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It's great to see some more sculpting, I'm looking forward to seeing how the new wolfess turns out.

 Syro_ wrote:
It's great to see some more sculpting, I'm looking forward to seeing how the new wolfess turns out.

Thanks, Syro! She is slowly taking her shape.



Having sculpted more of her body I've came to the conclusion that the head made to the proportions of the Rackham/CMON wolfen would be too small and thus decided to "upscale" the same design. From bottom up: the same scale of my first effort to match Rackham wolfen female, upscaled to better match what I would consider 54 mm anthropomorphic body and an even bigger head that would fit something closer to 70 mm (Privateer Press warpwolves and such).



This should look on her body like...



I will try to finish something more Sci-Fi next week but also to continue with her at least at _some_ slower pace. Too many unfinished things on one table start looking depressing.

Your sculpting skills are improving in leaps and bounds, Wirecat! This latest piece is extremely well done (and I have a better idea now how hard greenstuff can be to work with like that)!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Your sculpting skills are improving in leaps and bounds, Wirecat! This latest piece is extremely well done (and I have a better idea now how hard greenstuff can be to work with like that)!

Thank You for encouraging words, Meer_Cat. I am not really satisfied with her but can't do anything about this. Painting in 5 minute "sessions" can be done but sculpting - not so much. As soon as I am able to sit for half an hour or more straight, I'll show her "progress".

OK, so her body is done. Or mostly done, I am waiting for some suggestions about her left hand, whether it would be possible to sculpt it at the sword hilt or it has to be done separately to allow the ease of casting - if it ever gets to that. The usual collage of several views almost in scale...



... and a separate picture to show the possible root problem...



Actually finishing things is the real problem.

The sculpt looks great! And very dynamic pose. I can see why you are worried about casting her if the sword is in place. Is she drawing her sword, or swinging it? If drawing her sword, the added bulk of the scabbard might allow you to cast it in one piece, swinging it and I think you should probably do it separate. I'm not expert on casting though.

 Syro_ wrote:
The sculpt looks great! And very dynamic pose. I can see why you are worried about casting her if the sword is in place. Is she drawing her sword, or swinging it? If drawing her sword, the added bulk of the scabbard might allow you to cast it in one piece, swinging it and I think you should probably do it separate. I'm not expert on casting though.

Thank You, Syro. Having canvassed my informants I am now a bit more confident she will cast decently, although not without problems, in resin. YUCK! Hate this stuff, and now I am about to bring more of it into the world. :( She is swinging her sword, or axe, and there will be no scabbard, although I will sculpt the remaining part of her left hand. Should work, should...

You want to know what real problem is? This -



Yep. I've started another one.

That doesn't sound like a problem to me, I'm looking forward to seeing the new one get created
I'm glad to hear that the casting should work. I've never worked with resin before, but best of luck.

It is incredible to me how smoothly you guys work in greenstuff. I'm just getting started, but still, the gap twixt me and thee is _w_i_d_e_! Great sculpt, good luck with the resin (will be curious to hear how it comes out).

Good stuff. Great work on all those sculpts!

Thank You all for Your comments! Autumn starts in the most chaotic way. No time to finish anything, so some WIPs will do...

 Syro_ wrote:
That doesn't sound like a problem to me, I'm looking forward to seeing the new one get created
I'm glad to hear that the casting should work. I've never worked with resin before, but best of luck.

She went quite smoothly to an "almost done" stage by now. Some belts, rings, a bit of tail fluff and her sword, obviously, are still needed. This obviously postpones shipment for the casting by another week or so.



As a "scale match" is another of my "almost completes" - kit-bashed Ghorros the centigor that will serve as a centaur hero in KoW Herd or Nature army. He needs a prettier base with some grass and moss and possibly a little rust on his shoulder armor. Maybe even red wine, spilling from his horn, if I feel that adventurous.... Anyway, he is still unfinished and I hope to rectify that by the end of the week.

Wow! It feels like you've almost finished her very quickly. Looks great! Definitely worth holding up the casting.

Ditto what Syro said- it seems like you just started this sculpt, and here you are getting ready to cast. Very nice work, and a realistically dynamic pose!

Thanks, Syro and Meer_Cat and whoever else is looking at these greens!

Well, that "very quickly" still equates around two week time. Looking back, I can say from experience that, under the condition that neither health nor other worldly problems arise, I can work in parallel on three sculptures, finishing them in about 10 days time. It is best if at each point one is "basically done", one is at preparation stage (sculpting weapons, head, hands separate from the body) and one is heavily "in progress" (joining limbs, forming the body). But that is happening very infrequently. :(

But now she is really done.



There are still a few things that need to be done - three weapons to finish and fit, and then it is off to the post office. Hopefully this week.

