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 Geifer wrote:
With the trainee finished, I think it's time for a group photo of the sculpts I made this year for the painting challenge. I'm not out of ideas for more characters, but I'm not currently working on any new ones either. I can't rule out that I may have another one ready in time for the January or February challenges, but in the immediate future I'll choose different projects for the monthly challenge.

Sculpting seven models in seven months is a frantic pace. The cost is measured in quality, but getting so much done is so short a time feels pretty good regardless.

These are brilliant! What do you use to sculpt and how long does each one take you on average?

XvArcanevX wrote:

Spoiler:

 Geifer wrote:
With the trainee finished, I think it's time for a group photo of the sculpts I made this year for the painting challenge. I'm not out of ideas for more characters, but I'm not currently working on any new ones either. I can't rule out that I may have another one ready in time for the January or February challenges, but in the immediate future I'll choose different projects for the monthly challenge.

Sculpting seven models in seven months is a frantic pace. The cost is measured in quality, but getting so much done is so short a time feels pretty good regardless.

These are brilliant! What do you use to sculpt and how long does each one take you on average?

Thank you. They're all sculpted in green stuff over a wire frame of 0.45mm steel paperclips and in the case of thin things like free hanging rifle slings, staples.

I have a set of Army Painter sculpting tools. I don't know if they still sell it. I exclusively use the small, diamond shaped end of one of them. That covers the overwhelming majority of things I sculpt. A knife or scalpel comes in handy occasionally for straight, long(ish) grooves, like the for the ventilation slits on the chainsaw's motor for instance. In rare cases a needle tip can help get in places for which the sculpting tool is too large. Finally, I use a small, conical silicone brush for texture on clothes. It's convenient and has its perks, but doesn't fully replace the sculpting tool.

Averages are hard. I can sculpt a good body in a month, whether that's naked or with simple clothing provided I put in a sculpting session a day. Two months for a fully geared up model with lots of details. If I'm fortunate enough to be able to put in two sculpting sessions a day, you can cut that almost in half. Almost, because some things need to be left to cure for a full day if they are to provide a solid foundation for the next step.

I rushed out the Marine in the middle in two and a half to three weeks, I think. I might have mentioned it in the March challenge thread. That's about the best I ever did and involved a number of shortcuts. Similarly the two guys on the left were a little too rushed for my liking.

All parts of a model aren't equal. I can do one half on a pair of pants in one day and the other half the next day and that accounts for like 40% of a human model. I wouldn't expect a rifle to get done in less than two weeks. It's lots of straight lines that build on each other, a good bit of fine detail on top and some building up like scopes or magazines that just take multiple layers and full time to cure in between. A hand on a hip or weapon is easily done in two or three days. A hand held up in the air with no foundation to work on basically means a day per finger and another couple of days for the rest of the hand.

It's complicated to throw out an average, but I think I'd feel comfortable saying I can make a model from wire frame to complete sculpt in five to six weeks if I get my daily one or two sculpting sessions.

Geifer wrote:

Thank you. They're all sculpted in green stuff over a wire frame of 0.45mm steel paperclips and in the case of thin things like free hanging rifle slings, staples.

I have a set of Army Painter sculpting tools. I don't know if they still sell it. I exclusively use the small, diamond shaped end of one of them. That covers the overwhelming majority of things I sculpt. A knife or scalpel comes in handy occasionally for straight, long(ish) grooves, like the for the ventilation slits on the chainsaw's motor for instance. In rare cases a needle tip can help get in places for which the sculpting tool is too large. Finally, I use a small, conical silicone brush for texture on clothes. It's convenient and has its perks, but doesn't fully replace the sculpting tool.

Averages are hard. I can sculpt a good body in a month, whether that's naked or with simple clothing provided I put in a sculpting session a day. Two months for a fully geared up model with lots of details. If I'm fortunate enough to be able to put in two sculpting sessions a day, you can cut that almost in half. Almost, because some things need to be left to cure for a full day if they are to provide a solid foundation for the next step.

I rushed out the Marine in the middle in two and a half to three weeks, I think. I might have mentioned it in the March challenge thread. That's about the best I ever did and involved a number of shortcuts. Similarly the two guys on the left were a little too rushed for my liking.

