Sculpt-along? Newbie Sculptors welcome :)

[moonmin82]

Moonmin, what do you not like about your face? Do you ever go back in with an xacto and just remove bits you aren't happy with? A new xacto blade goes through set green stuff in a most agreeable manner.

I don't like how long it's taking me! As I say, I just seem to end up aimlessly pushing the putty around and each layer just ends up needing yet another layer. To be honest I think for the face I should probably cut the MagicSculp from the mix and just use neat Green Stuff. That way I'd certainly get things done quicker, although maybe not as smooth. I do prefer to wet sculpt rather than carve, especially for faces and the like.

 

[wargamesculptor]

demihuman you certainly can, they never gave me the secret to other bodily fluids (thankfully )

 

[Chrispy]

Maybe you just need to start with basics and keep filling in, Mr. moonmin. Like- you could get the eyebrow ridges in, then cheeks or nose, etc.. But, yeah- I prefer the GS to be pliable when doing faces so I see yer point.

The revenent vamp hunter is looking good, demi!

And something about the hair and pose makes me think of the Crow, Goblinho!

Well, decided to try the other one-

Yeah, a little late getting the armature up but I can tell you what you don't see between the two-
You don't see me putting sculpey firm onto the armature, getting ticked off because it's too bulky (and if it's small enough, it's super thin), then getting ticked off and ripping all the sculpey off, washing the armature, and finally settling on the GS/Aves mix I did Elvis in. So- yeah, I apparently still need some practice with this evil polymer clay. The brick is like super hard, but kneading it makes it more putty-like.. and I want it firm. bah, I hear you can leech out some of the elasticizer with paper. I may attempt next month's vamp in sculpey again... but maybe at a bigger scale.

Oh! Speaking of which, I put this up on my Deviantart page for future use:

Yep- scale card. should be ready to print- what size is stated is the size of it when printed. No more need to keep putting my armatures next to minis for scale!

Edit- Do we wanna keep this thread for all the months, or make a new on each time? Somefing two fink aboot!

 

[wargamesculptor]

chrispy that's a great reference chart, very useful. the only edit you will need will be if you're making a model to fit with a certain range as each company has a different scale.
great start to your second armature

 

[Ninja_Butler]

like the head, it has a gooey feel like it still has fleshy bits. now your using saliva you can also use grease from your forehead for smooth glossy area's (a forgeworld sculptor taught me that one )

Hi Moomin.

Tell me about it, doing heads and faces has given me more grief than anything else. I like to sculpt the head directly onto the body because it has the advantage of making it easier to keep the scale correct and allows it to "flow" better with the rest of the model. But it ain't working! The most basic problem I have is that if make a wire armature with no stalk for the neck & head, making the neck out of greenstuff it's too fragile. I'll have to try doing heads separately.

One tip I can offer - although it may cause you more frustration than it's worth - is to mercilessly chop out anything that looks to thick/bulky; something I discovered more out of despair than competence is that torsos are kind of "hollow" both front and rear. If you chop out the centre of your guy's stomach all the way up to his chest all the way down to the wire... damn I need a better way to explain this... Think of the human body as being two identical halves and the two halves meet in the middle as a convex - inward not outward. Then you add just a little bit of bulk for the stomach in the middle.

It's strange, I promise you are still a better sculptor than me but I think I've learned more tricks and techniques.

 

[Ninja_Butler]

Dunking the sculpt? Aha! That explains your problem: too much water! I keep a shallow dish of water to hand and employ the "dip & flick" technique (i.e. dip your sculpting tool in the water and flick off the excess). You only want enough liquid to just moisten your tools (although you can use a touch more as it begins to cure or more still if using MagicSculp in your Green Stuff mix). Too much water and nothing will stick... you'll often get fresh bits falling off too. Hope that helps!

If you start using vaseline make sure you give the sculpt a soapy clean once cured or nothing will stick. Like with water, don't get the lube on the underside of the fresh putty or it wont stick

Sculpt is looking good, especially the fingers!

I've never had a problem with Vaseline causing greenstuff to not stick, but I only use enough to lubricate the tool. What definitely does cause problems is when the blue part of the kneadatite (greenstuff) starts to go off; if it is exposed to the air or accidentally kneaded it will expire, I noticed that it causes the greenstuff to lose it's stickiness and plasticity.

