trouble was, I couldn't attach
most of them until I'd attached his hair. That was made of dyed mohair. D'argo also has 4 braids down his front,
so I had to make those out of the mohair. Keep in mind that to-scale doll hair is extremely fine and pulls apart easily,
so it was a careful process.
An in-progress shot. Pretty goofy, eh?
Current Status of D'ollgo: residing in Stately Simcoe Manor!
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