All parts of a model aren't equal. I can do one half on a pair of pants in one day and the other half the next day and that accounts for like 40% of a human model. I wouldn't expect a rifle to get done in less than two weeks. It's lots of straight lines that build on each other, a good bit of fine detail on top and some building up like scopes or magazines that just take multiple layers and full time to cure in between. A hand on a hip or weapon is easily done in two or three days. A hand held up in the air with no foundation to work on basically means a day per finger and another couple of days for the rest of the hand.

It's complicated to throw out an average, but I think I'd feel comfortable saying I can make a model from wire frame to complete sculpt in five to six weeks if I get my daily one or two sculpting sessions.

That’s a lot of patience and it must require several ‘passes’ over each worked on area to build up to the final sculpt. Can you still work in fine details with dry green stuff? Wondering how you manage that.

I have always wanted to have a go at sculpting. I always loved monster movies… ever since the old Clash of the Titans etc when artists designed those awesome sculpts for the creatures.. I always had an urge to do just that; creature designs etc.

It’s really cool work you have accomplished with those smaller details and the rifles etc. Very impressive, I can imagine things with straight edges being probably the hardest things to get right.

I have a notion of attempting a diorama one day. A scene involving a crashed car with a huge menacing werewolf leaning over the crumpled wreck and staring directly at the shell shocked occupants inside. Just this ‘image’ I think would make for a cool, dimly lit, horror diorama.

Maybe one day I could try working with a bit of green stuff and seeing if I could make the head or something…

I think of it more in terms of interest and motivation than patience. If you asked me to paint a large model like a tank, you would see my patience evaporate after a layer or two of paint. Layering green stuff isn't really different from layering paint. In my case painting is just a means to an end whereas I genuinely enjoy sculpting. That makes it easy enough to come back to a model day after day until it's finished.

How many passes you need really depends on what you want to sculpt and what approach you're comfortable with. Some things like large areas of fabric can easily be done in one go. Fur, too. Facial features can be pretty fun in this regard. If you can't envision the face and have steady hands, sculpting a face in one go and keeping the option to shuffle things around until you reach the desired result is quite possible. If you're confident that you can construct it bit by bit, and you have shaky hands like me, it's easier to do it in six or seven stages so as not to mess up the very fine detail you already sculpted. Physical deficiencies aside, how much you do in one go largely depends on how green stuff deforms under pressure. Crisp, angular detail is best done on a solid foundation. Things with soft or round edges are far easier to work into fresh green stuff if you so choose. Green stuff also doesn't lose volume as you sculpt it. Take the barrel of a rifle. If you want an even cylinder around your wire, you have to wrap it around and then smooth it along the wire's length to get it to look even all around. If you have too much material in one place and just press it into shape right there, you'll just move the lump to the side instead of eliminating it. You can do it in one go by working along the wire. Or you can do half to three quarters of the cylinder so excess material has a place to go, let it cure and then fill in the rest. Both get you the same result. Mostly it's just a question of what works better for you.

In a similar vein, cured green stuff is rigid and slightly rubbery. It can be cut, but that's mostly limited to evening out the surface. Because it's rubbery, cutting or drilling into it tends to leave ridges and frayed edges. If you want to add further detail into it rather than onto it, it's better to plan ahead and leave those spaces open to begin with and add that layer of detail later on. That's my experience at least. As seen by my list of tools, I'm hardly an authority on the plethora of tools you might use to work detail into cured green stuff.

 Geifer wrote:
I think of it more in terms of interest and motivation than patience. If you asked me to paint a large model like a tank, you would see my patience evaporate after a layer or two of paint. Layering green stuff isn't really different from layering paint. In my case painting is just a means to an end whereas I genuinely enjoy sculpting. That makes it easy enough to come back to a model day after day until it's finished.

