Field Report: Sculpting Tiny Details

Massive Voodoo is always putting something interesting up, this post by Roman is no exception.  Simple and to the point with a real impact on the final model, these little additions would be useful all over the wargaming spectrum.  The Britta water filter part is particularly interesting.  Though I might have to use my glass bead rivets instead, since I have those on hand.  The wood block sculpting surface looks to work perfectly as well, so I can see myself using that in the future. 

You can never go wrong with Massive Voodoo when you're trolling for inspiration!  I love the work those guys do.

Field Report: Sculpey Base

Did some surfing the other day and found a fantastic sculpting blog called LUDstuff. The first post I came across was this wonderful basing WIP. You really need to see what this guy is doing.

Have you posted an article to your own site recently? Read something amazing you think others should check out? Have an old link in your Bookmarks that you've been saving for a rainy day? We want to see em! Send your suggestions to ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com and we'll get the word out!

Field Report: Dune 40k Army

We're way outside the box today with a report which some of you may have seen before: a Dune-themed 40k army by Nicholas Kay. My favorite part are the Sandworms (counts as Land Raiders-- talk about a literal interpretation of the name) made from heat-deformed plastic water bottles. (You might not recognize his name, but if you've seen the Badab Campaign book or seen the 40k Radio website, you know the artist.)

Anyone got any other cross-genre or sci-fi count as 40k armies out there?

Friday Quick Tip: Ho-Ho-Ho, Traitor Scum!

Bell of Lost Souls author and local Black Templar player Bushido Red Panda swings by this Christmas with an extra dose of holiday spirit. You can check his work out at BoLS and his own blog; Bushido in the 41st Millennium.

I was finally able to finish my venerable dread from the earlier part of the year. I've always meant to give him the hat he deserved. I decided the best way would be to make it out of green stuff. I made the base first, and then made the hat to go on top of it. I finished off with the pom for the tip. I ended up having to re-glue the pom after it fell off, but it still worked fine.




The paints were a no-brainer...

The Order of the Silent Knight, spreading Christmas cheer throughout the galaxy... one massacre at a time.

Bushido Red Pando reports "the hat and beard are reserved for another project", so I can't wait to see what he's cooking up. Merry Christmas all!

Friday Quick Tip: Wet Dry Sandpaper

As many of you might know by now, I've taken some baby steps into the world of green stuff sculpting. It's a very fickle medium that takes a lot of what you might have learned in clay sculpture and turns it on it's head. The tools are the same, but different at the same time. The methods you need to employ, all the while seeming as though they are familiar, are a different beast entirely! This has led me to solicit help from my friend CMDante on the subject. In his Tutorial he has shown a lot of great tools and tips to get everyone off and running. One of those tools is Wet Dry Sandpaper!

I had a heck of a time figuring out just where I should get this essential sculpting tool. Turns out, Wet Dry Sandpaper is a common automobile painting and touch up tool! So I headed out to my local PepBoys and picked up a set of 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper for about $8. This set should last me quite a while, and gives me extra options for smoothness.


Cutting off a small square and picking out a good project to show it's worth on, I got to work. My original test was on a piece I can't tell you about just yet ( it's for my Dakka Painting Challenge entry! ), but luckily I had the test model I started working on last week!


As you can see, there is a bit of a dent in the shoulder pad. I want it to be a bit smoother with a more 'finished' look. So I got to sanding it down.


Use the sandpaper lightly as you start and press a bit more as you find the spots you need worked out more. I suggest folding it to fit the section you are working it. Be sure to pull back and see how your sanding is going every so often as you don't want to wear it down too much and damage other areas of the model!


Here you see the results of my initial sanding effort. The lighter areas are raised spots that caught the sandpaper with the darker green areas being recessed still even after a good bit of sanding. I highly suggest you start off like this before moving onto the next step as you can really get a feel for what needs to be filed down more.


