Ynek's new WIP - Explicator Sophie Vandus

[Ynek]

After getting out of my plaster cast, I didn't feel quite confident enough to tackle a project on the scale of Inquisitor Thaddeus.

So, to get some more practice in sculpting, I decided to have a go at sculpting Explicator Sophie Vandus, who is mentioned in two of my character's backgrounds, and also in one of my (embarrassingly poor) short stories. I've never actually gotten round to making a model for her, and I thought that since I was looking for something to get me back into the swing of sculpting, that this would be a good place to start.

Whilst making the Hive Maiden, I made a set of partial moulds, which can be used to make a number of the parts necessary to build her. I used one of these partial moulds to make the legs and torso for Sophie, purely to save time, and also because I wanted to see if the Maiden's moulds could be used to make non-cyberfreak characters.

[Gestalt]

Imressive. The moulds you have created appear to work well. Though I can't get the image of jelly tots out of my head. The face is particularly well sculpted.

[TheNephew]

Agreed, the face is great.
I'm very impressed with the chainsword as well - very sharp cast.
How are you planning on expanding it from here, with clothes and/or equipment?
Flapping overcoat? Synskin? starched uniform?

[Inquisitor Liss]

  That is awesome! Great work

[Hadriel Caine]

that face is brilliant!

if somebody was to sculpt and cast some decent 54mm heads for women I would definitely buy them...

[Kaled]

I can only echo what the others have said - very nice work on that face.

[kierkegaard]

I will also chip in with my hearty congratulations on an excellent sculpting job. The face looks great, and the casts of the Hive Maiden and chainsword look superb (although strangely gelatinous - what is the substance that you used to cast them?)

Looking forward to seeing progress on this.

[Myriad]

I would second that it's all looking promising, and the castings have worked well. 
The only reservation I have is that the hive maiden pose seems perhaps a touch too dynamic for a more normal character - there's a touch of the frenzied lunge about it.  Of course, the model is still at a comparitively early stage and the final sculpt will no doubt look great.

[Ynek]

Whole model:


Side of head w/ bionics


Other side of head


And of course, the boobs. In the beginning, I was quite worried that the Hive Maiden's body wouldn't look normal with boobs on it, but I was pleasantly surprised with how they came out.

what is the substance that you used to cast them?

It's a polystyrene resin, from what the bottle tells me. I just asked for a bottle of "hand-laminating resin" from a fibreglass wholesaler and this is what they gave me. It works quite well, but it's a real devil to clean off of anything if you accidentally spill some. If you get it on your hands, you'll have sticky hands for hours.

How are you planning on expanding it from here, with clothes and/or equipment?
Flapping overcoat? Synskin? starched uniform?

In my concept drawings, she's got a long coat with one sleeve torn off, chainsaw scabbard, pistol holster, heavy calf-high "Rocker chick" boots, and very long hair that's been tied back behind her head.

[Hadriel Caine]

update update update! I was just looking at this thread again last night. looks like you are making good progress, she certainly is... well endowed.

What kinda timescale do you usually have for sculpting an INQ mini? it looks like a MUCH more involved process than I am used to and as such I'm intrigued.

Adam

[Ynek]

update update update! I was just looking at this thread again last night. looks like you are making good progress, she certainly is... well endowed.

What kinda timescale do you usually have for sculpting an INQ mini? it looks like a MUCH more involved process than I am used to and as such I'm intrigued.

Adam

The boobs aren't quite as massive as that picture makes them look. Due to the fact that I don't actually own a still iimage camera, I took those pictures with my webcam at my computer desk, and as the webcam doesn't have a zoom I had to put the camera pretty close up. This created a little bit of a perspective issue, which makes the boobs look a bit bigger than perhaps they should be.

As for my sculpting/converting timescale, to be honest, I always work to the principle of "as long as it takes." The Hive Maiden sculpture took me the best part of three months, because I kept wanting to redo bits and fine tune it, and then going back to tweak concept images... All in all, I took my time over it to make sure that I would be happy with what I produced.

The Ork, in comparison, was done comparitively quickly. If we don't count the two months of being in a plaster cast, the ork only took me a week or two. Similarly, the Hrud I did only took me a couple of days, but the main reason that I made him was to experiment with a new armature technique, so the sculpting was really quite slapdash in places.

[Ynek]

Another update!
I've started to add the first pieces of clothing to the model, and also made a start on the hands. Currently, she has one boot completed, and the waistband of her trousers is also pretty much done. It's not exactly as big as the last two updates, but I thought that it was still worth sharing. ^_^






[EDIT:] I also worked a little bit on a sword scabbard today, but after making it, I think that it looks a bit silly on the model as it seems so comically large. However, if I make it any smaller, it would not be able to accept the full length of her sword.

Instead, I'm thinking that I might just give her some sort of electromagnet panel strapped to her back, which the sword can be attached to when she isn't using it. The pistol is normally tucked away in her coat, so it isn't a worry...

I also sculpted her tied-back hair, which aside from looking a bit undynamic, doesn't look too bad.

[RobSkib]

Does she need a holster for that thing? Couldn't you get away with using an over-the-shoulder strap or a belt clip or something like that?

[phil-o-mat]

very impressive.
but drop the holster, it`s way too bulky.

[psycho]

love the mini
was gonna ask if youd "ahem" sell or trade the bits lol
but yeah lose the sheath its way tooo bulky mate and the mini loses some of its finesse

kerby