11 replies to this topic

[Mrs.Fizzes]

Hello everyone! This is my second post here after some time, mainly because I was stressing myself out trying to make all of my sculpts and painting perfect, and there was no way to do that in a quick enough way to be able to play with them in DnD games. So my kind husband finally talked me down from doing everything perfectly, so I could go back to enjoying myself. And the fruits of this are my mushroom people army I'm making!



So, this is the start of it. You can see I had started with regular sculpey with one of the mush-ladies, but then I got some super sculpey. There's about ten minis here with their bases, all unfinished. I did some bases with cobble stone, just practicing different techniques, and some with smooth stone, and one with pebbles. I have some ideas for what they'll wear, clothing wise, but for now I'm just fleshing out their bodies, and figuring out what to do with their caps, legs, arms and weapons. These ten guys here are all intended to be archers. So here's the line up!





















Whew! So, angry, unhappy, mean mushroom peoples! I am having a bit of trouble however with adding the legs and arms to the minis. I figured that, since the mushroom people just had lumpy shapes, I didn't need to put wire skeletons inside of them. So I made the bodies, baked them, and now the non-dry clay is having trouble sticking to the baked clay. Any suggestions for what I can do to fix this problem, or are these minis just ruined for now?

[HeadClot88]

Attack of the mushroom men!

These already look awesome!

[Mrs.Fizzes]

Thanks! While I'm waiting for any idea on how to attach the arms and legs to these guys, I'm doodling some concept work and working on wire skeletons for the next batch. I'm kind of curious if anyone has been able to get really detailed with sculpey, or if a level of detail is only possible when working with greenstuff.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Not ruined, I wouldn't think. I do think I would pin the arms and legs, and anything else I'd planned to attach, and then glue the joints, just to be on the safe side. And then add more sculpey over the joint, blend it in as best I could, and bake it solid.

In the future, I would use wire armatures.

And yes, those are some sweet lookin' sapient mushrooms.

[Dr.Bedlam]

You can get crazy with detail with Sculpey, sure. But sculpey is brittle when baked, and INCREDIBLY EASY TO SCREW UP when not baked. Greenstuff, on the other hand, is more forgiving, and holds the sculpt better even before it hardens. On the other hand, it's trickier to work with; I couldn't do ANYTHING with it until one of the Reaper sculptors showed me how.

[Mrs.Fizzes]

Well, it's at least a relief that I would eventually be able to get really detailed with this as I get better. I really like using sculpey products, although you're right about it being easy to screw up, Dr. B. My method for these guys (which I will be changing shortly) was to make their bodies and then bake them, so I could push their caps onto their heads and shape them without deforming their faces. The spikey, gourd shaped mush-man was one that I couldn't do that with though, because he wasn't getting a cap--he was getting spines, to make him look like a ramaria. So I shaped him, left him soft, baked some spines, and then pushed those hardened spines into his body. I was going to bake him with the next batch, then fill the gaps where I'd placed the spines to make it more seamless, but while I've been waiting to bake him, I've accidentally caught him with my fingernails a few times. They're fragile =(

I'm thinking that I might just make these mushroom people into weaponless mush-men and women, and only add weapons to the ones with skeletons (or armatures, as you put it). Is pinning the same in sculpey as it is in metal?

[joshuaslater]

These look good!

[Lastman]

My first thought upon reading the subject line: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matango
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057295/

[Dr.Bedlam]

Pinning sculpey is a breeze. Use metal, and fairly chunky metal at that -- I'd recommend cutting up a paperclip. But yeah, it's no different than pinning a metal mini, except holes are far easier to drill in Sculpey. That, and since Sculpey tends to have a roughish surface and is porous to some degree, glue grabs it quite well.

[Mrs.Fizzes]

Well, this may unfortunately have to be put on a little hold. I can't find my little drill bit heads for one thing, so pinning has become difficult. I could theoretically use some of my other tools to try and do pinning, but I'm having a bit of trouble with getting an even hole, and it takes a while. I feel like I have to be extra careful, because I'm worried that if I'm not, I'll break the mini in half.

So you would think that I would just move on to the next set of mushroom men with the armature inside, while waiting to either find or buy new drills, but unfortunately today I received an injury. It's nothing too serious, but it did require stitches, and... lets just say it makes it difficult for me to sit in certain positions, including the one where I'm hunched over a desk, working with clay. It's kind of frustrating, because while I'm waiting this month to heal, I'm supposed to rest, meaning I would have plenty of time to sculpt if I could just sit normally. BAH.

In the meantime, does anyone have any tips or tricks that I do with pinning the mini while I am waiting to get new drill bits?

[chaosscorpion]

Heal quickly.

If I am pinning mini's I make sure to keep a small cup with WD40 in it. I dip the drill bit in the WD before I begin drilling and as I drill to keep the drill bit lubed up and cutting clean. For putty I'm not sure if it will help. There was a great Craftcorner I remeber reading on pinning real big figs. I see if I can find it.

[Mrs.Fizzes]

Well, I've discovered that I can spend a little time sculpting if I sit on a bunch of pillows, so I was able to get some more done! I almost had to find a way to work on these when some new "friends" came in the mail....



I got my silicon tipped sculpting tools! I'm incredibly excited. Around where I live, these things were fifty dollars, and I found these on amazon for 16. Unfortunately, they were shipping from the UK, so it was supposed to take about a month to get here. Surprise surprise, on my hubby's birthday they arrived! So, I got to work...



Made some armatures with cobblestone bases attached. I figured out that I could put the armatures in the bases and then bake them, so I have something to hold on to when I'm sculpting the minis themselves. It makes it easier than having to take a sculpey mini in and out of cork, risking distorting it all the while.

I also still can't find my drill bits, so I've been doing what I can with the minis that don't have armatures in them. So, here they are again!



This is a morel lady-shroom.



This guy is just a generic fantasy mushroom kind of thing. I really like how the underside of his cap came out, so he's one of my favorites at this point.


Warty one is capless for now. I tried to build up the skin around the warts, but now I'm not sure about it. It'll probably look better painted. I might make his cap warty too, like the mushroom men in Lastman's first link. =p


Another interesting, randomly done cap that I liked. I sculpted the one below this first, and my husband called that one "cute," which wasn't really what I was going for. After sculpting this one, my husband didn't think the mushroom people were very cute any more. =p


I really like the cap on this one too! I was just playing around with what mushroom caps could look like.


I decided part of the way through doing these minis that maybe I shouldn't try to make 10 different archers, warriors, mages, etc. I could make three or four and just make molds of them (eventually), so I didn't waste all of my creativity, or make mush-peeps that look too similar to each other. So, this archer lady turned into what I'm hoping will be an old, magey, mushroom hag.


And, the puff ball lady-shroom! She has a hole in her head, with some webbing texturing that you can't see to make it look like she has/had spores coming out. I'm thinking that she might be a little crazy, what with having this open head cavity.

And that's about it! I'm also making some armatures for three more chocobo models (I have one made and painted already), and I'm trying to make some chicobos, and a chocobo nest (although I'm having trouble with the nesting material... maybe flocking?). Aaaand, I'm getting kind of ambitious, and wanting to make a capra demon from dark souls, a giant filth monster from Secret World, and some golems, new random townsfolk, and too many other ideas to count. Maybe I should slow down!