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OK. . . .

As some people may know, I am working on some Goblins/Orcs as Proxies for Middle-earth miniatures (They are being done specifically to be used as either Lesser-Orcs/Goblins with Tom Meier's Thunderbolt Mountain Greater Goblins, and/or as Greater Goblins for Tom Meier's 1979 Ral Partha Goblins).

I have run into a bit of a snag, though, in sculpting.

Namely, that I am doing them digitally, and I do not have enough RAM to be able to do chain mail in Mudbox/ZBrush that is matching with the Thunderbolt Mountain/Ral Partha Goblins.

The plan was to do them digitally, have them 3D printed, and then do a Kickstarter to be able to pay for the molds to have then cast/manufactured in metal.

So... I have questions:

First question:

Since I can sculpt the chain mail by hand easily enough (I was taught by two other Ral Partha sculptors how to do chain mail the way that Tom does it (He taught them)...

Should I go ahead and print out the bodies, and finish sculpting the armor on the ones which are going to have chain mail (two Warriors, and Three Archers)?

Or should I wait until I can use a machine that has enough RAM, to keep the sculpting consistent (because the digitally sculpted chain mail will be FAR more Regular and even in appearance - even though I am pretty good at doing chain mail)?

Second question:

When I started sculpting them, I figured that since they were supposed to be complementary to the Thunderbolt Mountain/Ral Partha miniatures that I would sculpt bases on them that were complementary to the TBM/RP bases (even, relatively flat ovals that are nearly identical for each miniature).

But........

Then I started looking at how both I and everyone else seems to base miniatures, and noticed that something like pegs coming off the feet, or even a slotta-base might be preferable (and include bases that have the even, oval uniform shape, if people want to mount them on those bases they can).

Would people prefer to have pegs coming off the feet, slotta-bases, or just normal solid bases?

Also... If the pegs, does this mean that I should try to have the feet on as many of the miniatures aligned to the same positions as possible?

Because, currently, each miniature has the feet in different locations, and moving them to the same locations would be a nightmare.

But I notice that on most other miniature lines, the miniatures are sculpted from physical dolls, which tend to be limited in number, producing similar poses. With digital sculpting, re-posing a doll is nothing but re-posing a completed miniature (whether digital or not) tends to be a bit tricky,

I suppose that if I use pegs that come off the bottom of the feet, that drilling two holes in a base to mount the miniature is not exactly a nightmare.

MB

No thoughts?

MB

Wrong forum, I expect.

How much time, bother, and/or money would it cost to get to a machine with more RAM? More or less than doing the mail by hand?

Either way, I'd say don't be too obsessive about getting every little ring in the mail absolutely even. I'm sorta the same way myself, but others don't mind too much that the tiny detail under the third character's armpit is 0.28mm further off than the others. And like you hint yourself, Tom and his students did alright without very much RAM.

What medium would you use to physically sculpt the mail? Epoxy putty, or something that'd allow a bit more tweaking over time? I think I saw you mention experience with wax, some time ago.

Wow, okay, a bunch of questions but "the plan" seems to be getting lost.
For now, assume one way or another you have a complete model.

Q: What kind of mold did you want made?

A part 1: If a metal mold: 100% CAD will be the needed as an end result.
So you either perform 100% model or complete it somehow and 3D laser-scan the end result.
If intending to scan, it might be better to print at a larger sized model for detail and resize when scanned in.

A part 2:If rubber: It might be easier to print the body and then sculpt the chainmail.
It really depends on how much the extra effort vs. cost of the RAM is worth to you.

I am leaning towards get the RAM so you have more options available to you in the future having a full 3D model fully developed without having to scan.
It allows more abilities to modify the model as a basis for new ones.

I would suggest the same, if what is holding back your 3D modelling skills is simply the RAM in your computer then I would get some more RAM. How much do you currently have and how much do you need? (if you know that). That way you have the tools available to do more in the future. RAM isn't that expensive (respectively to stuff like the CPU, GPU etc.).