How many passes you need really depends on what you want to sculpt and what approach you're comfortable with. Some things like large areas of fabric can easily be done in one go. Fur, too. Facial features can be pretty fun in this regard. If you can't envision the face and have steady hands, sculpting a face in one go and keeping the option to shuffle things around until you reach the desired result is quite possible. If you're confident that you can construct it bit by bit, and you have shaky hands like me, it's easier to do it in six or seven stages so as not to mess up the very fine detail you already sculpted. Physical deficiencies aside, how much you do in one go largely depends on how green stuff deforms under pressure. Crisp, angular detail is best done on a solid foundation. Things with soft or round edges are far easier to work into fresh green stuff if you so choose. Green stuff also doesn't lose volume as you sculpt it. Take the barrel of a rifle. If you want an even cylinder around your wire, you have to wrap it around and then smooth it along the wire's length to get it to look even all around. If you have too much material in one place and just press it into shape right there, you'll just move the lump to the side instead of eliminating it. You can do it in one go by working along the wire. Or you can do half to three quarters of the cylinder so excess material has a place to go, let it cure and then fill in the rest. Both get you the same result. Mostly it's just a question of what works better for you.

In a similar vein, cured green stuff is rigid and slightly rubbery. It can be cut, but that's mostly limited to evening out the surface. Because it's rubbery, cutting or drilling into it tends to leave ridges and frayed edges. If you want to add further detail into it rather than onto it, it's better to plan ahead and leave those spaces open to begin with and add that layer of detail later on. That's my experience at least. As seen by my list of tools, I'm hardly an authority on the plethora of tools you might use to work detail into cured green stuff.

I suppose it is just a case of me picking up the materials and starting something. In the case of fur I guess once I found an implement that had the right effect on the green stuff it would be quite quick to cover large areas but the real challenge would be in getting the face and general body shape/posture looking convincing.

I think I understand that you are suggesting adding onto areas with fresh green stuff is easier than sculpting into cured areas; makes sense.

I appreciate the advice you are giving here! I can see myself re-reading this in a couple of months time over a stack of green stuff and shaping tools! Ha

Thanks, Geifer, for the primer on sculpting. I've never sculpted anything more complex than the pumpkins I put on the bases for this month's entry. I may have to try something more complex sometime soon.

You're welcome, guys.

There's one tool I keep forgetting about that I should mention: SCIENCE! I sculpt wargaming miniatures, not scale models, which entails certain exaggerations to give various details the necessary visual impact. But I find it handy to have a scale to check against. These models are sculpted to 1/48, which primarily determines height. Tomboy for instance is 35mm tall (without soles and hair). That translates to 1,68m in real life, which I consider well in the range of average female height and is what I was going for as the baseline model for this series. It helps to have this one dimension nailed down as it gives you something against which you can check your other proportions and sizes. Her assault rifle is 90% a G36, which I think is just under a meter long. I'd have to check again, honestly. But it's good to have your scale set so you can determine the length it should be when scaled down, even if the weapon ends up a little bulkier in parts or has fewer ventilation slits along the barrel than the real life equivalent. A little bit of impartial math can really help with consistency and overall appearance.

Which goes hand in hand with having reference material for what you sculpt. I have trouble visualizing things and find it really helps to have a picture of something (or video or real life object or what have you) that I can study before I get out wire and green stuff. It's good to have that to check proportions of the foundation you're going to work on, and repeatedly further along when you're adding detail. I've lived in the company of people long enough that that's not much of an issue, but if we go with the werewolf example, I'd have to say I don't really have much of an idea of the proportions of a wolf head. I know a wolf when I see it, but actually understanding its physical structure is something else entirely. I'd want to check some pictures of wolves just to get a baseline, and since it's a mythical creature also look at artistic interpretations of werewolves specifically to figure out style and just how much wolf I want in my wolfman. Familiarize myself with the proportions and placement of physical features and then work out how to go about sculpting a base for the head. A good bit of work on the sculpt can (and in my opinion should) be done before you even touch your sculpting tool.

Well, no sculpting here, but I tried a new painting technique.







Proof:

 DJJazzyJeff wrote:
Well, no sculpting here, but I tried a new painting technique.

Vargskyr!

Yes! I am jealous man… I need one of these for my army!

This is a sweet job, absolutely love the tones you have got for the fur…. looks like it is glistening in the light but still has a dark and moody feel that fits with the (very nicely done) skin! Love how you have incorporated pinky and fleshy tones with the grey and blue recesses… this is very very cool work.

Man, I like this, my favorite so far!

