Scattered projects

[Garshnak]

That's actually kinda a cool pose, I wasn't too sure about the bent knees at first and wondered where you would go, but this works. Only the feet seem too close to each other in the first pic making him slightly unbalanced.
See you made the backpack thingies also slightly different from the concept. Also, the shoulderpads are hugging the shoulders less?
His right underarm looks a little dodgy but I'd bet you've noticed that as well.

And for the weapons I'd actually recommend using different materials for both sturdiness and practicality. Like plasticard, rods or brass.

 

[Arne]

The pose is a homage of sort to the squatting SM beakie. The shoulders might need to be moved in a little. It's up to the person building the figure ultimately. I've made a long list of small things that I need to tweak, like the rough arm. The backpack things are as I imagined them, kind of. I never really imagined how they would be attached until I had to sculpt that part, so I just came up with a connection and the little exhaust nozzles. His left one is a sloppy copy of the original (right). It will have to be cast twice or something.

I'll have to find a caster now. I'll ask around a little.

 

[Chrome]

Miniaturas alemany is a recommendation I give without hesitation, they're not swedish but the quality they produce more than makes up for the shipping costs

http://www.miniaturasalemany.com/

 

[SkelettetS]

yep alemany rock, spanish guys that ive used myself. nice people to deal with and fair prices imo. [/advert]

 

[Chrome]

yep alemany rock, spanish guys that ive used myself. nice people to deal with and fair prices imo. [/advert]

And having your sculpt and their cast right beside me here I can do nothing but agree, their preservation of detail is beyond awesome.

 

[Arne]

Thanks for the tip, I'll check them out. It would be neat if the company could also sell the minis, although to be honest I'm mostly interested in copies for myself at this point. A few people did express interest in getting a copy though.

I couldn't find any clear figures for white metal casting costs, but some source stated... some 50+50 pounds for mold work and then .25 to .50 per figure (15-25 grams)?

Mine has a lot of parts though, so I might have to put it on sprues or something. I think I'll need 3 sprues per figure, so that's ...5-6 guys per mold? 3*2 pound sale price? I don't know much about these things.

I drew a picture, with some ideas for accessories / expansion ideas. I'm thinking of sculpting the sword and shield, since it's a knight. It might be economic to put some knives/guns in the hands as default, perhaps.

 

[Arne]

Some doodles I made for no particular reason. Maybe to familiarize myself with the dynamics of the design.

Anyways, I read somewhere that a figure might shrink when casted (twice, master and production). How much does it shrink? Fractions of a millimeter or more (for a 28mm heroic figure)?

Edit: 2% to 2.5% x 2 ? I really didn't take that into account when sculpting :/ Edit: Some other source says 1-6%. 1% I could live with, but not more. Maybe the shrinking is not the same for all axises though?

 

[SkelettetS]

ok ive only casted a sculpt once (in white metal), but i didnt see any shrinkage. didnt even know that could happen actually.

 

[Arne]

Barump!

Bumping is ok, I hope. On some forums it's "Start a new thread", and on others it's "Use your old thread".

I had no success getting that green of mine above cast.

Anyways, I'm back with some more Starguard stuff which just arrived in the mail. First out, a Devil Cat tank which I had to add some detail to, after having watched too much "Plamo Tsukurou" on Youtube. I like the long turret. I have no glue for metal so I'm using Tamiya quick putty.

The scale is supposedly 1:72, but a few of the figures feel a bit off, like the giant Amazon woman. The Terran Marine was originally a Stormtrooper, iirc, but perhaps there were some legal problems. Now they've got a Marathon Cyborg guy helmet.

Doing a bit of work on a Troll here. I like the idea of thin, finer details breaking up the more blobby, solid masses, especially when the scale is more realistic and not trunky like 40K. The Trolls are guys in powered armour / mobile suits. The mandible guns are my favourite part. As for my painting on the pink Valkyrie Fembot, I'm a bit sloppy (certainly missed a few spots). These figures don't have well formed edges or indents to highlight/wash though. At any rate, I much prefer a flat style. Darken the indents with a colored (slightly hue shifted) wash, then a single thin highlight pass, if any. It preserves local color a bit better than gradients or baked in lighting. The bases here are 20mm and 25mm from Hasslefree.

