Electromancer tidies his work desk, a sculpting/scratchbuilding log

[Electromancer]

Thank you Verm1s your post is excellent and i will defiantly do what you have suggested. I have used a number of putties but wanted to try using greenstuff exclusively for a bit but can see your point regarding that. I'll check out minisculpture too!

Now i didn't want to post without showing another sculpt but it sorta seems silly after whats been written, but im keeping a few general logs on a few sites and doing an ork army on thewaaagh so thought i'd through in some orks here to save disapearing for ages again, and who doesnt like random orks appearing? Also since i plan on painting my ork army i think its invaluable to get more advice (my painting is worse than my sculpting oo err!)

So here is the ork warboss in mega armour that i made exclusively from greenstuff, i made it so i can swap out a few weapon options too:

He's in a version of mega armour i sculpted and can be armed with a few weapons which da mek changes while he's in downtime (its too dangerous otherwise):

theres a fist for grabbing, a mace for bashin'

I pictures him next to an ork boy to show the scale

Thanks for looking, hopefully have alot more stuff to show you soon!

 

[moonmin82]

first of all id like to say ive really enjoyed looking at your sculpts - there are some great ideas and your technique is coming on well.

i would agree that research and forward planning are your key for improving. you would benefit from working more directly with reference materials (both anatomy books and gw artwork) to aid your scale and by preparing concept sketches before creating your armature (again for proportions sake and composition).

finally, i really ought to practice what i preach! keep it up!

 

[Verm1s]

Thank you Verm1s your post is excellent and i will defiantly do what you have suggested.

Phew! I have a tendency to blather and I'm always concerned about sounding patronising, so thanks back atcha.

Nice warboss. Harks back to the older power armour/mega armour orks, but still 'modern'; and I think there's a definite progression from earlier sculpts. Only thing I'd pick out (besides the ruddy greenstuff ) is that the hip height is about the same as that regular boy. But I don't think it's enough of a worry to have to go and resculpt half the armour. I think it fits with the character.

 

[xMANIGHTx]

moonmin82: thanks for the reply, yeah you pretty much summed it up. glad you enjoyed looking at my stuff.

Verm1s: no worries. I have a fondness for the old rounded power armour which is where i was going. I still have some green stuff sculpts to show so don't kill me! lol i have a few i haven't photographed yet and some i have almost finished and might as well finish in that medium.

First of all is a WIP great unclean one i sculpted as a practise when i got some super sculpey.

Just got the base colours and done a wash or two, still need some advice on the colours, like the horns/teeth and eyes though.

Thought i'd through this up a teaser (not to sound pompous) This is a staff for a big demon i've nearly finished:

its about 9cm long so this guy is a bit of a monster, thanks for looking C+C welcome

 

[Electromancer]

i have been doing a lot of sculpting and scratch building lately but not at the stage to take photos, plus i am rearranging my hobby room which is a pain but at the same time gave me a chance to look through the mountains of bitz boxes. When i got to an unassuming box hidden underneath a load of sprues i heard a growl....well more like a whimper. I opened the box to find this!

Its a very old squiggoth i attempted ages ago, i had to wash the dust off before i photographed it! He's in a pretty poor state and i felt sorry for him, so the mek inside me grinned and i got out my crayons and drew this supa detailed plan:

It is of course going to be a FAST ATTACK SCORCHA SQUIGGOTH (what else?) There will be just a bit of light armour so he's not weighed down, some fuel tanks, two large supa skorchas, and rokkit boostas. Can probably transport a small mob who simply hang on for dear life, and of course there will be a psychotic pyromaniac driver (who im defiantly giving a skorcha too)

Although i was planning on making Da Stompa Boyz into a workable army asap i can't resist this idea!

Thanks for looking, hope this doesn't take too long, i got a lot to do~!

 

[cheelfy]

That is a huge guy! How can you sculpt something as big, it's just crazy.

 

[Electromancer]

Yeah cheelfy it is pretty big but for a squiggoth it would be a small one i think, i'll post an ork next to it when i take some pics next so you can see, i enjoy sculpting big stuff its a different challenge to small scale

so i got working on fixing this guy up, i fell asleep and only got about a quarter of what i wanted done, mostly the scales but its starting to look a lot better. The sculpting i had done when i first made it was pretty rough and not much cop so i have loads of small fixes to do as well.

