Grand Warseer Sculpting Challenge

[sigur]

This was my point when I suggested the same thing above. Duke Donald commented on the thing in his latest post anyway.

[Chimp Lord]

So far the minatures look great. I try and get some images of my attempts up.

[Student]

Wouldn't it also be interesting to have a more general theme once in a while to get the creative juices flowing? Something like "fairy tales", "holidays" (when it's the time of course ), "post apocalyptic" or something like that?

Actually, thinking about it, this sounds cool and I've changed my mind. So that makes it fairly unanimous that the challenge is open to any theme.

[Chimp Lord]

As promised:
The start of my third and the continuation of my second attempts.

And some heads I have tried to create.

[Student]

Good to see that you've made a start Chimp Lord. What is the kneeling one going to be armed with?

[Duke Donald]

@Goblinho

I am not sculpting with it attached to the base, I hold it in my drill. I'll try and take a pic next time to show what I mean.

I understand what you mean and this strikes me as a sensible approach a sensible approach.

Really liking what you've done so far, I'm dreading doing the hands on mine but you've done a really good job on yours.

Thanks, I agree that sculpting hands can be quite challenging, actually more so than faces. ; good luck with yours.

Anyway here is my update, my first attempt at a face and although its rough I'm pretty happy with the result. Apart from that all I've done is some work on the grounded knee and leg. In terms of the length of the boot I used too much GS so when it comes to sculpting the foot I will be trimming it back. Never really worked on it at all yesterday but I'll try and do a bit today.

This is coming along nicely; I'm looking forward to seeing the next update.

@f2k

This tale does look kinda interesting. However, seeing as I’m currently running the Tale of Historical Wargammers I’m not sure I’m going to have the time to participate. In any case, aiming to get a sculpt done within a month is way too ambitious for me. I usually take much longer than that. But then again, sculpting is never my primary spare time concern.

I've seen your Tale of Historical Wargammers and was tempted to participate with some pirates and privateers. However, my problem is that while I always seem to find the time for sculpting, I struggle to find the same motivation for painting stuff. Note that this is not really a classical Tale and there is no commitment to take part in all monthly challenges and anyone would be welcome to participate just in one theme on an ad hoc basis. You;'re not the first one who commented that one month may not be enough; as such we decided to announce the themes a month in advance, thus leaving two month to finish a mini.

.

I do wonder though: why not do something non-GW related? I mean no offence, but you’re spending your time sculpting something which has already been sculpted many times before. Why not try something new and far more generic?

Verms1 and Sigur raised this point earlier and there has been a discussion about it on this log. A consensus ha emerged that some of the themes will be far more generic.

@Chimplord
It's a great to see than another participant joining in. The kneeling body (which I understood was attempt 2) is actually well proportioned apart form the feet that are far too big. However, that could be fixed easily. The first and second heads are also OK and could even look pretty decent if you added some hair/beard/headgear .

@everyone
It's nice to see that a consensus has emerged on widening the themes in the future. Given the demand, I feel that the theme for the third month should be a generic one.

[Steam_Giant]

Chimplord the head on the left is looking good.

Student nice work on the puffy trousers.

Can someone tell me what the theme is please ?

[f2k]

@f2k

I've seen your Tale of Historical Wargammers and was tempted to participate with some pirates and privateers. However, my problem is that while I always seem to find the time for sculpting, I struggle to find the same motivation for painting stuff. Note that this is not really a classical Tale and there is no commitment to take part in all monthly challenges and anyone would be welcome to participate just in one theme on an ad hoc basis. You;'re not the first one who commented that one month may not be enough; as such we decided to announce the themes a month in advance, thus leaving two month to finish a mini.

I know what you mean. I love converting and doing a bit of resculpting, but as soon as it's time to paint I start loosing interest. Which, incidentaly, is why I'm doing the 653rd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion as that will allow me to do a bit of converting while painting.

Still, unles you want to play The Silver Hoard, painting is sorta a requirement so I try to force myself to do it. I often fail, but at least I try...

Verms1 and Sigur raised this point earlier and there has been a discussion about it on this log. A consensus ha emerged that some of the themes will be far more generic.

I'm looking forward to that.

[Duke Donald]

@Steam_Giant

The July (current) theme is "State troop", August will be "Howling Banshee". Further themes will be announced in the first post of the log.

@f2k

I know what you mean. I love converting and doing a bit of resculpting, but as soon as it's time to paint I start loosing interest. Which, incidentaly, is why I'm doing the 653rd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion as that will allow me to do a bit of converting while painting.
Still, unles you want to play The Silver Hoard, painting is sorta a requirement so I try to force myself to do it. I often fail, but at least I try...

This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the hobby. I don't like playing with unpainted minis, but then I nearly systematically lose my motivation when having to paint a large number of figures. As a results, I don't play much and sit on a heap of of unfinished projects. Good luck with 653rd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion. I guess taking part in a tale helps keeping up with the motivation.

I hope that you'll feel inspired enough by the next generic theme to participate in the challenge.

[AlexHolker]

Just saw this, and I reckon I'll have a go.

I'll start sculpting tomorrow but in the meantime, a preliminary sketch.

[Student]

@AlexHolker: Welcome to the challenge. The sketch looks promising, I'm looking forward to seeing it develop.

@Duke Donald: The Howling Banshee is the theme for August. September hasn't been decided yet.

Again I've not made much progress but I have added arms and a bit of a sleeve.

[Duke Donald]

@AlexHolker
Lovely sketch, I'm looking forward to seeing your sculpt.

@Student
Oops, thanks for spotting it. It should definitely have read August, I've edited my post.

