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FLYING WEDGE

The Flying Wedge sculpture, one of the centerpieces for the new Hall of Champions, used state-of-the-art technology to obtain its historic look. Molded literally from real people, the 600-pounds-per-figure art piece went through several stages of development before being installed in late January. Some of the stages included:

Research
The design team had to find accurate references for the vintage football uniforms, including the old football "jackets," sweaters, shoes, shin guards, pants and "head harnesses." The 1906 Spaulding Football Guide proved invaluable, with ads for Spalding's latest line of gear.

Concept Phase
Designers from The 1717 Design Group played the wedge for a day, dressing up in sweatshirts, sweatpants, cardboard shin guards and anything else they could find that visually resembled the turn-of-the-century gridders. The wedge formation was staged in the 1717 office and photographed from three different angles.

Model Search
Four or five models were screened for each figure, and once the finalists were selected, the studio did another photo shoot with "dummied up" clothes and gear.

Life-Cast
Those models were then covered with plaster bandages, with negative molds being made of their faces and bodies. From these molds, StudioEIS built the figure prototypes out of various materials, finessing them finally with plasteline clay.

Clothing
The players' uniforms were then sewn, fabricated and constructed out of contemporary materials. Italian boots were reconfigured for the shoes, cleats were made from air conditioning parts-whatever it took to make each item look authentic. The items were placed on the figures and resined with epoxy resin to form a hard prototype.

Foundry
The figures were then sent to Tallix Sculpture Foundry, where silicon rubber molds were made of each figure. Wax was then painted into these molds to the same thickness as the final bronze. The waxes were then dipped in a ceramic mixture, which then in turn was baked. The hollow ceramic shells were then filled with the molten metal.

The Finish
The metal sculptures were then welded together and detailed with metal finishing tools.

The Patina
An acid patina, which gave the figures an aged look, was applied with a paintbrush and blowtorch. The figures were then coated with wax in order to stabilize and seal the finish.

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