Here's where he's at now:

I sculpted a new texture over the head but wanted to keep the underlying shape. I also added some more teeth and cut off the horns, i was going to chop them and just add new points but the angles didn't turn out well so just removed them for now, kinda looks funky with no horns but still plan on adding them back on. I managed to do the large area of scales in one go which is the kind of job that is fun in small areas but when you have this kind of area quickly gets tedious.

Also forgot to say C+C is welcome and since I havent got far along any modifications to the plan will be considered :thumbs

Thanks for looking

 

[SkelettetS]

this guy hmm monster i do like, i see progress here! keep it up! :good:

 

[Electromancer]

SkelettetS: thanks very much

well since my hobby room is in total disarray i was nosing on my comp and had a few things i hadn't posted yet (yeah im so organised )

Anyway first up is an unfortunate mutant who was experimented on, I tried to make the pose a bit unusual since he is pretty messed up not sure it works but was still fun to sculpt.

then theres this guy, he's pretty big at around 55mm to the head and about double that to the tip of the sword, been wanting to do wings for ages so this was a learning experience

I just noticed he's not quite straight on the base, he actually stands alright must have knocked him or something and not notices, sorry about that.

I did these when i was in demon mode a while ago i think i've progressed since then. thanks for looking

 

[Electromancer]

Well i have some stuff to post which i have posted elsewhere but decided to do here as well, one because some people will not have seen it and more importantly i have had some great feedback here which i appreciate!

decided to take some pics of this guy i half made a while back, it was in pieces but its not in too bad a shape:

I simply named him a Heavy for simplicity, he is about 55mm tall roughly. I blu taked it together for the pics since the legs are seperate parts.

I came up with this rough concept of how i imagine him,

The arms are intended to be sprayers for the toxic sludge he stores in a tank at the back, they wont hang down like this but it gives an idea where im going.

Think i'll do a couple of different arms and maybe a few extra pieces so they can be mixed and matched as one desires.

Then i did this ork for a project im doing over at da waaagh, i'll just post the orks up as and when i do them - i intend to make it into an army inspired by members of that forum so its going to be crazy!

And finally since i originally had this log for scratch building as well as sculpting im finally getting round to posting something im scratch building!

Hi I have a new project on the go! I can already hear the rumblings of discontent, "why?" "Finish the ones you've started!" "Oi git face I want you to finish my model!" "Not this guy again!" Well I am waiting on a delivery of fresh greenstuff and other bitz and pieces and to be honest I want to do something other than sculpting! I found an old drawing I did which got me noggin cranking, after making a few alterations I came up with this:

It will be a short project while I wait for the delivery, I'm giving myself a week to complete it. It will be about the size of the GW stompa or maybe a bit bigger and will be packing so much dakka it puts the weedy oomin titans to shame. I have loads of bitz I can use and the general shape and idea should enable me to finish it in the timescale.

The plan is only rough, it's obviously inspired by the beakie dred which I have always found to be an orky looking model, the things on the stands at the back are uge mega blastas inspired by the fish ed broadside, although they will be stumpier and much more blastier. Depending on how the build goes I might make them removable. The arms wont hang down but be similar to how the dred arms are, unless i can pose them to look shootier, depends on how the build goes.

I had planned on starting this on monday but found out i wont have time so im going to start tomorrow, this gives time for some C+C about the plan before i steam ahead tomorrow. Hopefully by the 14th i will be the proud owner of my first stompa/walker/thingy :thumbs

and a sketch of the side view of the arms, its only rough and i will most likely change the design, basically the ends of the arms are just a load of weapons or a big gun - no close combat weapons on this guy its all about the dakka!

There wont be that huge assault cannon - well not that big anyway. Good idea of making them modular, i will see what i can do but it always adds to the build time for me so might stick them on - i'll post pics when i get round to the arms and people can see what they think then.

I did some work today on this thing, its turned out to be massive - basically a rectangular box 8" by 5" and thats just the middle section! I was contemplating on starting again and doing a better job at keeping at GW stompa size but i kinda like the idea of some absolutely massive behemoth looking down on everything (well nearly). Sorry but no pics, i ran out of plasitc glue after about an hour of work so things ground to a halt and theres no point in posting pics of random plasticard shapes, i spent some time gathering cool bits though and working on ideas but still bummed i hardly got anything done. I know i challenged myself to do this in a week but it aint looking good already! lol

So thats what i've been up to, i'll be updating this log as i do stuff so it might get a bit muddled but then thats how i work (its ded orky!) Also i left in the week long challenge stuff in the post cause it would be weedy to cut it out but as i started building the thing i kept getting more and more ideas so thinking i pretty much have no chance - although i'll still give it a good shot!

