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Okay, I figured this thing out, sort of. So...I am beginning a series of posts on my Sisters of Steel Conversions for a new Imperial Guard Company. First off, the whole thing is a Greek Amazon theme, so the troop models are all conversions using a combination of parts. I will just show them briefly. What this thread is really about is my sculpting of the command unit. So far I have the Captain mostly done, and starts on a master of ordinance, the fleet, and a psyche. Well here are the first few pics, I will update as I go if there is any interest. I don't want to clog this place up, so more comprehensive pictures can be found on my edwardmystcreations.weebly.com web page
thank you. (Please point out any mistakes I am making in posting, I read the FAQ but still...pretty rookie here)
First, my command squad. Banner, plasma guns, medic.


Veterans squad, 3 plasma guns is the way I go with IG.


Okay, series of the captain sculpts. Stage 1



Stage 2



Stage 3




Okay, that's it for now. I have the face mostly done and helmet too. I will post those later in week, as well as beginnings of rest of command squad. (Yes, my camera is old and weak...)

Whoa...

I looked at the first pic or two wondering what figures you used for your conversions, and was mildly impressed.

But when I saw they were the sculpts

Thanks Kid Kyoto (Love your avatar!!!)
The vet squad and command squad are just conversions using parts from IG models and these amazon models I found, plus green stuff for gaps. The rest will be sculpts. I've done a fair amount of sculpting and such. I'll get more in my gallery I guess.

Okay, here are the rest of the ongoing sculpts.
First, Stage 4 of the captain, all that's left now is the plume on her helm. Note I changed the arm pose.




Now stage 1 of the Master of the fleet




And the Psycher. My plan was her standing, legs wide, hands on head in concentration...sadly, she just looks a little bowlegged now. Oh well, not everyone can be a super model...get it?

Okay, so here is an update. First of all, I gave up on the bowlegged psyche and started her over. I also made adjustments to the master of ordinance in her stance. Some of these changes were because I hated the look, but also I realized my scale was off. Typical of my sculpting, I have a lot to learn.
Anyway, here is the finished captain. She is hot, looks hard, and I love her. Sadly, she is also 33mm's tall! Making her like 8 feet in scale. Oh well, those are some really high heeled boots.


Here is stage 3 of my master of the fleet. I tried to give her a different uniform, one with fancy buttons and ridiculous braid. Pop Quiz...three stripes on her shoulder seemed a good rank for a fleet officer sent of as FAO.


Here is the redone Psycher. Stage 1 first then below stage 2 (I know, not a lot of diff, but she sure looks like she works out with buns of steel (wow, 80's reference...i'm old)




And last my repositioned master of ordinance. As you can see the plan is a radio in front of her, handset to ear.



There it is for now. Hey, if there's a better way to do this let me know. I am replying to my own post, not sure if that is correct. Whatever, let me know if there is an easier/more user friendly way.

Here is my finished officer of the fleet. She went through some changes. The hat in her hand became a sabre. I couldn't get a bicorn to look right, and didn't want a naval officer to carry the same chainsword as army officers...so a sabre.

Okay, Master of ordinance and psyche next. Both are very close. I have also started three Commissars. Not sure if that should continue this thread or start a new one> Someone give me a hint.

I Apologize for the delay, I took a vacation! (How dare I!)
Anyway, here are the first four sculpts painted up: A captain (who looks more like a champion...) A Master of the fleet (with the sabre and different uni) A Psycher (I hate her face but I still have a lot to learn on sculpting) and a master of artillery (who comes with the strange little map servitor I made from an old familiar)
My painting skills aren't up to this places standards, so bear with me. I have my three Commissar sculpts coming next.
If you haven't noticed, I sell a lot of conversions and such on ebay, so if something strikes you from here or my edwardmyst page (see signature) Let me know.
If you like, give me some encouragement. If you don't...well, I sure know I'm not a pro and have much to learn, so keep the criticism constructive (please no I would have painted it a different color or given a different weapon...) If there's a detail problem (Like all my faces are terrible!!! I am with you, LoL)

Mods: I believe it is Okay to necro my own thread because it is in the P and M blog forum? If I am wrong I apologize, and someone let me know, I won't do it again!
On to the pics! (there's a lot so bear with this)
Captain first:


Okay, Now the Master of the Fleet:


Master of Ordinance:


And Psycher:

Impressive stuff so far.

EDC

Okay, here are my Commissar sculpts. I am only putting the completed figures here. If you want to see the WIP pics, visit my eddwardmyst.weebly page and find them in the Sister's of Steel.
Anyway, 3 commissars completed. One striding forward with a powerfist and a bad attitude to be my lord. The other two are again slightly above scale...I still struggle. Faces are a little better.
Hey! If anyone out there has experience sculpting faces at this scale, and has a really good tiny tool, please share! I could use the help!
Last, next project...ratlings! I have ten in the works, using a cut down lasgun with a kroot barrel to look like a really long sniper rifle.

the fact you've made these from scratch is very impressive!

Your sculpting skills are fantastic and it is great to see paint on them to really get a sense of the detail on them

Thanks for the support guys. I keep learning...the old 10k hours seems to apply here, and I only have like 9,845 to go...(I am also jealous that your are a black Templar biker on turbo boost IGtR, and be careful with the demo charge STG...)
Anyway, here as promised ore my ratling sculpts. Some finished, others in progress. I like them all of course, but am partial to the running pose (great action) and the one kicking back (hey even hardened killers need a break) Be warned, lot of pictures.

Updated! Here is the finished ratling sgt, and the first painted Commisar. He looks cool with his binocs, she is still pretty ugly (I blame the sculptor...)





