Hello,

I'm new to this forum, although I have been into 40k and sculpting for some time. In this thread I will be posting pictures of my true scale sculpts as I finish them. I started this after some conversions I did a few years ago.
I'm happy to answer questions and would like to hear your thought's as well as ideas.

This is an Emperor's Champion I did for my Ultramarine army, and one of the first times I tried true scale after seeing it on a website 'Master of the Forge'.


Then I did a couple more to create a command squad (that I still haven't finished!).


Next came a Terminator Captain.


After this I decided I'd like a stand in for Calgar, this time it seemed more appropriate to make the figure from scratch.


Doing this figure on and off, it took me almost a year before I finished it. A few of my friends liked it, so I had it cast and they each have one. I have started painting it, although, I have no idea when I'll get around to finishing it...
After concentrating on Ultramarine's, I decided to do some similar figures based on Norse mythology. The first was Odin.


Odin took around 3 months for me to finish, again, doing a bit now and then. I used some parts from the first figure I had cast.

Next I made a few different pairs of legs, bodies, shoulders and other parts to make creating new figures quicker, here are some pictures of a couple of the pieces.


Once these had been cast I made a figure based on Thor.


Due to having done the parts, I managed to get Thor finished inside of a month, much quicker than before. Here is a picture of one of the Thor casts. The second picture show the size difference to 2 guard models


Loki was the next character I wanted to do, with a kind of rune priest feel. Again, using parts I had already made I was able to finish him in 2 weeks. The fourth and fifth picture show the cast.


After doing my calgar stand in, a few people asked me if I could make him more 'heresy era-esque', like Guilliman. So, I took a cast and added the tabard, hip plates, made a new head and a new left arm. The last picture shows the head I sculpted, just before it was finished. I find the resin difficult to photograph at times.


Most recently I finished a fourth Norseman, this time based on the the god, Tyr. I thought it would be a good excuse to include a standard bearer into my growing nordic command squad.


I plan to do one more norseman for now to finish a 5 man command, before I move onto some other ideas I have, although I'm sure I will come back to them to do some more some time.

Let me know what you think. I'll keep adding pictures as I get more done. I have some unrelated projects to do over the next few weeks before I can return to these, so it will be a short while to my next update. If there are any questions though, I'll do my best to answer them.

It is neat to see that as you create common/modular elements it is just a matter of mix and match then some surface sculpting.
It must be more satisfying piecing together and adding, rather than building from a large lump.
Very well done.

Can I please buy Odin and Thor from you? Those are awesome.

You are one hell of a sculptor! These guys look great, and the detail is stunning. I don't know if it's the photo or the figure, but Thor looks a little chubby, but I think that's going to be hard to avoid with big bulky power armor regardless. I'm a huge fan of the Heresy-esque Terminator Captain.

Goodness, I know he isn't here to sell those but, if he does they'd be perfect for my Scandinavian themed marines.

Ahem. I love it when this happens, someone has two post and they're just oozing with quality. Moar!

Great sculpting skill. I'm envious.

Incredible work. Very impressive

these are brilliant, top work mate, would love to paint 1 of them

Hey, it was cool that you PM'd me! I was about to drop by and ask for a scale shot but, I see now with the guard that you already have one.

Oh my you can certainly sculpt! If you ever have the time, a step-by-step tutorial on how you build those guys would be awesome, the best I can achieve with green stuff so far is a small, lumpy scarab symbol for my marines...

Adding my Wow to everyone else's - some awesome sculpting skills, those Norse-based Wolves are just perfect.

Two questions then:
- Are you casting yourself, and if so, what product are you using?
- Is the grey sculpting material procreate or something similar?

Looking forward to more!

Some of these are so well done it's disgusting, lol.

I'll go back to my amateur fumblings now.

Wow, seriously impressive and that Standard Bearer... that is one seriously badass sculpt. Faces are all very characterful and well sculpted too. Kudos.

Thank you for the comments, they are greatly appreciated.

 Lamby wrote:
Adding my Wow to everyone else's - some awesome sculpting skills, those Norse-based Wolves are just perfect.

Two questions then:
- Are you casting yourself, and if so, what product are you using?
- Is the grey sculpting material procreate or something similar?

Looking forward to more!

