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Great sculpting and an interesting subject ..good work with the cap badge, and any chance of seeing his rear so to speak , would be a shame to miss out on any of your exsuisit work.

Looks awesome. I'm looking forward to the finished piece.

What sculpting! Fantastic work!

Interesting dante, and I see your point on the head. I am intrigued all around, but if your looking for backround/ descriptions dig around in lexicanum online as they have some great back round that is all from the books.

Wonderful stuff can't wait to see more is the Gereond kill team the one from the Guns of Tanith?

Llamahead wrote:Wonderful stuff can't wait to see more is the Gereond kill team the one from the Guns of Tanith?

No, the Gereon mission team is in Traitor General.

Been watching the JAG Miniature Mentor sculpting tutorial and taking some notes for the sculpting on this project - its a great tutorial by a tremendously talented sculptor!

Cheers,

Dante

TANITH!
Nice thread man, wondering when someone would do this. I like the way you are designing them, most everybody else does glade guard. Fools .
But Jeez, these are nice.
Subscribed.

So after a bit of a delay due to a busy last week and a half, I finally have some more progress to show!




And a final back shot since you asked neil! Nothing much to see there as the camo cape will cover much of it anyway.



Obviously still lots to do and I may have to carve a few areas back to allow some of the webbing, shoulderpads and camo cape to sit right, but I'm pretty pleased with how the proportions and musculature have turned out. I've found that a 2/3 ProCreate to 1/3 Milliput mix is brilliant for soft materials such as flesh and clothing!

More soon - finally he's beginning to take shape!

Cheers,

Dante

That is beautiful. Simply beautiful.

My only gripe is the lack of hands and a belt. But that's kind of a given at this stage.

S_P

Space_Potato wrote:That is beautiful. Simply beautiful.

My only gripe is the lack of hands and a belt. But that's kind of a given at this stage.

S_P

Ha, yeah but they will come soon enough - patience grasshopper!

Cheers,

Dante

I'm always amazed at how natural your clothing and pose looks, splendid work!

Again, I lik how he is shaping up. Keep up the great work. Will there be more Ghosts after this one?

Scrazza wrote:Again, I lik how he is shaping up. Keep up the great work. Will there be more Ghosts after this one?

Indeedy! Gaunt included - I'm thinking he may have to be an almost full sculpt though

This looks awesome.

Have you considered casting the bare torso, so that you do not have to sculpt a new one on every mini?

Cheers,
Piousman
P.S. - Subscribed

CMDante wrote:

Scrazza wrote:Again, I lik how he is shaping up. Keep up the great work. Will there be more Ghosts after this one?

Indeedy! Gaunt included - I'm thinking he may have to be an almost full sculpt though

Great! That'll make this blog even more interesting. Here, have some motivation:

If you do that sculpt gaunt with his gouty. like he is in de last books.

Looking good so far, but, IMHO, the torso seems a bit too bulked out in my eyes to look like an average Tanith guardsman. That could be one of the beefier ones, of course. By the way, do you do commisions

Cheers guys.

More progress from yesterday:





As you can see, I've started to add in the Adrian Smith artwork styling of the shoulder pads and knee pads. I've also removed the Elysian harness straps and groin plate, along with the thigh padding. I've done this to remove the obvious Elysian elements and make the legs even closer to the artwork in styling.

A lot of inspiration has also been taken from Alfonso Giraldes' excellent 54mm Major Rawne sculpt which won the Slayer Sword in the 2006 Spanish Games Day.

Next up is the belt and some of the smaller details on the torso and then the cape which should be a lot of fun (maybe!).

Would love to know what you all think.

Cheers,

Dante

That looks really good. How do you get the hard edges along the armour plates? Is it down to choice of material? I've been sculpting for the first time using GS as its all I have around ind it seems to slump a little at corners.

I really like it! great job.

Though looking at Major Rawne, I always pictured him differently.

Flinty wrote:That looks really good. How do you get the hard edges along the armour plates? Is it down to choice of material? I've been sculpting for the first time using GS as its all I have around ind it seems to slump a little at corners.

The putty I am finding very useful on this project is a mix of ProCreate and Milliput (about 60:40). The addition of milliput makes it a bit softer and easier to work with, but it dries harder meaning it's easier to get crisp lines by sanding and scraping the surface a bit after it cures.

Also, there is a technique to sculpting sharp edges that I learned from a James Van Shaike (sp?) tutorial - basically you have to pull the putty from both angles towards the hard edge you are trying to make - it's easier to use a metal tool (such as blunted scalpel blade) for this. Repeat the pulling process from both sides until the edge is sharp and then let it cure. Once cured, sand it/scalpel scrape it sharp.

Scrazza wrote:I really like it! great job.

Though looking at Major Rawne, I always pictured him differently.

Ta mate. He fits perfectly with my mental image but one thing I'm certain of from this project is that everyone has a different perception of the Tanith look. Some people think they should look wild and scraggy, while others think they should look a bit more clean cut, but tattoo'd. I believe the latter as I think this is how the descriptions in the later novels come across.

Cheers,

Dante

I always pictured mine the same. Tatoo'd but somewhat clean. I didn't meant how he was kitted out, concerning kit, weapon, leather armour, etc, I just meant the look. For a reason unknown, I always pictured rawne with slightly curly hair. Dunno why, though.

Fantastic job, I hope everyone can see all the subtle nuances you are getting amazingly right, like the skin on the back of the neck, and his new 'fly' lol!

Tom, cheers mate! The new fly actually needs some more work added!

platypuscorps wrote:Looking good so far, but, IMHO, the torso seems a bit too bulked out in my eyes to look like an average Tanith guardsman. That could be one of the beefier ones, of course. By the way, do you do commisions

Sorry, missed this one before.

I don't think he looks bulked out at all to be honest - it's hard to tell from the pics with nothing to compare to but the arms are probably half the width of a regular catachan or cadian arm and the torso has been done to the same proportions an unarmoured Elysians would be.

If I remember, I'll include a comparison shot with a regular GW plastic guardsman so you can see the proportions more clearly.

I do, do commissions, though not that regularly - unfortunately I find very little time for the hobby these days that my own work obviously takes priority when I do. Feel free to shoot me a PM though with what you had in mind - always happy to take a look.

Cheers,

Dante

Absolutely amazing sculpting can't wait to see the finished model, what tattoos are you planning on doing?

How many models are you aiming to do?

Keep it up!

Thanks. Haven't really put too much thought to the tattoos yet to be honest.

As for the number of models - I was thinking about 5-7 minimum but time will tell I guess!

Cheers,

Dante

Veryyyyy interesting. I like the direct Dante and look forward too seeing it through.

Cheers mate.

As promised, some size comparison shots and a mock up of the intended pose for those who still seem confused by it:




Finally a couple more shots of the pose and a possible armature for a Gaunt sculpt:




Yes, my hobby work place is currently quite a mess as it typically gets when I get heavily involved in a project - as you can see, plenty of test fitting parts to get a good idea of posing goes on and not every part makes it when walking "glory road"!

Cheers,

Dante

Wow that is amazing. May take awhile to make any sort of army... but wow.

Interesting Dante veryyyy interesting.