BCK's Thread of Stuff: Big Lelith

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Wow, the officer is a totally different figure now. 

 

I hadn't planned on making so much extra work for myself, but... *shrug*

 

A few updates, starting with the OotF:

 

http://i.imgur.com/Bwr6I4o.jpg

 

A rather straight forward kitbash for the vox trooper:

 

http://i.imgur.com/xtT0cLU.jpg

 

 

And throwing this guy in as a 'before' pic, because he's gonna change a lot very shortly:

 

http://i.imgur.com/llUKZan.jpg

 

 

[Darth Mustard]

really like the taller officer 

i think he deserves an even longer collar

the standard bearer is on a pro level!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

really like the taller officer 

i think he deserves an even longer collar

 

Yeah, I think the collar could be better. I found a piece of plastic tubing that fit the size of the original collar perfectly, secured it to the neck hole, and sculpted the collar around it, but now the head barely fits. I'll try it again with a bigger piece of tubing.

 

the standard bearer is on a pro level!

 

Thanks! I've still got a little more to do on him, but I'm very happy with how he's turning out. :D

[Darth Mustard]

I had a second look at the standard bearer. It seems, on the photo, that the green stuff eyes (right one) is slightly higher that the left one. 

Your green is "silky smooth" like Sandler would say. Mix of green stuff and miliput?

Even if they are still very raw I really like the boost. 

I say go with the round powa fist. Are you planning to do a full forearm ?  It kind of look heavy for a human even with the will of a commissar to carry such a heavy thing around. 

I think you really capture the spirit of the GW illustrators and transcript it in your minis and selfishly I really enjoy it and find it very inspiring.

Chapeau bas, Monsieur ! 

[Blissful Brushes]

To second what our Sith friend says, I reckon a rounder fist would work nicely, and on the subject of it being heavy, perhaps some small little studs or something dotted around the underside to represent a suspensor web? Also on the note of it being 'powered' can we expect a little power pack and cabling up to his back or something?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I had a second look at the standard bearer. It seems, on the photo, that the green stuff eyes (right one) is slightly higher that the left one. 

 

Yeah, it is. Gotta fixt that.

 

Your green is "silky smooth" like Sandler would say. Mix of green stuff and miliput?

 

Nope, straight greenstuff. 99% of my sculpting is done with large clay shapers of the 'very firm' type and the larger surface area of the tool means I move more putty with less strokes and less tool marks to try to clean up later. I use generous amounts of cooking oil as a lubricant which also helps, but after I sculpt a shape I do spend time going back and smoothing it out if need be.

 

One trick for a smoother finish I learned from an old White Dwarf sculpting article by Chris Fitzpatrick is once the GS has cured, take an X-Acto knife with a fresh blade that's super sharp and very carefully scrape the GS with the blade held at a 30-45 degree angle. This sort of levels out the surface of the GS, and works exceptionally well on flat areas like armor plates and such. For curved areas and smoothing in general, there's always sand paper(use high grit). :) 

 

 

I say go with the round powa fist. Are you planning to do a full forearm ?  It kind of look heavy for a human even with the will of a commissar to carry such a heavy thing around. 

I think you really capture the spirit of the GW illustrators and transcript it in your minis and selfishly I really enjoy it and find it very inspiring.

Chapeau bas, Monsieur ! 

 

I've already started to build an armored cuff on the upper part of his arm, and thanks for the praise. It's always nice to hear your work inspires other modelers. :D

 

To second what our Sith friend says, I reckon a rounder fist would work nicely, and on the subject of it being heavy, perhaps some small little studs or something dotted around the underside to represent a suspensor web? Also on the note of it being 'powered' can we expect a little power pack and cabling up to his back or something?

 

I do plan on adding a little power pack under the rebreather air supply on his back and attaching it to the fist with a cable.

