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Hey Guys,

So I started these dudes Sunday Night, First time really trying to sculpt flesh, tried a few approches which i'll explain.
Would love to hear any tips and feedback, having great fun, just harder than I imagined
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Comments?
I am trying to work in stages; so typically wire frame, skeleton with thin GS work over frame, then some base muscles and flesh, then il add in more rough shapes like with the triplearm dude, before adding some more fleshwork on top.
Any tips on when to incorporate some clothes? I have some saches and like hanging cloth that I want to add, but I dont know whether it should be last? now? or before the final flesh work? I'm struggling with knowing how large the legs will be, so dont want to add it then find my legs too thin. For clarity, the cloth is actual plastic parts, not a GS sculpt.
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Grotesque - this dudes carrying 2 wraithblades and a ghostaxe, so he has 3 arms, 2 on one side, one on the other, I will be going for a slimmer grotesque feel with him, a semi slaanesh, quick and deadly feel
I tried two approaches, I initially put muscle blobs onto a wire frame (well a wire frame with a little milliput/gs to make a skeleton), I then sculpted these blobs together, for the other leg I then just used 1 mass of GS and sculpted that into muscle in one go.



Started to rough out his chest muscles.


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Sprinter - Going for a running pose, he will have a hulked up left arm with a morghast blade, while the right arm will be some little injectors and claws from a necron spyder
For this guy I used smaller blobs and sculpted those together, reasonably pleased how they turned out.



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Goat Leg dude! - simply wanted to try something different
Have done some work on his torso, adding in the starts of his muscles, I think they turned out pretty well.



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Dual bodied dude! - So I wanted to do a little more kitbash, as by this point I was at my limits with my patience for sculpting. He's going for a split body feel, with the wrack body and then il sculpt a larger second torso on his left side, using a talos mask as the head.

Looks cool so far, i very much like the pose of the first guy.

Try working in smaller chunks and don't be afraid to trim down sections. You've got a good frame already but if you try to move to much GS around the shape is hard to manage. Grab an anatomy picture and lay down some muscles in individual bands. Its a grot so obviously they can be stretched and skewed but the goal should to be to make it fairly accurate.

Our eyes see humanoid form everyday and not having things in the right places looks wrong, but not in the "wrong" way you want. Look at the hate for the beastmen minotaurs, you could argue that the musculature shouldn't have to conform to human norms but people still hate hate hate those things.

I love doing this type of work so if you want you can look at some of my P&M blogs where i detail how i personally do it. YMMV but i love to help where i can!

 FearPeteySodes wrote:
Try working in smaller chunks and don't be afraid to trim down sections. You've got a good frame already but if you try to move to much GS around the shape is hard to manage. Grab an anatomy picture and lay down some muscles in individual bands. Its a grot so obviously they can be stretched and skewed but the goal should to be to make it fairly accurate.

Our eyes see humanoid form everyday and not having things in the right places looks wrong, but not in the "wrong" way you want. Look at the hate for the beastmen minotaurs, you could argue that the musculature shouldn't have to conform to human norms but people still hate hate hate those things.

I love doing this type of work so if you want you can look at some of my P&M blogs where i detail how i personally do it. YMMV but i love to help where i can!

Thanks Petey,
I've done exactly that, I did a little extra work after posting and I laid down some base muscle groups, trying more to confine to humanoid physiology. I will try some smaller work tomorrow and post some results, i'd be very pleased to get some further input when I do.

I also understand what you mean, I may keep a few to some very clear humanoid shapes, then I think i'll try a few experimentations (have plenty of grots to make), I think with some careful work thinking about muscle mechanics I can work some non-humanoid figures. I too greatly enjoy flesh work, in general im an ork modeller, so all plates, armour and vehicles, its really nice and refreshing to get away from that. Flesh work can be really interesting, as you 'dont' have to conform and in places can do some really cool stuff I'll take a gander at some of your P&M blogs, thanks for the tip.

Cool yea you've definitely got a solid handle on it, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I actually just started a DE project log too so it'll be cool to bounce ideas back and forth!

