8 replies to this topic

[ThornDJL7]

So, I am unable to find a mini that quite captures what I'm looking for in a monster. The monster as a concept doesn't look overly hard to do, and even done badly would probably still look alright. So, I know green stuff is good, but what is the whole process? Can someone point me somewhere so I can understand what I'm doing, or at least take a reasonable stab at it?

[MonkeySloth]

Look through this board for topics with a lot of replies, there are several that happened over the past 3-4 months where people have been learning to sculpt and were getting feedback from various people. Read through these then start your own thread and allow the comments to begin.

[dispatchdave]

I suggest starting with an armature for the size/pose, then adding layers as if they were a real body (skeleton, musles, skin, clothes, etc). Of course, some people find negative sculpting (starting with a block and carving out what you want) easier than additive sculpting (armature, etc). Do you have any previous sculpting experience on larger scales?

[ThornDJL7]

I have 0 experience. In example, I had to go look up what an armature was...

[ThornDJL7]

Ok, so what is the best medium for a larger sculpt? I am looking to make something that fits on a 75mm base.

[dks]

I got started about 10 years ago in a similar situation: I couldn't find a miniature of the dwarf wizard that I had sketched for my D&D character, so I decided to sculpt my own.
I had never tried sculpting, but I remembered reading two magazine articles by sculptor Phil Lewis in the mid-1990s. I reread them, got the basic supplies -- some Green Stuff, a spool of 20-gauge copper wire, a wire-cutting tool (flush-cutters), a cork from a wine bottle, and two steel tools from my dentist -- and sculpted that dwarf. Since then, I've gotten a few better supplies, but I improved because I kept practicing and asking advice from the more experienced sculptors whenever I could (especially in person at ReaperCon). I already had around 15 years of experience painting, and I think that helped me learn quickly.
I emailed Phil Lewis a few years ago to say thanks for writing such helpful articles, and he was happy to hear from me as a reader.

@ThornDJL7: Send me a Personal Message with your email address, and I can email PDFs of those articles to you.

Derek

[MonkeySloth]

Also, and I can't believe I forgot to link this, there's a step by step sculpting guide going on in the miniature hobby magazine Kinetic 7. It just started so it covers tool and armatures.

Here's a link http://www.reapermin...5504-kinetic-7/

[DixonGrfx]

There's a loaded thread topic... More than you can really give justice to in a forum thread. Read articles. Lots and lots of articles. I have found it helpful to sculpt in a larger scale than the final will be to work through the bigger problem solving issues. And sculpy is really good for this process. It gives you time to work out the shapes and forms without the time deadline of epoxy putty. But you do have to keep in mind that sculpting with any medium is about "stages". You need to brake the shapes down into parts and work on them one at a time.

[smokingwreckage]

There is a yahoo group for sculpting that might have WIP or articles for you. I will see if i can find it.

http://dir.groups.ya...s&sec=dir&slk=1

There used to be a lot of sculptors active there. EDIT: still very active, used to be very helpful, but my membership got lost years ago - I was a member over a decade ago, maybe longer. I am interested in the technical and business aspects of the hobby, but I have never sculpted.


Heresy miniatures and Hasselfree miniatures both have WIP shots on their websites and forums that might be of interest as examples.