Soon, I shall begin work on a ~1/3* scale model of Puppetmon of Digimon: Adventure 01. He is one of my all-time favorite digimon (the other two are Arukenimon and Mummymon) and I would like to honor him with a working, detailed marionette. In the past, I have made things (wood Boba Fett Christmas ornament that is missing, various LotR plushies, etc), but this is by far the most difficult project that I will be undertaking. However, my father is a master woodcarver and has offered to help me on this. I shall take pictures and upload our progress once we begin work.

*As he seems to stand as high as a young child, full size would be far too big for me to make on a college student budget.

I have thought about this, and I know that I will need:

->A great deal of wood (duh), as well as a perfect wooden sphere for his head. His body is rectangular, his arms could be made with thick dowel rods with hinges placed at his joints. His feet and hands will need to be carved. The string controller can be easily made with two flat pieces of wood joined together in the center, then drilling a hole in each end for his strings to pass through.

->Two glass doll's eyes with red irises. There is a doll shop a couple of towns over from where I live that sells these eyes.

-> Matte black paint for the hollow places around his eyes and his body (I will also use black paint to highlight his mouth. I will carve it out first, then paint in a thin line).

->Two brass gears (my dad knows a guy, as cliche as that sounds)

-> Metal fittings for the areas on the sides of his head (where ears would be), under his eyes, and his ankles (I suppose that's what one would call the area at the top of his feet). I've noticed that these bear a striking resemblance to brink line pins. As my father was a professional mason throughout my childhood, we have a large number of these sitting around. They are the correct thickness, and they are quite malleable. All I would need to do is to heat them up and beat them with a hammer until they are flat (they are sort of crimped), then break them to the appropriate length--quite simple really.

-> Light denim and fasteners for his overalls, red and yellow fabric and a yellow "poof-ball" for his cap, and a child-sized black belt. I have spent years making and repairing clothes for my family, I will make his clothes myself. I don't want to be lazy and simply paint them on. A favorite from my childhood deserves better than that (plus, anything worth doing is worth doing correctly). The biggest problem with this method is his gloves (white fabric for those). I suppose I could laze-up and paint them on, but as previously stated, I don't want to do that.

->Eye-hooks for his hands and feet (to keep with his appearance. He appears to have eye-hooks at his wrists, as well as one screwed into each foot). One can purchase eye-hooks at any hardware or home-improvement store (like a Home Depot or Lowe's, for instance. Wal*Mart would work, too. In fact, I could likely get _most_ of what I am looking for at Home Depot, to be honest).

->Red Yarn for his strings.

->Shotgun shells (he has six attached to his overall straps). I live in Kentucky--the real trick would be to NOT find shotgun shells.

I know that a less-expensive alternative for the wood (I'm going to use pine and stain it the correct colour) would be Styrofoam, but that feels like cutting corners, to me.

If anyone reads this and has made elaborate marionettes like this before, pointers would be greatly appreciated.