 FearPeteySodes wrote:
Cool yea you've definitely got a solid handle on it, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I actually just started a DE proect log too so it'll be cool to bounce ideas back and forth!

quick question; i want to add stuff like clothes and vials and metal work sticking out of the flesh, at what point would you add this? just before final flesh layer? to then add the flesh and to hide the joins as required?

i tend not to do drawings or work with a specific plan, just my style, but i'd not like to leave it too late and then want to make complete overhauls of areas if i can avoid it

Vials as you say i would do 2nd to last. Clothes are finicky so my recommend would be to finish what will be exposed first. Whatever will be covered just needs general shape.

 FearPeteySodes wrote:
Try working in smaller chunks and don't be afraid to trim down sections. You've got a good frame already but if you try to move to much GS around the shape is hard to manage. Grab an anatomy picture and lay down some muscles in individual bands. Its a grot so obviously they can be stretched and skewed but the goal should to be to make it fairly accurate.

Yup!

Our eyes see humanoid form everyday and not having things in the right places looks wrong, but not in the "wrong" way you want. Look at the hate for the beastmen minotaurs, you could argue that the musculature shouldn't have to conform to human norms but people still hate hate hate those things.

Yup!

You've got the right idea, good poses, grots are pretty pulled out of shape anyway as mentioned, and it looks like you're having a blast, so I don't have too much to add. Except maybe pull the calf muscles up a wee bit so the lower legs look a bit like a 'P' than a 'D'; and while these aren't really goats or any kind of hooved animal, there aren't usually many muscles along the cannon bone.
I agree about clothes. They're usually affected by the pose and shape beneath, so it's generally a good idea to leave them until later. However, if you're using plastic pieces, those aren't going to be affected by pose very much at all; so you might want to trim the sculpt back in places so that the placcy pieces fit a little more snugly and flush.

Also, any of these of any use?

FearPeteySodes wrote:Vials as you say i would do 2nd to last. Clothes are finicky so my recommend would be to finish what will be exposed first. Whatever will be covered just needs general shape.

Vermis wrote:
You've got the right idea, good poses, grots are pretty pulled out of shape anyway as mentioned, and it looks like you're having a blast, so I don't have too much to add. Except maybe pull the calf muscles up a wee bit so the lower legs look a bit like a 'P' than a 'D'; and while these aren't really goats or any kind of hooved animal, there aren't usually many muscles along the cannon bone.
I agree about clothes. They're usually affected by the pose and shape beneath, so it's generally a good idea to leave them until later. However, if you're using plastic pieces, those aren't going to be affected by pose very much at all; so you might want to trim the sculpt back in places so that the placcy pieces fit a little more snugly and flush.

Also, any of these of any use?

Thanks guys, i did a little cloth work on the dude with resin legs, i simply glued in some really thin wire as a semi support then a thin gs layer just to be a hardened shape when i come to do some fold effects. Great idea on trimming, kicking myself for not thinking bout that. I can just trim then GS back what i removed but actually make it fit like you said, clothes arent too bad as it'll go over anything. Plus if i trim i then also have a reference im starting from which may help.

Good spot on the goats legs and the cannon bone, well its not a goat man anymore! just a haemy who got a little smashed on the tears of marines and only realised once his grot stood up the legs were reversed. He liked it so much he left it That web link looks good, il have a good dive in tomorrow. But right now i need to go to bed, not cos im tired, cos i really NEED to go to work asap..... (hint: i took my models in to model over my breaks and lunch.... second hint: they didnt come home)...

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Update:
Did some more work this morning, They are now at a stage where I think most are ready for the top layer of flesh, I have inlcuded some shots of the intended weapons, armour and such for you so you can see more what I see
I also discovered the power of MS paint! So hopefully the photos are easier to digest.

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Top - BeastGrot! - Currently not sure what I will do for his right arm, but most likely it will be a part from an existing kit I own rather than a sculpt, I still need to add some spikey bits and tubes etc.. Thinking of using some of the horned bits from the wrack kit.
Bottom - DualBodGrot - Going for the little dude with the wrack arm and his bigger brother with a 'flesh gauntlet' which will most likely be clawed fingers of some variation. He will have a rather hulky arm, I intend it to be grossly out of proportion



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RunningGrot - His left arm which will hold the huge blade will be nice and beefy, with that big shoulder pad, Unsure which way to point the blade, I can either have it as if hes about to swing (so palm up, blade backwards) or as if he's finished a sort of dash-slash (so palm down, blade forward). His right arm will be those two little necron tentacle thingies.



