More 15mm Figure Sculpting

 

I've been experimenting with a new (to me) method of digitally sculpting 15mm figures in Blender, using a combination of rigging and assembly, and the first finished fruit of my labour is this 8th Army artilleryman, on the left. I've included an old metal Battlefront figure for scale.

That shell he's carrying is about the size for a 7.2" howitzer, which would make him a mighty Hercules of a man, since those things weighed just a tad over 200 pounds each.

I find I'll need to exaggerate surface detail like webbing and facial features quite a lot if I want them to resolve with the printer I have.

Eyeball Tentacle Monster - complete

Well, that's that then. All painted up and ready to go.

Eyeball Tentacle Monster complete

Here's my eyeball-tentacle-monster, all finished bar the painting. I've included an old Grenadier figure of a magician for scale.

Surplus-putty Eyeball Tentacle Monster - WIP

Here's another project that started life as an excess-putty-monster, and now has morphed into a mixing-up-putty-on-purpose-monster.

The eyeball is a 12mm ball bearing I had lying around, one of a bajillion I salvaged from a cheap Chinese magnetic construction toy that I bought to get the rare-earth magnets. I may extend its eyelids a little further forward; I haven't quite decided yet.

Leftover Putty Monster — painted

Here's my Leftover Putty Monster, all painted up and ready to horrify a party of staunch, stolid adventurers with its incessant complaining, whining, and self-pity.

I'm kind of tempted to take a silicon rubber mould of the thing and pump out about a dozen, but we shall see. The mouth-cavities could prove to be problematic; I'd probably have to fill them a bit.

Leftover Putty Monster

I always mix too much putty. Always. Mostly I just toss the surplus, but from time to time I make it into something not too challenging. This is one of those times.

Because I've never got my act together to put together an armature, blobs of various sorts seem to be my go-to sculpting projects.

This little guy is all eyes and mouths. His skin is supposed to be coarsely textured, like an elephant's. He's about 20mm x 17mm x 10mm tall.

One of these days I'd like to get some very small ball-bearings or something, in various sizes, that I can use for eyeballs.

Blood-blob par excellence

Observe, if you will, an example of the very apogee of the miniature sculptor's art.

Not the knight; he's all very well, but what I mean is the exquisitely rendered featureless red blob. Pretty neat, huh?

OK, so it's something any kindergarten kid could crank out between sessions of making plasticine penises. I had a bit of epoxy putty left over after another job, and I couldn't be bothered doing anything more creative with it. However, miscellaneous blobs, moulds and oozes always come in handy, and they're not the sort of miniatures anyone would ever really want to spend actual money on.

So, now I have a little blood-blob to terrorize hapless PCs with. Huzzah!

Green Stuff Mole-Man Critter

I've never had much success with sculpting miniatures. Up until now I've assumed it's just that I'm useless at it, but it may be that I just hadn't found my medium.

Until now, the only epoxy putty I've tried sculpting with was Milliput. It's a fine material with a multitude of uses, and it does cure really hard, but my modelling efforts with it have been frustrating, unrewarding, and frankly, terrible.

Recently though, I got some Green Stuff, to see what all the fuss is about. It's much, much easier to work with than Milliput, I find, though it cures a lot softer and can't really be sanded or drilled. I understand you can actually mix the two putties together, but I haven't tried that.

Anyway, I had a bit of Green Stuff left over after I finished the job I was doing, and thought I'd have one more go at sculpting something. This little guy is the result.

Now, Tom Meier, Werner Klocke and Sandra Garrity are clearly in no danger of being displaced by me any time soon, and there's nothing very startling about the fruits of my labours, but I'm really quite pleased with the way it turned out. It's not very big (that's a 16mm washer it's mounted on), but it does look pretty much like what I intended, which is a major improvement over previous efforts.

He's some sort of mole-man, emerging from under the grass. Annette thinks he looks creepy, so I've succeeded that far at least.

I doubt that I'll ever do much in the way of original figure modelling, but I'm encouraged enough to maybe try my hand at some reasonably extensive remodelling of other, more talented, people's work.