Your sculpt is coming along nicely. I was just wondering whether the right arm wasn't a bit too long.

[Verm1s]

@Verms1

I've tried using an excess of yellow before and tried it again today following your advice, not with much success I must admit. I was struggling to keep it sticking in place and not tearing it. I'll try again for the next project but I suspect I will have to change the way I sculpt and it may take me a while to get used to it.

I admit that since I use the 'claylike' putties a lot, I've had to develop a softer touch to prevent tearing, non-sticking etc. So I maybe didn't realise the problems others would have with similar situations. E.g. more yellow in the greenstuff.

With this next stage of my state trooper, that's not the only time my advice didn't go so well, or that I should've paid more attention to it, myself. Some embarassing mistakes made, but I think it could be useful to show them off...



Firstly, I said the bent ends of the wire would reduce the chances of them coming loose, not prevent them entirely. It'll keep that arm and the spear out of the way anyway, 'til I can sculpt the detail underneath. Those're my excuses and I'm sticking to them.

For the surface details I decided to switch from the 'bulking out' mix of GS + apoxie sculpt, to GS + procreate. Partly to demonstrate another kind of putty, partly to keep low memory while adding a bit more 'stretch' to the mix. But it caused a few problems...

I said I use a lot of claylike putties, usually mixed with greenstuff. I think I'm so used to that kind of thing that I got a bit rusty with pure 'elastic' putty, like the GS and procreate here. I forgot the kind of working window they have and how quickly procreate can lose it's stickiness - though in this case I'd say the time was shortened by the warm weather, too. I also didn't score most of the surface of the cured putty to help the fresh stuff stick, as I usually do.
This wasn't too much of a problem with the first part, the right leg, but gave me headaches later.

I pressed and skimmed the putty in a thin layer over the leg, partly filling the recesses and even allowing the higher areas to show throw the layer. I did this to try and mimic the effect of cloth breeches, stretched flat over raised areas and wrinkled over dips. And that was the next step - pressing some wrinkles into the covered recesses where the deeper putty allowed me to do so. The only exception was the knobbly knee, which was a thicker part of the layer itself, and had to be worked around a little more carefully.

So I'd completed one leg and decided to finish the other another time, and stored the remaining mixed putty in the freezer. The problem here is that the advice I usually give, is to freeze mixed putty when it's freshly mixed. In my experience, putty that's been sitting around a while usually continues to cure when frozen (more so than freshly-mixed), and can rapidly become unworkable when you take it out. That's what happened here.

I didn't just chuck it and mix fresh, but tried to save it by mixing fresh into it.
The result: difficult to stick; difficult to spread; difficult to smooth; difficult to press wrinkles and details; difficult to keep wrinkles and details, with the congealing putty's increasing memory. I tried so desperately to smooth the putty on the back of the leg that it started to peel away and tear, and wouldn't restick. Desperation is the reason for the baggy wrinkles just above the tears, too - pushing in any kind of detail before the putty became completely unworkable. I think I'll carve a lot of that layer off, mix fresh putty, and take my time.

The lesson (or TL;DR): don't stick (urgh) with putty if it becomes too tough and unworkable. Cut your tiny losses and mix fresh. If you mix too much in one go, freeze the excess straight away!

[Goblinho]

Quick update, learning that doing little bits at a time is giving me much more control over the form. Put a book on the shield, made a better job of the upper knee on the raised leg. Armour straps are on at the neck and behind the knee. Trimmed the boot to a better length. Hopefully get more done tomorrow, been a bit busy and just got a new job which I start a week on Monday so I'm really wanting to make a bit of headway next week.

[Appophis]

I've recently started trying to sculpt myself (trying to do some flamers of tzeentch for my word bearers) and once I have those done I might join in this competition if I'm feeling brave enough (though probably not for a month or two).

[Student]

@Goblinho: Your model is looking good. It has a sort of Discworld quality to it which is cool.

@Appophis: Feel free to join whenever you like. The more people that take part the better it will be.

I’ve made some progress on my trooper. As Duke Donald pointed out his arms were a bit too long so they’ve been trimmed and his right arm had been made to match the left. After that I added his breast plate and gave him hands.





The next step is the dreaded face. These haven’t turned out so well in the past, fingers crossed I make something that looks human this time.

[Verm1s]

Good hands. In a couple of senses!

[Duke Donald]

@Verms1
Your sculpt is looking good to me and I wouldn't have noticed the problems you've encountered. That said, thanks for the detailed account; I found it very interesting and instructive.

@Goblinho
It's nice to see your steady progress on your sculpt. BTW, good luck with your new job.

@Appophis
Please join the challenge whenever you feel ready.

@Student
Your mini is starting to look really good and a special mention for the hands.

[Student]

Thanks Verm1s and Duke Donald. I'm pretty pleased with the hands. My last attempt at hands ended up looking like they were on backwards so this is an improvement for me.

So I've put a head on my spearman. This is the best face I've done so far though I still think that his cheek bones are wrong and his eyes are a bit big and too far apart but any progress is good. Here is what he looks like now.







Next I'm going to put some buckles and straps holding his armour together.

[Duke Donald]

@Student
Looking cool! The eyes are a bit large but not ridiculously so. I also feel the cheekbones are not that wrong. To me, the biggest simple improvement would be to change the forehead. The way it is no, it seems the nose extends to above the eyebrows, whereas the forehead should be flat. I feel that's something you may still be able to fix at this stage.

Here's my entry. There are a few things that should be fixed or resculpted. However, there's so much time that I'm prepared to spend on a mini and I'd rather start working on something different. I'm also reasonably pleased with him given that this is the first "humanoid" mini I've sculpted in its entirety.