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TripleArmGrot - So Got most of his muscle basing done, you can see his intended head, his spine rack and the eldar bits I may use on his elbows, but not sure yet tbh.


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Overall going really well, hoping to get some of the top flesh layers done later today, working in smallr chucks is definitely starting to work for me and I really think the base muscle shapes should help me not only keep a good base structure, but help make sure I don't over do certain sections. I think I will have to re-do some of the leg areas, or atleast give them a bit more clear definition.


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Stage 2: Top Flesh layers - Lunch break work! yay for a portable work station!
Here is the work I managed to get done on my lunch break



Pretty pleased with how it turned out, the left most picture (of the running body); I felt that I made the flesh too sinuey/too crinkley or however you'd describe that Its hard to distingush it from where I did some flesh around the abdomin, I think I will go back and add some extra work in there. However, after that I worked on the other body (the other 3 images), bearing my previous mistake in mind I tried to keep some more smoother surfaces, I think it turned out pretty good, I still need to do the chest muscle, and I think going back and adding in some extra definition will help.

I think the bicep needs pumping up a little and making it more hulky, same with tricep. I like the shoulder, but may add a little more roundness to it. In general going really well and my lunch break flew by. Cant wait to do some more work tonight!

Let me know what you think guys!

Looking awesome! Love the work on the torso. What tools do you use to sculpt? I highly recommend find some "color(colour?) shapers" if your wanting to improve the smoothness as you say. They're these little silicon tipped tools that don't stick the the GS and are soft you you can gently push and smooth.

How were you planning on painting them?

 FearPeteySodes wrote:
Looking awesome! Love the work on the torso. What tools do you use to sculpt? I highly recommend find some "color(colour?) shapers" if your wanting to improve the smoothness as you say. They're these little silicon tipped tools that don't stick the the GS and are soft you you can gently push and smooth.

How were you planning on painting them?

i actually have some color shapers, just getting to grips with them, mostly been using the pointed tip, dont know why i find it great to use. Hence i imagine thats why they are also so 'veiny' but i think that was predominantly something i caused on purpose, just think i need to tone it back a bit I also have some metal clay tools and a ball point tool

Paintinh wise, well i have a slightly odd scheme, my force is harle themed, so lots of mixing between DE and CWE parts, with mixing from stuff like the vampire counts, the theme is that your actually looking at them through psychotropic drug effects, il give you an idea of what i mean, this is my warwalker; This is still WIP, il have to take a new pic considering its almost done now.



the colour scheme is actually the slaanesh colours, airbrushed fades between those bright pinks and blues, potentially with some greens also. I have some test models, but i havent actually painted anything from this force yet. So with these grotesques, i imagine il be having some mixed skin tones of light blues and pinks mixing into some deep purples, potentially black for the non skin areas. I also plan on using the UHU blood effect quite extensively with the grotesques, i find so many DE armies to be too clean, i mean these beasts are dissasembling people! theres gona be blood everywhere!

Really cool well see were you get with it

Quick update;

some initial top layer fleshwork done

Good! Coming together nicely.

 Vermis wrote:
Good! Coming together nicely.

Thanks Vermis Yeh really pleased with how they are turning out, just finished a little more work on them.



I really like how my splitman has turned out, i really wanted to hulk his arm up as the wrack will have one of the small double wrack arms. the hand, well initially i had planned on adding flesh over the top to give it more a nail like look, but i think that actually after the filing, i might simply have his hand transform into long razor fingers, bit like freddy kruger.

The top most image is orientated as if he was eye level with you, so how he would appear on the battlefield, Loved how hes turned out and is probably my favourite. Plus hes nearly there now they have taken longer than i thought.

Triple arm dude is taking shape, really pleased with his spine piece, just need to give his spine some work and make it pronounced now.

Finally my beast grot, who has been a hell of a laugh put together.


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Oh God! Just realised just how awful that last set of photos is! They were reasonably quality on my phone, must have resulted from when cropping into 1 image. I'll take some more later Was uploading on a tablet, so originally I had thought it was just my small screen making them look bad


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Infact, the image is much better if you follow its link the the gallery and zoom in a little, then just scroll around the photos. So for now i'd recommend that until I can get some better ones up later.