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 Geifer wrote:


Thank you.

It's not so bad on the detail front. He's slightly shorter than a human, but three times as wide. Plenty of canvas there.

So do you precut flaps of greenstuff for the clothing parts etc or work on a solid block, slowly sculpting it into the preferred body and pressing into it the detail?

I have a lot of difficulty with such (detail) (and I do have good metal tools but have been doing it in the first manner which is probably not the best)

Not quite done, but he's fair coming along:

Lovely model to paint, really enjoying it and the custom base.

 Leopold Helveine wrote:

 Geifer wrote:


Thank you.

It's not so bad on the detail front. He's slightly shorter than a human, but three times as wide. Plenty of canvas there.

So do you precut flaps of greenstuff for the clothing parts etc or work on a solid block, slowly sculpting it into the preferred body and pressing into it the detail?

I have a lot of difficulty with such (detail) (and I do have good metal tools but have been doing it in the first manner which is probably not the best)

I don't really sculpt parts off the model. I do that with faces on a piece of plasticard as it helps with symmetry, but otherwise I prefer to layer green stuff straight onto the model. Which massively benefits from a solid foundation.

For instance to get to the kilt I went through these steps:

- the model started with a wire frame (two wires to get the legs and arms in this case, usually there's a third wire in the body for a neck and head, although that's not necessary with anatomy like this).
- the wire frame got a wrap of green stuff as further layers are easier to sculpt on a thicker layer of green stuff than thin, bare steel (also providing some necessary bulk for and a proto-shape of the thighs).
- with that foundation in place I sculpted the feet and legs to their finished form, with all the detail they should have since the kilt is somewhat open and might allow a view on parts of the legs. If everything was covered up, then a rough, anatomically sound shape works just fine since it's going to get covered later anyway.
- in the process the body is extended upward above the belt line so that the entire kilt can be sculpted on without having to guess at how some parts might fit the final model.

That's as far as foundational work goes that is technically unrelated to the kilt. Mind you that each step would also be done over several sculpting sessions, usually. Those are the big planning steps it takes to progress to the next part, but they're usually split up again to give the green stuff time to cure so it's easier to sculpt adjacent parts or nail down certain details that would deform again if they had any more green stuff added while still fresh.

The fun part that followed for the kilt is having a partial foundation in the upper thighs and hips, but with the lower part dangling in the air. Green stuff doesn't work well for that. This is the part where I do use precut flaps like you mentioned. It's a little more haphazard because the fabric is also getting several layers and the first one only needs to provide a functional foundation, but in a perfect world you would expect to use green stuff rolled out and cut to the desired shape. It's not my experience that that works particularly well, so it's more like this:

- the front quarter of the kilt is a roughly rectangular shape whose most important parts are the bottom and back. The back should be free of fingerprints as it won't see any further work, ideally. The bottom is there to provide some shape, and especially get you sharp corners. The center and top are going to get deformed as they are pushed up against the legs and body to get the bit to stick to the model properly. Ideally the green stuff is fairly thin. Green stuff doesn't do all that great a job of it, but once cured it provides a decent foundation
- another layer of green stuff is added. This is where you would add creases if you are so inclined. It's also where the trim gets added, whether that's in one go or multiple steps.
- once that's in place and cured, you have a solid foundation for the floral motifs and can add them one by one.

You could do a wire frame outlining the cloth and would get better stability and control over the resulting shape. It's the choice for better quality, but it's also a bit more fiddly work and not something I needed in this particular case since I went for rigid material whose shape is determined only by gravity instead dramatically fluttering in the wind or something.

The kilt then progressed with the back quarter and green stuff strips attached to the insides of the front and back quarters as well as the outside of the thighs for the straps holding the kilt quarters together. Then the side quarters were added to complete the kilt.

The vest followed the same approach with a sculpt of the belly that extended far enough so the vest edges could overlap, plus the head as that would define a part of the vest placement as well. Then it's just layering things on bit by bit. Since this is overwhelmingly done on a solid surface I did a quarter or so of a vest half at a time, seeing that the shape is correct and the trim is either integrated or hinted at enough that it could be added on later without trouble.

The padded shoulders are a single lump of green stuff each, and each sculpted in one go. Applied over the shoulders, flattened and drawn out to cover the desired area, and then with the edges cut with a knife to get the shape right and remove excess green stuff. From there it's just pushing in the lines with the knife and staying far away from the edges no to indent them.

The short version of all of that is that to get decent detail sculpted in green stuff, you want to make sure of the following:

- you have a solid foundation that further sculpting goes on
- you go through as many or as few steps to sculpt a detail as required, paying attention to how adding green stuff helps or ruins what you already sculpted in that session
- since you're working in multiple steps, you want to learn how to blend fresh green stuff onto existing one (which takes adequate pressure, a good and properly oriented tool and a good bit of lubrication (at least with water))
- don't be afraid to use a knife to cut or shave down parts that don't look right. Sometimes the path to crisp detail is through taking away from instead of adding to the sculpt

And most importantly, good details take time and patience. If you're an awesome sculptor, you can better results quicker. If you're more like me, you learn to take your time and make improvements incrementally. It's a way of getting there eventually.

 Geifer wrote:
.

Great detailed explanation, would still love to see a video of you sculpting something from scratch.
After reading this I'm even more impressed with the result you're entering this challenge.