If you have read this far, I will be updating with my howling banshee sculpt tomorrow. She looks even better, and I figured out some face techniques. Check back please.

the kroot gun/sniper rifle looks really good! might steal that idea
that said the "cut in half" Aquila on his rifle might need to be trimmed off

Super easy conversion on the gun STG, and your right, I missed the Aquila's on them. I'll need to do some filing. Thanks for the input guys! I have these ferns that fit the scale, so that's the basing plan, jungle floor with ferns and such.

Also, here is my Howling Banshee in progress. She is holding her helmet. I sculpted the face on a separate spike, which made it easier and she looks much better. Yes...huge anime ears and she has two the pic is just at a weird angle. Anyway, her armor is coming out, even the spirit stones look good, if a bit large. About the bases...I have found I can get a better pose and on the larger flying stand base, so there you go.

Wow, I'm really impressed by these sculpts. I can't even work it without leaving fingerprints everywhere... Faces could use some smoothening and detailing though.

I suck on faces Auroch...but! I have started sculpting them separately, so the banshee face is much better and so will my future ones. Anyway, here are the last two commissars painted up. From certain angles their faces look okay, from others...its elephant man time sadly. Hey, but what about those jungle bases? Came out great. The chainswords don't look as good as I wish. I went with this bronze age theme for army (since I am using amazon bits for the minis) and its meh. I might go back and paint the body of the sword's housing in the dark blue...but then, that's a lot of work...Okay, here they are, thanks for comments people, please keep them coming, this is a learning process!
Next project, two dryad/wood elf sculpts started.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/800949-Commissar%203%20painted.html



Again, if I'm posting too many pics on a thread, or there is simply an easier way, let me know. If you like it this way, let me know too!

Really cool sculpts and a creative theme, top notch mate! Go wild on the photos, it's awesome to see you improve each time!

You've got a good grasp on proportion, practice will keep it in scale. My only criticism is the differential between your faces and neck, a smoother defined jawline might help. That said, female faces are often the end game, so you've done great for diving in the deep end.

Cheers for more!

Latest update! My Howling Banshee stage 3. I wimped out and used an old metal sword I had for the sword arm. The chest and shoulder armor is done. The basic shape of the helmet is done. I have her hair and the helmet's hair and details to do. Which begs a question...is all that hair on a howling banshee helmet supposed to be her own? I can't imagine it is but, this is GW... Anyway, the pics of stage 3, hopefully you can see how much better the face is (especially the chin/neck area Bishop_blank, you were dead on with that comment)

very cool! the bum might be a bit over emphasised, but who says howling banshees don't do squats?

Howling Banshee sculpt completed!
Here she is. I went with the bangs and long straight hair. The helmet has its hair hanging down (Maybe when its powered up the helmet puts a charge into the filaments and they stand up as GW has them?)
Anyway, the face is superior to any I have done, although the right eye is less than perfect. Let me know what you think. I'm leaning toward selling her, as I haven't touched my Eldar army in like three editions.
Next up, my wood elf sorceress.

I would agree you're improving every time and doing much better than I could! I think the nose, hands, and feet are the only things holding you back now. Awesome work and keep it up! I would say that you should maybe look for larger torsos than the amazon sprue (or make your own), but the heads look great. Keep it up!

Updated with converted roughriders! So, short break from sculpting to convert the first of my Sister's of Steel rough riders. I dug out some old Empire horses, and did some chopping and shaving to get these. I know...roughriders...but I love them? They move fast and hit hard (and are fragile I know...where's the carapace option?) Anyway, pics of the first two conversions. I haven't cleaned them up for painting despite the primer on horses (inherited that way)

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for rough riders, nice! when I do eventually convert some for myself I think I'm going to use saurus knights

I love the Saurus as a mount STG. In fact, I already have a set of roughriders on them I converted for my Vanastian Ice army. I sculpted the legs and bitted the rest. Someday I'll finish painting them. Here's some pics (if this link thing works)
http://edwardmystcreations.weebly.com/imperial-guard-roughriders.html

Wow dude those are pretty rad!

Nice sculpting here, mate!

Update! Latest Howling Banshees in early stages.





Just including this pic to show the process. This is the wire armature. It has to be coated with a thin layer of GS because the GS doesn't stick perfectly to the wire. So this is like a base coat I build on. You can clearly see the pose, which is important.

Update! Howling Banshee stage 2. Roughrider complete.
First up, the second of my howling Banshee sculpts. This one is in a running pose, her arm will be out aiming a pistol, as if she just spotted a threat, and is angling away. Bottom half done with armor. Why do I sculpt from bottom to top? No clue...Also note, her armor is not identical to a GW Banshee...that is on purpose, I want her to be my own so I don't worry about IP.


And here is a member of my first converted squad for Sister's of Steel Rough riders. I have a second using different horses and bits in the works. Each pic has labels to show the work I did in converting. I'm sure most of you will recognize all the bits.

Okay, that's it for now, been a slow week for time to do this. Let me know what you think!
PS: I sold the first Banshee sculpt already! Yay me! (no, I didn't get much, not even my time really, but still...I sold my own sculpt!

54MM Sculpt of my Pawns of Fate character.
Okay, if you aren't aware I do a free web comic called Pawns of Fate. Art is not my profession or training (my degree is in history) so I am self taught. Anyway, this takes some courage, but please give me some feedback on what I am doing. Which is a 54mm series of sculpts of the characters. If you have followed any of this you know I am learning as I go. SO, here are some drawings of the character (Dame Orchid, a fairy knight) and the WiP of the sculpt. I am up to her waist, although all the details are not in. Let me know what you think. I have hopes that if I ever get a following I might mold these and see if anyone wants. Okay, here it is: PIcs first (sorry one is large) and then the sculpting.







PS: My Banshee sculpts progress, I'll have poics next time. I do not have shuriken pistol or sword bits so am bodging my own....scary.