Sculpting Projects Image Dump - Sculpting Kwiell

Many of you may know of my Ikwen.- the freedom fighting, alien militia designed for scifi assymetric warfare. Well, part of the dream for this project has always been to flesh out the world of the Ikwen beyond their fighting forces. This means terrain and animals.

One way to really make a homeland fight feel real is to have local livestock. Farm animals always seem to get in the line of fire, whether as resource objectives, cannon fodder, or even obstacles for covert operations.

FARM ANIMALS

So far I have come up with a pig/sheep/goat analog I call a Silt Pig. For these I am working on a male, female, and litter of young. Because every farm needs a nuissance predator, I also created Kwiell's equivalent of a fox/coyote - the Pig Sucker.

   

PLANTS AND OTHER SCENERY

Scenery has been fun. Much of it I have taken from my existing library of sketches or from converted terrain. Using a combination of 100% sculpted and converted seed pods I have developed a host of features from the strange Shelter Tree, covered in fungus and secondary growth. Clusters of strange tube plants and geothermal vents form alien, open air reefs. Even an alien beast skull and insect hive have joined the group.

    

     

Sculpting Without a Net

After finishing my last big push of planned sculpts, I really have been trying to find a way to not do my usual thing which is to pull back from sculpting entirely. I am not sure why, but in the past, finishing a bunch of work has always left me feeling like I needed to step away but this always meant having to get back into the swing of things when I started back up again. This time I decided to fill the time between planned projects with some free form sculpting.

This pretty much came down to fast concept, or sculpting without concepts. Sculpting on a whim is a great way to express your creative drive but it is also an experiment in success and failure. And idea may not pan out or it may prove a bit challenging for my current skill set. Some of these get abandoned, but more often a "waste not want not" principal takes over and they get morphed into something different.

The end result of all of this has been the unexpected addition of several potential product lines for Loud Ninja Games. Things still need to be finished and worked out before they become true products, but the end results of the sculpting is worthy and I plan to explore the options of producing them as product. This should be fun and I feel this method of working, especially for my own label is the way to go.

I have no set universe for my miniatures and even the main scifi ranges are only loosely affiliated in the same universe (this may change). This means that it is currently pretty easy to insert new alien races and factions into my range, allowing free-form sculpting to function as a viable development router and having the added bonus of keeping the creative juices flowing. The biggest problem I can foresee with this method is producing stuff faster than I can release it.

We shall just have to see,

-Eli

Sometimes Art Just Works

Every so often when I am sculpting, I mix up more putty than I need for what I am working on. Most of the time, I have another sculpt that I can put it to but every so often I am in a place where there is nothing that can be done on any of my existing projects or I do not have them around. Depending on how much putty I have left over I'll usually do little bits and what I call "doodle" sculpts. This time, however, I had a substantial amount of green stuff left. So, I decided to grab a stray wire frame and try my hand at making a truly alien alien.




The initial results were pretty satisfying and what I ended up with is something I like to think of as a land mollusk gone intelligent species. I made it tripodal so as to enforce the alien appearance. I also decided against any obvious limbs and a face, giving it a fourth appendage that is a sort of combination of sensory and feeding apparatus - a "head". The initial sculpt was simple but relatively undefined and the putty didn't go far enough to fill in all the gaps.

I had my start and what was a random push of putty with some leftovers now gave me the foundation to start to work on something fun and new.

Deciding that the shell lacked texture and that the silhouette was a bit soft, I mixed up some procreate and started shaping a couple of striated shells spires ad flared out the bottom edge of the shell. This was textured with some ridging to make it look more like the barnacles I have seen at the beaches. I also added a bit of shell around the neck hole.

Looking over the legs they seemed to need some bulking up and some more texture. So I fleshed them out with some wrinkly tissue, trying to avoid any hardly defined limbs. I was going for a sort of fluid musculature like we see with some invertebrate life.

Again I mixed too much putty and so I shaped it into the first of the two weapon systems (see above).

I started with the basics of some sort of heavy weapon and a missile pod. These were designed with a sort of biotech style. I didn't want to go with the whole weaponized organism style that are popular with many biological weapons, but more the idea that these were still machines but built with biological components. Of course, if they had weapons they now needed a way to weld them in battle.

While a single manipulating limb might allow them to work together to develop technology and of course that technology would lead to other technologies to aid in their existence, battle requires the ability to manipulate a weapon in a useful and effective manner. Enter manipulator harnesses.

