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I have no issues with the GW sculpt, it's just not what I want. So I am making my own. Putting this in stages and as a sort of tutorial so hope it helps.

My Greenstuff basics. (I claim to be decent but no pro) For example...(for some reason I feel the need to prove I can do some sculpting, as this is Dakka)



More in my gallery and I'd love to help someone just starting.

A; I use a wire armature made from 16 gauge stem wire from a craft store. I sculpt on a wooden disc as the base. 16 gauge matches a 1/16th drill bit. These material cost less than 5$ for enough to sculpt 20+ figures.

B: I sculpt in greenstuff. I buy the tubes from ebay. I almost always use a roughly 60 yellow/40 blue mix. I have had people on Dakka go nuts over this and even insinuate that only a complete moron would do that. However, I do, it works great, and a search of the internet will turn up many experts suggesting this. However, more yellow is softer, so find your own comfort zone. My absolute favorite greenstuff basics can be found here, if you want to sculpt in GS, read it please, I could not explain it any better.

http://www.modernsynthesist.com/2012/04/how-to-sculpt-tools-of-trade.html

C: I do most of my sculpting on the armature but when doing flat things like capes, dresses etc, I flatten my GS on a piece of pergo flooring. To keep it from sticking I use chapstick brand lip balm. A teeny bit rubbed on the tile works. I use the lid of the chapstick to roll it out to the desired thickness, then an x-acto to cut to shape. I will explain more of this as I show step two pictures below. Now the gross part...to lubricate my tools and fingers I use...saliva. Yeah...whatever, I just do. A water dish works just as well.

D: Super glue of any type adheres almost instantly to GS. So if you have a fiddly part you need to stick to the mini and then flex (like a wrapping on a shaft or a dress or cape) a dot of super glue at a connection point can work great.

F: Patience grasshopper! To do good work (well, for me to do good work) I MUST build up in stages. Two hours drying time between steps at the very least. Nothing is worse than sculpting an awesome looking skirt on a mini, and while then moving onto the boots, mashing the skirt into a fingerprint. NOTHING!! (Again that tutorial says it all best...)

STEP 1:
Armature built. I purposefully made her larger than a standard daemonette as I wanted her to stand out. As you can see I do my armature in one long run, left leg up to a triangle I will use for the torso (often, after the legs are sculpted, I will cut off part of the triangle and build on just one wire). It is important to get this right and in the pose you want., as there's no going back. Spend a little time on this. I leave extra wire where the feet are so I can pull it through drilled holes in my disc, and then clip it off. I cover the armature with a thin layer of GS because even with that green coating on the wire, the GS can slip and slide. As you can see I've roughed in the legs and hooves. Both will get a "smooth" coat in the next step. A note: No two mixes of GS have the same exact color. This can make it look like there's a line where it meets etc. In truth those are perfectly smooth and will disappear when primered. Pics:





STEP2: I built up the legs and torso into the desired shape. I wanted her to have a pose with one hip out. Her instrument will sit on that hip cradled in her right arm, while her left will be raised as if beckoning some unfortunate victim. In this case I added stocking tops with a thin bit of GS I rolled, flattened, and cut (see my explanation on the dress below for how this works), and worked on the hooves. In truth she's a bit busty...but hey, it's slaanesh. Pics





STEP 3:
Details going in. The torso got a corset complete with holes made using a toothpick tip. Most of the work here went into the dress.
The dress was made by rolling out a sheet of GS (as explained above with the pergo piece and chapstick). I then cut it into a triangle shape, with the top point of the triangle cut off so that the bottom and top had flat edges. The top was about a half inch, the bottom 2 inches. I then carefully cut that into five roughly equal pieces top to bottom (run your x-acto through the chapstick so the blade does not stick). With that done I pried up one piece and superimposed it on the next to create the fold. I then used my cone tool to blend the edges and create the illusion it folds under. I repeated this. This technique leaves some issues (like dents and tool marks), but the plan is always to re-cover it with thin GS to smooth. I then set it on the miniature using the super glue method at the waist. this made it stick and let me carefully flex it into the shape I wanted.
I also took this time to sculpt a head. Since I made the sculpt larger than a standard miniature, I needed to do my own. This might have been a mistake, as this is where my skills falter. In any case, I sculpt my heads on a wire stuck into a cork. I rough a head shape, then take a wedge shaped tool and press in eye sockets. Once firm I fill the eye socket with a round ball of GS (a teeny one), then sculpt eyelids, brows and cheeks under it. The mouth is done with my x-acto and shaping tool. Faces are uber duber hard, and yes, she's no beauty but the truth is, I got a great expression I love...but do wish she were more beautiful.
Pics:




Close up of the face: Please don't laugh too hard.



