IT IS DONE!

Ok I have gone over the mini and refined the back armor. Ready for the molding process now!

Tidying up

Ok so the hands are done and the process is almost complete! The whole mini has been sculpted and now I can do the final checking and refinements where needed. Here it is, pre-final adjustments...

Halberd completion

Work on the halberd is almost complete. I just need to sand down the parts that are uneven and it is done. Next up, hands to connect the weapon to its owner.

I have also added a mock up of what the completed sculpt might look like, with the help of some blu tack.

The Sum of Its Parts...

Putty work on the shoes of our little friend has been done and the beginnings of his hands have been put in place.

Yes, my previous job was a traffic policeman...

The halberd is coming along, albeit not without quite a lot of adjustments as I grapple with the placement of things and how to secure them. I am not displeased with the progress but the process can sometimes be frustrating (as is the case with putty work).

Weaponize!

I have made some progress on the head of the halberd. For epoxy putty, it is mostly an additive process; sculpting is done inside out. I tend to wait for one layer of putty to cure before working on top of it. Having something stable underneath to push a fresh layer of putty about is helpful in my books so this tends to be a slow process. Brown stuff sands down well, unlike green stuff, which is why the halberd is sculpted fully in brown stuff.

Baked!

Okay, so the clay part is done and I've baked the sculpt. I managed to catch the mistake that the collar of the armor had not been sculpted so I rectified that before baking. From this, I realized that for clay sculpting, it is very important to go over the whole sculpt just before baking to make sure that everything is actually really done before going on to do it. Really should do it, since clay affords one the option. Don't think of checking things over as a chore, but an opportunity to get things right. This applies to many things in life, not just sculpting.

I've also gone on to do the dude's weapon, which will be a guan dao, or a Chinese halberd. I started with the business end of the weapon and took the decision to do the whole bit in brown stuff this time, since it is good for filing and sanding, unlike green stuff or Procreate. Could I have done it in clay? Well, yes, but clay is pretty brittle after baking and this bit is going to be top-heavy (the chibi proportions I am working with will have the head of the weapon big, while the shaft will be thin and narrow) so it might topple over and break/shatter. Anyway, here is a pic of how far along the head of the guan dao is:

So in stages, here is how I am sculpting this:

I start with the armature. Put beside its owner to show the scale.

Wrap the putty around the armature like so. I am leaving part of the armature exposed to show how it is done. Refer to the completed bulked out shape in the first pic of this post to see the end result of the first stage.

My New Sculpting Tools and a Piece of Concept Art

So I am very conscious of the phrase "A bad workman blames his tools". However, many a time, I find that the right tools do help make the job much easier to do. From potato peelers to the right screwdriver. So it is with sculpting.

I bought these from a local craft shop and have slowly learnt to use different parts of it for different uses. The ball tip initially confused me, since I have only ever used a spade-like tip and a knife to sculpt. As I rolled it around the clay bits, I quickly realized how fantastic it was to sculpt stuff with. It's kinda hard to show how it works (except maybe through a video), but video format for now just isn't for me. I bet there are plenty of tutorials on youtube for this though.

Here are what they look like:

I like the fact that they come in so many sizes.

Also, I have taken the plunge and decided to post up a piece of concept art for my next sculpt. I drew it myself and yep, I'm no great pencil artist.

Spider-lady! She will probably be the of this particular set.

The reason why I finally decided to put up my concept art despite my reservations about my pencil skills is that I want to force myself to try and sculpt as close to the design I thought of initially. The question that comes to mind, of course, is "Is that so hard?"

Well, yes kinda. When I sculpt, I try to keep in mind that this will end up being cast. Well, whether or not it does is debatable, but I want to try and work within the correct constraints and stuff that gets cast have to be well, 'castable', at least for metal or resin. This means that I have to think about the parts on the miniature that cannot be too thin (such that it would break easily, which is bad for the hobbyist), parts that may have annoying air bubbles, undercuts that are too severe and balance that against having too many parts to assemble, which makes the miniature more fragile for gameplay, can be finicky to assemble and is a time-consuming process.

Maybe I am over-thinking it. I should just get back to sculpting.

Completion Part 1

... And done! I am really bouyed by the fact that the mini at the clay stage is done! It is now time to go over it to ensure there are no accidental blemishes and then he is ready to bake!
You might have noticed that I changed the inner chainmail skirt to cloth. The main reason for this is for painting. With chainmail AND the outer scale armor, I felt that there might be too much metallic paint on one part of the mini and I wanted to give a visual reminder of the color of the inner garment on another part of the sculpt other than the sleeves. It's probably just a personal thing.
Anyway, this stage is done and on to the baking and putty sculpting bit next!

 

 

Nearing Completion

The upper half of my first ever chibi sculpt is more or less done. I will of course have to go over the whole thing again before baking but it is there. I am currently working on the bottom half, which has the initial markings for the chainmail interior and trim for the outer scale armor partially marked out. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Clay is relatively non elastic and crumbly compared to epoxy putty and I strongly suspect not very good for sculpting the hands of the thing so I will be using Procreate for that after baking. So yes, there is still a fair bit to go (hands and weapon) but still, it is reaching completion and that is at least one reason to be happy. If there are some people who like the end result, well, more to be happy about.