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My Pathfinder group started a new campaign so I needed to make a character. I felt the absolute and inescapable need to play a gnoll and because I am ever so hopeful that my character won't die in the first couple of sessions, I'm going to go to the trouble of sculpting a fitting model for him.

Now I have precious little experience with animals, having done only a cat and a dog or two in the past, so I'd appreciate a little critique if you have the time. I sat down with a couple of pictures of hyenas and below is my first attempt for the head (minus the badass hyena mohawk that I'll add later when I'm ready to tie the head and torso together).

The model is aimed to be in 32mm/1:50 scale.

Hrou-Ii, Oracle of the Apocalypse:

Not interested in the plastic box of Gnolls from Northstar?

I think he looks pretty good, but I'm not a massive fan of the face/head (same thing that bugs me about the Northstar plastics).

I've been eyeing them for a while, but I have a box of Frostgrave cultists and they are (as expected) very much 28mm models. Not that it's really a deal breaker, but most of what I do is 32mm and my friends prefer that scale as well, so it looks better to have all models in scale with each other when we put them on the grid. especially with my character being the second tallest in the group.

I also have an obsession with sculpting important models without pre-made bits. I like to control every last detail I put on them, and as a side effect the practice improves my sculpting.

Anything particular about the head that bothers you?

I think he looks great! Albeit a little ... cute?

Thank you. That's actually something I should have mentioned. With Charisma 16 and it only going upward because it's the primary class attribute, he's going to be the prettiest gnoll ever! Totally kawaii, as one of my friends noted when he saw I had CHA 16.

I've since come to think the nose is to big/broad and the top of the snout is too broad and maybe not curved enough as well.

I'm going to spend a little more time staring at the model and see about resculpting that in the next couple of days.

Here's the fixed face.



After giving a few hyena pictures a good look I think this is pretty close to the real thing. The nose is now smaller and pronounced and the snout is stepped as it should be. From the side it's slightly sloped, which it wasn't (much) before. Thoughts?

Got a picture of the full model's progress, too, but it's got gnoll naughty bits and thus is spoilered.

So, NSFW warning:



I also found that with the hunched look and the feet so far back on the base, I couldn't resist adding something to fill all that unused space.

I like the top-half of the model.

The rest, not so much. Not for prudishness sake, but seriously, what kind of NC-17 adventure are you folks running? Put some damned pants on! Naked slave girl is played out.

I like the general idea, but I think you've got proportions off--either the torso too big (I think too wide and deep compared to its height?), or the arms and legs not thick enough. Something just looks kinda...off? I've not got anything formal though, so its possible I'm just reading it wrong. The head is definitely nice, though, and the thigh spikes are amusing. Love to see where it goes from here.

I like what you've done to his snout ... he still has his grin.

But now it looks like he's air-humping ... or the slave's about to get an earful ...
And if you're gonna model him with his junk out, couldn't you be a bit more "generous" to the furry guy? ,-)

Thanks for the comments, guys.

 greatbigtree wrote:
I like the top-half of the model.

The rest, not so much. Not for prudishness sake, but seriously, what kind of NC-17 adventure are you folks running? Put some damned pants on! Naked slave girl is played out.

It's WIP, you know. Not sure I should tell you this, what with your concern about pants and kinkiness, but he's more the skirt-wearing type.

But seriously, it is WIP and until I've figured out another couple of parts he just won't get his (I guess you'd call it ancient Egyptianesque) skirt lest it gets in the way of yet to be sculpted parts.

Vejut wrote:
I like the general idea, but I think you've got proportions off--either the torso too big (I think too wide and deep compared to its height?), or the arms and legs not thick enough. Something just looks kinda...off? I've not got anything formal though, so its possible I'm just reading it wrong. The head is definitely nice, though, and the thigh spikes are amusing. Love to see where it goes from here.

You may be on to something. To be honest, if I recall I've never dealt with monstrous/hybrid anatomy outside of Daemonettes before, and those really only swap hands and lower legs so it's not much to go on.

Width for the hip and torso should be in line for a muscled male, along with head size. It's the core everything is built around. I wouldn't want to drag arms into this as they are very much WIP so far, but the upper legs may be a bit on the skinny side. Not sure. For all the jokes about skipping leg day that are making the rounds these days, you'd think I'd have a look at some body builders. But I got carried away on the face and armor, although I think bulking out the thighs and armor should still be possible if that turns out to be a good idea, though, so I'm not worried.

Depth of the torso, to go back to that, is something I really can't say is correct or incorrect. I've seen a number of pictures of gnolls that range from human build plus mane to Ork/Horror face sticking out of the chest kind of build. I like for him to be as hunched and bulky as he is, but I couldn't claim this is in any way "right".

Right now I'm thinking the limbs are where it's at for getting the proportions right. It's a bit hampered by the fact that the left arm was waiting for the drow to get to the point I can glue the wire for the chain he's holding on, which ever so slightly changed the pose of the left arm so I didn't want to sculpt it further than I have. Truth be told, while I have an idea (like, one) what to do with the right arm, that one received even less work because it may well be the last thing I sculpt. Seeing how the rest of the model turns out may give me a better idea what to do.

 War Drone wrote:
I like what you've done to his snout ... he still has his grin.

But now it looks like he's air-humping ... or the slave's about to get an earful ...
And if you're gonna model him with his junk out, couldn't you be a bit more "generous" to the furry guy? ,-)

Air,humping, eh? Just pretend I'll add a tiefling "rogue" looking for his "purse" further down the line.

But yeah, his hip area isn't close to complete yet. He'll get a skirt, a belt, a dagger (maybe that goes somewhere else depending on available space, a spell component pouch, a sling for his morning star, the morning star if I don't put it in his hand and a couple of straps to hold the quiver in place. He'll also get a shouldered shield when all that is done and after I added pauldrons (with more spiky bits because those are fun to use in Pathfinder).