[Darth Mustard]

_{"Always two they are, a master and an aprentice"}

_{Thank you for all the tips.}

_{I'm also a big fan of using clay shapers. They feel more natural for me.}

_{I was using water but I think that I'll try cooking oil especially since I don't really know of to say glycerine in Chinese :)}

_{I never considered sanding the green stuff. How silly of me because sanding milliput seems kind of natural, Green stuff I guess was "magical" to me.}

_{Your post really illustrated the various steps that one has to follow to sculpt and it's nearly a tutorial.}

_{Pretty cool .}

 

_{Thank you again I'm now motivate to try to sculpt again.}  

 

_{Back to your minis, how about adding a plead or two in the hat of the officer?}

_{To differenciate it from the original head and make it look more navy style ?}

_{I guess 2 bionic eyes would be too much but how about a piece (arm. chest plate, ) that he could connect directly into his ship (vessel?)}

 

_{Sorry but your sculpting skills are so good that I can't help but to raise the bar :)} 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

A lot of the time I will use a lamp to cure the GS faster so I can do sculpting work multiple times on the same figure in one day, and it seems to cure much harder when I do that, which makes it easier to scrape with the blade as well as sand. Just make sure you stay with high grit sandpaper because it's real easy to to ruin you work with gouges from coarser sandpaper that are nearly impossible to get out.

 

I used when I first tried sculpting with GS and it didn't really do much at all - the metal sculpting tools still stuck to it. Some of the other suggested lubricants for sculpting tools I've read about are Vaseline and talcum powder and both of them were messy as hell, though I will say talcum powder is great to use if you have to roll out GS into a sheet for some reason. Just use it like it was flour with dough. I personally use extra virgin olive oil because it's here in the house already and keep a container about the size of a GW paint pot of it on my table. Just make sure you clean your sculpting tools when you're done using it.

[Blissful Brushes]

I use Vaseline for mine, it achieves a very smooth finish, the only issue is the one BCK's raised and that is that it's a bit messy. It depends how you use it as with anything really. If you stab it in the pot and wipe off the excess it's not too bad, but putting down a vas'd up tool gets baby hairs on it which are a right pain in the rear.

I use it 'cause that's what I have to hand, I'd never trust myself to use olive oil and not spill it everywhere - my vaseline spends ½ of its time flying from the desk to the floor! Clay shapers are awesome. I've only got very soft ones though which is annoying, so I'm stuck with metal for detail.

[Forté]

Spit. I lick the tools. Probably shouldn't but hey ho. Just make sure you have a drink handy. And I only have a set of metal tools.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I would quit doing that, Forte. Kneadatite is classified as non-toxic, as are most acrylic paints, but the manufacturers never intended for people to be licking their sculpting tools or paint brushes on a regular basis and ingesting their products.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I got some work done on the thrall aide for the Ootf and Master of Ordnance. Here's the inspiration art and before pic as a reminder:

 

http://i.imgur.com/2wGK2fH.jpg   http://i.imgur.com/llUKZan.jpg

 

 

Here's a the figure chopped up and reassembled with a big chunk of sheet plastic on his back to try out a size for the cogitator:

 

http://i.imgur.com/0TtI8cc.jpg 

 

Most of the robes will be resculpted along with the shoulders, the arms will not be there, and I'm going to put some kind of power unit on the chest. So far, so good.

[Darth Mustard]

Good start !

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I started on the Master of Ordnance today, and because I have a very long day planned tomorrow, I wanted to get a lot done on him.

 

I picked the vox trooper as the base figure:

 

http://i.imgur.com/1IwVsWf.jpg?1

 

I like the chainmail coif he has on and the arm upraised to the headset, but the idea I had for the conversion was going to require a lot of material to be removed. Here's a normal figure next to what was left after the sawing, clipping, shaving, and Dremeling:

 

http://i.imgur.com/jXgUZzG.jpg

 

The legs were removed, the gun was removed with clippers, the right hand was cut off, I removed as much of the gun material as I could between the body and the arm, and then took the Dremel and ground away the rest of the gun, thinned down the torso where the chainmail was, and ground off most of the right side of the coat that was below his belt. I kept the boots up to the ankles, pinned them to the body, and then broke out the greenstuff.

