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2024/01/30 08:20:03
Subject: Re:The things I do: sculpting custom space marines
Hi Syro, been a long time, good to see you are still around
Progress on the new Space marines is going a bit slow at the moment, the main reason for this is that sculpting only the individual parts and not the whole miniature is not quite as intuitive. I did a bit of work on the chest part and then another mockup. The axe is also custom made, I sculpted the blade and then made a mold with some reusable blue stuff (basically silikon mold that turns soft in hot water) and cast it with UV resin. Similar thing was done for the green foot, except here I just pressed my usual scultping putty into the mold.
The current progress on the blob of progress for curing Basically did some additional armor plates on the upper legs, mainly for decoration. Probably only the first of many layers for the lower legs shin guard. Some elbow pads and the crotch area was added.
Pretty much all of these parts can be mirrored, so I will most likely make a cast of each and then select the best one as the final contender for the armature. The upper legs are basically finished now. If the arms and elbows turn out to my liking, then they are done as well. The lower legs will probably take most of the work to get done.
Start of a head for the primarch, don't really have anything specific in mind. Just playing around and trying out some helmet options. Helmets and faces are definetely tricky, especially "clean" loyalist ones. With chaos or corrupted versions there is a bit more wiggle room
The current state of the power pack, still need to attach the exhaust parts to the round vents and finish those off. The top border still needs to be smoothed out and then I think the only thing left is some side vents at the bottom. Probably won't do a lot of decoration as this is supposed to be a blank armature that can then be detailed later on when I make a cast.
And last but not least, the current state of the normal sized marine. I originally did joints like the one on the knee for all connections, but in the end that will just make sculpting significantly harder and prove no benefit at the end. The current model with ball joints (and magnets currently ) is more than enough to get a good pose. Although a 28mm Space Marine action figure would be hilarious as well. Maybe at a later date...
Did a quick mockup with the progress from yesterday after it was fully cured. As well as a scale shot with a primaris. I don't have any of the official Primarch models to hand, but from what I could find online the primaris are roughly 25% smaller than them. Which in this case should be more or less the scale that I have now.
Compared to the first mockup I did, I also extended the torso a bit. A simple spacer on the bottom of the chest armor did the trick. Looking at these pictures now, I will probably also thicken out the belt a bit more, otherwise out super human has more of a super model figure The final covering of the midsection will probably be always sculpted after the cast is done, same with the elbow and knee joints.
I did like the general shape of the legs, but decided to put another layer on them to further bulk them out. Definetely happy with the outcome now.
Next for the lower legs is probably to thicken out the knee section. I'll probably to a slight angle to it, going thinner at the top. Then the only thing left is to finish off the back of the legs.
For the keen eyed among you, you might've noticed I also removed the elbow pads from the lower arms. I've decided they don't really do anything in terms of protection, so I will most likely do a small elbow part that can be fitted on later when the arm is in the final position.
All in all I'm happy with the way this is progressing. There is not that much more to do to get this to a final stage ready for making molds. The biggest challenge will be creating some helmets/ heads. Otherwise it's just some final touches on the power pack and legs plus the iconic shoulder pads.
Pretty much time to order some silicon and resion for molds and casts
@RedSarge: Yeah I ordered some Milliput to try that out. At the moment I use Greenstuff mixed with Avex Epoxy. From what I've heard it is more or less the same effect. Pure greenstuff for smooth things like armor etc. at least for me is not really enjoyable
Only a small update today, this is the new knee status. Super happy with the legs now. I'll do some more work later today to finish up the legs.
I've also added the vents and smoothed out the transition.
@Syro: Yeah the scale is always hard to guess without any models that we know. Happy with the scale that I got with him, especially with the thick legs he looks suitably bulky.
Again, as before we only have small steps today. Can't really do huge progress jumps when only sculpting on tiny parts I did sculpt some of the vents for the power pack as well as the back of the legs.
And most importantly I had some leftover putty that I turned into a suitable head that can be the stand in until I get around to sculpting a real one
Better view of the back of the legs as well as the new booty cover.
Current elbow solution. I smushed some putty between the lower and upper arm and then sculpted out the elbow cover. Bit hard to take a picture, but now I am left with a perfect elbow cover that fits over the wire armature in the future and can be moved so it is usable both for straight and bend arms. Only needs a bit of polish and maybe a little disc for some detailing. We'll see how well I can cast this with the blue stuff I have.
I thought I could call the legs done now, but I did decide to sculpt a bit of an overhang over the sides, so that they cover the feet a bit more (I'm sure you know what I mean ). Other than that the legs are done, same with the arms, if the elbow cover casting works. Power pack is also pretty much done, just need to attach the vents and polish them up a bit.
