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So I've been getting my 8 year old into gaming. He's a keen story teller and one of his favourite characters in his storys is a little hedgehog toy of his that he calls Hedgee.

Hedgee is the hero of countless tales and it's only fitting that that should continue on the gaming table too. So now it's down to me to sculpt a Hero Hedgee for us to use.

So here's the man himself, er hedgehog that is.

Now I've never done this before. I've done some sculpting of bits and pieces but never a full miniature from scratch. So this'll be a first for me. I asked him to do a little artist sketch to base my sculpting on and here's my little wire armature to start with. I've read that that's the first thing.

So here we go, one Hero Hedgee on the bench. Wish me luck.

Thanks Flinty. Stage one. Slap on the green stuff and make it about the right shape.

Couldn't resist giving his tum some fuzzy texture.

Thanks PMcB. I was really just going off the sketch!
Obviously the boy knows what he's doing when he picks up a pencil.

Next stage has been on with any hedgehog's most defining feature,

Thanks to a couple of (different coloured) brushes for donating some plastic bristles.

Next thing is his little snout. And glue that sword back on.


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One little Hedgee face on.

I had a crack at a cobbled floor too. Just some little feet to add. And maybe a cute furrowed brow, think angry pikachu.

thanks both.

no not a surprise, he's been a very active participant in the creative process.

Got some paint on the little guy and I have to say i'm delighted with the result.






Look at his wee adorable face. Cross this hedgehog at your peril!

He is.

Next up, my younger son now wants one too. His toy, also a Mini Motsu beany plush, is a little black and white kitty called Kitty Mitty.

I wanted to have Kitty Mitty be a magical kitty, little wand and maybe a hat but no. My 6 year old has some pretty hard restrictions in place. No wands or weapons or additions of any kind. Only cuteness is allowed.

But of a rocky start to Kitty Mitty.


Not the strongest wire frame but I'm going with it.


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Filled it out with a bit of paper and cut it down some because she was a bit taller than I wanted. Still is. I might drop the legs down a bit too. Looking forward to getting the green on and seeing the shape coming together.

Stage one of greenstuffing on Kitty Mitty.
My 6 year old (who has a will of iron) has made one concession. Kitty Mitty may have a butterfly on her hand.


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Sculpting almost done for Kitty Mitty. Might tidy up those spaghetti arms. But otherwise in pretty happy with that.

And Kitty Mitty is done! Bit of a different feel to this one. All sweetness and light and not much by way of smiting the enemy. Unless you count being smitten as a kitten.


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One more shot for another angle.
I should've gotten a shot with the original Kitty Mitty toy. It's the same kind as the Hedgee one.

Thanks M–C. They've been hitting the Heroquest board hard.

Also...

Here's the original Hedgees heroes. Including the subject of my next sculpting attempt, a panda called Noodles.(Sorry, that's the name the Mini Motsu people gave him!)

Work has begun.
And yes, Noodles will indeed be wielding an offensive weapon. And his lunch. It's going to be a bamboo staff.

Looking a bit more like it...

It takes a bit of greenstuff to help it look like something. Something to work with anyway.

Noodles is really coming together now. Just the head and a some leaves on the bamboo stick to do.

Noodles is Go!

Looking forward to getting some paint on this little fella now.

Don't mess with this bear's bamboo or he'll make you eat it!




That said, he looks like a pretty happy fella.



I'm pretty happy with him anyway. Bit more of a badass than Kung-fu Panda.

Thanks very much. I am enjoying the project a lot and am pleasantly surprised at how it's been going. I think furry animals are maybe a particularly forgiving subject for sculpting.

So here they are, Hedgee's Heroes.

Very happy with how they've turned out and they're a hit with the kids too so that's all the better.
But I'm not done yet. As everyone knows every good hero story needs a good villain. And the bad guy of the story is

Armour Dog


So first off it's wire frame time.

We're going for an anthropomorphic Alsatian. Your typical guard dog/police dog type but up on two legs.


And again I've bulked it out a bit with paper. Looks like a mummy. I mix a bit of PVA and water and tissue for this. It lets me mould it into shape on the wire frame and then when it's dry and its greenstuff time i have a semi solid base to start from the will still yield to a bit of stiff pressure if I need to shape it a bit for whatever reason.

Thanks A T. Glad you're diggin the project.

gobert wrote:Interesting technique you’re applying to the wire frame. Rmour Dog sounds an interesting character, looking forward to him developing

Its the only "technique" I know. I'm honestly open to any know how anyone might have on how this kind of thing is normally done.

ScaryEd wrote:This is amazingly professional stuff. Get them on sale!

Thanks, but how would I even begin to do that? It's a nice idea, and I'd be delighted if people wanted to buy their own set of Hedgee's Heroes but in terms of producing versions to sell? I wouldn't have the first clue.

Anyway. In other news.



R-mour Dog got some bits of armour.


And then some more.


And then some greenstuff straps and things.

Thanks both of you. Glad you've found Hedgee's Heroes and glad you're enjoying the results. I'm loving the experience and learning a lot. Still a couple of Doggie henchmen to go after rmour dog is done. Not sure I'd be havin so much fun if we didn't get to keep and play with them.

On the theme of playing with them. Here's the Heroquest character cards we made.



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In other news...

m
Sculpting on R-mour dog is complete!

