Barsoomian Plant Man From ERB's "Mars" Novels.

A short time back, I got into diorama making, and I chose Edgar Rice Burroughs "Mars" series for inspiration. I converted two spare action figures into John Carter and Dejah Thoris, made a Flyer from posterboard, and I made THIS Plant Man from modeling compound.

I am a part-time toy collector and diorama maker/photography is my hobby: My latest ones are based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Mars" novels. And THIS is an image of the Plant Man derived from the description in the books. So I decided to try and make one or two to go with my dioramas.

To begin with, I used the wire frame method... Since I was customizing 3 3/4 inch figures, I made the Plant men 5 inches tall. After I made the armature, I applied a product called "Model Magic" over the wire frame. To fill out the head I used a plastic bead and a larger bead for the body. After I applied each section, I set it aside to dry for at least two days. The plant man was described as having one eye, black stiff hair, and a mouth in each one of its "hands".

For the Eye, I used a googly eye: I placed a thin layer of Model Magic over the head, let it dry, then applied another layer, pressed the eye into it, then gently pressed more MM around the eye to keep it in place. For the "Hair" I cut sections of black telephone hookup wire into sections, bundled them together, then wired it to the wire frame armature's "head" and applied MM over the middle of the bundle. I continued to add layer after layer of MM until it was finished: The second pic shows an unfinished P.M. on the left, a finished P.M. on the right, and a standard action figure to show scale.

This is the final result. The M.M. was slightly flexible and it could be bent slightly. Both the P.M.s and the scale figure are standing on a Martian Diorama I made. My next project is to make a green four-armed Thark Warrior using the same method.