I don't know the first thing about casting, so I pay someone to do it for me. I'm afraid I have no idea what they use.
It is indeed pro-create, it's great stuff, I don't use anything else anymore.

Pure brilliance! You sir have skills.

Whenever I restart my truescale project, I do an image search to see what folks have come up with in the meantime and I've seen your work there. Welcome to dakka and very nice work!

seriously awesome.

You sir have my sub and my admiration! your sculpting is superb!

That is very impressive indeed! Do you do this for a living?

Glorious. Wery clean and technical.

Second picture was questionable with this wide hips but then I was all O__O.

Just

Simply amazing!! That's all I can say

Thanks again, I'm glad people like my work.

 MadSoul wrote:
That is very impressive indeed! Do you do this for a living?

I used to sculpt some historical stuff full time until I joined the armed forces, which left no time to sculpt at all. Over the last couple years I have picked up sculpting again, and am pretty much full time again between these and a few commissions. Although I don't generally do commission work anymore, in the past I found it ruined my passion for sculpting completely.

Man, these are stellar. Some of the best sculpting I've seen bar none. The Ultramarine Terminator in particular blew me away.

Apply to forgeworld please!

Holy Wow! These sculpts are amazing! Keep them coming! Simply stunning!

Wowah!

As much as I don't rate the whole general principal of true-scale marines (all their Vehicles are already too small as it is, so theyd need to be bigger too) These sculpts are absolutely amazing..

I don't know how people manage to do it so well, I am such a derp when it comes to working with putty/green stuff!

Top Work!

Thankyou for the feedback, it's really appreciated.
Small update, I've finished my fifth and final (for now) Norse figure, it's with the caster. I'll have the casts in a week or two, and will get some pics up.
I've made a start on my next figure, no beards or fur on this one making a nice change for me. Here's some wip pics of the head for now, sorry the last one is a bit blurry.

Would you mind shooting some photos of some techniques you use when you're sculpting? I'm astonished by your fine motor control abilities. Is it just a lot of dedication and patience, or is there somewhere to start on the right path?

 youidiotkid wrote:
Would you mind shooting some photos of some techniques you use when you're sculpting? I'm astonished by your fine motor control abilities. Is it just a lot of dedication and patience, or is there somewhere to start on the right path?

Thank you. To be honest I don't think I have any specific technique, I just keep pushing the putty around until it looks ok. I've not had a teacher or know anyone who sculpts, I find sculpting a lot easier than drawing. I use a size 0 firm (black) clay shaper and an old one that I have cut in half, sometimes I use a scalpel for lines or a needle, but not that often.
When I do faces I always start with the eyes, as they're the deepest part and need to be symmetrical and inline, this will make the nose start to stick out. I usually leave the jaw off and add it after the rest has dried, which is what I did on this head, you can see where I need to smooth the join out. Sorry I can't be more help.

Fantastic work, the hair on that last model is particualrely realistic.

Thanks or the advice. Do you have a preferred putty? I currently use pure GS, but Milliput is looking appealing.

I cannot believe human hands did this. So, so amazing.

 youidiotkid wrote:
Thanks or the advice. Do you have a preferred putty? I currently use pure GS, but Milliput is looking appealing.

I use pro-create, having previously used green and brown stuff. I find pro-create the best stuff, so far. Milliput is very difficult to work with, I can't do much with it at all to be honest, it's 'crumbly' and very difficult to smooth, it is however, like stone when dry and easy to file.

 Dechande wrote:
Milliput is very difficult to work with, I can't do much with it at all to be honest, it's 'crumbly' and very difficult to smooth, it is however, like stone when dry and easy to file.

I avoid using milliput on figures too. However I've found it's great for flat surfaces and anything geometric, and for filling gaps in vehicles too. As you've siad, it behaves more ike a clay than a putty.

Bit of a teaser update. Won't be too long before this one is finished.

Very nice work indeed!

My brain can't understand the crispness of the sculpting. Can only assume it's some black magic.

I'm calling BS on all this, it's far to professional for any mere human to do. I demand an explanation!

Beautiful. I like the slightly wrought iron look to the gorget detail, gives it an aged feel very simply and without over elaborate clutter. Fantastic.

