As May is rapidly approaching, and I want to take part in Monster May(hem) again over on Keith's site angrypiper I thought it would be a good idea to have some monsters prepared so I can spend the time painting rather than building. I thought I would show you how I approach building one. First you need a frame, now there are many materials you can use, so what I use is a guideline, and not the only way. I've recently started using foam on bigger models to cut down costs and time to get the bulk of the shape, and for the limbs I've used paperclips, as they are easy to get hold of, cheap, and easy to bend.
After this stage if you are doing fur of scales instead of skin, I build the basic muscle shapes, to give a surface to work against when I come to texture the model. If I was doing bare skin, I would sculpt it straight to the paperclip like I did with the Ogre. An idea on how muscle groups are placed on the anatomy and how they function is very useful for this stage.
Once the above stage is dry you can then add the texture, by laying a layer of green over the top of the muscle structure, and then working the texture in, as this one is covered in fur, I started at the end of a limb and using small strokes added the layers of the fur in, if you want longer fur, you use longer strokes, and if you want a rough fur look, use sweeping strokes in multiple directions, always working down but either left or right, to give the rough look.
Once the fur was dry, I then added all the spikes, the rough fur helped, with the green sticking to it because of the texture. Once painted this will give me the second Clawed Fiend I need for my Wych Cult army.
I've started another fantasy monster, as my choice for Rogers challenge would have been a Dragonkin, I didn't voice my choice on Roger's site as I wanted to see what everyone else wanted, knowing I could build my choice anyrate, and this is how far I've got so far, I'm making it castable, so it will be available on my site, it will have armour added. That's all for this post so until next time stay safe and have fun !
Cheers Dave
Great tutorial and fantastic results! Very inspirational, if I'll ever try sculpting whole miniatures I'll definitely keep your tips in mind.
ReplyDeleteThank you Snapfit, the same techniques can be used on conversions as well, which is where I learnt these skills myself.
DeleteA vertiable masterclass in Greenstuff, Dave. That Dragonkin is so cute. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Simon, hopefully people find it useful, needed to get the Dragonkin done as it was taking up valuable space in my head ! LOL
DeleteCrikey Dave, those are brilliant! :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you John, I think this version of the Clawed Fiend is better than the first one I did.
DeleteOh, fantastic, thank you for sharing, I've found this tutorial super useful, lovely to see the step by step. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you Suber, always happy to answer questions and show how, when I can.
DeleteThat's an excellent step by step example of your expert sculting skills - very informative.
ReplyDeleteThank you Joe, the biggest piece of advice I can give is keep practicing as with any skill, the more you do it the better you get.
DeleteThat's incredible! Really cool seeing the step by step on your monster and an amazing looking monster to boot! :D
ReplyDeleteThank you Brian, looking forward to painting both of these in May, and hopefully a few others, if I ever get them finished ! LOL
DeleteCool looking monsters. You did a great job. 😀
ReplyDeleteThank you Stewart, the Dragonkin still needs a lot more work, but it's getting there.
DeleteHe is looking fearsome Dave, great job
ReplyDeleteThank you, wanted a more prowling pose for this one.
DeleteAlways enjoy seeing how people go about creating their minis or converting existing ones. Thanks for sharing Dave and those beasties are very impressive!
ReplyDeleteThank you Dai, wanted to show, that you can be quite messy in the build up layers before adding the detail, as a lot of people get put off in the messy stages.
DeleteYou're not wrong there. That's partly the reason I have avoided trying to sculpt my own minis in the past and just stuck to small conversions instead, far less impactful on the ego!
DeleteLOL to be honest mate, if you can make conversions that don't look mutated, then a full build isn't that big a step, and if it turns out looking like a mutant, tell people that's what you were building from the start ! LOL
DeleteGreat stuff mate, and a nice "how-to" post to boot, I like that Dragonkin, people just have a habit of not voting as we'd wish 😉. (Boris is a testament to that! 🤣🤣🤣).
ReplyDeleteCheers Roger.
Thank you Roger, hoped you'd like the how to, thinking of painting the Dragonkin during Monster May(hem then combining with the Savage Ogre into a duel for your challenge in September.
DeleteSuper tutorial and great looking sculpt!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you Iain, the same techniques can be used on conversions as well, so hopefully it will be useful to many.
DeleteThese are both great looking sculpts and they look like they'll be fun to paint as well. I still think GW should commission you to flesh out their Dark Eldar aka Drukhari line a bit more. I'm not holding my breath for them to do either of those things though!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeff, I've hidden the Clawed Fiend at the back of the desk so I'm not tempted to paint him before the challenge ! LOL I would strongly advise not holding your breath on those points, as GW only works in 3D sculpts now, and even Simon Egan who did all the Forgeworld Primarchs is being moved onto 3D sculpting !
DeleteWow. I need to get out more. I assumed you'd be sculpting your own minis for Monster May(hem) Dave, I just didn't know you'd preview them here! That clawed fiend is just sick, and I'm loving that Dragonkin, too...and I generally hate Dragonkin! Watching you work is inspirational.
ReplyDeleteThat Dragonkin will be in my next order for Roger's challenge. Will the fiend also be castable?
Thank you Keith, this year should be a mix of sculpts by me, and some bought models. As I was spending so much time building models it was the only thing I had to show for several posts ! LOL Have seen a few Dragonkin, but wanted something different, and glad you like it, unfortunately the fiend is too close to GW's version to release, so that one wont be cast. The Dragonkin is already moulded, and should be available early May, as soon as I've painted it for Monster May(hem)
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