Anatomy necessarily comes before adventuring gear.

 Geifer wrote:
Thanks for the comments, guys.

It's WIP, you know...

I gathered from the missing pieces and lack of paint that it was WIP, yes. You're asking for comments on what you've shown... not my speculation on what you will show when it's done.

Right now, Boner Boy and Sub Slave are tacky at best. What does a Gnoll want with an Elf, anyway? And a leash? I'm just trying to imagine the game world you're playing in, and what your adventures are. Enslave a village to sell into prostitution? We're heroes! Tea and medals for everyone!

But that critique aside, I do think the lower legs need a bit of bulking, but the thigh area is good. The arms could also use a slight buffing, but not overly. I think that Gnolls are normally kind of gangly looking, with a heavier set torso? Pictures of Hyenas have relatively thin legs with thicker torso / neck.

 greatbigtree wrote:

 Geifer wrote:
Thanks for the comments, guys.

It's WIP, you know...

I gathered from the missing pieces and lack of paint that it was WIP, yes. You're asking for comments on what you've shown... not my speculation on what you will show when it's done.

Right now, Boner Boy and Sub Slave are tacky at best. What does a Gnoll want with an Elf, anyway? And a leash? I'm just trying to imagine the game world you're playing in, and what your adventures are. Enslave a village to sell into prostitution? We're heroes! Tea and medals for everyone!

But that critique aside, I do think the lower legs need a bit of bulking, but the thigh area is good. The arms could also use a slight buffing, but not overly. I think that Gnolls are normally kind of gangly looking, with a heavier set torso? Pictures of Hyenas have relatively thin legs with thicker torso / neck.

I guess that didn't come across as lighthearted as intended. Sorry about that, I meant no offense.

We're playing a bog standard adventure path for Pathfinder (which, if you're not familiar with it, is based on DnD and uses the same alignment matrix). Gnolls are slavers among other things and by default aligned chaotic evil. I see no reason to deviate from that and play him as a product of his environment. He's an oracle of a god that would have him bring about the end of the world, so he's already plenty special. I don't need to play the only gnoll with a conscience on top of that. But then even that is just the situation at the start of the campaign. I believe everyone else is either good or at least neutral, and none are on the lawful side. So who knows, maybe my character will be converted to something less evil during the campaign for hanging out with these uncultured individuals?

First off, thanks for the input. It's true that a number of four-legged animals have thin legs and bulky bodies. From that angle the legs should be fine as you say. But I also see validity in questioning whether that should be adopted for a biped without any alterations. As I said, I'm not sure yet how I feel about it. I've had a look at a couple of pictures of body builders and the gnoll's legs definitely don't compare, so perhaps I'll try a little bit of bulking them out to see how it looks and leave it at that. I don't have the strongest character, so I wouldn't want to go all the way. As for the arms, yes, I think I'll put a little bit more on them. Good call.

Edit: I bulked out the legs ever so slightly and though it can't easily be seen in the picture, the backs of the thighs weren't particularly symmetrical. That's fixed now and I have a much better feeling about them now. I also gave the left arm a shot and made it more muscled (along with sculpting the forearm in the first place). Looks more in line with the bulk of the torso now, but it does look quite buff on its own.

I looked up pathfinder gnolls on googles to make sure I was thinking the right thing, it's been a while since DnD.

The arms need to get beefier, he's a little scrawny. Some pictures show the arm length being mid thigh or at the knee but that might be the hunched over back.

You could carry the mohawk forward a little more and give him the superman curly hair to reflect his Charisma 16.

Thanks for the comment and suggestions.

Picture of the beefier left arm below. That better? As for the length, I think something close to human proportions should work best. I wouldn't want to marginalize the human part in the human/beast hybrid, personally.

I don't think you should have a Superman curl without obnoxiously good alignment, but maybe that's just me.

NSFW warning because still no pants:

Is he sporting a boner there?

How you gonna cover that up?

He'll have a skirt, so... kind of covered up but still obvious enough.

The top part of the muscle on the arm needs to be bigger. It's called the deltoid I had to look up what it's called but the rest of the arm looks good.

The curly q hair could be from some 50s gangers too. Superman was the easiest way to explain it. Plus superman has kill people and has a dark storyline so he's not all that good.

 Geifer wrote:
He'll have a skirt, so... kind of covered up but still obvious enough.

So ... "He'll" be wearing a skirt and sporting a boner ... might be time for me to back away from this thread




But seriously, I enjoy your sculpting skills and think the charismatic guy looks great! Really!

 Maddok_Death wrote:
The top part of the muscle on the arm needs to be bigger. It's called the deltoid I had to look up what it's called but the rest of the arm looks good.

The curly q hair could be from some 50s gangers too. Superman was the easiest way to explain it. Plus superman has kill people and has a dark storyline so he's not all that good.

That's the lazy bum in me rearing his head. The top of the arm should be well covered by pauldrons, so I'm kinda hoping that a simple supporting structure will do instead of sculpting detail I'll just cover up anyway. But you are definitely right about that bit. I may end up having to do that after all, but at this stage it's not a yet concern.

Sorry, I'm not into comics so I wouldn't know such subtleties. Truth be told I'm just not a hair guy. Doing anything with hair other than cutting it off is not in my nature. Obviously a problem with such a furry fellow, but if he's already covered in hair I don't need to dress it on top of that.

 War Drone wrote:

 Geifer wrote:
He'll have a skirt, so... kind of covered up but still obvious enough.

So ... "He'll" be wearing a skirt and sporting a boner ... might be time for me to back away from this thread




But seriously, I enjoy your sculpting skills and think the charismatic guy looks great! Really!

Hehe.

Thank you.