Posing the Elbow Joint and Hand

This step can be done prior to loosely securing the arm to the scapula, however if you've left enough slack in your arm's bar tie wire then there should be no problem in doing this step after loosely attaching the arm. In this image, I have again used my 1/8 of an inch drill bit to drill a hole near the inside of the elbow. The placement of the hole is not critical, it just needs to be located where your wire can reach through and attach to the bucky elbow joint hardware.

I then insert my wire through the hole and loop it around the joint hardware. In the bottom image the elbow is bent and you are now looking at bucky's funnybone. I inserted the wire so that it met in a way to be tied off at the back of the elbow joint. You will need to determine how much of a bend you want in the elbow before overtightening the wire. On my prop I decided to have a significant bend with the arms rotated out, but you may prefer a different pose. Once the slack is cut or twisted off, with your pliers, you can push the remaining wire into that nice little recess under the elbow, seen in the image.

After achieving the desired position and securing the wire, you are probably going to want to add some Gorilla Glue to the joint to ensure it maintains its position. The wire will do a great job in holding the position, but Gorilla Glue will guarantee it stays there for good. I love Gorilla Glue and its amazing bond after it dries, but when wet - it doesn't resist gravity too well. If you try to apply a generous amount, on the elbow joint, it will have a tendency to run off before any of it actually has a chance to dry.

A fix for this is to use your hot glue gun. I like to create a hot glue lining around 1/2 to 3/4's of the joint (primarily on the bottom and sides of the joint) prior to using the Gorilla Glue. This lining dries fast and creates a barrier that keeps the Gorilla Glue right where you want it. If it sounds confusing just try it, you'll get the hang of it as you go along. This bar tie/hot glue/Gorilla Glue combo is the best technique I've thought of for permanently positioning bucky arms and legs without having lots of wire or rods to cover up, or worse- having them exposed and in plain sight on Halloween night.

We are now ready to apply the same technique on the hand and wrist, that we used on the elbow. For this step, there is no need to drill any holes- we just take advantage of the type of hardware that is used to secure the bucky wrist. The bar tie wire is slipped under the hardware that comes into contact with the radius (the bone that falls directly under the thumb joint) as seen in the image on the left.

It's then threaded in-between the bones in the middle of the hand. If you pull these little bones apart you will find wires holding the hand together. Find the most prominent place to thread it through, based upon how you want your hand positioned. We then bring the end of the bar tie wire into the palm of the hand. At this point you will again twist your bar tie ends together until they are extremely tight and then clip or twist off the remaining slack.

The remaining wire can be tucked into the palm (as seen in the image) of the hand and will be covered when we apply the papier mache to the corpse. When you are satisfied with the position of your hand, you will again need to create a lining around the wrist with hot glue. After your hot glue dries, you can apply Gorilla Glue to permanently secure the wrist.

Securing the Arm to the Shoulder Socket

This brings us back to working again with the shoulder joint. We are now ready to take the remaining slack out of the bar tie wire (by twisting it taught) that was used to loosely secure the arm to the shoulder socket. As you are twisting the wire tight, be aware of the positioning of the arm, making sure it's posed in the manner you are intending. Once the wire is tight, you may notice there is still quite a bit of play in the arm - due to its sheer weight. The trusty glue gun and Gorilla Glue will take of that. I usually support the elbow (making certain it doesn't move around) with a very tall container of Elmer's Glue or whatever is handy. I then begin using the hot glue technique that we used on the elbow and wrist, for creating a lining around the shoulder/arm socket. After the hot glue dries, you are ready to use the Gorilla Glue.

Once you finish applying the Gorilla Glue it's a good idea to leave the arm (with elbow still resting on a container of some sort) or arms, if you worked on both simultaneously, to dry overnight. This really isn't an issue with the elbow or wrist because of the size and weight distribution, but with the arm you have to allow the glue to dry fully prior to removing it from the support that's placed at the elbow. After the glue has had several hours to dry, the prop can easily be picked up and carried around by the arms without even flinching. If for some reason you still find that your arms aren't as stable as you would like- no worries- when you apply the papier mache process it will create a tight bond against the joint that will reinforce it.

One last minor detail and we are ready to move on - when you use the bucky shoulder blade and arm combo, you will notice the collar bone or clavicle that comes dangling with them on a little wire (you can see it hanging down in this image from the previous page). After securing both of your arms and shoulders to the body, you can check and see if the clavicles that came attached to the parts will reach the sternum. If they reach - that's great. You can secure them to the sternum by using some of the same methods we've already used for attaching the ribs and other parts. However, if they don't reach (like mine)- just snip the wires and set the little bones aside. They may come in handy for another project, but won't work for the clavicles on this prop. We'll cover an option for adding clavicles after attaching the head.