Ella Rosa and friends are continuing to come together in a fun little crafting project. Why are we doing this? No reason, really, the than the fun of it. My daughter and I have been frozen in place for months, the cabin fever is getting to us, and it just seemed like the thing to do. In my last blog post, I wrote about the Ella Rosa and Squatch characters. Since that time, her leather jacket has come in, and the Bigfoot character I ordered arrived.
This time, I’ll be writing about Noowt, the Captain of the Sonic Raptor in Ella Rosa and the Song of the Seirenes.
Finding Noowt’s Suit
In my book, Noowt is a sentient amoebic creature residing inside a humanoid mechanical suit. It connects to its suit through a neural network, allowing it to control the suit’s movements and project a holographic head that other creatures can talk to. Its tank is also transparent, allowing it to view the world outside directly using its five eyes. The right suit had to be 12” tall to compliment the Ella and Squelch figurings I’d already purchased, along with the two 12” Barbie dolls that will serve as Sinoe and Lope. Ideally, it would have a glass dome for Noowt’s holographic head, and a recessed space around the abdomen where we could built its transparent tank. I looked at dozens and dozens of toy options online, from Transformers to retro Lost in Space toys to characters I’d never heard of.
Then, I found a Buzz Lightyear doll from the recent Pixar movie, Lightyear. He was perfect! The suit was a little more trim than the original Buzz because it was depicting a “real” man in a suit, rather than the cartoon version. He came with a laser gun (score!), and his backpack was removable. Plus, he had a removable glass dome over his head AND had a nice space in his midriff to house Noowt’s life support tank.
The plan? Remove Buzz’s head. Paint the suit silver and black. Order a new head to place inside the dome and paint it with black-light reactive colors. Glue eyeballs to its midriff, and paint in a gelatinous creature. build a layer of transparency over the midriff and eyeballs with Modge Lodge, and wrap a sheet of clear Mylar over the top, gluing it down to make it look like a glass window.
At this point, we’re still waiting on the eyeballs to arrive in the mail, but we’ve begun the process of changing Buzz into Noowt.
STEP 1: Buzz Kill!
Mr. Lightyear didn’t go quietly into that dark night. No. His head was on there good. Really good. My daughter and I took turns trying to pull it off, to no avail. After a thorough brainstorming session, I remembered that I had a pair of vice grips in the house somewhere, and tracked them down. What followed was a scene right out of the Inquisition. I vice-gripped Buzz’s head near the base, hoping to destroy whatever kept it hanging on. It was hard work, but it finally came off with a loud cracking sound, leaving something rattling around inside. No matter, we’d successfully beheaded the beloved space ranger!
Step 2: A Brand-New Paintjob!
The next step was painting Noowt’s gently-used suit! I paint a bottle of silver and black acrylic paint from the art store down the street, and my daughter began the process of coating Noowt’s suit. We painted the brunt of its suit metallic silver, but left some parts black (knees, elbows, feet, hands).
It took two or three coats, but Noowt’s suit was painted and dried within the day. A fun weekend diversion on a cold Sunday in February. 🙂 Here’s a picture of the final product, painted silver and black and standing proudly next to Ella Rosa. Her cats, Yin and Yang, lounge in the foreground.
Final Thoughts
Buzz Lightyear is gone but not forgotten. His spirit of adventure will live on in Noowt’s suit. We’ve ordered a 1/8 size action figure head. It’s androgynous, and has pointy alien ears. Noowt’s eyeballs will be showing up soon, and we have the paint, Modge Lodge and Mylar waiting at the ready. Noowt is still a work in progress, but it’s a good one, and it’s fun to have a tangible version of the character that I can hold in my hands. I’m thinking I’ll probably display them if I ever get a conference booth to sell my wares.
If you’d like to contact me for any reason, you can find me on Twitter @SViolaAuthor, or use the Contact field on this website to write me directly. If you’re interested in reading Ella Rosa and the Song of the Seirenes, you can buy it here. My sequel book, Ella Rosa and the Draconian Conspiracy will be coming out later this year.
Here’s a final shot of the gang, as they stand today. Ella has her black leather coat. Squatch hovers in the background, and a half-completed Noowt stands vigilant, ray gun in hand!
S. Viola
S. VIOLA 