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Hello all, I have entered into the wonderful and amazing world of trying to model with GS. For my first project, I have decided to make a commissar out of the "grease monkey" model from Schaeffer's Last Chancers. The reason I chose him? He has almost all the right qualities. He has the hat, the bolt pistol, and for some reason that I'm sure was in the fluff back when they were a unit, he looks like he's gone through Hell and back. As far as I'm concerned, there is only one quality he is lacking before becoming and official Commissar. The coat, which is obviously the single most important part of a commissar and what gives them all of their special commissar powers. Also, to give him more of a hard-ass look, I plan on cutting off the bandaged arm and pinning the sleeve of the coat back up on the shoulder, making him look like he lost an arm, but refuses to give up the fight.

So now that I've painted this amazing mental image for you, my results were less than stellar. The coat sort of came out like a large blob and it covered more of the model than I'd hoped. It still wasn't a complete loss, and I might be able to salvage it by sanding down the coat a bit and building in up in other places, but it was disheartening for my first time. I was happy with the way that the folds for the collar and the lapels came out. The worst part about it is that the pictures I took to share were last minute with my phone, and they were so embarassingly low quality that I don't even want to show them. If anyone is interested, I will take new pictures with my real camera tonight (if I can get it working).

Oh jeez, you decided that the COAT is the place to start with GS?

Dude... of course you're not gonna be happy with your first try. But really, start small! Start with basic hats, skulls, small things so that you a) don't waste all your GS in one go and b) get a feel for the material.

Secondy, coats are HARD to do. Don't get dishearted.

Check out other people's tutorials on GS work, it'll give you some good pointers.

Try try tray agian and you shall succeed

Okay, I have my pictures ready:





Thoughts? Things I did wrong? Things I did right (if any)?

*EDIT* Now in non-forum breaking sizes *EDIT*

*beaten to the fix

Is this just going to be a Commissar with an eye patch, because I can think of a much more easier way to do this; Green stuff an eye patch. Or you could go the slightly harder way, replace a Commissar's head with that one.

n0t_u wrote:Is this just going to be a Commissar with an eye patch, because I can think of a much more easier way to do this; Green stuff an eye patch. Or you could go the slightly harder way, replace a Commissar's head with that one.

Well, that wasn't just the original plan. If you look at the original model, (picture available http://cgi.ebay.com/Warhammer-40K-Imperial-Guard-Last-Chancer-Grease-Monkey_W0QQitemZ350242623967QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090821?IMSfp=TL090821172007r26563 here )he has a patch of one knee on his uniform torn up and has a few other bits to him that make him look like he just climbed out of a hospital bed and got back in the fight, like the breathing mask still hanging off of him. I was hoping to be able to better capture those qualities, but I ended up covering most of it up, so at this point, I'm just trying to cut my losses and make him look like a commissar with a missing arm and the eyepatch.

I like the image that you painted in the first post. I can relate to the picture you posted later. I'm still learning to GS, and robes/cloaks/coats are probably the hardest things I find to do.

From my limited experience, things you did right:

the cuffs look pretty solid on the arms. The lapels look good.

Things you did wrong:

Overall, you used too much green stuff. With a model that already has the detail sculpted on (i.e. meaning it is already 'proportioned', adding something like a coat will bulk it out quite a bit. One way to try to thin the gs is to lay it out on some wax paper, then press another sheet on top, and roll it to a thin consistency (so thin it almost pulls apart when you pull it from the paper. Then drape this across the model, probably starting at the shoulders, and work your way down.

Also, after you've draped the shoulders and tucked and creased it, stop. And let it dry. Then start again a little lower and blend it together. Use the rest of the model as a backing to press your work against.

I found that I tried to do large sculpts like robes in one mix of gs, and it always looked messy. Work in small portions with thin amounts.

On the upside, you have a great base to work with now. I'd try to peel off the gs that is on there now, and try again. Use that model as a test bed for all kinds of gs-ing.

I'll keep an eye on this, to see how it progresses, and might even break out my own gs to try what I'm suggesting.

There is a thread in the P&M blogs - search for 'steel legion plastic' to see how he sculpted greattcoats onto existing cadian models. Its a great example of working in little bits at a time.

Good luck, and keep at it. This is exactly how you get better

Another suggestion for you...

I've done this with plastic, but not metal.. should work the same if you can get the courage.

Cruentus is right about trying to put a coat on a model that already has detail. Take a dremel tool or a file and clippers and clean him up in the back. Shave off packs, belts, wrinkles in his clothing. Don't shave a big hole in him, just try to make the back (shoulders, hips.. anything covered by the coat) as smooth as possible while still staying with his basic shape.

Once you've gotten the areas covered by the coat covered in GS, you can go in behind and add the flaps, using the DRIED GS as a base to put the new stuff. Less is more.. you can always add more once you've let it dry, but taking away is going to be a mess.

I've got a post on here about a GS Commisar Orc... it's the way I did it.. maybe not the best example, but it's closer to what you are going for, I think.

Yeah, about halfway into this first attempt, I realized that the canteen and other bulges on him were messing up the shape I was trying to create. If I can get him scraped off, I will definitely have to cut those off before I attempt this again. I did use a large amount of GS in the process of attempting this, and I'm sure I'll end up using more fixing it, but I think that the experience was more than worth it. I'll see about fixing it and then posting new pictures.

I saw your orc commissar btw, I loved it. You did a great job on that.