Seriously... this is extremely impressive. I would love to commission some models from you, especially for leaders in my Space Wolf army.

But I would really like to see pictures/videos of your sculpting process! I know others have said it, but I would like to express my personal interest. Amazing work!

Impressive work - shame that it's wasted on the Piss Astartes or their red-headed stepchildren.

Those Norse inspired ones are simply incredible. They all are really, but as you can tell by my avatar photo (which is me) I'm a little bias for the Norse stuff.

You sir are a sculpting talent.
I've never seen such fine work in all my life, can't wait for more!

LDP

Pretty much finished this one now, a few little things to clean up before he goes to the caster tomorrow. This one has taken me the longest so far. I wanted this one to have a heavy duty defender look, so I reinforced the armour giving him a bit more mass than my other models.

The head and arms are separate pieces so can be fixed at different angles. I had a play and quite like the 'looking up pose'.
So here's 'Logar Rond - The Emperor's Hand'. Hope you like him, let me know what you think.



I also found the time to make a Facebook page for my sculpting, there's a link in my sig if you'd like to have a look.

He is absolutely gorgeous. I'm curious about the length of his left arm though. If you line it up to the right arm, his hand would be somewhere near the cuff of the power fist... or has his right arm just been tacked on too low down?

 endtransmission wrote:
He is absolutely gorgeous. I'm curious about the length of his left arm though. If you line it up to the right arm, his hand would be somewhere near the cuff of the power fist... or has his right arm just been tacked on too low down?

Thanks, the arms are blu tacked on in the pictures. I just lined up the arms, the power fist arm is a little longer, the regular hand lines up to the middle of the fist (slightly nearer the knuckle end rather than the wrist end). Perhaps it's the pictures. He is leaning slightly to his left, I did this to make the power fist look heavy

Oh it certainly looks heavy

I guess it actually makes more sense for his hand to be inside the main body of the glove anyway as fingers wouldn't work properly if it was done the GW way

Holy Emperor, they are great! Far better than the originals!

Hot damn, these are incredible!

Stop making me look bad! I have trouble filling gaps with green stuff! Does the switch of chapters mean that you're done with the Space Wolves?

Impossibly awesome sculpting! That is a mean looking power fist as well, looks like it has some serious weight behind it.

My god that is awesome.

 warboss wrote:
Stop making me look bad! I have trouble filling gaps with green stuff! Does the switch of chapters mean that you're done with the Space Wolves?

Lol, thanks. I wouldn't say I'm done with the 'Norse' theme for good, but I am for now. I should be getting the fifth Norse figure I did tomorrow, so I'll get a picture of the 5 man command squad done over the weekend, hopefully. I'm sure I'll do more, I just fancied doing this one and not doing any fur for a while!

I've finished the Viking command squad. Here is the newest figure, Vidar. Based on the Norse god, brother of Thor and one of the few survivors of Ragnorok, it is Vidar who kills Fenrir and breaks the beast's jaw.
The first casts I've had of Vidar are a light grey, which unfortunately makes him harder to photograph. He's blu-tacked together for the pics.

I've also added some pics of the 5 Vikings I have now done at the bottom, hope you like them.



And the whole '5 shades of Viking grey, assemble!'...

He rounds off the group really nicely. They should look fantastic when painted up

Man thats some cool stuff.

MOAR!

(personally would like to see more Imperial fists )

Glorious. I can't wait to see them painted.

I've received the first casts of the Emperor's Hand. I've go the first one together for some pics. The head is a separate part as well as the arms so can be posed as you like.



And one more pic, place your bets!

On top of your great sculpting skills this looks like top notch casting skills.
Would you mind sharing with us what company do you use for your models or if you dont want to share to wider audience you can PM me.
How long does it take for you to sculpt one model?

dubovac wrote:
On top of your great sculpting skills this looks like top notch casting skills.
Would you mind sharing with us what company do you use for your models or if you dont want to share to wider audience you can PM me.
How long does it take for you to sculpt one model?

Thanks. Each of these figures has taken 60 to 100 hours each, which equates to around a month per figure. PM sent.