Heavy infantry robots on 30mm bases. These had a lot of large metal tumors where the old molds had broken, so I had to cut off arms and resculpt. Many of the figs are marked (c) 1985, so perhaps the molds are a little scruffy. The figures require a lot of cleanup work in general, something which is made a lot harder by the more natural gun poses, which leave a bit of space between the body and held rifle (which is where the molds break, of course). But, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how the figures are posed. Nothing can ruin a figure like the Fly-swatted-man pose, or, I'm-taking-a-dump-here, or Awkward-runner, so I'd take mold damage over that.

Some progress on a few older figures, trying out color schemes, doing minor conversion work. The lone unpainted (washed) Terran Marine is a good 1:72 fit. The here robots are a tad large, but I suppose they could be in the fluff too (makes the head sizes an issue though).

Edit: Also, camouflage sketches for the Amazonian figs:

 

[Arne]

Some progress on the Devil Cat tank. Just some minor stuff left. Rivets on the thread plating cards, and maybe pop a driver in the hatch to tie the tank to the scale better. Since the hatch gun mount swivels, I might have to move the light.

Rear. I had some fun with sacks and jerry cans.

The Kalibot would be much easier to assemble with superglue.

Myrmidion robots mounted on bases. They seem to share legs. I'm gonna have to repair a weapon with a missing barrel.

 

[Arne]

I prefer to prime lightly, especially with these smaller figures where I risk drowning details in paint. I used Tamiya's Fine Surface Primer spray. I'll add a colored base color with my airbrush later. The acrylic that I use with the airbrush might stick better to primed metal, I wager, but I'm not sure if it matters too much. A proper clear coat to seal it all in is probably much more effective, but I don't have any really. I've heard people airbrush on Future floor polish, then a dull "cote" (coat?) on top of that.

The stationary gun had too long legs so I shortened them so they'd fit on a suitably sized base. I found a spare Amazon troop with binoculars which I chopped in half, so she'd fit in the tank. Dang, I forgot to spray the ablative armour bits.

 

[Arne]

I used chunks of fatty model clay to keep the limbs posed on the Kalibot whilst the putty hardened, and later tried to wipe the residual fat off with some lens cleaning towelettes. Hoping the primer sticks somewhat. Every little notch shows up now when the guys are primed, so I might have to do another cleanup pass.

The Kalibot will be gold, brass or copper, so I might spray it gold, then wash it with Gryphonne sepia, Devlan mud, or maybe a copper green. I think I'll mud the lower legs up a bit so it integrates with the base better and doesn't look like an a disconnected golden lump.

I found some noname floor wax/polish in a cabinet, sort of smoky in color but it's probably transparent when in thin layers. I've heard it can be mixed with Tamiya's Flat Base, for a dull or satin clear coat. I'll have to try it out on some junk model. Apparently Windex (then soap and water) can be used to clean the gun afterwards, as it contains ammonia which eats the polish.

 

[Arne]

Myrmidions in various state of finish. The stripes on the light green limb bits feel a bit rough and messy, so I might leave those parts flat. This is close to the official color scheme, but I threw a neon purple on the heavy weapon (disruptor?) to make it easier to identify. The smaller rifle's (needle rifle?) tip was missing so I sculpted something using Tamiya's quick putty. Might paint it a mustard yellow like how it looks now, as an anti-bio label. I did a buncha freehand stuff on the figures, but I'm not sure if it's warranted.

All of the Starguard figures are sort of flattened by mold pressure or something, similar to how other older tin soldiers look.

 

[Arne]

Perhaps trying to prime outside when it's stormy is not such a good idea... Anyways, I thought the Starguard starter set had a fun look, with the pointy helmets. They're a bit wobbly/pitted at a glance, but some paint in the right places can cover it up. I'll see what the washes say first.

The Amazons and a Decapillar. I've given the Amazons a layer of white with the airbrush, because the yellow pants will need it. You all know how yellow can be.

I didn't try to clean this mold displacement line up. Looks like I'll have fix it by sculpting. You can sort of see how the visor was added to cover up the infringing Storm Trooper helmet underneath.

Also just got this in the mail. Curious to check it out. I think that the terrain is maybe 2/3rds of the impression (or more, badly painted models in fantastic terrain will still be narratively interesting, whilst fantastic models in bad terrain will not.), but I guess people in general don't want to spend money on it. If I can make something even half as good as what they show on the Woodland Scenics site, I'll be moderately pleased. Their rock surfaces in particular were quite impressive. I'm rather bored by the dry-brushed gray GW rocks.