Since I don't want to be here all day, I broke out a regular file and used the spotting from above as a guide as I worked the raised areas down and made the putty flush. You really need to watch what you are doing when filing down an area like this. Pull away after every two or three strokes of the file to see where you stand. Then make a decision on angle and hit it again. Do these extremely lightly as this can easily destroy all of your hard work!


To finish the putty off I hit it again with the 1500 grit sandpaper to smooth out any rough file marks that were still showing. A fast light pass over the entire area should do it, but again, it's up to you to watch your progress and pick out the areas that need more attention than others.

All in all, a super easy tool to use with amazing results. You can say bye-bye to all those seams and rough edges from here on out! And don't limit your use of the sandpaper to just putty! You can use it to get rid of mold lines on plastic and metal models too! I'm specifically reminded of a tip Lunchbox ( a golden demon winner ) shared once, that he uses wet dry sandpaper to remove those difficult and pesky mold lines on his models, like in between a Space Marines fingers.

I'd love to hear others experience in smoothing joins and lines in Green Stuff. If you've got a tip, we want to hear about it!

Sculpting Basics I

A Guest Article by CMDante

Following his recent acquisition of some colour shapers, coupled with his first forays into sculpting with Green Stuff, Grey_Death was kind enough to ask me to contribute a tutorial or two on sculpting. Having never written a proper tutorial before, I hope you will all forgive the inevitable mistakes I will make along the way!

This tutorial will cover some old ground and hopefully a few new insights as well. First, the old ground:

Tools

There are a few core sculpting tools that all sculptors should have. Below is a list of the tools I use along with their uses (See image 1. below).

• 1. Pin Vice - Used to drill holes for pinning and creating holes (for mesh, gun barrels etc).
• 2. Jewelers Files - Nice, small files for filing down plastic/resin/metal/cured putty. Good for making sharp edges in cured putty.
• 3. Clay Shapers - Used to shape putty and smooth surfaces. I mainly use the white chisel headed one to do most of the shaping and smoothing, with the bullet headed one being used for concave shapes and creating folds etc.
• 4. Metal Sculpting Tools - These are from a cheap Gale Force 9 set. The tool with a half round on one end and a blade on the other gets used a lot to blend putty into other surfaces (cured putty/resin/metal/plastic etc). The pointed tool is used to create fine details and small holes, hair, rips etc.
• 5. Scalpel - Used to cut plastic/resin/cured putty into shape and to remove any excess putty.
• 6. Paper Clips - Used as pins for pinning figures and as armatures for sculpting over.

Above is also a list of a selection of putties I use for sculpting (Image 2.):

• 1. Fimo (Champagne) - I haven't actually used this yet, but it comes highly recommended. A good material to practice with as it doesn't cure unless baked. When working with it, keep your work sealed in a jar in a shaded area to avoid any dust getting on the putty, or any accidental smudging. (Staedtler Fimo Classic Polymer Clay)
• 2. Green Stuff - The putty of choice for most sculptors. A 2 part epoxy resin that requires mixing before use. Can be mixed in different ratios in order to achieve a variety of sculpting times. The more yellow, the softer the mix will be and the longer the curing time, the more blue, the harder the mix will be and a shorter curing time. Knead thoroughly to ensure no lumps of yellow or blue otherwise they will ruin the finish as they won't cure properly.
• 3. Brown Stuff - Like Green Stuff, but a much firmer putty and more solid when cured, making it better for doing hard edged surfaces and mechanical parts.
• 4. Milliput - Super Fine - Used to bulk work on bases and also for making "Milliput washes" (milliput mixed with water), which are used to fill small impurities in resin and metal sufaces, and also in putty work. Washes can also be used in a thicker mix to fill small gaps and seams in sculpting and conversion work.
• 5. 1200 Grit Wet Dry Paper - Not a putty, but another tool used in conjunction with the putty. Used to sand surfaces to get a super smooth finish. I tend to sand all surfaces with this before painting in order to have a perfect surface to paint over. When sculpting, it can be used to sand out and seams and get a flush surface between putty and plastic/resin/metal/cured putty.

