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Recently I was approached by Warseer member Industrial Propaganda to do some commission sculpting work to create a new head, axe, base and familiar for a World Eaters terminator lord conversion based on the fantastic FW Lord Zufhor model.



IP has provided me with some great mock up images to guide the sculpting work. The brief is to produce a bloodletter style helmet using the metal chaplain helemt (2b) as a base. I see this as being probably the most difficult part to the work, not because the helmet will be hard to sculpt but to get decent proportions that will sit right on the rest of the model.

I will be charting my progress on this work in the following weeks through this log, hopefully getting some constructive feedback as the work progresses from both IP and anyone else who wants to.

I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this as the illustrations IP has provided are loaded with great detail that should be a lot of fun to sculpt.

Just waiting on the parts to arrive and work will begin!

Cheers,

Dante

Existing stuff so far and Im looking forward to some actual work. The concept is looking cool so far. I see your pain with the helmet though. It would probably be easier on a regular marine. Since the Terminator armour has a rather high "collar" itll be pretty tough to fit an elongated head in there.

This will be interesting for sure.

Like I already said on Warseer, the longer head is very old skool, kind of like the Rogue Trader era Chaos Space Marine models.

I assume he will have two different kinds of axes, one described in picture 1 and the other one being the from the FW model itself?

Are you also going to paint the model?

Thanks for the comments guys.

@ Flachzange - Yep, the high collar will be a bit of a pain, I'm sure I can come up with something though.

@ Malika - Thanks for both your comments mate. I won't be painting this one, just sculpting. Your bang on about the axes. One sculpted and one stock FW one.

Cheers,

Dante

Hmm, an idea for the sculpted one, try to make it look more organic as if the thing is actually alive and could bite. of course you shouldn't take that to the extreme, but some sort of organic vibe on the axe would be great and really Chaotic!

You also might want to add Khornate or World Eater iconography on the axes. Actually, seeing the World Eaters icon on one of the axes (or both) would be very cool (and original)!

Looks like a good idea, just out of curiosity, can anyone point me to any good sculpting threds/sites?, thanks in advance

I would suggest the Troll Forged forums, it's a place where sculptors kind of come together (sculptor community), if you have cool stuff sculpted you could also submit it there to have it cast. So yeah, even if you're a beginner it's a good place to be, tutorials n stuff can be found there as well!

I've yet to see any truly great sculpting tutorials. Most only cover the basics and are quite vauge. Alot of my own sculpting development has come through practice and trial and error of trying to replicate sculpts I have seen pics of etc.

Haven't spent much time on Troll Forged forums but they'll probably be a good place to pick up some tips.

I was contemplating trying to make some tutorials myself but the best ones would really need to be in video form to truly show the process.

The best advice I can give is try to get a hold of some sculpting books (art ones, clay sculpture etc) and try to take on the mindset these types of artists use when developing their sculpts as it is a very similar process. Due to the fact GS takes so long to cure and can't truly be fired like clay to speed the process you have to try to break each stage down in your head, developing the initial bulk shapes then gradually adding more to develop detail etc.

As I said, I'll try and post some clear step by steps of my progress on this project and explain whats happening at each point as a sort of tutorial if there would be interest for this type of thing?

Cheers,

Dante

I saw that you were asking about that bat thing back over on warseer. First time I saw it, I thought it was actually a Night Lord helmet lol. The wings do come pretty close, so if youre looking for a base, or ideas, that could be a possibility

CMDante wrote:As I said, I'll try and post some clear step by steps of my progress on this project and explain whats happening at each point as a sort of tutorial if there would be interest for this type of thing?

Cheers,

Dante

That would be awesome. I've looked for similar tutorials, and even things as simple as explaining how long (on average) you leave something sit before you start to carve it for detail, etc. would be a huge help.

I tend to not have the patience to let things dry, but when I do, the results are waay better.

I'll be following this closely.

Thanks for pointing me to the trollforged forums, they are a great help

@ Cruentus - I tend not to really carve into anything for detail. I prefer to apply putty straight after mixing (its easiest to get it smooth against the surrounding area at this point) and get it at least to the general shape I intend it to finish up in. Then I'll usually work on another area before returning to the first (about 20 mins later) to smooth the putty a little more and then continue this process until about an hour after starting. The only things I do to putty after its fully cured is file it or back scrape it with a scalpel if the area needs smoothing or reducing in size or area it covers.

Hope that makes some sense. It's been a long day at work!

Cheers,

Dante

Good concept. I will be following this one.

eh thread necromancy?

Almost...

typhus wrote:eh thread necromancy?

For a thread with the last post in late January?

About a sculpting project (which usually take quite some time to reach completion anyway)?

No, not really.

Progress at last!




The beginnings of the head.

More to follow tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dante

Looking good mate, glad you've been able to progress somewhat.

How well will that head sit in the Zufhfor head socket?

Cheers
Dave

PS. No sign yet on the Purge book : (

Cool - another must follow blog.

I agree, Mig. This looks to be interesting.

Cheers guys.

@ Dave - Gettings it to sit right is going to be a challenge. At the moment it fits ok but can be a bit of a pain getting it into the right place. I will take pics today to show, GS was still curing last night so didn't want to handle it much.

@ Migsula - Thanks mate. When do we get to see more of your amazing stuff?

@ Valhallan42nd - Thanks. I hope it proves to be so. The most challenging part is certainly going to be the head so I decided to start with it first.


Cheers,

Dante

Oeeeeeeh, lets have some more of that!

And some pics of the head in the body with my blood pact as comparison:




Clearly it fits fine, just needs some more added to the collar to raise it and fill the gap of the tack or else he will be looking at his feet!

More tonight.

Cheers,

Dante

Progress, added some guitar wire to the sides of the head to emulate the old school style "bloodletter" helmets of RT era mini's and the old chaos titan as per the clients request:


Next I'll be working on the details and icon on the forehead and filling out the area behind the head.

More soon.

Cheers,

Dante

Great job my friend.

Good to find out i'm not the only one that uses gitar strings on my models.
My brother doens't really like it that i steal them butt what the hell.
All for the greater cause of hobbyisme.

greetz typhoon

really nice
making an awesome model even better

wow looks awesome

Does FW have a US distributor? Can't find the stuff anywhere.

CMD, looking good bud! I'm wondering if your customer has a painter yet. Would hate to see the final with bad paint. But I'm guessing that if he's paying for commission on the sculpt, he probably did the research and found a painter also I'll be watching!

This is shaping up to be a fantastic conversion. The new tubes added to the side of the head bring it much closer to the insanely cool look you're going for.

Looking superb so far. I'll be following this as it progresses.