Anyway thanks for looking through such a long post, hope everyone is good

 

[No Such Agency]

Wow, that is a lot of putty pushing! I have a few unfinished sculpting projects and I'll probably never get back to them... I'm that bad But you clearly have a lot of talent even if some of your creations are a bit "in the rough", so to speak.

I think I like this guy the best. His legs seem a bit odd but I love the face and the loads of messy tech stuff. I'd love to see him painted

 

[Electromancer]

Wow, that is a lot of putty pushing! I have a few unfinished sculpting projects and I'll probably never get back to them... I'm that bad But you clearly have a lot of talent even if some of your creations are a bit "in the rough", so to speak.

I think I like this guy the best. His legs seem a bit odd but I love the face and the loads of messy tech stuff. I'd love to see him painted

Yeah i've learnt a lot since starting this log, things like smoothing things out are getting better, that ork was fun to do, i can at least see the areas where i can improve so must be getting better I'd love to paint him but im not that great, im going to use some orks i have as practise when i get round to them so hopefully one day you will see some pics (although might be ages away yet!)


On to Da DAKKANOUGHT!
I intended to make a daily post because it was going to be a short project and it would help me keep up a good pace, this hasnt really gone to plan, im woefully behind and the more i build the more ideas spring to mind - basically i had to choose between doing some crappy half arsed job in time and actually having something nice, i chose the later. This doesn't mean that im giving up the challenge and going to take months or years to complete it but that i'll be happy if the basic structure is finished by my made up deadline.

First up is my salvation:

Yeah i stocked up.

Then how the build is at the moment, the middle section:

Then with the mid section armour added:

Not that much progress like i said, the good news is i made it to last. Its made from thick plasticard and reinforced internally, then used expanding foam to add even more strength - i figured that i might as well make it strong than have it fall to bits half way through the build. I also wanted it to be able to stand up to the rigours of being moved around for hopefully years to come.

Now it is extremely rough this is basically the under structure, mostly it wont even be seen since im adding loads of gubbinz then armour then more details on top of that. Im certainly learning a lot on this build since its by far the biggest thing i've ever built already. The good news is i have just used loads of left over pieces of plasticard i had lying around, im starting to feel like some Big Mek being taken over by a vision, all i can think of is building this thing! :thumbs

 

[Electromancer]

I've been doing some work on this thing. i have really not planed the timing aspect of this project very well and im itching to do some more sculpting but i managed to get the odd hour here and there to work on it. Here's a pic of how it stands at the moment, still haven't got my photo area set up how i want, so sorry about the slightly dodgy pic - well its too big for my old area anyway!, its also only tacked together so its definitely not how the pose will end up, i also included an ork boy so its like a barry shot as well:

Most of the main blocks are done to some standard, just need the groin part and feet, the legs and arms will mainly be gubbinz so can wait and I'll wait on doing the head till most of the mid section is done. Also it wont be quite as squat because im going to add another mid section part in which will raise it up an inch or so, and the armoured leg plates are extremely WIP but thought it would be good to show them at this basic stage rather than just post completed pics.

Phew so at least I'm getting there. Thanks for looking C +C welcome.

 

[Electromancer]

So i've finally finished the basic structure! Yippie! It took long enough but it came out alright so its all good.

As you can see i went for a more ramshackle/orky/dynamic pose than the rigid beakie dreadnought look. I did this for a few reasons, firstly its more interesting and it brings it to life. It totally did not end up like that because it was a right pain using expanding foam, a hot glue gun and holding it all together at the same time! Anyway i like the pose and its different from most the rather static looking models i've seen of this size.

Some of the areas might look a bit shoddy especially the hip area so i'll explain that, i didnt want to copy the beakie dreadnoughts hip structure and so i built this series of blocks to support the weight. there will be plenty of hydrolics, cogz, armour, gubbinz and so forth covering everything but i wanted the core to be really strong, I also wanted to show you this stage because it should help if anyone starts building a gargant and it looks really rough at the start but can still turn out really good (this is amusing this build turns out really good lol) I also changed the leg armour a bit so the lower white blocks wont actually be seen but be surrounded by armour.