In other news - I've finally finished (hurray!) everything I was planning for Kings of War 2018. The most recent kitbash - Ghorros and the unnamed shaman from the depths of the Warhammer Fantasy I've got... 10? 12 years ago? I no longer remember, possibly at the very start of 8th, after the release of the Isle of Blood set, when I was still involved in GW universe. Well, not much else to say.



Shaman is pretty uninspiring sculpt, but I have been told a few new tech-tricks - rough cloth, edges and I've tried them. Centigor I am actually sort of proud of, so here is another view of him -



If only the flash wouldn't wash out the details to white... This puts a lid on my fantasy projects for the rest of the year. If there are any new developments - stuff coming back from caster or me sculpting something else or finishing some terrain, I'll post it, but otherwise - see You all in the year 2019!

Wow, congratulations on finishing your goals for 2018 with the majority of 4 months that spare. That is impressive. I find it really hard to moderate how many sculpts to have going at once, and at least one often gets ignored for much longer than it should in my work area. it's good that you have it pretty worked out what works well for you. It's a shame you don't usually get to do it that way. It will be weird not seeing you around until 2019, so hopefully you'll be feeling inspired to start lots of sculpts

 Syro_ wrote:
Wow, congratulations on finishing your goals for 2018 with the majority of 4 months that spare. That is impressive. I find it really hard to moderate how many sculpts to have going at once, and at least one often gets ignored for much longer than it should in my work area. it's good that you have it pretty worked out what works well for you. It's a shame you don't usually get to do it that way. It will be weird not seeing you around until 2019, so hopefully you'll be feeling inspired to start lots of sculpts

Thanks, but... As my signature manifests, there are still some things to be done for this year, it is just them being very specific projects for Privateer Press games rather than generic fantasy or sci-fi. I have ignored them for too long.

Yes, I also do have a several sculpts in progress, some of them already appeared here in bits. How and when they will turn out - only time will tell.

Slowly working through my backlog of terrain, I think I've found the reason it moves so slowly - scale creep! There are things that work with 25-28 mm miniatures like Infinity or Alkemy or Frostgrave. And there are things that work with 32-35 and larger stuff. Between them it is very difficult to combine these "scenery sets" on a single table without it looking ridiculous. Surely, there are scale "agnostic" games like Burrows and Badgers, where smallest figures are sub-25 mm and largest in 54 mm ranges, but these are an exception.This week I've finished the "broken temple entrance" tile.




Cork base, some resin scatter and fake acrylic sand, marked with 25mm squares (RPGs and Deadzone). I was doing these tiles at the time of Alkemy resurgence, thus the scale and theme is "almost Khaliman"...



Unfortunately, with larger 32 mm miniatures from Hordes these are already too small.

Wow that is extremely fancy and nice, especially for a 4x4 dungeon tile. Looks like it took a lot of time. Do you have a lot of these kinds of tiles?

I think it looks great, especially that little bit of painted mural.

Syro_ wrote:Wow that is extremely fancy and nice, especially for a 4x4 dungeon tile. Looks like it took a lot of time. Do you have a lot of these kinds of tiles?

The original (not really original, but that got me working) idea was to have a variety of cave-desert-town tiles to completely cover about 3 square feet of table space, which is 30 or so tiles like this one. Having cut all that cork and amassed some scatter I slowed down. Then there was some living space moving and lifestyle changes that left about half of these broken or missing. Since then I've started to slowly rebuild and repair where possible, making new tiles so now I am back to about 20 in different stages of neglect. But i am still working, err... almost working, back again on a sick bed, unfortunately.

aku-chan wrote:I think it looks great, especially that little bit of painted mural.

Thanks! I like doing these small things that keep me from working on more miniatures. But this time it is something simpler - mine entrance.

Cork base, broken cork bits and fake acrylic sand for walls, resin planking for braces and a doorway. The base is 10x6 cm, the entrance is just wide enough to push 50mm base through it.



The basic idea was to have some roll of cloth to represent the outer extent of the mountain while inside it will be all walls, tiles and corners, hence nothing above and to the sides of the doorway. I still don't know how to make it look less "torn out" and more like a finished piece of terrain. :(



The lantern on the inside is really big for a 25-32 mm figures, unfortunately. I have a smaller one as a replacement, but it lacks... certain functionality. Some comparison - white tiger is from Alkemy, which is smaller 28 mm, woodcutter cat is from Burrows and Badgers that is about 54 mm.




And, speaking about functionality, these wires are not just from my laziness, they actually have some use. With and without flash...




Again, the cat is from Burrows and Badgers and sits on a 40mm base. A single battery lasts for about 2 hours... That's it for another week.

Cool mine entrance. I personally have no problem with the size of the lantern, don't they come in all different sizes? I like that it lights up. I hope you recover quickly.

Being sick does not stop the world. Maybe it's for the best? Anyway, here are some more cat-people in larger scale. Definitely bad cat-people...



I wonder if they move any closer to being finished before the year comes to the end...