Poll up for next month’s topic.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/811918.page

Still got some good time left on this month, but time to get those models painted if you are procrastinating as hard as I am this month.

Right, the Subaqueous Savages... are done!



Ferrywoman


Rotters


and Leeches.
Pressed for time to get photos, as they're for my eldest's birthday also, so had to grab snaps before he realised!

Well, I think I am calling these delusional cannibals finished…

This was a make it all up as I went kind of paint job. I had no idea whatsoever where I was going to end up but here we are…

I suppose these ghouls are a little louder than the others in my squad… but variety is the spice of flesh eating mentalists!

Yum yum

Not sure if I am happy with these photos so may swap them over the next couple of days…

EDIT: I have swapped the pics for some I think are somewhat better. These are my final pics.

Hope its going well all
Always great to see submissions of course.

Definitely late, but I was going to reckommend
Locked in Combat - pinning fire or being pinned, binding swords, feinting spears, reloading, magdumping
Born to Fight - ranging from Spacemarines to Skaven

Kind of also wondering how painting days will appear for Nov Challenge, obv would be great to do some more.
Enjoyed zooming through these dryads, nice peek at 40 dryads challenge lol, i'm not gona freak out.

4 Dryads


Bright Overhead Light


Alt lighting


Pair1


Pair2

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Right, the Subaqueous Savages... are done!
-
Pressed for time to get photos, as they're for my eldest's birthday also, so had to grab snaps before he realised!

+

XvArcanevX wrote:
Well, I think I am calling these delusional cannibals finished…

This was a make it all up as I went kind of paint job. I had no idea whatsoever where I was going to end up but here we are…

I suppose these ghouls are a little louder than the others in my squad… but variety is the spice of flesh eating mentalists!

Yum yum

Not sure if I am happy with these photos so may swap them over the next couple of days…

You're both making the voting round hard for me.
Those ghoulies look splendid.

 Snail22 wrote:


Definitely late, but I was going to reckommend
Locked in Combat - pinning fire or being pinned, binding swords, feinting spears, reloading, magdumping
Born to Fight - ranging from Spacemarines to Skaven

Kind of also wondering how painting days will appear for Nov Challenge, obv would be great to do some more

I’ll add your ideas to the list. As long as topics are not fixed to some static event/time/season everything just goes into the bucket and I pull 4 out for the poll.

November will get the same number of days to paint as any other month. Well, 30 days shorter then some. Unless someone asks for more time, then it will get a few extra. How many of those days you will be free to pick up a brush is beyond my control, but I have faith that you could make time for a little something. It is a whole month after all, and minis are small.

Leopold Helveine wrote:
You're both making the voting round hard for me.
Those ghoulies look splendid.

Thank you! I am hoping to get some better pics of mine up for the weekend; they look a little blurred in the current photos. The weather is a bit weird here at the moment though and I have found it is better to take the pics outside in natural light rather than under a super bright desk lamp…

Hopefully I can take some decent ones before end of play this month!

Working. Hopefully get her where I want her in time.

Great work so far, everyone!

 youwashock wrote:


Working. Hopefully get her where I want her in time.

Great work so far, everyone!

I can already tell this is going to be amaze balls….

Even that close up it is looking great!

I really enjoy painting ghouls. They are quick and easy and so fun to paint without having 10000 extra details.
So my entry is the Royal Beastflayers but I really hate the Babouls so I replaced them with hyenas, that I believe fit way better the role of hounds. And I also added the king but I had to keep only 5 minis so I ended up with only 2 from the original Beastflayers... Oh well...
XvArcanevX, I really like what you did with them. The green skin especially, with the dark shadows makes them look more savage. It's so cool we painted the same miniatures but they look so different.

Here are the final photos








Btw I managed to paint the whole warband +2 extra hyenas for tests, that don't have bases. So here is a quick photo of the whole warband not counting for the challenge.

 straken619 wrote:
I really enjoy painting ghouls. They are quick and easy and so fun to paint without having 10000 extra details.
So my entry is the Royal Beastflayers but I really hate the Babouls so I replaced them with hyenas, that I believe fit way better the role of hounds. And I also added the king but I had to keep only 5 minis so I ended up with only 2 from the original Beastflayers... Oh well...
XvArcanevX, I really like what you did with them. The green skin especially, with the dark shadows makes them look more savage. It's so cool we painted the same miniatures but they look so different.

