17 replies to this topic

[Loim]

I have an old Sandra Garrity elf that I decided to paint up as a dark elf. I also decided that given her dark heritage a lamp in her hand was superflous. I want to put a Elven curve blade in its place, but I'm having the devils time doing so. I created an armature for said weapon, but I'm hoping some of you more experienced people can offer some suggestions for getting brown stuff on the armature. So far my attempts have been less successful than i would have liked.

[Adrift]

My sculpting skills are currently limited to terrain and are quite rudimentary in my own opinion.

[evhorne969]

Brownstuff tends not to stick as well as green. Couple easy tricks for you.

1. Heat the armature - you can hold it up to an incandescent bulb for 30 - 40 seconds. It will warm the metal up enough for the putty to stick to it.

2. Tap the armature with fresh putty - picked this one up from Derek Schubert (Thanks Derek!) just tap your armature with some freshly mixed putty. Keep tapping and after a bit the putty will leave a film on the armature. Apply putty normally from there.

3. Pinch and schmear - This is my favorite technique. I take a little pinch of putty between my thumb and index finger and using a fair amount of pressure just schmear it down the wire or armature.

Couple other thoughts for you. Make sure your armature is clean. If you're using Vaseline when you sculpt, try NOT using it to mix the one little bit you're trying to get to stick to your armature. After that you can go back to using lube again ;-)

Hope that helps ~
Gene

[Darknight]

My advice would come from left-field; try using a piece of plasticard to cut and carve the shape of the blade. A 1.5mm piece of plasticard could be cut into a curved blade shape and then sharpened with a file. Pin and glue it to the hand of the miniature (you would have to sculpt the hilt, of course). I have used this technique on many of my models for various things - plasticard is easy to cut and shape and glue, and it can make a great foundation for other components.

[dks]

When I sculpt weapons, I do this:
1) Sketch out the final shape at actual size.
2) Use a thin brass rod (stiff but slightly bendable) as the armature. Bend it if it must be bent to fit the shape that I want.
3) Mix my brown stuff, lay out an oversized glob of it on a piece of translucent plastic (so I can see my drawn shape through the plastic), push the brass wire into the glob, and put a second glob on top of the wire (sandwiching the wire between a top & bottom half).
4) After the brown stuff has cured, pop it off the plastic and carve it into the shape I want.
5) Add details with green stuff or brown stuff.

Like so:


Another option is to take the weapon from another metal miniature (essentially bypassing steps 1-3 above) and carve it into shape.

My advice would come from left-field; try using a piece of plasticard to cut and carve the shape of the blade. ...

Nice! Yeah, if you aren't going to cast the finished weapon, then plasticard sounds convenient.

And you're welcome for the tapping technique, Gene! I imagine that there's a microscopic film of oil or anti-adhesive magic around the wire, so I have to dab it off until I've exposed the sticky wire underneath.

Derek

[evhorne969]

Derek that's the most eloquent description of weapon sculpting I've ever read. You should get that pinned at the top of this forum, or better yet, make it a Reaper Craft article! :-D

Gene

[dks]

Derek that's the most eloquent description of weapon sculpting I've ever read. You should get that pinned at the top of this forum, or better yet, make it a Reaper Craft article! :-D

Gene

Thanks! It's just what Werner Klocke does (and most other sculptors, probably), but if I've helped by explaining it well, then I'm glad.
I'll take some in-progress shots and make an article about the next weapon that I sculpt in brown stuff.
Now we just have to see whether it helps our friend @Loim make a nice Elven Curve Blade...

Derek

[Loim]

Thanks guys for the helpful information. @DKS I had much better luck using your method. I planned on posting some pictures of my progress so far, but my camera battery seems to have died, and I can't locate the charger. As soon as I find my charger I'll post.

[Loim]

This is where I am so far. Sorry about the picture quality. My camera fu is about on par with my painting and sculpting.

[dks]

That's coming along well! Nice shape to that blade. It is tougher to sculpt a weapon when the hand is already closed around it like this.
Now I would clip off the wire to the proper length (curve blades are two-handed weapons, right?) -- you'll cover the end with putty for the pommel. Add a little brown stuff or a piece of wire to give the inner structure for a crossbar/guard, let that harden. Then apply a finished layer (green or brown) for the crossbar/guard, grip, and pommel; stick the putty on when it's first mixed, and give it some general shape, but let it set for 15 minutes for you try to make the finished details, since otherwise it will just flop all over and you'll waste your initial efforts.

Derek

[Matbar]

Looks good to me! I'm nowhere near thinking about doing original sculpting. At this point I have some ideas for mini butchery but that's about it.

[Atramagus]

Nice! I can't wait to see what it looks like when you're finished

[Loim]

I haven't abandoned this, things have just been a bit hectic lately. I hope to have some finished pictures up by this weekend.

[Loim]

Here's the finished product. I'm not very happy with it, but I finally got tired of fiddling with it. C&C welcome.

[SamuraiJack]

Looks good to me.. handle looks to be a bit longer than it should be, but the overall look is nice