Bright Wizard (Robes in progress)

[lono]

OK, so here I go with a big old project. It will probably die a death like all my other ones, but who knows, I am enjoying sculpting at the moment so I may at least finish making it.

Since doing this armature I have worked out that two bits of twisted thin wire are much more usable than a barely bendable bit of thick wire with thin wire wrapped around, but it\'s done now, so sod it!

The influential sketch.

A crappy pic to work out the kind of pose I want.

The front of the armature (the base is just a temporary thing made in Super Sculpey Firm. It turned out very Seth Nash (Capt Spalding) inspired as his Liddel model was right by me as I did it!)

The back of the armature.

I\'ll be bulking up the basic shape with Super Sculpey next. Nothing on the lower parts needs to be too perfect as it is going to be covered with robes, but I want to start with a solid basis, so I\'ll be going for realistic musculature.

Oh, he is around 118mm to the eye level. The only reason for this odd size is that I was laying the armature over the origional illustration in the \'Blood on the Reik\' art book!

 

[rosac]

do it do it do it do it do it do it. do it. this would be awesesome, especially if you manage to sculpt the flaming hair. did i mention i wanted you to do this?

 

[Larre]

I have a good feeling about this

// Larre

 

[Aidan K]

Great concept!! Its really cool seeing your armature as well, Im interested in seeing the whole process!

 

[Talion]

nice concept. I hate the GW one he doesn\'t look on fire just looks crap.

Are you having the flame in the palm of his hand or having the flame going down his forearm?..........like this

 

[quadrille]

About the scale, it\'s not too odd as there are tons of historical figures in 120mm (aka 1/16).

 

[Jericho]

Sounds like it\'ll make for a very impressive project! I look forward to seeing updates

 

[lono]

Not sure what I\'ll do with the fire yet exactly. It\'ll be late in the process so I have time to think about it. I may have flame at the top of his staff and have him pulling it from that into his hand.

Anyway, I have had a go at the underlying structure for the legs. Nothing too spectacularly detailed, as I\'m going to be covering them pretty much entirely. I think it\'s time to give it a bake now before I move on.

Front

Look at the buns on that one.
Yeah, he must work out. (Bonus points if you recognise the quote!)

 

[MathewBaich]

wow, great job so far. keep it up

 

[lono]

I got impatient and have very quickly mocked up a rough approximation of the rest of him. This Sculpey has now been ripped off, so I\'m back to the previous stage, but it gives me a decent idea of how it will eventually tie together. Obviously the robes on his legs will be longer. Due to the pose I think the split is necessary, otherwise the robe/skirt thing is going to be far too floaty. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I will sculpt trouser texture on his left leg instead of having bare skin underneath if I do it.

I\'m wondering if the torso needs to be extended just a little. It looks a tiny bit squashed to me right now, but this should all become clearer when I bulk out his upper anatomy before adding details.

So here is the practice run.

 

[lono]

I\'m stuck, I can\'t work out what trousers to give him at all, and tied into that, what sort of footwear. Taking a look around the Andrea site I found lots of ideas and have it down to:

Fairly normal sort of trousers but with some kind of wrap around the lower leg area like this one.

Just normal sort of style.

Big, ott, silly trousers!

Side buttoning style.

I\'m currently leaning towards one of the last two styles, as they are a bit more interesting but I really can\'t decide. Help!

Also, looking around the store I spotted their convertor mannequins. These look very handy, but at 15 euros they aren\'t cheap, particularly because I\'ll have little use for things like the head and hands. Has anyone had a go with one of these and know if they are worth getting?

 

[Jericho]

Dumb and Dumber quote!

 

[lono]

Correct on the quote. Quality movie!

OK, I have got some more done. The robes are coming on OK I think. They still need sharpening up, and I am going to file down the flamey one on his right side so that the top part doesn\'t jut out quite so much, it\'s giving him too wide a look to his hips now I think.

The area that looks ragged around his lower leg was an absolute disaster to be honest. It was far too wide and looked really poor, but in my haste to get on I didn\'t sort it out when I should, so I have carved the Sculpey away and now have to rework it with his bloody robes getting in the way. I think I am going to put on some metal greaves, which I will add some sort of sun/flame detailing to, and I may well redo the foot too.

Oh, and I haven\'t reposed him, just shifted the arms out of the way for now so I can get at the areas I\'m working on better.

Any thoughts or areas that could do with improving that folks can spot?

Edit - Hmm, looks like Photobucket isn\'t working right now. Hopefully it will be up again soon.

 

[gaspode]

The robes are looking superb in that last image. They look really nice, with some good movement in them, way better than most of the GW ones The trousers also look very cool as well.

How easy is this super sculpty to work with? Is it more pliable than green stuff amd is it thicker or thinner than it? Sorry if this is a novice question but i\'ve never come across it before!

 

[freakinacage]

starting to come along nicely. i may get one of those converter armatures. as you say they are expensive but they\'ll be ideal for using as a blueprint for making your own. does anyone do anything like this in 28/30mm? i have some ebob armatures but they\'re not that easy to measure from

 

[lono]

Gaspode - I find Super Sculpey really easy to work with. It has a different sort of consistency to Green Stuff, lighter and more mailable, and it\'s waxy instead of having the sticky oilyness of GS. Despite this it still adheres to itself very well. For big, flowing robes, clothing, muscular areas and whatnot it is perfect.

The fact that it stays soft until baked means it is less good for detail, or at least that\'s what I\'m finding, so you will probably see me adding GS details to my sculpt towards the end of the process.

There is also Sculpey Extra Firm, which has a different sort of consistency, but I\'m not getting on as well with that right now. It seems too flakey.

Ultimately it\'s a case of finding the stuff that works best for you for each particular job you are doing sculpting wise. I\'m still in the process of discovering that myself.

Freakinacage - Since spotting the armature kit I have noticed them used in WIPs by Freeman and Banshee, so they must be pretty good. I had the same thoughts about using them to make my own in future with more accurate and fixed 54mm proportions. I\'ve not seen anything similar and at the same standard of quality in smaller scale.