Awesome! Great to see you doing some more sculpting. I'll be watching with interest

 Syro_ wrote:
Awesome! Great to see you doing some more sculpting. I'll be watching with interest

I am sculpting things, i just skip showing them frequently, giving priority to other things. This time, however, they progress slower. I need to use harder stuff like Milliput to sculpt shoulderpads, blades and cloak, but I don't have it with me.



Hopefully in a week at least one of these bad cats will be finished.

I am inclined to say "they are done" even though technically they are not - the warlord still lacks his cape and the left (shield) arm, but... Both other shield arms fits his shoulder and I can't think of what to do anyway. Leave that hand down with clenched fist while his shield goes onto his back? Can be done easily, it's just a couple of sculpting sessions, but than his cape will not fit other miniatures. Shield in the hand held low? This is not very different from other shield arm variants, except the shield itself is obviously bigger. Hand propped on an empty sword scabbard? Again, can be done but I doubt it would produce a veri inspiring pose...



So... probably that's it... except, maybe, some small terrain ventures.

It's cool that the pieces are interchangable, I can understand not wanting to mess with that. Sculpts look great as always, and on December 24, I'm much more ok with you possibly being done for the year than I was back when you first posted it. Still hoping for those terrain venture tho

So... it is time to wrap up the year - in fantasy.

For my lynx raiders I've finished the basic kit. It is not yet ready to be cast, but if I'd be inclined to just assemble them as they are and paint them, it would be only the usual for any resin pin-glue-fill the gaps procedure. More lynxes and their opponents, wolves, to come some day - health permitting.



And I've went on the path to the greater terror, from where there is no return. I have two unholy hand grenades and a mocking monkey head, now I need to sculpt the rest of the monkey... (the other head is the lynx head that got voted down as warrior head, it will probably be one of berserker heads).



Speaking of terrain, I've made, perhaps, the most successful restoration of the cave tile - a narrow tunnel ending with unlocked door, 3x2. Cork, resin door, almost everything except the door handle came from the original tile that was totally flattened in an accident long ago. Now it is painted too, and has an option for lighting, sort of...



I'd say this time it works with pretty much every miniature scale from 25 to 54 mm, examples being Alkemy...



... and Burrows and Badgers...



An example of how it will look like together with other pieces -



And that light option... It will have to wait until more tiles are finished to make some sort of unified, central power system. Can You see the light coming from behind that door? It's.. New Year!

Very nicely done, all around! That's quite several threads neatly drawn together and finished for the New Year. Very much like the terrain pieces, and the sculpts are absolutely perfect!

I am taking a few weeks break from paint and pincel, err... brush! So, let's just recount the past and plan the future.

In year 2018 I...
- posted on my Dakka blogs almost weekly, probably counts as a success
- finished 80 miniatures of 60 planned, great
- sculpted 8 miniatures - probably as good as it gets, within error bars
- started a new army long in planning, only to shelve it immediately, not good
- went to a tabletop miniature painting masterclass, learning something hopefully
- made some more casting experiments
- kept the number of painted and procured miniatures as close to 1:1 as possible - New Year gifts were bad in this regard

Now, the bad... I wasn't been able to significantly (as much as I'd like to) reduce my unbuilt stuff pile. At the same time push to finish at least two miniatures every week has led to more anxiety and less productivity. Worst of it - this year I have drawn only half of what I did in the year 2017. My writing took similar hit, although it is harder to quantify.

The remedy... also known as New Year resolutions. Having glanced over my stockpiles, I've found amount of sprues and boxes quite disturbing. Therefore...
- keep Dakka blogs running weekly, obviously that means DOING something tabletop-game-related stuff every week
- assembling every HIPS miniature in my possession and getting rid of anything I do not wish to eventually finish
- paint at least 35 fantasy miniatures (again, HIPS getting priority service)
- sculpt at least 8 miniatures
- put together as much terrain as possible

This translates to:
- 20 Frostgrave gnolls (Yay!) to be built as a small Herd unit for KoW and whatever is left over - as Convicts skirmishers for Alkemy
- 20 Mantic elves, dwarfs and orcs for random encounters
- 10 scaven (I believe there should be 10 of them) from IoB kit, so far I've been able to find 4 clanrats, 2 weapon crews and 1 engineer, but I remember there was at least another one somewhere...
- 5 Mantic Men-at-Arms for Sphere wars or random encounters
- 1 poor forgotten griffin...

There is also stuff I do not want to keep. Anyone wants 5 High elf reavers from IoB set and a Tiranoc chariot? Still on sprue? Next week they are coming to Dakka trade section!

Thanks for the retrospective Wirecat. I'm glad you'll still be posting regularly on Dakka. Finishing 80 miniatures is impressive, but those 8 amazing sculpts are more exciting for me. I'm glad to hear you're planning on 8 more sculpts for 2019. Good luck, and I hope you have a productive and enjoyable year.