The black armour plates aren't attached so i can alter where they will end up easily, also the lower arms aren't glued on so i can modify them. I also plan on adding some feet below the lower leg blocks which will help balance it and i can alter the pose slightly that way too. As for the size i looked and I reckon it should end up great gargant sized although i will measure it next time i post pics.

Thanks for looking, now the core is all in one piece i can actually start the fun part of the gubbinization process! (should be able to get better pics soon)

 

[Electromancer]

I scraped together a bit of time to work on this thing so i thought i'd do a minor update, also i fiddled with the settings on my camera and found that the pics arent too bad even without any proper lighting set up :thumbs

Might be a bit hard to see what i've done so i'll explain it a bit. I decided the central portion was a bit too recessed, i don't want it to stick out too far so i just added some more plasticard pieces to test it out, i also made the big glyph plate in the middle, i want it to look like a load of armour plates riveted/welded together but it still needs all the details. Im also currently thinking about the large glyph to use, I have a few options: To fit into my ork army (Da Stompa Boyz) im going for a badmoonz colour scheme so why not use the crescent moon? well i dont like it particularly, the Grim glyph i originally drew is pretty overused but it is really cool, but then i could use the Dakka glpyh as a background with the Grim glyph on top, i think thats the best bet. I also have a glyph for my army which i could use but im not 100% convinced it will work on this scale so i'll get thinking on that.

Not sure if its that clear in the pic but as i was building the understructure i put the two leg armour pieces together and they fit really well. This gives some advantages over the more open design i had in mind, i can explain the transport capacity much better (although it would be a bumpy ride!), it will be even more stable and lastly i dont need to use even more enginey bitz on the backs of the legs. It will also fit into my army even better because they are badmoonz they would have enough teef to armour up this beast, (im going for a heavy armoured kinda look for the army). Unfortunatly this means i will need to make another leg armour from scratch but i had a cunning plan, as you have seen from the pic i brought a stompa kit which arrived the other day and as much as i dislike the actual stock model i have to admit there are a lot of nice bitz in there, but also there are a lot of duff parts which i will struggle to use in future projects. I plan on using a couple of pieces of the stompa kit body as leg armour.

Sorry about the small update but with a build this big i guess even a minor update is pretty big Also looking back over this i need to post some pics of different angles so thats another thing to do!

 

[Electromancer]

A belated happy new year to all!

Got a new Great unclean one on the go, this is to test out if i can get on with using sculpey. Im planning on making it a bit more sinewy and muscular of sorts than the usual GUO, obviously still all rotten and diseased still. Going to add a few bits of armour, some big horns, intestinal spillage, loads of nurglings and possibly some kind of trophy rack on the back, although the trophies will actually be the contagions being brewed up within the "trophies".

one thing i didnt really allow for is the horns and back rack which i wish i'd added some support from the armature, but i guess i can sculpt them separately and add them after, guess thats something i can add to things i've learnt from this sculpture.

Probably going to bulk up the lower body a bit since its too top heavy than i want, but overall i think its coming along alright

kept adding detail and refining things, i really like the fact i can alter things as much as i like as i progress, such as changing the face quite considerably

 

[khavor]

Looks like a big project! I quite like the details you've done so far. His teeth are good, all broken and gnawed looking. Face is coming along nicely. I like the expression on the left side where you've added the brow. Also looks like some good details going in on the left arm. Is he giving us the thumbs up?

 

[Electromancer]

khavor: thanks for the comment, its the hilt of the sword , should be clearer as i refine the detail there, and post some better pics/more angles

Heres another update

I added the armour, its only roughly placed on so i can alter it if needs be, big horns/antler things are also just to get an idea of what its going to be like and put in where the back poles/racks are going, thinking of just having them protrude from the body, although might have a strap or two connected to the armour, can add it as i go to see what i think looks best. Going to sculpt a few nurglings and maggots and the like to add on as well as another sword stuck in the ground seperatly, i want this guy to look a bit more like a fighter and looking like he'd dual wield is just cool.

As a side note i ordered a light tent so should be getting better pics again soon