I sculpted Dallaire in the same manner I always use. Shape an egg shaped orb of putty, pinch the back for a holding spot, and begin to shape the facial features. I use an Xacto knife to shape the major planes of the face, then rubber colour shapers to futher define them. The eyes were drilled with a dremel, putty orbs were added for eyes, and the lids were sculpted in. When I finished the facial features, he looked like this. You can see the pinched putty used to hold the face for sculpting in the middle photo below.
Next step was to cut-off the holder and shape the back of the head. Once that was done, the ears were shaped and haor added. Finally, the beret and beret badge wer added. The beret's surface was roughened with putty diluted with sculpey dilutant and a paint brush. The beret badge was sculpted to look like Dallaire's own individual model, a subdued cloth version rather than the metallic one used by many UN soldiers. The details were referenced to screen captures from DVD's like "Shake Hands With the Devil" (documentary) and "The Ghosts of Rwanda." Even the Canadian cinematic release of "Shake Hands With the Devil" starring Roy Dupuis is a good refernce source as Dallaire loaned some of his insignia for Dupuis to wear on set.
After addition of the neck, final baking and after brushing on dilutant, he looked like this.
You can see the mole on the right side of Dallaire's face and the small distinctive bump on the left tip of the General's nose. I think small touches like that make the difference between an adequate portrait and something that is truly evocative of the person.
Once the face was done, I proceeded to build the chest of the bust. The chest was built up on a wooden spindle. The collar of his shirt was particularly challenging. The sculpey had to be rolled thin enought to look like a shirt collar. Luckily super sculpey firm is also quite strong and thin material can be added with some confidence that it won't break after baking. Buttons were added and a needle was used to indicate thread holes in the buttons. Buttons and other minor insignia were added from magicsculpt.
Prior to priming with matt white spray paint (Games workshop), I added a name tag from plain plastic sheet.
Setting the model on an upturned Tim Hortons coffee cup with a central hole in the base to accomodate the wooden spindle is part of my traditional approach for busts.
