Fan Build · 2024
The Hollow King
A 1/4 scale bust with a hand-sculpted crown, gilded with genuine leaf and then deliberately worn back to the bare resin at every contact point.
The brief
A bust that had to survive being looked at from thirty centimetres away. That meant no shortcuts on the face — the pores, the crow’s feet and the asymmetry in the jaw are all sculpted rather than painted, so they hold up under a raking light.
Build notes
Printed hollow with a drained cavity and a threaded brass insert in the base, so the bust can be lifted off the plinth without stressing the neck join.
Finishing
The gilding is real 23k leaf laid over an oil size, then abraded back by hand at the high points. Underneath, the crown is painted as bare tarnished metal, which is what you actually see at the wear edges rather than a flat brown.