Well that certainly shows given how good these figures look. Part which impresses me most are faces, you manage to capture real good aesthetics with them. They kinda look like American comics (Dark Horse etc) protagonist while GW bare heads (talking about marines) usually have Sylvester Stallone syndrome :-/

Been a while since my last update, although I have been very busy working on new stuff which is very close to being ready to show! In the meantime, I was sent these pictures by a chap who bought one of my Emperor's Hand models, I think he's done a great job:

Oh man he is primearch sized.

Very nice. Charleton Heston really suits Crimson Fists colours

It's great to see you back at it, Dechande. The paintjob really highlights the sculpting work. Does the artist have any plans in mind to paint up some more of your models?

omg! these are amazing!
are you selling the norse command squad anywhere?

i attempted to make a sisters of battle chest from scratch...
ashamed of how it turned out i tossed it

Wow! That is amazing, I love Crimson Fists but I don't think I can look at mine the same again!

 LordRahl wrote:
omg! these are amazing!
are you selling the norse command squad anywhere?

i attempted to make a sisters of battle chest from scratch...
ashamed of how it turned out i tossed it

I sell my models on ebay, my ebay id is captaincalico. I also sell them via my facebook page, the link is in my sig below

 youidiotkid wrote:
It's great to see you back at it, Dechande. The paintjob really highlights the sculpting work. Does the artist have any plans in mind to paint up some more of your models?

Thanks. I don't know, I can't remember if he bought other models from me.

I received some parts from the test casts of my upcoming kit. There are some air bubbles here and there that will be fixed by the time production molds start.

I put the below figure together using my parts, I also used a gw head and gun that fit pretty well for a couple of the photos. I've made lots of hands, so it'll be easy to use any weapons with the models.

The hip armour are separate parts, the shoulders are in two parts, the arm is separate, as are the hands. This means there's a lot of options for posing.

I've also included a picture next to an archer model that measures 30mm, to show the scale.



Here's some of the hands I've done, left & right shield hands and left & right pistol grip hands.



These are the most recent parts I've made. The tower shield will be used for some upcoming Templar models, the smaller pieces are optional hip armour plates.

I have now begun working on a 'light armour', true scale kit. Here's the first parts that I'll use to make more poses and variants, a few tweaks to go before they're done. Let me know what you think:

Really tall legs, really short body. XD

 Kepora wrote:
Really tall legs, really short body. XD

They won't look so tall when they are posed. Obviously this one is standing straight up, not something you normally see (or something a regular sm model can do). I had to make a lot of changes to make the armour practical, so I can have more anatomically correct poses (no squatting marines!).

I'm aware it's standing straight - but even then, anatomically, those legs are way too long for the torso. Leg length is supposed to be roughly the same as torso length; these look like the torso length plus half again.

Perhaps the perspective of the photos does not help, but in reality it looks fine.
These aren't perfect because of the angles, but anyway:

Ahh, not as bad as I thought. Still, I'd make the chest armor a little bigger, maybe slightly taller - just to push the shoulders up a little higher. Also, I think the soft armor on the hips made an illusion of the legs being longer then they really are.

Sterling work there!

Defo a must have! Both, the light armour and the heavy one.


I know it is really nitpicking but wouldn't it be possible to sculpt at the backside a divisory line between the belt and the lower protection plate?

Looking forward to see those finished.

 miniholic wrote:
Sterling work there!

Defo a must have! Both, the light armour and the heavy one.


I know it is really nitpicking but wouldn't it be possible to sculpt at the backside a divisory line between the belt and the lower protection plate?

Looking forward to see those finished.

Thank you
I have the plate over the belt, rather than the other way round to make mine look different to the 'other one'.

Dechande, shot you a PM. Amazing work!

 Dechande wrote:

Thank you
I have the plate over the belt, rather then the other way round to make mine look different to the 'other one'.

That's also a great solution, as you get even more the feeling that it would move up when they sit down.

Wonderful stuff! Any more pics of your models painted?

MerkBerk wrote:
Wonderful stuff! Any more pics of your models painted?

Thanks. Afraid not on the painted ones, since I have been sculpting so much I have had zero time for painting

Any updates?

chaos0xomega wrote:
Any updates?

The light armour master is now with the caster. I'll add updates when I have more done.

Amongst other things, I have been working on this lately. Hope to have him finished soon.

Thinking I'll add another purity seal to the chest, on his right side probably, would like to hear peoples' thoughts.

