Community Sculpting Project - The Warrior

[MarcoSkoll]

with regards to sculpting, I am really just venturing into this field - any tips on how to get the best out of greenstuff?

do you sculpt whist it is very malleable? when it has cured, and "carve" it? or somewhere in between?

This is sort of taking over Alyster's thread, but...

- If you get it in the two colour strip always always always cut out the join between the two colours before mixing. This area has already started to harden and will give you lumpy green stuff if you leave it in the mix.

- Store your supply in a dry location, as it absorbs moisture and hardens, making it more difficult to work with. The best place, possibly counter-intuitively, is often the freezer (all the water in a freezer is ice and thus can't be absorbed), although an air-tight bag with some of those Silica gel sachets you always get with new shoes is also viable.

- Its working qualities change as it cures. It's very soft and sticky immediately after mixing, then gets stiffer and drier over the next 2-3 hours. Each has its own uses - soft and sticky is good for getting it in place and into a rough shape, but it's also too floppy to sculpt any detail into (every time you poke it with a tool, the entire surrounding area warps). If you find it's too soft to sculpt sharp detail into (or you can't smooth areas without the entire thing collapsing), you may want to try waiting 15-30 minutes before continuing.

- It's generally not a good idea to work in large blobs of green stuff. It's best to have a proper frame to work on. Sometimes this will be an existing part of a model (e.g. if you're filling gaps or sculpting new surface detail), but otherwise you'll want to build a skeleton for your sculpting. I normally use brass wire as the armature, then bulk out the underlying shapes onto that with a first stage of green stuff (or sometimes two or three, depending on what I'm doing). I can then sculpt on the surface details onto this. Remember, the underlying bulk needs to be smaller than the final result, and let it properly cure first.

- Don't tackle too much at once. Sometimes you'll need to build up a section in layers (see above), sometimes there's too much to tackle all in one go (the usual consequence of this is putting your thumb in work you've just done). Planning this out for a more complex sculpt can take a bit of practice, but it is possible.

-  Sometimes, it's better to use a scalpel to cut details into cured putty than try to sculpt them conventionally. If I'm trying to do areas with hard edges (e.g. an armour plate), I'll usually sculpt the overall shape a little large, then cut it back for nice sharp corners once it's set.

- A smooth finish helps results look good, particularly if you want to use any washes on the area (which will exaggerate any flaws). I can recommend rubber-tipped clay shapers for this (although they're not the cheapest tool going), but steel tools can be used quite effectively once the putty is nearly hard.
What's also pretty darn good is a paintbrush. Damp it down, then brush it reasonably firmly over the area (you want to be pressing down to the base of the bristles, not just using the tip - so use an old or cheap brush, not your best modelling ones, because it's fairly harsh on the brush).

- Less is often more. You'll often find people filling gaps with too much green stuff (leading the area to bulge), sculpting hands/heads too large, doing really bold and exaggerated details and the like. Generally, people are more likely to sculpt something too large than too small.

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I'd also add that learning how to use green stuff is one thing, but learning how to sculpt is another. Any form of art takes learning accurate observation. Normally, our sensory input is processed automatically/subconsciously into a very heavily summarised version that reaches our conscious minds. Our conscious mind doesn't normally need to know the specifics of what any given person looks like, just who that is, so our subconscious mind does the job of recognising his face and just tells our conscious mind. "Yeah, that's Bob, trust me".
This summarisation is great for avoiding overwhelming our conscious minds with information, but means we only often don't really consciously know what Bob looks like even when we're actually looking at him!

There are some shortcuts, such as there being basic rules of human proportion (which I very much recommend learning), but when it comes to copying the curves of someone's face, it does take learning how to see past this mental filter.

Baked putties with no working time are my new favorite, easy to carve and sculpt with as very firm like chavant clay for minis. 6 euro and you wont look back
http://beesputty.com/index.php/beesputty-plastic/bppfsgrey.html

My general recommendation with putties is to try lots, use few. Ideally, You want to learn your materials as well as possible - swapping between four putties in your sculpting rather than just two means you're half as experienced with each of them.

Personally, I like the working time on green stuff, as the ways in which its qualities change as it cures can be very useful. It's one of those things where there's advantages and disadvantages to it both ways.

[Alyster Wick]

Progress has been slow but I have a little bit to share in the alternate-head department.

After surviving the Carthage Massacre this character spent some time in the service of the Ordos Xenos, fighting some of the most dangerous horrors of the enemy without. He kept some trophies from that time, one of which takes the form of a skull secured as a visor over his helmet. I will give a cookie to anyone who can identify what 40K species he took the skull from (I will also give myself a cookie for sculpting it well enough to be recognizable if someone is able to identify it). It does have some battle damage so you're seeing some of the helmet (rebreather specifically) underneath the broken areas of skull.



And another angle:



Lastly, I've been playing around w/ sculpting random stuff when I end up with extra GS. One of those mini-projects is a mutant head which I'll probably throw on the sprue along with a planned 3 heads specifically for the Warrior (his bare head, the Xenos mask, and a more traditional helm). Suggestions are welcome, but I'm pretty happy with this guy so far for what he is.

[Lord Borak]

Hrud?

Either way. Looking great!! Hopefully all those little details cast up well.

[blacknight]

I am guessing it is the lycramole from the =][= rulebook.

Nice looking sculpt.

Marc/blacknight

[Alyster Wick]

Thanks for the kind words! Not a lot to show today, but I did get some drudgerous sculpting done. I've joined the torso and legs just for sculpting purposes (to make sure that everything is in proportion) but I may separate them for casting. Over the next week or so I'll probably post something to get final feedback on proportions before I really get into the big stuff.

I am guessing it is the lycramole from the =][= rulebook.

Indeed it is! Looking closer, the mandible claw thing is supposed to be up further on the face (actually obscuring the smaller set of teeth I have sculpted at the moment). I'm debating moving it back up.

Hrud?

I believe the Hrud decompose at an incredibly rapid rate after they die, so a Hrud trophy wouldn't work.

[Alyster Wick]

Okay, so here's the full "skeleton".







The left arm will be mostly bionic, but may look "bare" otherwise. There's a bit of plasticard standing in for a hand right now. Whether I sculpt over it or removes it entirely will be a gametime decision. The right arm may appear higher right now but that's just the anticipation of asymmetric shoulder pads (the actual shoulder and elbow joints should line up). He'll be holding a blade of some kind upside down (in a downward stabby pose) with the left arm and a rifle in the right (the wire is extended past where the arm will go just to give me a feel for the full sweep of the model).

All that aside, something looks amiss in the leg department. I think height-wise he is good and the distribution of height between the head, torso, and legs (as three regions) is correct. However, within the leg department I think the upper legs may look (or appear) to start too late, and I'm not sure if this impacts the height of the knees. I think this problem may have arisen when I carved out some hollow space for banded armor in between the plates. As such, I may sculpt some banded plates over the joint to give the appearance that the legs start sooner. I did remove one of the knee pads because it didn't line up with the shin.

Other than that, looking good? Legs too far apart? Any ratios totally off? I'd like to think that once I get the leg issue sorted out that I'll totally be in tinker/detail mode (other than the arms). The waist also certainly needs work. And let me know if the "eagle" looks a little too "bat-wing." I don't want anyone mistaking him for a Night Lord...