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After all these years of putting it off, i am finally going to have a go at sculpting something on a larger scale! And I need some tips from those out there in dakklandia that have some experience in this field! I've done some reading and watched my fair share of Youtubez vids and this is what i have come up with so far...
Since this is my first go at making something like this, i don't plan on getting too creative. My plan is to try and make a smaller version of the FW GUO. Same pose, same face, etc.... Here is the basic armature that i think i am going to start with.


My question is if I should foil out the arms and legs as well? Or just start slabbing clay onto it and form the arms and legs by themselves?

I'm nervous about making the face though. It bugs me when I see sculpts here on Dakka and the faces look like arse... I'm sure i'll be joining that club soon though so we will see what happens.

I am going to cover the foil ball with this stuff i found and a local craft shop.


Its a self hardening clay and it was pretty cheap. Looks like it will do the trick since i will be covering it with GS.

And then I figured i'd make a Blight drone while im busting the clay out. They don't seem so hard to make so i'll give that a shot too. Here is what i have thusfar...


I am going to re-do the turbine on the right since it doesn't match the pink one. I pushed the tool deeper into the GS on the pink one to created the dented and decaying armour. If all goes well, ill make another drone and can use it for him/her/It...

So if anyone out there has any tips for me or threads to check out, i'm all ears and appreciate the help!!

Your flying shrimp is how mine started out. I used an over bake clay for the base though.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/504815.page

Looks like a promising start.
As for the arms you need some armature. Even while shaping your clay into arms you need something to press against while shaping the start of the joints and muscles. Just foil is probably to weak for that. You should use either a wire or for arms that are wide like yours sprue parts as bones. You can still wrap some foil around it before claying it.
But without some stabile bones you'll have a hard time shaping it.

Also think about the thickness of the clay. Will you cover the clay entirely for details? Then don't use to much. I always overused my basic material and had to cut it down afterwards to get enough space for my details.

Thanks for the Feedback Gents
I spent a couple hours tonight putting down the foundation. So far, thinking i'm going to need to do it again much smaller. Especially since i'll be bulking him up with greenstuff. Oh well, trial and error right? Do you think i need to make it smaller or just start slabbing some GS on him and see what happens?





Oh and that is just the chins for the head and carved out the inside of the mouth. Also those wont be the toes.. those will be straight GS sculpt and i will add the arms once it all dries.

The Drone isn't looking too bad though!

Well it depends on how large you want him to be. But if you feel that he is too large than he probably is. It is your sculpt and you have to be happy with how he turns out.

You could do two things now. Either sand him smooth and use the clay itself as some of his body and add only a thin layer of greenstuff details on certain areas.
Or you could grab a rougher sanding block or a knife and cut him to size.

Well you could also just go with it and finish him like he is now and do another one after his one. Use this one as a "alpha" version and use the skill you've learned on your next one.

But this all depends on how happy you feel with the way this one is shaping up so far. In my opinion he looks massive, like jabba the hut massive. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. But there is one thing that you might have to redo whatever you do. I think the lower leg on his right leg is to short compared to his upper leg

a massive undertaking ur having here, id await the final result

For a second I just looked at the pictures and didn't read the thread, I thought your "Flying Shrimp" was a tail for the GUO and I thought that you were making it like a diseased Jabba the Hutt.
On a related note: Somebody please sculpt a GUO as a Hutt, that's just too perfect to not get done. you could even have a nurgling curled up in his tail like Selacious Crumb.