And a size comparison:


I decided I could never sculpt a harp and so ordered a bit. I hope it will prove a decent scale. The arms are waiting on it. I cannot decide if I want her to have daemonette claws or regular hands. Anyone with an opinion on this (or any of this) please share. My next step is hair and that will be later today, and in stages. She'll probably end up with the wave of hair partially hiding that face and then flowing down her back sort of like this:


The more I look at that face, the more I hate it...there may be changes.
(edited: forgot a pic and a few ideas)

edwardmyst wrote:
B: I sculpt in greenstuff. I buy the tubes from ebay. I almost always use a roughly 60 yellow/40 blue mix. I have had people on Dakka go nuts over this and even insinuate that only a complete moron would do that.

Really?! It's not just the experts who say 'more yellow', it's the makers too.

... Modern Synthesist! Is it still around? Haven't seen it in years.

Nice putty work. Great job building it up and getting it smooth, very impressive. I like the 'swoop' you put into the legs.

I also took this time to sculpt a head. Since I made the sculpt larger than a standard miniature, I needed to do my own. This might have been a mistake, as this is where my skills falter.

No shame in in that, sir. Faces take some learning in any art, and female faces at 28mm are notoriously tricky. Just look at the GW back catalogue of anyone not named Juan Diaz.

Looking forward to your progress.

Thanks Vermis. This is a challenge. I appreciate the interest, it gives me some motivation. I really don't know what to say about my 60/40 mix. It's just the way I learned and always did. I am old, and started with Greenstuff like 20+ years ago, so maybe my ideas are very old fashioned. One of my inspirations was Julie Guthrie, and that generation. More yellow than that and I find it too soft.
Is that webpage I linked old? I do know I found it a ton of time ago.

edwardmyst wrote:
I really don't know what to say about my 60/40 mix. It's just the way I learned and always did. I am old, and started with Greenstuff like 20+ years ago, so maybe my ideas are very old fashioned.

I have to reach back some way into my own memory. I remember there was always thing of 'more yellow for softness, more blue for stiffness', but I think it's only in recent years that Polymeric Systems started recommending more yellow as the default mix.

One of my inspirations was Julie Guthrie, and that generation.

One of my favourite sculptors! Most of her work is a bit before my time, but while her human(oid) figures are good (I have an eye on a couple of her Reaper minis for a future project) I think she's one of the best creature sculptors to grace this wee fantasy miniatures industry. Top three or four at very least. Her old Grenadier dragons, while maybe a bit small by today's standards, still look better than most that came after.

Is that webpage I linked old? I do know I found it a ton of time ago.

Depends on your point of view. I used to chat with the owner, just before he started it, back when we used to hang around on tyranid forums.

Heheh. Great work man they look like legit oldschool minis!

I know what you mean about the IE. There's nothing 'wrong' with her, but I don't really want her either.

It's relatively well established in the current Slaanesh range that Alluresses and above often have human-looking hands. I don't see how she could play her instrument with claws.

@Vermis: I am very jealous you got to talk to the person behind that page. Not that I am one to judge great or not, but the man is far better than I am, and his explanations and coverage of the topic helped me tremendously. Long ways to go though, and probably sculpting too intermittently to go anywhere. On another note...I was Lowly Gaunt on the tyranid hive boards for many years. Just lost touch and interest around 2007. Not sure it's still around and too lazy to look I guess.

@Axel Dale: That rules! And so accurate...thanks for the laugh.

@Excommunicatus: Thanks for the input. I am not a slaanesh player (this will be my first time even looking at the army). I have decided to go with semi-human hands and give thumbs and two thicker fingers. This is a combo of wanting some daemonish about it (is that a word? it should be) and knowing my limited ability to sculpt a hand well at this scale.

Anyone have comments about adding either a rune to each pleat of the dress, or a running pattern along the hem? Suggestions?

Waiting on my harp thing model, and working on the hair in the meantime. I tried a new face and failed just as bad (sculpted separate of course) so stuck with this one.
If it matters, this miniature has cost me about a half an inch off of a tube of kneadadite bought off ebay.
Pictures: (notice the wire for arm position) (She might not have the face, but she has the body and she has Farrah Faucet hair (and man is that an old reference))







On another note, someone asked for these pics on how I made the dress:

Update. Decided to go with a violin of bits, seemed the easiest and a bit different. In the process of sculpting hands with two fingers and a thumb to add to daemoness.

Still not a fan of her face, but well aware I'm not improving it currently. I am happy with pose and instrument. Hopefully finished today or tomorrow.