Tutorial - Green Stuff Berets

[WarriorFish]

Green Stuff Berets
At long last the promised GS beret tutorial, I was apparently running out of helmetless heads... This is a relatively simple bit of sculpting to do so is a great way to familiarise yourself with how it works and get used to working with GS. That said I was a little out of practice for this so it always pays to keep your skills sharp (and a good stock of helmetless heads ).

Tools

The tools are simple enough, GW did a pretty good metal one (I think they still do them?) but it's well worth getting some sculpting tools if you fancy doing something more detailed. Make sure you don't get the soft tools; they need to be harder to work with GS properly. I also have a nifty set of tweezers with a little light on which can be useful for working with smaller bits.

Tips

I'm not a GS expert but there's a few things I've picked up:

• Always work wet, so have a water source to hand - dipping the tool in is enough
• Always use more than you need, adding more GS is a nightmare compared to removing excess
• Get the pieces secure for working with, such as tweezers or drilling into the bit to hold it if it's small
• Make pauses to review your progress often
• Practice makes perfect, so keep at it and pushing your boundaries and accept the inevitable failures
• Don't feel the need to do it all at once, you can do a bit and let it cure and return to enhance it with additions (such as sculpted details)

Last but not least remember that if I can do it anyone can, so don't be afraid to give it a try You might surprise yourself and discover a hidden talent

Sourcing a Head

Needs to be helmetless of course, but you want to be able to work the beret on so too many strange details might get in the way. Fortunately that's unusual so if you have a head without a helmet then you can almost certainly put a beret on it without too much effort. Things like ear pieces with antennae are fine, and can give a cool appearance while also providing some variety between berets. I'm using a Space Marine Scout head here:

Preparing the Bit

You'll need to remove any hair and details so you can properly sculpt the beret on. Remember that it's a piece of cloth so will be very close to the head so you don't want much in between as the GS will provide that thickness. Making them look bald is ideal but it doesn't need to be perfect.

Blue and Yellow Stuff

Cut a bit of the GS off, try to gauge how much you need. This isn't easy so it's better to have too much than too little, it's also why it's a good idea to do several at once along with efficiency. A GS beret uses very little, so a slice can go quite far. I like to remove the central bit where the two colours meet as that can be harder and of less use:

Roll the bits together over and over until it's a uniform colour of green (a bit like Lorien Green). You're then ready to start work! Cut a bit off about the size of a pea to work with first, I like to store the rest in my water so it doesn't quite dry out so fast. I've no idea if this is a good idea but it works for me

The Tutorial

Just blob it on the head, no need to accurate:

Then with a wet tool work it down and over the head, working gradually. Circular motions work well but don't be afraid to push/pull it around if you need at this early stage. You should see that even by putting a relatively small bit of GS on the model you're still going to have too much but this is fine:

Once you've flattened it out you can remove the excess from the face and down. A sharp knife and a gentle hand will do this easily without risk of damage. Pull the GS down more if you have to, the worst that happens is you'll need to repeat this process a few more times. Once the beret is closer to the head then you can work on the actual sculpting, such as starting to smooth it out:

Berets go from left to right, so pull the GS down from the centre towards the right side of the model in a similar way to previously. This creates the slant and again don't worry about excess and keep the tool wet! Once you've got this you can great the fold at the front and rear, I do this by pressing the tool and pulling down once more, giving the overlap.

Don't forget to periodically stop and give it a good look to see how it's coming along, as well as removing excess. After a couple of goes you'll get something like this:

Don't forget the back, though it doesn't need as much detail as nobody will look at it:

Then it's just a matter of working at it until you're happy, a wet tool and gentle motions will smooth the GS out nicely - patience is key as ever. As you progress you'll want to stop to check and clean more often so you don't overcook it, remember that it's easiest to remove GS and you can always pull it all off and start again if it goes pear shaped

After a bit more work I got this:

Just a bit of cleaning and he's done! You can add a little aquila if you like, a small triangle would do it but I just paint it on. It takes a few hours for GS to cure, I like to leave it 24 hours to be on the safe side and apart from that life usually means it takes longer than that before I can return to it anyway...

Hopefully this tutorial helps you get your feet with with GSing and sculpting some berets - until someone more talented does a better tutorial that is! If you have any questions or clarifications please let me know, or add in your own pointers in the replies

[Pearson73]

Looks good, will have to try this!

[Vash]

For me the pictures could be a bit larger. 
What I usually do with GS (a tip from a GS sculpter), is to wet the GS as you work with your own saliva. Ordinary water has very high viscosity, while saliva has a lower. This makes it more like a "oil" and also sticks a bit better on the GS. 

Othervice  I like these tutorials! It encourages us all to dare to take the plunge into the GS world. 

[WarriorFish]

Saliva is good, but I'm not going to be telling people to spit on their models as part of a tutorial :P My eyes are too tired at the moment but I'll look at the pictures again later, also to make sure they're in the right order :)

[Vash]

Saliva is good, but I'm not going to be telling people to spit on their models as part of a tutorial My eyes are too tired at the moment but I'll look at the pictures again later, also to make sure they're in the right order

Ha ha :D of course not.

But one could suggest it in a professional way. Well in the end its up to the reader to interpret it.

I have one more suggestion or perhaps a request :D

Could we get a picture of a painted beret head?

[WarriorFish]

Here's a painted beret, nothing special but you can see that it's easy enough to paint a symbol on instead of sculpting one:

[Vash]

Thanks!

With paint and a slightly larger picture the beret really pops!

 

Don't say its nothing special, its a home made beret! How many home made one do I have?... zero. That means score WarriorFish!

[WarriorFish]

I will be trying to get my tools and GS out more often to dust off the cobwebs and try and progress some more. I did some minor carapace work with the spare GS after this tutorial and it turned out ok. I wasn't aiming for anything fancy but it was a reminder to practice more - and not to do it in a dark evening when tired!

 

I hope to see some more crafted berets posted up soon ;) I will return to the images to see if I can improve them when I get some spare time :tu:

[elmo]

Nice tutorial. Just a shame that I have loads of Scion beret heads laying around or I would have a go too :)

[Vash]

Nice tutorial. Just a shame that I have loads of Scion beret heads laying around or I would have a go too

After 8 boxes of Tempestus Scions I feel like you do. 9 Beret heads in each... thats a whooping 72 heads with berets!

[WarriorFish]

I have updated the tutorial, sorted some larger images :)