At the end of the day on Friday, things didn't go to well with the fox. Very similar to the disaster with Barney, one of the fox's ankles broke, resulting in the joint being very loose and only 2 stands on 1mm wire left holding the ankle on. This wouldn't be strong enough or last for the walkcycle that I need to do.
To start repairs on the fox's ankle I first had to cut the seam along the leg.
I then removed the damaged part of the foot.
I then carefully removed the brass "bones" from the leg, just bellow the knee and cut the remaining wire from the knee joint down.
To join the new bottom half of the left to the top half I cut a small length of K&S tubing, the same length as the original "bone" section and slotted it onto the leg.
I then glued the K&S to the leg using some 2 part epoxy and left it to dry for an hour.
While that was drying I removed the broken armature from the foot using a pair of pliers, so I could then reuse the metal plate I used in the foot.
I then twisted up a small length of wire, using the same method as the rest of the armature, a combination of 1mm and 2mm aluminium wire.
I them simply test fitted this in the joint and cut it to length.
The metal plate of the foot was then keyed to help the glue stick and using 2 part epoxy I attached the foot the new part of the leg.
To finish the repair off I then simple glued the replacement ankle into the joint using yet more 2 part epoxy.
All that's left to do now is leave it to dry over night, then rejoin the seam on the leg using some liquid latex and repaint the leg/foot and get on with the animating, first thing Monday morning. Fingers crossed this is the last of the repairs and I can just get the walkcycle done and my part of filming/animating finished without anymore problems.
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