 

[moonmin82]

Spent a bit of time on the face yesterday and realised quite quickly that my problems had been down the the amount of MagicSculp in my mix. I proceeded with a mix of probably 80:20 green stuff / magicsculp and got much more agreeable results. Much less fruitless pushing around!

Thanks for the pointers Ninja_Butler! Aspects of the torso will indeed need a little reshaping before I clothe the miniature.

[Edit] Not much more progress this weekend. More work on the face, which I am happy with, other than due to the number of wasted layers the eyes are a little deep set. Sure, I could cut it back and start a fresh but that's something I wont have time for! I plan to use these monthly sculptalong efforts as practice sketches: something
to not be too precious over. I have also started to refine the torso and thighs.
View attachment 22706

 

[moonmin82]

How are we all getting along with our sculpts? :beerwave:

Due to my busy schedule I'm not sure if my vampire hunter will be complete in September. If not, I'm sure I'll finish (hopefully) by mid October. I'm currently hard at work with some other sculpts, working towards an arbitrary deadline I have set of end of September:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?51728-Puppet-Monster
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?54439-Crawler

Check them out if you'd like to see some more sculpting threads :waving:

I also have a suggestion for a future months subject (and I'm sure it's one that Goblinho will approve of!): classic Genestealer. It could well be a 2 monther (or maybe 6 weeker!) but is one I'd be keen to try.

[Edit]Another potential future months subject: Space Marine torso. A whole marine (to a good standard) would be a bigger undertaking and concentrating on the torso would allow people to concentrate on getting the basics right, rather than simply rushing in order to meet the months "deadline" *. The figure could then be returned to, perhaps one month working on a weapon and its arms and then the backpack and / or shoulder pads another month. Breaking it up with other projects in between will help give folks a breather!

* Speaking of deadlines let's not fret if we get stuck or simply don't have time to finish a sculpt. Don't be afraid to post away when finished, regardless of how late the project may be!

[Edit] Chrispy: good suggestion, I can see pros and cons for both options! I guess for tidiness sake we could always a link to the next and previous threads?

 

[Ninja_Butler]

I'm a late arrival so I'll sit this one out and join in with the October sculptalong.
I think there should be a rule that you HAVE to post a photo of your miniature by the last day though, whether it is finished or not.

 

[Goblinho]

^^ love that rule Ninja Infact it is now in place.

I have found it really hard this time to get any sculpting done, working 50 hours plus per week with kids and the missus on my case has been a bit of a stretch but I should get a bit more progress on for tomorrow and I have all weekend too so should get it done form Monday.

I think a new thread started by the owner of the monthly topic and linked in the last thread is a good shout. Lets people focus on that months sculpt and means anyone still to finish a sculpt from a previous month can pop in to the old thread at their leisure without disturbing the flow of things.

What do we think about copying and pasting some thread rules in to the intro for each month? As in a quick paragraph with the rules, the subject, a link to the last months thread and anything else relevant?

Also love the Genestealer idea but found in practice it is a loooot of work Not saying I'm not up to it or anything

 

[moonmin82]

Good call Goblinho, all sounds sensible to me. As we are less than a week from October have you decided who will be responsible for next month? Perhaps as we are still just setting up you could take the reins and set the format.

Genestealer could always be a two monther: one month doing the torso, then adding the arms during a later month (after a quick change of scenery!)?

 

[Chrispy]

Okay- I know it's been some time and I haven't done a lot of in progress shots between the last time and now, but my hedge-trimmer wielding vampire killer is pretty much done:

Yep.. that's Daria, from... Daria and Beavis and Butthead. The series always had the characters dressed up at the credits, so I feel this could be just another one of them. My own critique on the work- the boots got thick, despite shaving down the leg underneath, I think I just need to manage how much putty goes on. Trent's head kinda covers it up, but I think her hip juts out a bit too much. And for the record, that's the vent of the hedge trimmer, but I can see how it could look like a fugly hand. I did the blade in putty 'cause 1) I hate trying to deal with tiny details in plasticard and 2) I had extra putty, so why not. As for the small red area... Let's just say I've figured out you wash your hands after eating Doritos if you're going to knead GS... Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm glad I have these sculpt a longs to push me to practice sculpting. So- It's getting to be crunch time for this month, so I hope to see all y'all's work up soon!

