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Hello Dakka!

Here's the beginnings of a little project I'm working on...

I'm a freelance sculptor, still relatively new to the trade, and in between commissions I've been working on a few personal projects. One of these projects involves taking characters from the legendary 80s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and shoehorning them quite forcefully into the grim darkness of the 41st millennium.

First up on the list of characters to sculpt is Trap Jaw, one of my favourite cartoon characters as a kid growing up in the 80s. Trap Jaw has somehow found himself evicted from Eternia and hurled through a convenient rift in the space-time continuum (probably by a fed up Skeletor), and now finds himself in the fighting pits deep within the dingy, stinky bowels of some hive world.

I've pretty much finished him already, but am posting WIP pics showing some of the stages, from armature to final miniature. I'm still sculpting his gun and hook arms, so when I get him cast he comes with all three authentic weapon arm options

Stats
Name: Trap Jaw
Height: 36mm
Material: Fimo Professional and ProCreate putty

Next up I'll probably be sculpting Skeletor as some demented former adept of the Mechanicus...

Cheers for looking. More updates soon!

James

Yes. Brilliant mate.

Agreed - great work, mate!

Awesome stuff. Looking forward to seeing more.

EDC

I am going to have to check around, but this may be the coolest thing. Like, ever.

These are amazing work!

Wow.. off to a great start!

Damn nice! Keep posting your WIPs, going to get into sculpting and this is really inspiring.

Thanks guys! Appreciate your words

@DanceOfSlaanesh - Glad to hear you want to get into sculpting! Are you wanting to get into it from scratch? I'm thinking of adding a tutorial or two on this thread, starting with making an armature (at least, the way I make it - there are several different ways, depending on the sculptor!). If you have any questions, let me know!

To start with, here's a photo of some of the tools I use:

- Clay shapers (chisel and pointed head)
- Scalpel
- Dentist tools
- Files
- Pin vice
- Jeweller's saw
- Pliers
- Steel rule



In addition to these tools, I also use sewing machine needles (for sculpting eyes and other fine details). All of these tools should be readily available at your local hobby store, DIY outlet or straight from Amazon or eBay.

For sculpting media, I usually work with Fimo Professional these days. This is a polymer clay, similar to Super Sculpey, that you bake in the oven. I also use ProCreate which is similar to Green Stuff, but it ain't as sticky (and therefore ain't as annoying to use, I find)

If anyone has any questions about sculpting, let me know. I'm more than happy to give advice where I can. But before I go, I'll just leave this link here... it's for Tom Mason's YouTube channel. Great sculptor, great vids! You'll get pretty much anything you need to learn about sculpting from Tom:

Tom Mason YouTube Channel

Updates on Trap Jaw's gun arm and the next sculpt coming soon!

Cheers!

I got all the tools you listed plus some extra dentist tools. Also got a few small packages of Fimo and a package of Super Sculpey.

Great Youtube channel! I am gonna watch every single video

I am going to start doing a basic male body form without any details as a first test. Possibly using a head from another miniature as i think the head will be hard on the first try.

I only have one question right now. Do you make your armature fully completed before you start sculpting? Or do you make for example the leg and upper body and add the arms later on?

I've seen both approaches. I am thinking about using the make as you go approach as but not sure what to use as a beginner!

This is brilliant. Love seeing how it came about too, I'll be checking out the YouTube channel!

 DanceOfSlaanesh wrote:

I only have one question right now. Do you make your armature fully completed before you start sculpting? Or do you make for example the leg and upper body and add the arms later on?

I've seen both approaches. I am thinking about using the make as you go approach as but not sure what to use as a beginner!

Either way works, whatever you find easiest. I personally like to make my armature complete, so a humanoid will have arms, legs and a head. If the pose is awkward to cast in one piece, I will chop off a limb or two once the sculpt is finished.

I'll be honest, I haven't really used any other way of making the armature. Sometimes I will sculpt heads separately though, as this can often make life easier. I am also currently sculpting Trap Jaw's gun arm separately.

All I can really say is watch those Tom Mason videos and give it a go!

Here are some armatures for different figures, just to show you a small range of poses (these are going to be for a rogue trader crew)...

Right, I've got to have a go at this :-D what wire are you using for your armature?

Bleedin' nice!

How do you find Fimo professional compared to the old labels - classic and/or puppen?

Very nice! I envy sculpters, but my limited efforts have gone poorly. Possibly switching out of greenstuff might help - thanks for the tip!

Skinflint Games wrote:Right, I've got to have a go at this :-D what wire are you using for your armature?

0.8mm copper wire from Hobbycraft. It's a couple of quid for 6 metres; enough for lots of toy soldiers! You can get it on Amazon too

Vermis wrote:Bleedin' nice!

How do you find Fimo professional compared to the old labels - classic and/or puppen?