 

Here's what it looks like now:

 

http://i.imgur.com/POiwufI.jpg

 

(The colors look off because the bare metal is so shiny I had darken and adjust it a LOT to make those parts viewable)

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I usually speed up the curing time of the putty with a lamp, and I worked in three stages. The first was simply a big block of greenstuff to cover up the area where the legs used to be. I let it sit under a lamp for about 45 mins and when I came back, I realized I had made the legs too short. >_< 

 

After adjusting the feet and the pins, I added more GS to fill in the new gap made by the adjustment and put it back under the lamp. When that was cured, I added a thinner layer on top of the block form and sculpted the new, longer coat and put it under the lamp again. Once that was cured, I did the breastplate and facial hair.

 

I think this is the most work I've done on a single figure in one day, and if it's not, it's gotta be close. Still have to add some little details and a right hand, so I've got a ways from finishing it, but I'm proud of the progress I made.

[GhostMalone]

And this is why I need your services ^^^

[Darth Mustard]

Pretty cool

How long did it take you ? Because it looks effortless!

What's your mix in green stuff ? 60% yellow?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

And this is why I need your services ^^^

 

Just a PM away, brother.

 

Pretty cool

How long did it take you ? Because it looks effortless!

What's your mix in green stuff ? 60% yellow?

 

Spread out over the day, I was probably working on him a good 3-4 hours or more, which was mostly spent on fixing errors like the feet or not liking what I sculpted and starting over on that part.  As for the mix, yeah, I'd probably say it was 60% yellow, maybe a touch more.

 

Speaking of the MoO, I have an update! I've begun to add a sash around his waist(under the belt) with the long ends down the side of his right leg:

 

http://i.imgur.com/Du0PWKF.jpg

 

I'll add the fringe stuff on the bottom later.

 

I have also started on the Commander!

 

http://i.imgur.com/Nt0Ychb.jpg

 

I've never tried sculpting fur before, but a good solid foundation for that hat is a must! Pardon the shine on the the new bits, but I just finished the sculpting work and it's still wet with oil.

[Grotsmasha]

This is gunna be awesome :tu:

 

Cheers,

Jono

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

This is gunna be awesome

 

So was my Techmarine, or so I thought it would be.

 

But yes, thank ye kindly, and I hope this little squad ends up looking good. I have a much more involved conversion idea in mind for the Commander, but in trying to keep moving forward at a steady pace for the ETL, I'm settling with the Creed version for now.

[Dragonkin Arenis]

Master of Ordinance is coming along nicely, and the base for your commander looks good so far. Looking forward to their completion I'm sure the old old GW website had a tut for sculpting fur hats for Vostroyans. Might have to go for a dig.

 

[EDIT]

 

Found it!

 

Not a perfect tutorial, but the effects are quite nice anyway. The rest of the article might help you as well in the future for your Vostroyan modelling needs.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Dragonkin Arenis

[Grotsmasha]

 

This is gunna be awesome

 

So was my Techmarine, or so I thought it would be.

 

I still hope to see it at some stage.... 

[Darth Mustard]

The commander looks spot on.

I can imagine a tiny muscular resilient soldier finally becoming a commander after decades of service.

He looks already so different with the hat and the robs. Almost cosak like

Really inspired idea !

[Barabbas Sogalon]

I like what I'm seeing on both models. Makes me want to start using green stuff again, though I'm afraid my skills have died since 2007.

 

When it comes to painting the commander, will you paint the fur hat as if it was made from a different and rarer animal than the ones used by the infantry? I remember some artwork where one of the officers had a hat with spots.

[batu]

Lovely stuff. I really like the officer with the great coat. I hope you will finfish him.

[PassionFruit Power]

loving the commander, he would look great with a mug of tea :)