 

[wargamesculptor]

crispy your critique is very good and shows you know where you need to improve, like the head and the detail of the glasses is great, keep up the great work.


goblinho a set of the sculpt along rules at the beginning of each thread is a good idea with a link to the old thread. also how about a link to the new thread in this one so everyone knows where to find it.

 

[Demihuman]

Chrispy, that looks good! I like the hedge trimmer!

I finished up a little work on my dude too. Now I am trying to cast him! I have never done a two part mold so this will be an interesting experiment for me. There are a lot of tutorials out there on the web about how to do it. I suggest looking at video as it is actually very simple but you need to see it done. Using legos for the form seems like it worked great. I am using plastalina modeling clay to embed the mini in then I poured smooth-on two part silicon mold maker and let that dry. next i will flip the whole thing over and pull off the clay and pour more silicon where the clay was and hopefully that will make me a nice two part mold. Then we just pull out the green stuff mini, put the two sides of the silicon back together, put it on its side and pour in two part casting resin and we will have a nice resin mini! (or a giant flash monster!)

 

[Ninja_Butler]

I so want to cast my own miniature, but I have yet to succeed in making anything worth casting.

 

[Goblinho]

Thought I'd pop up some progress, not really too happy with the body work (armour and symmetry of physique) but it's an improvement on some of my previous work so meh. The torch is coming out better than I expected and the hand is the best one I have managed yet so at least there is a bit of progress.
View attachment 22825

 

[Chrispy]

2 tips on casting, Demi: It's good you got the bit of plastic and the round ball "keys" in for the mold but I find that it also helps to put in your pour holes into the mold at this point, cause cutting them out is a PAIN! And, I find that some talcum/ baby powder really does help the resin get into all the nicks and cracks. Even though you can cast without it, I've gotten better results with some on the molds. Oh, and it may just be a person preference, but the colored model clay stained stuff last time I tried it, so I had to go out and get some light colored plasticine stuff. It was about $4 and I reuse it over and over, so I though why not?

 

[Goblinho]

Next months thread : http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums...ewbie-Sculptors-welcome-)&p=707826#post707826

 

[Demihuman]

Okay here we take off the clay...

View attachment 22827

And this is what you get:

View attachment 22828

Now this guy needs to be cleaned up. You need to get all of the clay out which, as Chrispy pointed out, is a pain. It's pretty warm in the garage today I bet colder clay would have come out better. Chrispy did you find plasticene worked better or was color the major factor? do you have a brand?

With a sharp razor and some sprue snips you can remove the parts of the mold that you don't want. It's a pain because the silicone is very tough. You want to get anything that goes over the mini or that you would rather be incorporated into the other half of the mold.

Finally I added some vents and I left a big piece of clay at the bottom so I have a place to pour in the resin after we make the other half of the mold. The red clay threads are vents to let air escape when we pour in the resin. They are not the best thought out part of this. Maybe I could have used wire or sprue? Hopefully someone smart will log in and make some suggestions.

View attachment 22829

Chrispy what do you think? I am going to pour the other half of the mold in a few hours.

 

[Chrispy]

I bought Van Aken brand Plastalina Modeling Clay. I also put it in the freezer for a few minutes to get it to solid up. Doing this, it's come out in one piece 100% of the time. As for the vents- I usually just cut them into the mold, making sure the angle is up from the direction I'll be pouring. I also think it's better to go for a more "cone" type pour holes in two places, as I'm not sure how well the "trough" will work..
I do know one important thing, though:

PUT A MOLD RELEASE ONTO THE CAST PART OF YOUR MOLD OR IT WILL ENCASE YOUR MINI!!!

I just had this happen on vampire slayer Elvis. There was no way of separating the two halves and I spent hours carefully cutting him out. Vaseline works. Not sure about other oils, but I've also read some people use cooking spray. They do sell a spray mold release, but it's expensive. Anyhoo-
LUBE YOUR MOLD!!!