Cheers mate. I'll be honest, I'm only a recent convert to Fimo, so never used the original classic. Tom Mason has done a handy review video of the new Fimo Professional and compares it to the Classic. It seems to compare quite favourably. Check out his YouTube channel!

kestral wrote:Very nice! I envy sculpters, but my limited efforts have gone poorly. Possibly switching out of greenstuff might help - thanks for the tip!

No worries mate. Give it a go! Everyone should try sculpting

Cool idea, but while cyborgs and skull sorcerers are pretty much par for the course in 40k I hope you get a chance to address some of the really insane characters like Ram Man.

Also will Trap Jaw have interchangable hands?

@chilledmonkeybrains, I did my first ever sculpting test today. Here it is: https://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2017/3/24/866011_md-First%20Sculpt%20Ever.jpg.
I know the proportions and anatomy is completely off. Just wanted to get started without worrying too much.
But with this new experience i got some new question i wanted to ask you.
How do you smooth out bigger lumps? And i got a lot of small stuff like dirt and stuff in my clay, maybe it was because i touch it with my fingers? Do you never touch the clay with your fingers?

Edit: Some more questions: Right now i tried Fimo soft, however i saw that that Tom Mason guy said he didnt like it. Is it bad? And what is a good hardness of the clay? I got small trial packages of Fimo soft, super sculpey, super sculpey firm. And they differ in hardness quite a lot. I could see it is good to have a bit harder clay so it doesnt get pushed around too much. But also could be abit more harder to get smooth i guess?

Sorry it's been a while guys!

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Cool idea, but while cyborgs and skull sorcerers are pretty much par for the course in 40k I hope you get a chance to address some of the really insane characters like Ram Man.

Also will Trap Jaw have interchangable hands?

Yes, Trap Jaw now has some dakka! I'd like to sculpt his hook arm at some point, but I'm wading through a lot of commissions atm

And yes, I will be sculpting more MOTU characters, including Ram Man...

DanceOfSlaanesh wrote:@chilledmonkeybrains, I did my first ever sculpting test today. Here it is: https://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2017/3/24/866011_md-First%20Sculpt%20Ever.jpg.
I know the proportions and anatomy is completely off. Just wanted to get started without worrying too much.
But with this new experience i got some new question i wanted to ask you.
How do you smooth out bigger lumps? And i got a lot of small stuff like dirt and stuff in my clay, maybe it was because i touch it with my fingers? Do you never touch the clay with your fingers?

Edit: Some more questions: Right now i tried Fimo soft, however i saw that that Tom Mason guy said he didnt like it. Is it bad? And what is a good hardness of the clay? I got small trial packages of Fimo soft, super sculpey, super sculpey firm. And they differ in hardness quite a lot. I could see it is good to have a bit harder clay so it doesnt get pushed around too much. But also could be abit more harder to get smooth i guess?

Wow, that's a great face! First time sculpting, eh? I'd say you're a natural!

Just keep studying anatomy and you'll soon get all the proportions right. One of the most important aspects when sculpting a face is the profile - if you can get the profile of the face right, you're half way there to getting a really good likeness of whatever/whoever you are trying to sculpt.

For smoothing bigger lumps I often start with my fingers (making sure my hands are clean first). Then I usually use a chisel tip clay shaper, which is rubber and flexible, so is good for smoothing areas out. When smoothing out hard to reach crevices, I often resort to a narrow dentist tool, but as this is metal you need to be a bit more careful with the amount of pressure you apply.

I use Fimo Professional, which replaced the Fimo Classic. This is probably the best stuff for sculpting at this scale, although many sculptors have a preference for Medium or even a mix. Personally, I use Fimo Professional, although I am looking into trying Bees Putty which I've heard really good things about.

Good luck and make sure you post your progress!

This is really awesome, very curious to see how far you'll be going with this stuff.

 Malika2 wrote:
This is really awesome, very curious to see how far you'll be going with this stuff.

Cheers Malika! I have plans to do a lot more MOTU characters in a 40k vein... Will post progress pics when I have 'em!

Wicked work on trap jaw.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Wicked work on trap jaw.

EDC

Thanks Evil Dr Cheese!

I received a load of resin casts of Trap Jaw (plus a 'fantasy football' ogre friend) from the caster. Trap Jaw sold out within a day! I am ordering a second batch and have a list if anyone wants to pre-order, just drop me a PM or head over to my Brass Monkey Facebook page and drop me a PM there.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of a small horde of resin Trap Jaws and ogres. You may even see a couple of WIP minis there in the background...

Cheers

Awesome!

Living the dream!

Look at all that Resin! Sooo very cool.

EDC

OH... this is interesting.

Cheers guys! Whilst the first batch of Trap Jaw has sold out already, I am taking pre-orders for the second batch. PM me if you're interested!