Thanks I'm really enjoying the journey.

Chuffed with how this guy has turned out, especially now the paint is on!

Found a nice old plasma pistol.

Some bits off an old plastic Necromunda Goliath arm.

Necron Scarab for a backpack

Old plastic termie power fist and 2nd ed 40k ork shoulder pad

And of course a space marine power armour chest piece. (And a few other Space marine bits.)
Got a nice little 'r' on the chest plate too as per the specific brief from my creative director.

 CaptainWaffle wrote:
I'd gladly place R-mour dog on my table. What a great work! The cards are icing on the cake. Is there more to this universe after the doggie henchmen?

Well let's see now. Rmour dog has a brother called Sneaky Dog. He's a bad guy from another book. This book is a super hero comic starring our cat Banjo - it's called Banjo SuperCat. He's a crime fighting feline with a little sidekick called Super Budgie. (We don't have a budgie) So after the 2 doggie henchmen I'm working on (pics to follow soon) I can see me doing Banjo SuperCat, Super Budgie and Sneaky Dog.

Sneaky Dog, I've been told, has a long nose. So despite the fact that he's Rmour Dog's brother he'a not an Alsatian. The boy has picked a log nosed Russian hound type of a thing.

So plenty more to come if I don't run out of greenstuff.

Stage one of Doggie Henchmen


And stage 2.


So they're on the go with greenstuff stage one to follow.

First stage of greenstuff on the doggie henchmen beside the artists rendition of them at work. Still lots of detail to do including their entire heads!

Stage two of greenstuffing on the doggie henchmen.


And apparently stage 3!


They've come together well enough though I'll be happier once there's some paint on them I reckon.

They're kinda just generic poses so I can stand them in front of a defensive laser or bomb launcher. I've been raiding the old bits box to build those too.

Thanks. They're at a halfway stage of painting but that hasn't stopped play. Hedgee's Heroes have been making an assault on Rmour Dog's lair.
So here we have Rmour Dog and Doggie henchman number one in action atop Doggie HQ with a their WIP bomb launcher.

It's half a Skull Pass dwarf cart attached to some kind of fat ordinance gun barrel mounted on comically oversized airfix wheels. It'll have a big cone on top so the bad guys can toss stuff inside to fire at our heroes and I'm totally going to give it a red circus clown canon paint job.

Meanwhile Doggie Henchman number 2 is manning the perimeter defence laser.

It's a standard guardie lascannon on an improvised base, bit of rough sprue for legs and some greenstuff for detail. It's pretty much finished, just needs some paint.

Kitty Mitty isn't a bit bothered though...

Paint or no paint she'll happily turn the big laser against Rmour Dog's tower. She's all cute and cuddly on the outside but she's no softy!

It tends to be a bit more free play but we'll use Heroquest combat dice and the occasional Necromunda based mechanic; initiative checks or the doggie henchmen if Hedgee is trying to fool them with a clever disguise or leadership rolls if someone might get scared or scatter dice for random movement. There are no real hard and fast rules more just ways of telling the story.
It'd be funny to do a full battle report on one of these games.

Thanks Argive, not much chance of that. There's no shortage of enthusiasm from the wee man.

So here the Doggie Henchmen are, all painted up and ready to defend Doggie HQ


Look at their wee hats and hi-vis tabards. Safety first pups.

Not the tidiest sculpting from the back I have to say but I'm very happy with their little doggie faces.

And what's next?

I've got a new gaggle of wire skeletons on the bench all ready to go.

Bit of the old green on another pair of Doggie Henchmen. These two will be a Scottish Terrier and an Old English Sheepdog. At least that's what I'll be aiming for. We'll see if they come out looking anything like. Still lots of detail to go on both.

Thanks guys, its encouraging to hear that real grown up gamers also dig what I'm putting out there.

Tonight's progress comes in the form of a mummy-stage Sneaky Dog and a wire skeleton Banjo SuperCat.

The photo's not the best really but you can see the long neck on Sneaky Dog. There was a whippet tied at the school gates this morning and the boy and I both took one look at it, looked at eachother and went "Sneaky Dog!" So thats that.

Then on the wire frame Banjo you can see he's in a dynamic action pose, one foot planted the other out behind, bit of a superman pose in the arms and a cape flying out back. Well maybe I you squint at this pic you could see that. The mummy stage might be easier to see the shape.

Anyway, I'm super excited for this one!

Green stages on the doggies is progressing, slowly.

Tonight's update sees one more Doggie Henchman done with greenstuffing and ready for some primer.
f
Still not sure if he needs a hard hat so I reckon I'm gonna get some paint on the guy and eyeball him for a while to find out.

Well Wirecat I'm not achieving anything close to your level of precision. I actually had a look at your sculpting WIP pics before I started this whole process to get an idea of how to go about it. So thanks for showing us those they were very helpful.

Tonight's progress is another completed doggie Henchman.

Rocking out with a spanner!

Thanks cap. Glad you like them. Not much of an update tonight I'm afraid. There have been a few issues. The Old English Sheepdoggie got stood on! Not to worry he's been mended now and painting has begun on both. I also thought his nose needed a bit more fur too so that's got to cure before I can get back to painting him.

I've also been working on the Doggie HQ defensive weapons but sadly nothing is finished so nothing to show yet.