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.

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.

Progress in clay

So upon closer inspection, I realized that while the sculpt may have been of chibi scale, it wasn't the SD scale. I cut off part of the bottom of the sculpt and then filled in the armature again. It is closer to the SD scale now. Scale creep is insidious!

The nice thing about clay is that you don't have to wait for anything to cure. You can just carry on working with it from start to finish, if you have that kind of time. I don't but it does mean I don't have to wait for putty to cure now so there is no need for multiple ongoing projects.

I am currently working on the helmet of the guy. It has been quite enjoyable so far. Oh yes, I bought some new tools for clay-shaping last week and have been trying them out. They turned out to be very nice to use so I will be talking about them in the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

Details...

So I have come to the stage where details are added to the miniature and corrections are made where needed. This is the stage when the littlest blobs (smidgeons, literally) of putty are used and it can be a frustrating process. The idea of course, is to perservere. Hold that image of perfection in your head and do not allow for compromise. With this, you may be able to achieve 50% of what you had set out to do initially (more, if you have attained a higher level of mastery).

Over time and over many attempts, your ignorant hands will bend to your mind's indomitable will. And if you believe what scientists say, don't neglect your meals while exercising your willpower because hunger saps much of it away.

Even with knowledge of this, you can see that my willpower is still unable to master my stubborn, clumsy hands completely.

Speaking of blobs of putty, one tip for budding sculptors that I discovered to be rather important. The amount of putty you peel off from the main blob that you mixed has to be at least approximately the right size for that thing you are sculpting. Don't be afraid to scrape away more if even that tiny blob you took was too much. After all, what is a little wasted putty if your sculpt looks better for it?

Well, that is it for today. See ya next time.

The Best Part...

So if I were asked (not that anyone has, mind you), which part of the sculpting process I like best, I would have to say that it would be this stage of the sculpt.

At this point, it is all anticipation, all promise and all hope. The concept (either on paper, in a photo or in one's head) is perfect. It is probably the only time that I can feel that it is perfect. It is what I want to achieve.

Front! Couldn't tell, could'ya?

... and back...

 

 I'll save myself the sheer embarrassment of posting up the picture of the concept. That isn't the point I am making anyway.

The point that I am making is that the beginning of all things always look brightest and best. They feel fresh and we are filled with the vigor of hope. You will see how this feeling kinda gets replaced by other emotions. We'll get to that soon enough.

Back to my point: I think hope is one of the most important emotions in life. On an individual level, it gives one a purpose, a reason to go on, to look forward to something. I remember asking a friend why he was buying the lottery and he turned to me and said,"Well, I am buying hope." Silly as it sounded, it kind of resonated with me. Not in the way that made me want to buy the lottery but in the way got me thinking about life, the universe and all that.

On a societal level, it brings out a willingness to cooperate, to keep things going, to preserve things so that we and our children can have a future that is better if not as good as the present. 

And so, hope...

Moving on, I can't for the life of me remember who said it but someone said that it is not how we start that matters but how we finish. And from the life experiences I had, perhaps I could add that the true measure of a man is also seen in what he decides to do when he's wading knee-deep in s***. That's soot to you young uns out there.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be pushing putty again soon...