Lawrence,  I don't think you should resort to a mental institution
right away but you might look up a couple places for later on --
just in case!

I had the same problem you have a couple years ago.  I have been
restoring an old flute clock with moving figures (automata).
Fortunately for me the figures are slightly smaller than you need
-- only about 5 inches tall.  In the middle 1800s, they started with
an hand-carved original and used a small, 3D wood duplicator to make
additional copies.  Of course, they had to finish the job with little
tiny carving tools.

I received good photos of similar figures by the same maker and found
that the bodies of the 5 figures were identical - just the arms were
different.  After getting a quote of $700 each from the European
museum's carver and paying 3 different local carvers to try carving
them (unsuccessfully), I gave up and decided to carve them myself.

I used the Mount Rushmore approach.  Starting with a block of
material I would carve away at it until the part that remained looks
like the figure in the pictures.  But there was a problem.  Since
I wasn't a professional carver, I expected to make lots of mistakes and
fixing them would be a real challenge - little chips, soft wood, hard
glue, waiting for glue to dry.

So I decided to carve the figures from Machinable Wax.  It's not as
fragile as candle wax and you can fix a mistake in seconds with a small
soldering iron and a drop or two of new wax.  It worked out great.
After several evenings of carving and scraping and fixing, I had a body
that looks pretty much like the pictures.

I sent to a company named "Alumilite".  They sell silicone RTV mold
making material and urethane casting material of all different types.
So I made a 'rubber' mold of the wax figure and cast myself half a
dozen copies.

For the arms I carved wax for left and right upper arms, right and
left hands, and simple round forearms.    Then I made molds and cast
a bunch of arm parts.  By heating the joints I was able assemble these
wax parts and re-carve them  to make the variety of wax arms I needed.
Then I made molds of the completed arm parts and cast them in resin,
like the bodies.

So, how does this help you?

Alumilite sells many different types of resins.  They also sell
compatible foam.  If you get your carver to make a few 'standard'
parts, you could make a few molds and cast the figures you want.
I'd suggest that you try either of two methods.

After you make a two-part mold of the figure, you could just fill
it up with resin but it would weigh a ton and cost a fortune.  Also,
that much resin would get very hot as it cures.  So, how about coating
the inside of the mold with resin and making an hollow part.  While
it's still in the mold, pour in some of their expanding foam to make
it sturdy.

Alternately, you could just fill it with foam.  They have two or three
different types.  One has a very hard surface with just the foam.  The
others are less strong but they might be strong enough for your
purpose.

The Alumilite web site has lots of videos of how to use their products
and their customer service reps are very helpful.

Have fun -- that's quite a project you describe.

Regards,
Craig Smith

 [
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/16/02/10/160210_092924_arm%20wax%20and%20parts.jpg 
 [
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/16/02/10/160210_092924_Original%20puppet%20vs%20copy%20painted.jpg 
 [
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/16/02/10/160210_092924_figure%20mold%20006.jpg