Captain Augustus John's Anchor

When we went to Costco and bought a ladder, it came with two pieces of styrofoam, and when I saw them I decided I could make this anchor in the portrait of Captain John (1768). It will go in front of the back drop and with my 1/3 size "Captain Devon". (Who now has pants and a hat, so we progress). Anyway, here is the styrofoam cut out with a bread knife (it makes an unholy mess)

As I am working as well, I didn't want to take too long with it, and I also discovered that Elmer's glue does not want to stick to styrofoam. Instead I took a roll of cheap masking tape and covered most of the styro--the separate parts are held together with toothpicks, so the whole thing is light..and fragile. The unfortunate side effect of the tape is the distinctive texture it makes--I was able to cover a bit of it with Das Paperclay, but since it is for a photo I just did most of the texturing with paint. Here you can see the masking tape under the paint:

Here is the final after a top coat of metallic copper paint dabbed on with a paper towel... (Martha Stewart Copper,in fact). The manila rope will get wrapped around it. I will not, however, drape the Spanish or French Flag over it.

Hmm, now I am looking at it and I think maybe I want to add points to the tips of the "fins" or whatever they are called. The scale is good, though!