 

[Garshnak]

Ouch, that mold displacement looks painful. I physically cringed.

With the amazon the colours 'work' as far as definition goes, just one model brightly painted like that tends to stand out more and look 'odd' if there's nothing like it in the vincity to tie it into.

I personally like the colour scheme of the myrmidions for that reason, but I guess that's also a little down to taste. Though the details of the models could be picked out more by some edge highlights perhaps, so the whole model doesn't merge into one shape. Or stronger colour variation between parts. When working with tiny models, defining the borders between shapes become more important as they're more likely to blend into each other as not a lot of light is reflecting off them and such. Black/darklining works as well but only on brighter minis, darker minis need highlighst or colour variation.
Because as of now, the gun slightly merges into the torso of the myrmidion especially with the one second to last.

It's subtle, so it's not that bad. But it's something that could help them stand out a little more.

Great stuff so far! Looking forward to see more colour on these little guys.

 

[Arne]

Good call re: forcing contrast in shape adjacency a bit more. The shoulder pads are unfortunately pretty blobby with broken or rounded edges at several places, but I went in and highlighted even the more subtle edges. I think it's sharper and more readable now. I was concerned at first that highlighting it would make it too cartoony, which might not suit a more realistic 1:72 military model style scale, but I think it'll have to do.

I'm considering buffing up the shoulder pads with some GS, but I'm not sure if I want to change the model.

I think it's my fingers which polish the paint. Maybe I'll dare to spray that mix of floor polish + tamiya flat one day. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do with the Woodland Scenics stuff. I did a rock cast and attached it to a base (with a paper wrap bump) using plaster cloth and hydrocal. The next step is to do the color wash. If it works, I'll follow up with the flock. What I'm hoping for and what I'm expecting are two very different things. Exciting.

 

[Arne]

I completely derailed after having stumbled upon some vintage Citadel miniatures, and decided to see if I could sculpt AND paint one in under a day. But then I slept too long (catching up) and now it's in the middle of the night. Looks like it might be possible for a professional sculptor though. Would be interesting with a LudumDare (make a game in 48hrs) but for sculptor-painters.

Here are my concepts. I settled on the LE1 Space Ork (I prefer the red one in the "Billy Bunter's Collection"). I overcomplicated the design a bit, but figured that it would be easy to sculpt it in parts so I could serialize the work while the putty hardened. LE10 Power Armoured Marine looks fun too (the black metal one at Stuff of Legends looks nice).

(Sloppy photo, I'll scan tomorrow.)

I decided to lay down that base shapes with some GS which I've had since the 90's, because it's rather hard by now and allows me to quickly move onto the detailing. I did the details with Tamiya's Quick Putty. I found that laying down the putty in carefully pre-shaped blobs saves a lot of time. With no time to sand, a lot of edges are a bit rounded, despite attempts to use my "edge kisser". Well, after 8hrs I have a bit of details left still, so perhaps I'll get the chance to sand tomorrow. I sort of promised myself that I wouldn't be too careful though, because this is about getting a figure sculpted and painted for fun. If it's too clean looking, I might be tempted to get it cast and stick it in the maybe-later drawer.

Paul Bonner style head (attempt). I think the current look for the Orks is a bit... vulgar (like porn that's so meaty and in your face that you lose interest) and they seem more one-dimensional and less fun in their portrayal too (waagh-plasticard). But, some people apparently thought the Bonner era Orks were a bit too clowny, which I can understand on some level.

 

[Arne]

Scanned and cleaned up the sketch sheet a bit.

Now I'll see if my sculpted bits are hard enough to be sanded or cut.

 

[Arne]

Came out a bit larger than I expected. Blobby edges due to sloppyness and lack of technique. Tomorrow I'll assemble, prime and paint.

 

[Garshnak]

The design came out pretty awesome though (even though it doesn't look very 'orky', it does look unique). But that's where you've got a lot more experience on your belt.
Getting those sharp edges often require a little more time and effort, pushing the edge back and forth till it sharpens out, sanding things a little afterwards helps as well. Though I've heard that the Tamiya quick putty stuff is quite hard and requires quite a bit of effort to sand, so yeah.

And if you made it too big, well casting and recasting causes things to shrink.