I think the only parts left to do are:
thicken the waist/ belt (with belt buckle)
sculpt shoulder pads
sculpt some heads
I've also switched over from licking my tools for lubrication to using Nivea cream. Definetely works better for smoothing out parts that are already sticking to a model. On a side note if anyone is interested to know what Nivea cream tastes like, let me know
And the primarch armature is pretty much done. Casting of the elbow guards worked fine with blue stuff, so I should have no issues with actual silicone molds. Legs got their small overhang extensions on the sides to go over the boots. The waist is now thicker and has a belt buckle.
I've sculpted one shoulder pad and then made a cast using blue stuff. I'll probably do a few variations, sculpting a border around it, layered variant, etc.
Some parts of the mock up still look a bit wonky, but I think that is mostly due to the holes and wire not lining up perfectly inside the different parts. Only thing I'm contemplating is raising the power pack a little bit so that it is more visible from the front.
The only thing missing is some decent heads and helmets.
I'll order some silicone and some resin to make some casts and then I'll have a look on what I want to create as my first primarch. Already got a folder with a bunch of art. There's a few unconventional ones in there as well, so stay tuned
Some scale shots with various Space Marines. Depending on the Primarch obviously the size would change slightly, but I think this is a good base
Spoiler:
The firstborn snap fit marines are tiny compared to him Forgot to take a picture of the human figure I have, but it is the same size as the snap fit marine.
So normal human goes right to the waist.
the denurglified Death Guard marine is also the right height for the model.
Primaris go to roughly the middle of the chest. Seems a good size, same as the GW models, the primaris are 25% smaller.
Small update for today. I may not have the final silicone and resin for good molds and castings, but I do have some silicon putty. It's a two part putty that has about a 1 minute working time where it is super soft and then it cures into silicone. So naturally I had to make a mold of everything and do a few casts with miliput. The molds are not perfect and the casting with miliput is a bit challenging as I need to put more or less the exact amount of putty into the molds.
I've tried to stick to one part molds, but for the lower legs, chest, boots and shoulder I had to make a two part mold. The legs and shoulder where held up by some other sculpting putty to "split" them in half for the molds.
This is the current stash of molds and casts from it. I forgot the power pack and the elbow guard, so those will be done today. Then I will do a real assembly and sculpt myself the first prototype Primarch
Half of the lower leg covered in putty to make a better two part mold.
Unfortunately I did not get the power pack cast yet, but I did decide on a character for my primarch.
Started some work on the helmet as well as his weapon Despite the appearance it will not be a nurgle character
And here we have the first mock up of the new primarch. The armature works super well, I have tons of freedom to position the mini, I'll glue up the different limbs once I'm happy with the position.
I'll then sculpt some final details on the mini to make it unique and more ornate before attaching the arms and legs. Might even keep the arms seperate for easier painting.
The left shoulder with the holes will get filled with spikes
And the current state that I am at right now. Got all the joints filled in, except for around the feet. Did a bit of detail work on one leg and the chest (and a tiny bit on the sword).
The power pack was finally cast, although I did cut off the round vents and made some that look more like the older marks. No spikes on the shoulder for now, decided to go for studs instead.
The pose is more or less final, I will try to keep the arms seperate to help with painting later on. The second elbow is currently curing so will soon be attached.
Next steps are finishing the head, sculpting the hands and adding a "skirt" (this wil cover the left leg, so no need to detail that one). Once that is done, all the needed stuff is done, only thing left then is to add whatever details I feel like.
@tzurk: Don't worry, the derpy face is not going anywhere! He will return for each and every Primarch sculpted from now on and I did not even see the face on the back, but now I cannot unsee it
@ Boss Salvage: Thanks! For the actual Primarchs I'm leaning towards 30k and/ or a Loyalist version. I might even to a loyalist and heresy version of each one, could be fun to try out. There's a couple of alternative Heresy stories out there that have some fantastic art (Lionel Heresy in particular has some great ideas). We'll see where it takes me
In terms of progress, I've been a little productive. I finished one of the hands as well as the joints for the feet. I also attached some more studs to the left leg for some detailing (the other detail came off, might glue it back on or do something else). I had some leftover putty, so I decided to also sculpt him a "tiny" (same size as an old Space Marine ) Morgul blade, just in case he needs to stab Frodo again.
Last step was adding the cheeks to the helmet, definetely gives it more character already, but still a bit to do.
Now we have two versions that I could go with.
