Reaper dollies

[jdizzy001]

I bought some reaper dollies... How do I use them? Sure I could cut off the featureless head and hands then replace them with already sculpted features, but I really want to try my hand at this (HA, pun intended). How do these things work?

[Glitterwolf]

I believe these are meant to be the "skeletons" for you'r sculpt.

 

So basically that is done and you can sculpt details on it.

[jdizzy001]

I knew they were skeletons, very fleshy skeletons, but the head for example, do I cover it in green stuff then start sculpting?

[Glitterwolf]

I knew they were skeletons, very fleshy skeletons, but the head for example, do I cover it in green stuff then start sculpting?

 

That's the idea. It provides the base for the head, you can add the face and hair with GS or putty.

Very curious what you will sculpt BTW

[Froggy the Great]

Like this:  

 

[BLZeebub]

 

I knew they were skeletons, very fleshy skeletons, but the head for example, do I cover it in green stuff then start sculpting?

That's the gist. Kind of depends on if you got dollies or advanced dollies (skinnier skeleton, therefore you have to do more work to build them up). But the idea is to apply some GS to whatever part you're sculpting and...sculpt it. For instance, do a rough face shape or just a nose or just a pony tail. At least with GS, the idea is to let it cure before messing around with adding to it--basically you get to save your progress at each step.

 

 

Like this:

 

Dang Froggy, that's some prolific work. And they look cool (and a little eerie).

[kitchen_wolf]

It's like doing a conversion, but without that tedious "removing the bits you don't want" process.

[Speak_Centurion]

Which ones did you buy? http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/armature

 

Head swaps are by far the simplest and easiest thing you can do, the only thing you need to learn to do that is how to drill & pin. Tip: Always lubricate the drill-bit.

If you want to try your hand at sculpting, sculpting heads & faces is very, very hard. It's fun, but trust me, I've been practicing for years and I still can't quite sculpt  a head to professional standards.. getting there, but OMG I have lost count of the number of times I have failed. Hundreds of times. Literally hundreds. Some things are a lot eaier to sculpt; backbacks, bags, pouches. That kind of thing, those are easy to do and they'll look good.

 

Wnhat are you sculpting with btw? Greenstuff? Polymer clay?

[Bruunwald]

He hijacked the thread.

 

But he did it with style.

[Mad Jack]

 The dollies are just another form of sculpting armature... They've just taken some of the work out of bulking out the armature and filling in the proportions of the figure.

Adding in the final details is all that's left - i.e., sculpting the finer details on top of the metal figure... Much like I'm doing using this Bones skeleton. (I'm only sculpting on a robe to turn it into an undead wizard, but if I were to sculpt on the flesh and hair to turn it into a regular person, it would be just the same as if I'd used one of the sculpting dollies.)

 

 The advanced dollies are basically just the figure's skeleton, which you can easily pose as needed, and then add a thin layer of greenstuff over them to hold the figure in the desired position before beginning to bulk it out and add details.

The basic dollies have all the musculature already on them, but are still thin at the joints to be able to be posed. If necessary, you can also cut a small wedge of material out of the joint area to make it more easily bendable and more anatomically accurate-looking when bent.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Mad Jack

[hosercanadian]

I am currently sculpting a model from one of their dollies.  I am intending to sculpt the hands and head separately.  I will amputate and reattach once sculpted.  I personally am going that route as the featureless head is the right size for a head...but the recessed details (eyes) will be too far out if I don't.  Likewise the hand balls are a bit out of scale.

[jdizzy001]

I bought the non heroic dollies. As hoser mentioned the head and hands look like they are already to scale so I wasn't sure if I should remove them or sculpt over the top of them. I love very static poses for my minis, I find they tell more of the character's personality as opposed to dynamic battle poses. I plan to sculpt with green stuff as I have been using that for all of my other conversions. I have sculpted minor things in the past, hands, belts, straps, buckles even a face once over an undeads face but it didn't go so well. Point being, I have some experience using green stuff and experience sculpting but I have never engaged in a project this big before. I plan to sculpt an easy concept first, a simple adventurer with light armor and a sword. Nothing fancy but since it has been done hundreds of times by other sculptures I have lots of reference materials.

[TGP]

Like this:  

 

 

I remember the Tobor Army.

[Speak_Centurion]

I'm not sure what those non-heroic dollies are made of, but I would guess they are pewter, in which case they will be prone to cracking when you try to pose them. I've never tried it myself but I've read that you can make a pewter miniature more malleable simply by soaking it in boiling water; obviously you'll need something to hold it with other than your fingers when you do this. Pewter definitely has a tendency to crack when it's cold. If it does break, you can repair it with a pin.

 

 

Don't cut the heads or hands off unless you plan to do swaps on them, you only need to apply a very tiny amount of Greenstuff to create the faces, and I do mean really tiny. However small an amount you are thinking of now, halve it and halve it again and you'll still probably have twice as much as you need. Learn to work with those teeny tiny amounts. You might want to drill holes through the hands before you start to accomodate pins for weapon handles; the female version has very tiny hands so it might be easier to take a file and grind a groove into the hand rather than mess around with a drill-bit.

 

Mount your dolly on a cork or some kind of cylindrical object that is comfortable to hold - glue it on or use a bit of greenstuff. I nearly forgot: give the dollies a wash before you start; the same as with painting, the greenstuff won't stick very well if there is release-agent all over the mini.

 

Expect to make mistakes. There are two basic approaches to learning to sculpt, one is to remove anything you're not happy with and do it again and again until you get it right, the second is to just get on with it and complete the whole thing and not worry if it turns out looking goofy. In hindsight I think I should have gone with option #2, but that's just me.

 

When you sculpt the light armour, don't forget the straps. Buckles can be tricky so you might want to cheat a little bit and leave them out.

[Mad Jack]

I'm not sure what those non-heroic dollies are made of, but I would guess they are pewter, in which case they will be prone to cracking when you try to pose them.

 

 They're the same metal as all the other Reaper minis. Although they're somewhat restricted to a relatively static pose, you can actually get a fairly decent amount of range from their original position without too much trouble - more if you cut notches in the joints when posing them. You just need to take into account the changes in the shape of the muscles from the start position to the final pose and adjust your sculpting accordingly.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Mad Jack