Dude, seriously, I frickin love what you have done with these! This is a blast…

That ghoul king is badass, love the work on the flesh and in particular the ‘flesh’ loin cloth! Amazing! Seriously that right there is one deluded, degenerate cannibal. Haha!

I totally agree with you on the hounds in the box, they suck man! They are literally awful sculpts. Why didn’t they just give us werewolf ghouls? I mean the FEC needs more bestial characters… and a tanky half ghoul, half wolf would have been the absolute business. We are getting ripped off in this faction and I hope we get some better sculpts soon!

Still, the hyenas work a treat. Also loving the interesting colors you have used on the Beastflayer Baron! In particular the sword and hilt…. very nice.

Great stuff. This is turning into a mighty ghoul fest! FEC FTW!

Love the face, DJJazzyJeff! The highlights really make the features pop!
@XvArcanevX - great choice of colours - these really make for an eye-catching/pleasing warband!

@straken619 - the dogs are 'OFF THE CHAIN!!!' Your colour choice is awesome! They have the classic 'Lion King' look!....MUFASA....!

Wow, there are lots of entries this month . My Ursula the sea witch is finally finished. I wanted to train shading skin with airbrush, and I think it is not bad.







And a cheap photoshop, which means photographed in front of picture displayed on computer screen

 halfling84 wrote:
Wow, there are lots of entries this month . My Ursula the sea witch is finally finished. I wanted to train shading skin with airbrush, and I think it is

And a cheap photoshop, which means photographed in front of picture displayed on computer screen

Very very nice! Love this pic…

Love Little Mermaid. When I worked, back in the day, in the cinema I even went to see it on my day off.
Anyway, I've decided (madness) to try to get the boat built and painted as well for the vampires:


If nothing else, I can stab Ursula with it...

Been a crazy month and of course I didn't complete nearly what I wanted to. That being said, here's the finished Bullet-Sponge for my Breachers playtest:



Maybe I'll get the Zombie done. Then I'll have at least four things to enter this month.

Almost too spooky to browse through this thread. Well done peeps!

Been a while since I've actively taken part in these wonderful challenges (if not counting the one Canoness I painted in the summer).
Been trying to motivate myself to paint more again, and thought that joining the challenges every now and then might just do that.

I started painting a model for Halloween, the classic Heinrich Kemmler model that I got for Necromunda some years ago.
While painting, I realized that what better way to give it a good deadline than the dakka challenge!
Alas, I realized that I had forgotten to take a proof picture

I did however find a picture of another mini, where this guy is (very poorly) seen in the background unpainted.
Miniature and the date marked (Lokakuu = Finnish for October).


If that's not sufficient, no problemo!


Anyway, here's the current state of the very scary necromancer.

You are fine. Love that old necromancer. One of the best minis in the old undead range IMHO.

—

Running out of month people! Time for the frenzied rush to the finish line.

Here's the Spooky Team that I've painted so far.

Zombie


Warewolf


Ghoul


Group Photo


Don't know if I'll be able to get to the other 2 minis in time before Halloween. Perhaps the goal of 5 minis was too ambitious.

Looks great. Remember, if you make all your goals, you are not setting them high enough. You need to stretch to grow. So it’s OK to miss them once in a while.

But I know you all out there can do it. Get a model painted. Get across the finish line! We still have time left.

I managed to get only one bonus zombie into a paintable state. It's pretty late in the month, though. Not sure I'll even have time to put any paint on him, let alone finish him by Halloween. If I have time tomorrow to slap on a basecoat, I might give it a try. If not, he'll have to wait and maybe get joined by some zombuddies in the meantime.



He's based on a spare Wild West Exodus model. They're the right height for my stuff. Turned out to be a little more work than I thought, modernizing his attire and getting the proportions closer to my sculpts. It's a good opportunity to nail down the look of a few things for which I'm not likely to make full sculpts. The three zombies I had in mind for this are a zombified revolutionary (this guy), soldier and corporate security dude.