myradale

So I picked up this wonderful sculpt by Jason Wiebe. It's chock full of detail, potions, scrolls, rings...you name it. But one thing is missing...his weasely friend. What good wizard is without his faithful familiar? So I decided to give him one that's removable, using rare earth magnets [1/8" x 1/8", I got mine at Lee Valley Tools, but they can be found a lot of places] First off I used a 1/8" drill in a dremel tool to countersink the rare earth magnets. I crack them in pieces with sidecutters, it's pretty easy to get 1/8" diameter 1/32" tall disks. Each of the figures gets it's own magnet. I've tried using a single magnet and a piece of steel, but this works a lot better. I secured the magnets in place with a little greenstuff, and also used it to cover up the obvious depression. I also figured this dward wizard could use an imp friend as well... like this plastic one from WOTC I drilled a hole in the imps chest, and a matching hole in the dwarf's staff. And Voila....[with a little bad painting] It goes from this... To this... Simple, and now I can actually USE the familiar figures.

I find a plastic or glass tube is excellent to roll out the stuff liek a rolling pin. Just make sure you keep it reasonably moist so it won't stick. Light pressure, and a lot of repetitions works much better than heavy pressure and trying to hit your thinkness in one pass.

It's as gross as can be, but the best thing to keep putty or greenstuff off your blades is good old fashioned nose sweat.

I'm with Herr Oberfroschmeister, I hate to be negative, because this is actually a FANTASTIC piece for a third or fourth attempt (AND much better than I'm capable of), but I don't think you're here for just mindless praise. (you just don't seem that type) If you decide to try one like this again, perhaps a more squat and dynamic pose? Widen the stance, and lower the torso? I think that would give a much more "badger-esque" feel to the piece. His upright and calm stance doesn't really fit the shear ferocity associated with badgers. I do love the armor... the straps on the back are great, and the little handprint symbol on the front is an excellent detail. His face shows a lot of character, well done there. He just seems too calm for my perceptions of a lycanthrope warrior. Anyway... all in all an excellent sculpt, I'm really impressed with your progress. I've been sculpting in clay and metal for over 15 years, and I'm still not good enough with the "green stuff" to brave these pages.

I just checked out Chastity's profile and it turns out she's a Canuck like me! Yay. I was actually wondering if there were any people from my neck of the woods around on this board. Well, "my neck of the woods" is a pretty broad statement. Vancouver, BC... Edmonoton Alberta... heck there's only 14 hours of winding mountain roads between us. Anyone out there from Edmonton? Or know of any painting resources in Edmonton a guy should check out?

Ok, I was hoping to find a moderately stylish picture of myself to put up here. I think I may have found JUST the thing!

I sent a couple of pics to David already. Mostly my other stuff, don't remember if this was in there. He's a pretty busy guy, so I don't expect to see the "customer work" section to appear on the website any time soon. He DID mention that he may be doing more generics, dwarves, halflings, wizards and the like...so everyone should mail him and get that hurried along. I like sculpting them even more than painting them! Oh...and here's the bigger pic of him painted... sorry...not the best paint job, I know, but I'm still learning.

Figured I'd throw up the completed pic

Ok, the guys at Bronze age Mini are now some of my favorite people in the world. Their "generic" minis allow even novice sculptors like myself a great chance to turn out halfway acceptable products. And how else are you going to get a blindfolded Justicar of Tyr wearing chainmail and fighting with a set of manacles?

There's a new Sculpey out that's flexible after curing. It works great for this kind of thing, as you can sort of "peel" it back from things, allowing for slight undercuts. As well, sculpy sets at 275C, which is cool enough that a lot of things you'd be molding (rock, metal) won't have any problems if you fire the sculpy while it's still on the original. I did some nice rock piller molds one time that way. I just wrapped the flexible sculpy around the original, baked it and cut the sculpy free when it was cured. A perfect 3D mold that you can use with sculpy, greenstuff (make sure to wet the mold, or the greenstuff will stick) or casting resin/plaster. The flexible stuff is a little more expensive, and not quite as nice to work with, but it's DEFINITLY worth the extra price and effort.

Green stuff does have a very long sculpt time (about 1-2 hours) but depending on the humidity and temperature of your room, it can undergo rapid changes in sculpting characteristics. I's up in Edmonton, Canada...a landlocked winterbound heck (sorry, I'm bitter, there's STILL a half foot of snow on the ground here), and it's remarkably dry. I find that as greenstuff dries, it becomes more rubbery and less sticky. This is good for most things, as it will stick less to your tools and cause you less problems, but sometimes it's a pain to get it to stick to the metal. For that reason, if you are working in any kind of dry enviroment, I suggest that you apply the epoxy to the model as soon as possible, and then shape it while it's on. I find (especially if you're a SLOW sculpter like me) that if you put a thin skin of putty on the fig quickly, you can then take your time and sculpt all the detail into it (working with progressively finer and finer detail). As the putty dries, it becomes more rubbery and so you are less likely to destroy it as you add detail. Very important is finding something to base your mini on so you can hold it firmly while you work... no matter WHAT the stage of cure, greenstuff always seems to manage to pick up a stray fingerprint or two if you're not careful. I've had no real troubles with greenstuff durablity on the table. As long as you have a good armature holding up any thin or delicate pieces, you shouldn't have any trouble. Cured greenstuff is still pretty flexible, not brittle, so it should bend rather than chip or break.

Do you have a Dremel tool? I find the easiest way to do this is chop the staff off above and below the hand, and then sort of "scoop out" the staff from inside the hand with a carving burr. (actually, the easiest way is to cut the hand clean off and resculpt the hand, but if you are unsure of your sculpting abilities, this is better)

Ok, that's just BRILLIANT.

I kinda like the corpse idea. Either as a "my friend has fallen in service to you" or "I offer up the body of your enemies" thing.

Yeah, just down at the base of the horn. If you wanted to go really fancy, get some chains and lead them back from the collar to your barbarian. By the way, I've just got to say this is one of the most original conversions I've seen!