Make hay while the sun shines…

or, well, doesn’t shine..

yeah, so I made hay.

I’d started to put together this lean-to as part of a set of scenery for the farm I’ve made for WW2 games, and realised I needed some hay bales, but that ideally I needed a few, so in a fit of “just getting on with it” I set to:

I made a few blocks of blue foam about the right size…

sculpted in some rough detail, pricking the end with a needle and scoring the sides and top..

I then tied them up with picture hanging wire as you might find in a certain sweedish furniture shop..

then I grabbed an old greenstuff box and some plasticene, and set them atop it..

mixed up and poured some silicone rubber..

after 24 hours curing, I de-molded them and cleaned up the molds.

mixed up and poured some resin..

this sets up in about thirty minutes so I was able to repeat this several times fairly quickly

and dress my lean to, as well as making a few freestanding piles of hay bales.

 

now I know they look a bit rough, but this was all done and painted in a few hours effort, so I’m not complaining

Space Wolves - Fur Sculpting Tutorial Video

Had half an hour today so thought I would record as I did this next bit of work on Bran.

It’s soundless, hence captioned, and for some reason my best light seems to cause banding in the video – I'll have to look into that.

Anyway, it’s a short demo/tut on how I sculpt the tabards and fur on the wolves. Here’s hoping someone finds it useful.

Thanks for viewing!

A question about Bran Redmaw

 

Oh and .. KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Yeah, so a week after my typing “I did think about using a nice dynamic sculpt like Khan as the basis of this, but ya know, he’s mail order only.. and metal” they go and release a finecast. dammit. never mind, I’m committed now.

So I was doing some GS groundwork, I put in the shape of his loincloth (fur to follow) and started on his beard.. with the intention of adding flowing hair..

But he’s been sat on my desk a week now as a baldie, and I'm not sure if it’s not the way to go..

here’s a black and white close up, so the green isn't distracting

So whaddya think? Is Bran Redmaw Bald? or do I carry on with hair?

Wot I did: The Redmaw Conversion

Calling this a “Wot I did” rather than a tutorial as it’s literally a “i did this” rather than a “you should proceed thus”. as a teacher, I see a difference :)

I’ll still tag it as a tutorial though, and you should feel free to take away from this anything you want or are able to :)

So, I started with my two donor models:

 

Which today is a Thunderwolf mount, and an old Mornheim Skaven Rat Ogre. though anything with humanoid but still beastly hands and claws would do as well I think.

I wanted to work from a Thunderwolf because of the fluff…

+++SpoilerSpoilerSpoiler+++ (dont shout at me if this spoils you!)

what with Thunderwolves basically being Astartes who have lost the fight with the Canis Helix, ultimately, Bran will end up properly on all fours and drooling, but for now he can hold it halfway.. that’s what I wanted… anyway.. onwards.

++Spoiler over++

first, I chop the Thunderwolf in half.

Using Magic Sculpt I put a base together and pinned the lower torso (and it’s new feet) to it, I also pin the arms into the torse, bulking it out with Magic Sculp to hold the heavy white metal limbs safely to the plastic torso.

Once this is set up, (about 2 hours) I do the same thing with the upper and lower torso, putting much more bend in the waist than the original Thunderwolf body had.

 

With the head in place this gives me the basic form, although it looks very stitched together right now.

So, time for the Greenstuff!

 

That’s My usual sculpting set up, though for this sculpt a few of those tools get used far more than others. the one at the bottom of the picture is my “go-to” for cutting and placing putty on the model, the one above it has the perfect triangular tip for shaping fur GW style, the clay shapers in the image are largely used for smooth putty before i start to add any desired detail.

Vaseline keeps my tools lubed.. that’s about it. the mounted needle and the bladed metal tool weren't needed for this work.

the putty goes on in stages, first any large forms get blocked out, the torso in this case is made to look a little more humanoid, then the two major joins are covered, and rough fur is sculpted to blend them into the figure.

 

Next we sculpt yet more fur over any joins and to help blend new forms into the figure, this is where you need to take great care not to smudge work already done, and why I usually let most work set up in between changing locations on the model

 

And here he is, a blast of primer homogenises the colours so you can more clearly judge the form, at this stage often you need to do more blending work over seams and transitions.

More picture available on the first post, and paint will soon be forthcoming.

thanks for reading, and I hope that helped someone :)

Nurgle Demon Prince Sculpt Step by step

Okay, I took step by step pics of the Critter as I worked on it, I’m going to post these with some commentary in the hope that it helps someone, or is at the least useful.
I wont call this a tutorial, because I feel it’s more a record of what was done, rather than a guide as to how to, but I’m more than happy to answer any questions arising from this post.


The raw ingredients as it were. Two arms, a torso front and a head from the DP box. Leftovers from a friend's build.



 
Step one was to create an armature for the legs I would build and mix some putty, Here I am using magic sculp from sylmasta.com It’s a good product, softer than GS buit sets rock hard, it blends with water and works like softer, finer milliput. (man that read like an advert, I swear I’m not on commission)

I really roughly block out the shape and pose of the legs and at this stage I attached the loincloth I found in the DP box.


Once all this was set, I started in with GS to define the parts more, trying to rough out the shapes for armour plates. the legs needed to feel like 40k legs, as the only part I had from the box for 40k were the mutated backpack vents.


 
While this cures I start on the weapons, giving the axe a blade from a sentinel, and making it look as much like a scythe as I can. also I make a tube from evergreen plastics (available at all good local hobby stores ;) ) and decide then to “borrow” the forge world idea for the DP as a thing that spews unpleasant fluids.



A more pronounced tummy is blocked in, and a rough back formed, with an barrel embedded in it. at this stage also the parts I intended to use for the rest of the model were impressed into the still wet upper body to provide guides later


 


While this sets up  the base is given a little detail


 


I sculpt some lower legs




Then I test fit the parts so fat with blu tak

The lower legs receive some additional sculpted detailing and the feet are given some form.
Additional bitz are added, such as the guitar wire and the second barrel, rivet heads also help out the kneepad.
At this point I also add the intestines, formed from sausages of GS and attached to the model.

Once this is all set, holes are excavated and will later be resculpted to look like wounds or fissures. additional guitar wire tubes are added.

 
I didn't like the original head so at this point I sculpted another, using a pin head to try and create faceted eyes.


Some of the limbs are added and worked in with Greenstuff
The arm got the pin vice and guitar wire treatment, in order to provide a link between the barrel of goo on his back and the nozzle in his arm. additionally, saggy fluid filled puss sacks are sculpted on to provide interest and painting opportunities later.
This is also the stage during which the surface of the stomach is added over the protruding intestines, giving an appearance of a ruptured stomach.
    
The process is repeated on the other side, pinning and gluing the arm then seating it with GS sculpt and finally adding some pus sack details to tie everything in.
That’s pretty much the state he is in at the moment. once I have some distance I will return to him for detail and finishing then move to paint.
Hope you found the post interesting, if not useful and as always, Thanks for Reading.