Wow. Your space marine faces are super frowny, though. They all seem so dour. I wonder if you can do a head that looks happy? Like with an enormous, dopey grin?

 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
Wow. Your space marine faces are super frowny, though. They all seem so dour. I wonder if you can do a head that looks happy? Like with an enormous, dopey grin?

I'll save that for a chaos sculpt, some sort of jokeresque face, lol. I like my marines to look stern and mean

That BT looks awesome.

EDC

Got the templar finished last night. Will be off to the caster's at the end of the week, hopefully I'll have casts in time for Christmas.
I've included a picture to show the separate pieces, the left arm, shield and right hand can be assembled at any angle you like.
As with all my models, he stands 50mm tall, 45mm to eye level.

That's really awesome. I think you've done a great job in capturing all the icons and pulling it together into a cohesive model.

EDC

Wow! This is really, really cool stuff you've done. Great job!

Received the resin casts of the Templar yesterday. I'm pleased with how it came out, very little flash or mold lines. I did very little clean up before I took these pics. Let me know what you think.

Woah, that looks amazing!

Finished 2 new models recently and received the first casts today.
Two 'Angels of the Dark', the first one was based on the Templar I made a few months ago. When I was sculpting the Templar, he almost became an angel, so it made sense to go back and change him. He got 2 new arms, a new hood and some detail changes as well as adding the cloak.
The second figure is a new sculpt. I had fun doing the shields for these two.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
The second Angel.

Awesome sculpting skills.

There aren't enough sword and shield characters in the 40k universe.

EDC

Some new wip shots of my current project. Still some cleaning up to do on this once it's all dry.

How

Wanna swap hands?

Wow. Amazing work.

EDC

Finished these parts recently. Going to use them to make a few models that I'm really looking forward to.

Amazing. As always. What is the weapon on the wrist? Flamer? Or is this a Watch Captain and it's the key thingy they get.

Always excited when I see your updates.

How long till you have the figure (Watch Captain?) with the halberd ready?

 Lurker wrote:
Amazing. As always. What is the weapon on the wrist? Flamer? Or is this a Watch Captain and it's the key thingy they get.

Always excited when I see your updates.

How long till you have the figure (Watch Captain?) with the halberd ready?

Thank you
The wrist weapon is a generic double barreled shooter, I'll use it for 'silver knights' probably.
No idea at the moment for when they'll be ready, sorry.

Fantastic stuff. Will those terminator torsos/legs be available for purchase at all?

 Ketara wrote:
Fantastic stuff. Will those terminator torsos/legs be available for purchase at all?

I'm afraid not. I have been looking for someone to do spin casting for me, but with no luck. I will be using the parts to make more character models.

I'm toying with the idea of releasing rank and file, vanilla models in three main parts, body, 2 arms and a separate head. I need to talk this through with my caster to see if it's viable price wise.

 Dechande wrote:

 Ketara wrote:
Fantastic stuff. Will those terminator torsos/legs be available for purchase at all?

I'm afraid not. I have been looking for someone to do spin casting for me, but with no luck. I will be using the parts to make more character models.

I'm toying with the idea of releasing rank and file, vanilla models in three main parts, body, 2 arms and a separate head. I need to talk this through with my caster to see if it's viable price wise.

Gah, that's a pain. I've already got the ability to make rank and file, I possess both Warsmith and Chapterhouse Truescale kits, but it's Truescale Termies I need!

I started this about 2 years ago and due to a change in circumstances, have had the time over the last month to finally finish it, it'll be going to the caster's next week. The model is in 5 parts, that can be positioned in slightly different ways, the right hand is a cup joint allowing for various angles of the halberd to be posed.

The model measures 45mm to the eyes, the halberd is 79mm long.

I'm pleased with how this one has come out, I hope you like it too

I need to have a think about what to make next, one thought is to make 4 more to go with this one.

Very nicely done. I didn't realize how big he was until the comparison pic.

Oh wow that's awesome! Forgeworld really needs to hire you as a sculptor

After a few requests, I've made a helmet that will be included along with the bare head (shown previously) for the new 'Silver Knight' model. I hope you like it.

It was very difficult to get clear pictures of the helmet by itself

Wrong thread