The Human Model - The Mouth and Stomach

My friend Gary asked me to help him with his commission to make a larger than life model of a human gastrointestinal tract.
It was a piece for a scientific educational company to allow them to tour round schools and decribe the workings of our bodies to the children. The brief explained the dimensions they wanted and decribed certain workable areas. SceneEngineering were employing us to do the commission and I spent 2 weeks working in their workshop carving bowels out of polystyrene.

First couple of days were spent designing and buying materials. Gary wrote out a materials list and costed it. I've still only had a little experience with this and was impressed at his list. I found myself wondering how I would do if I had been given the task.
I suppose I would have just got on with it.





 It's always the worry that you buy too much or too large a quantity or too little and have to spend time going back for more!



 SCENEgineering allowed us use of their van and and workshop whis meant we could pick up and store large materials.

The company commisioning the make were pretty specific about certain aspects of the model. They wanted a tube connecting the mouth piece to the stomach so they could pour 'food' into it and squeeze it along simulating peristalsis. They needed the model made in 2 weeks so there was particular things they asked for that we had to modify to complete it in time.

I started work on the mouth piece whilst Gary started working on the stomach. The Stomach required a couple of boxes inserted into it, so Gary was keen to have them constructed.

The mouth piece was a tricky sculpt. Gary made a quick couple of sketches and incorporated a pair of lips with a funnel type structure. I made a tiny model out of clay so that I could visualise the shape and then measured and carved it out of our poly.

The polystyrene was sheets bought from B&Q. It was fairly low denstity meaning you couldn't get fine detail with it. Large particles would come off when you tried. It could be sanded gently to get a little detail, but not necessarily fine. If I wanted any intricate detail I attached some 2 part foam and sanded that. After the shape was too my liking I covered it in a layer of fibre glass and jesmonite. Then a layer of fibreglass and resin to make it utterly durable as the company planned to travel round schools and it had to pass the test of time.

Last thing was a coat or paint and varnish and it was ready to attach to the tube.

 Meanwhile Gary was working on the stomach piece..

After measuring then sculpting out the stomach shape, he cut a horizontal section, creating a lid and hollowed out the inside. He marked out where the drawers would go. First drawer was to catch the food that was being squeezed through from the mouth. The second drawer was where the digested food sample would be placed.

 The boxes were made out of 3mm styrene. Gary opted for red colour since it was in keeping with the palette of the inside of the body :D

 Ready for the jesmonite and fibre glass layer - resin and fibre glass layer then paint finish!