Daemonette on Steed done:







Where are we at on boobs, does this need a spoiler? I'm gonna assume it's okay since GW sold these as-is. So that's nothing fancy but like I said I needed a simple one this month - I didn't cut corners on the paint (or assembly and removal of mould marks, that mess is genuinely the best I can manage with metal), just gave it the attention I would any miniature and let the sculpt speak for itself. My daemonette colour scheme's pretty much locked in now, but I was thinking of painting the seeker in warm colours for added hotness, but somehow when it came time to paint I wound up going for a really cold palette instead, so... I dunno, she's a Diaz, doesn't need help being hot.

@Chrispy: “He’s an angry elf”

@Leopold: ‘Ere we go, ‘ere we go…

 Leopold Helveine wrote:

 Geifer wrote:
.

Great detailed explanation, would still love to see a video of you sculpting something from scratch.
After reading this I'm even more impressed with the result you're entering this challenge.

Chances are I won't be able to accommodate you. Not sure I can set up a camera and film sculpting in progress. I wouldn't know where to begin keeping the model in front of the lens and my hands out of the way.

My first WIP, to stay in the theme of summery summering and summering summery, a cool beach tattoo!

I suspect I'll do what Nev has done and paint some of the flamethrower marines from Indomitus. Got live D&D next weekend so I'm madly painting for that.

I don't have many options for this months theme, I was going to go with the infernus marines until I noticed these two guys from the stormbringer weekly mag.

Swampcalla shaman and chef pot grot cooking up some hot magic soup du jour their buddies, how much for a bowl? ....."everything"

The shaman reminds me of the orc scene from WoW with the green fel soup

Not too far yet, but primed and started base coating my Space Wolf.

Well, we've got snakes, and demons, and boobs. What else could anyone ask for?

DJ is that a mind flayer pin-up in the center?

Right, I think I'm done:
Frank Castle, the Cosmic Ghost Rider:


I'm very happy with how this turned out, but almost more happy with his custom base.

Yeah. Looking pretty hot 🔥 I reckon.

That's lookin' pretty dang sweet.

Some like it hot - in this case, hot pink! This Geara Zulu from the anime Gundam Unicorn is already molded in fairly colourful plastic, but the official colour scheme is even more vibrant, so I'll try to replicate that.

Proof Picture

youwashock wrote:That's lookin' pretty dang sweet.

Cheers mate

finished

That’s some lovely sheen on the NMM bits. Nice work

Finished. (camera broke, phone pictures)
Glad to be part of the event.

Making some progress with the kitties, finally getting the skin/fur colours to where I'm happy with them:




Face of the left one needs some more work, and I'll try and give them something like jaguar spots. Hair is coming along nicely, gonna maybe try and get it a little darker still. The accessories and what little clothes they have should be comparitively quick then.

Still not quite sure what to do with the bases though. Maybe some kind of tiles? Carpet would also work imo, not yet sure how I'd do that though.

This month I will be mostly painting



Old Necromunda Orlocks.

I’ve had this notion for a long time that I’m going to try and paint them up like Baz Luhrmann Montagues.



(Pretty pieces of flesh that they are.)Wish me luck.

Slanni, inspired by the John Blanche illustration from the 40K 4th edition rulebook.







The skin didn't turn out quite as vibrant as I would I have liked, even after many coats of orange ink. In retrospect, I should have started with a pure white undercoat in those areas.

Progress:



Cheers,

CB

Hopefully this guy isn’t too far along?

2nd and last spoilerino giving away some of the story behind my entry, I'll write a proper one but its a bit like..

burnaboy was tasked with lighting the beachfire while notork the monkey was tasked with bringing some spirits (to drink)
burnaboy then thought the beachfire would be way better if he lit it with his burnadakka but mayhem ensued.

as a disclaimer, a beachball will be featured, so if anyone here has beachballfobia or beachballsensitivity best be aware before checking out the eventual results. I realise beachball can be a very triggering subject for some so thought to add that.

-Leopold helveine.

 Jadenim wrote:
Hopefully this guy isn’t too far along?

You are fine.

—

Lots of great stuff going on. Looks to be a fun month shaping up! I should probably start painting one of these days…

 Nevelon wrote:
Lots of great stuff going on. Looks to be a fun month shaping up! I should probably start painting one of these days…

No need to rush anything. Half a layer of paint today. Half a layer of paint tomorrow. And so on. Just keep it steady. You don't want to run out of things to paint before the end of the month, do you?

Which reminds me, I have yet to apply today's half a basecoat. Gonna have to set aside those five minutes sometime later.

 Geifer wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Lots of great stuff going on. Looks to be a fun month shaping up! I should probably start painting one of these days…

No need to rush anything. Half a layer of paint today. Half a layer of paint tomorrow. And so on. Just keep it steady. You don't want to run out of things to paint before the end of the month, do you?

Which reminds me, I have yet to apply today's half a basecoat. Gonna have to set aside those five minutes sometime later.

I’m AFK this week, and spent all of last week getting ready for the trip. So the only progress I’ve made so far this month is getting the minis from the primed pile to the painting handles. When I get back I’m going to need to be diligent in getting those layers down. Need to do a whole month of work in half the time.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Lots of great stuff going on. Looks to be a fun month shaping up! I should probably start painting one of these days…

No need to rush anything. Half a layer of paint today. Half a layer of paint tomorrow. And so on. Just keep it steady. You don't want to run out of things to paint before the end of the month, do you?

Which reminds me, I have yet to apply today's half a basecoat. Gonna have to set aside those five minutes sometime later.

I’m AFK this week, and spent all of last week getting ready for the trip. So the only progress I’ve made so far this month is getting the minis from the primed pile to the painting handles. When I get back I’m going to need to be diligent in getting those layers down. Need to do a whole month of work in half the time.

Well, good luck doing the challenge on hard mode, then.