The Emperor's New Torso

I've taken a break from the Ion Blaster, because I was becoming self-concious about not having started the body.

I decided to tackle the torso first (still figuring out the midriff and the lower body). To do this, I started by acquiring a large, flat cardboard box (below).

I knew it'd be a challenge to make the torso from a flat cardboard box; I wasn't even sure it would work, but after much deliberation I just started without too many blue-prints to hand.

Zurg's torso is far from flat; rather, it is quite a rounded, curved shape. To get around this, I discarded most of the cardboard box, keeping only the opening/closing flaps and a small section of body underneath. As you might notice in the photo above, I curved the flaps into a more rounded shape. I then cut out what would become the main foundation of the torso:

What followed was the toughest part of this construct. The front and side flaps were curving in such a way that it was hard to join them up (notice in the photo, diamond shaped gaps appeared between them on each side). I had to join the tips of the flaps together and fill the holes with masking tape. On the inside, I put a few strips of wire along these joints to make them stronger, and reinforced them with strong box-sealing tape.

However, after much enforcing and reinforcing, the torso was still pretty flimsy and I wasn't confident of it surviving the night in a packed pub. So to reinforce it further and give it that extra bit of strength, I turned to the old reliable: papier mache.

Once it had dried I was finally confident that it was strong enough to take on the hustle and bustle of a crowd. All that was left to do, then, was add one more strip of cardboard behind the cut out curved section in the front, and then paint it:

And there you have it! Once the paint dries I must get to work on his chest plates, then the torso will be done.