Now that, that is out of the road, on with the sculpting!

The Subject

The subject for this tutorial is a Victrix plastic Napoleonic Frenchman (example 1. below) which I am converting into a Rogue Trader. As the Victrix figures are a good deal smaller and thinner than Games Workshop's plastic figures, I will be using Green Stuff to bulk the figure out and to sculpt new feet in order to add some height to the figure.


The Sculpting

As can be seen in example 2 above, I have started by creating a rough base shape to work over for the feet. This was created by removing the original figures feet and putting two paper clip pins into the legs, running all the way down into the cork base. The rough shape of the feet was then built up over the paper clips and left to cure overnight. I always use a cork as a holder for sculpting projects as it is easy to push the pinned feet of models into, providing a nice large surface to hold onto that keeps your fingers away from the putty while you work on it. Champagne corks are best as they are nice and wide and have a nice flat, wide base to provide a stable surface for your work to stand on when you leave it to cure.


Putty is then added to the base work (See example 1 above) in order to add volume to the shape along with some basic details. The putty is then shaped and smoothed to form the shape of a booted foot (See example 2 above). No folds or creases are added on the boot at this stage as I find it easier to add these seperately once the shape is formed and cured. Where the freshly applied putty meets cured putty from the previous stage, the edges are smoothed into the previous layer using the half round end of the metal sculpting tool (See example 3 above). This is done with the metal tool as clay shapers aren't hard enough to press the putty flush, therefore leaving a fine seam that can show up in painting. The result of the smoothing with the metal tool can be seen in image (See example 4 above).


I began bulking out the legs, applying putty to one area at a time in order to provide room to work (1). The edges were smoothed with a metal tool before the bullet tipped clay shaper was used to add some folds around the knee and groin (See example 2 above and 1 below).


There are a few small imperfections in the putty on the thighs (See example 1 above), these will be filled with a milliput wash later and then sanded smooth. Putty was then applied to bulk out the jacket, pressed on into shape first with fingers (See example 2 above). The putty was then shaped as above, using the chisel tool to shape and smooth, the metal half round to smooth the edges into the plastic, and the bullet tool to create some light folds (See example 3 above).


As you can see, there is still a lot of work to do before the figure is finished, there is still a fair bit of shaping and volume to be added, along with the all important details, however these will be covered at a later time in a future tutorial on sculpting details.

Thanks again to Grey_Death for the opportunity, and thank you for reading. I hope that whether you are just starting out at sculpting, or if you have been sculpting for a while now, you will have picked up something of use here.

Cheers,

Dante

Alumilite Carver Set

When you're in and out of the local hobby shop, you're bound to find good alternatives for a lot of the hobby stuff you use for good prices. On a stop by the Hobby Lobby the other day, I happened upon just such a product. Everyone has seen the Games Workshop Sculpting tool in your local shop. It's a great starter tool for sure, and if you're hard up to find another place with anything comparable, it's a great piece of kit. But if you're eyes are sharp, and you find this Alumilite Carver Set, you'll be much happier with your purchase!

For around $10 you get 4 tools. A great value considering for $6, you only get one GW tool. They're all of similar style to the Games-Workshop version as well, so if you're already using the GW tool, these would be easy sub ins.


Each tool comes with a spatula/knife end that can be used to shape and cut your medium of choice. All four are different as you can see, so each would have different uses as you move forward through a project.




On the other end is a different assortment of tool ends for even more versatility. As you can see there is a rounded smoothing end just like on the GW tool. The others have more options for carving out and working your medium. The teardrop shaped carver has caught my attention the most out of this set and I find myself trying to come up with a project just so I can make use of it!
The one downfall of the kit is it's packaging. The plastic cover they used couldn't even keep the carvers in the package on the shelf, and once I had them out, I quickly dispatched of it to the trash bin.
For the price, compared to it's Games-Workshop counterpart, this set is really a no brainer.

We would love to hear about great, cheap, alternatives you've found around your hobby shops!