Version 1: No skirt and the Morgul blade attached to his left leg. I'm currently leaning towards this one myself, as more of the actual miniature/armature sculpt is visible.
Version 2: Giving him his skirt, maybe also throwing the Morgul blade over it somewhere. I'd still do some more detailing on the skirt if I'd stick with this one.
And last but not least the current state of the head
As always, let me know what you think and which version of him you prefer!
And the current state of affairs. I have decided against both versions
I instead opted to put the Morgul Blade on his back as a bit of decoration, plus I'm sure he could reach it if there are Hobbits that need stabbing.
The rest of the changes are once again rather small, but I think they will help in making each "cast" unique compared to the others. For this model I've changed the shape of the knees to be a bit more angular.
A slightly bigger change that I will move across to the master model as well is the thicker belt. I feel like the waist now looks considerably better than before. I will also have to thicken the armor parts of the groin area then for the master model.
The other changes are that both hands are now done and capped off with a nice flat armor plate on top.
Honestly this will probably be the last update for him, the only thing that's still missing and will take a bit of work is his head. I've scratched some of the sculpt I already had and redid the central spike to be more prominent. The small spikes I will add back in afterwards as round spikes, smiliar to the helmet in the movie.
I've also started work on a scenic lava base, if all goes well I might enter the finished model into the monthly painting challenge and paint him up for that.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/02/15 14:32:04
And I am finally calling him done! Took quite a while from start to finish but I am happy with the end result. For the "real" primarchs I will spend some more time on customizing the armor and adding lots of details and decoration. But for this one I wanted to see what the "naked" armor would look like as a finished model with only a few extra details.
Super happy with how he turned out, but I also learned a few things that I will adjust for future sculpts. I've mentioned the thicker waist and I think I will also stop using the cast elbow pads and just sculpt some on after the under armor ribbing is done. These ones just look a bit too small and sculpting new ones would not be the biggest effort.
I already have him with his base coat on sitting on my desk. He'll be entered into the monthly painting challenge and I will try my hand at some OSL from the lava base (pictures will follow, need to pick up some texture/ cracking paint first).
And here are the last unpainted pictures of our friend Left the arms off for this one so you can see the new and final head.
And this is with arms on, although you can see the head was not finished here, still had to fill up the gaps where I drilled holes for the spikes.
@youwashock: Those two are definetely my two favorite parts as well Apart from the fact of how well it all went together and the posability of it
I've done some painting on my fellow and this is the current status. Started off with the base layers of each color and a bit of sponging lighter green on the armor.
Next step was drybrushing the two OSL effects. Not quite sure if I like it or not.
Would still need to finish the lava base and the sword plus a few details, but I am seriously contemplating just scratching the OSL and going for a grimdark style insted.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/02/25 11:42:17
And I've decided to scratch the OSL for now and have gone with a grimdark approach to the model. I've seen this online and wanted to try it for some time. It's certainly a different look with the dark edge "highlights".
Definetely happy with how it is coming along.
The power sword blade is pretty much done, same with all the armor. The helmet still needs a bit of love and then the rest of the details still need to be done (studs, Legion symbol etc.)
There's also a bit more work to be done on the base, but overall I think I prefer it this way. The cracks were not really big enough for the super bright OSL source that I originally had in mind. I will definetely try it again in the future with a new base and model though.
I really like the sponged armor and happy to see more of it now that the OSL is out. I do think the base lets the mini down, with that huge black lump, but it sounds like more detail is coming in that regard? Nice mirrored blade!
Glad you like it Honestly I also was not sold on the mini on the base as a whole but couldn’t quite put my finger on why. Now that you’ve said it though I can’t really unsee it. I didn’t really have anything planned for the rest of the base.
My bits box is currently stashed deep in my basement unfortunately I think I will play around with adding a few skulls, cork bits and faulty casts from the primarch parts to make a 30k style base.
This one is a bit higher, will have more stone structure on top and only a bit of lava. And since I’m apparently a lunatic, I’ve also decided use one of the few models I had lying around for a pressmold and some sculpting work to create a SciFi ringbearer. Unfortunately for him though he got caught and or corrupted before he was able to destroy the ring for good
Now I only need to finish his arms, hands, legs, fill the gaps in his torso and then paint everything until the end of the month…
Should be fun
Creation of the first part of my mold:
Current new base:
And space Frodo (just chilling without a worry in his world )
And he is done, might not be super visible but space Frodo has a little ring around his neck (more visible in the WIP pictures below)
WIP pictures
And for the next project we have the painting challenge for March and I will try to sculpt up a Helldiver for it Will be based on this guy, which I did a simple mold of.
