Anvil Sculpture

[Gundog48]

I've seen an anvil sculpture on the Internet and was interested in replicating a small version of it. I'm hoping to go for a paperweight-sized thing. This one created by Willway Forge is supposedly strong enough to be fully functional. My plan would be to make a mold to 'pour' the parts into to give the parts their shape. That shouldn't be a problem. What's got me stuck right now is how to join the parts together in a way that won't be visible. I'm not worried about making it solid enough to use, but I want to be solid and look good. The only way I can think of is to mix all the parts together with resin before fitting it into the mold, but I'd imagine that wouldn't look too nice. Any suggestions?

[Chinobi]

would it be possible to build it up in two halves? start with the outer shell (call it left and right) and weld (or solder at that scale) that all together from the inside, then if you want to add more to make it solid instead of just a shell you can continue to attach layers (probably as panels or chunks rather than individual items), then maybe leave some rings fixed to each side that line up when the two halves are put together and slide a rod through to tie the sides together, said rod could be threaded into the face and flush riveted into the base from underneath or any number of other connection types.

 

what materials you thinking of making your cast parts from?  you can get miniature nuts, bolts, rivets, lag screws, nails, and the like from MicroMark in primarily brass, but might be others if you dig.  they are not cheap though, food for thought.

 

sounds like a fun project :) good luck!

 

edit: brainwave after i hit post! build it up in layers from the bottom up, leave plenty of dangly bits up and down to blur the strata, you could vary the materials as well to give it a stripy look too, and install 2-4 rings in the same location through the waist on all of them to give it some frame, pick a connection style for the rods that will allow you to clamp it down and compress the stacks a bit to get them to bite into each other and prevent any movement.