These aliens would have developed artificial manipulators to help them with technical and military applications. I constructed the manipulator arm with a ball at the end and all the weapons have a universal cup to mate up with the ball. The base of the arm will also have a ball on it that will fit into a socket in the part of the harness system that will be sculpted on the body. This will allow the finished model to allow some variation in the configuration of the weapon.

I have to admit that this sculpt that started as a whimsical jaunt with some spare putty has captured my imagination and really inspired me to try new things and a complex design. It'll be fun to see where it goes.

-Eli

Clearing the Board

As I get back into the swing of regular sculpting, the first order of business is to clear out stuff that has been languishing unfinished. To this end I have pulled out the trusty white board and listed out the various projects that have commercial viability.

Most of these are for LNG with a few obligations to 15mm.co.uk's SHM range also up there. Some have been in the most early of stages while others, as the numbers will show, have been sitting half completed or more for ages.

Why? Best not to ask.

The good news is that it is working. The gaps on the white board are where projects were once listed, meaning I have managed to clear a few. I will not be adding more projects to the list until these are all finished. This does not mean I am not sculpting on other things, but that I am not adding them to the official queue until I have cleared my desk of lingering projects.

Yay progress!

-Eli

Sculpting the Wasteland

Sculpting has become a real pastime for me and a way for me to share my creativity with others through the production of those things that I sculpt. Well before there was all the hype of Mad Max: Fury Road, ti had embarked on a project to sculpt a wasted future the likeso f which I used to play in back in my Gamma World days. 

Looking around the industry I found a lot of monsters, aliens, and some mutants but nothing that really formed a dedicated range of blasted futuristic figures. I started with two sets of mutants depicting several characters that could populate the post-apocalypse. 

Really weird mutants/cyborgs

More humanoid mutants, including a masked wasteland shaman

Once the mutants were done, I started on a set of scruffy, ultra-violence raiders/gangers. These are real Road Warrior sorts, with mohawks, masks, shoulder pads and improvised weapons. So far, this has produced 9 different ganger sculpts that are waiting their turn to go into production.

In addition to human and mutant denizens, I also decided that there was call for some mutated undead. So, I made rad zombies. These zombies are dripping, oozing, shambling bags of mutated yuck. They are unlike any sort of zombie miniatures I have seen to date in that they are all depicted extreme levels of decay with exposed bones, lots of hanging flesh and hollowed body cavities. 

The latest bits to reach completion are four heroes of the wasteland that I have called Road Wardens. This name was chosen as a not to the Road Warrior who inspired them but also to peg them in their roles as heroic types. I am sure players will use them for all manner of characters - heroes and villains alike, but the role of hero was used for creative direction when designing the miniatures.

Sculpting the Mutant Future

I have always been a big fan of fantastic apocalyptic futures. From Gamma World, to Aftermath, to Fallout I love the concepts of the wholly unrealistic blasted futures with their mutants and warlords and gangs. Be it Road Warrior or Metal Storm, you cannot go wrong with spikes, freaky critters and mohawks. It is in this spirit that I have started sculpting a new range of miniatures.

A recently got back some test casts of the first two sets I finished and put some paint to them ASAP. This is saying something as I am well known for hating to paint. 

The first pack is a collections of five relatively mundane mutants (is that a thing?). While they are twisted and deformed, they are not too out there. I painted one in my most hated of mutations to randomly roll for a character - Brightly Colored Skin! This pack depicts a sort of wasteland shamaness and several mutant fighters.

The second set is made up of more strange denizens of the mutant wastelands. Two freakish brutes equipped with cybernetics along with a poor fellow with crustacean or insectoid mutations and a big-headed, dwarfed, perhaps psionic fellow complete this set. 

These should be out later in 2015 through my partnership with 15mm.co.uk.. I'll make an announcement when the actual release happens for those who are interested in picking them up for their games.

-Eli

What I Have Learned About Producing Miniatures

One of the cool things about gaming that is bigger now than it ever has been before is the ability of just about anyone to get into the biz. This has its pros and cons and certainly not everyone is cut out for it and not everyone's stuff is polished to the same degree. That is not to say that the less polished is somehow bad stuff, it just means that often critical, useful and sometimes necessary editorial steps may been skipped. This is true for printed works, but also extends to other gaming media. In my case, this is miniatures.

When I first set out to be a sculptor, I really had no grand aspirations of having my own line of miniatures and even when I did, I decided to enter the commercial realm of miniatures using contracted sculpts that I felt better represented my ideas to a degree that was, in my opinion, beyond my ability at the time. I do not regret this initial decision though I have reflected on its effect on my dedication to learning the art. But what does this have to do with what I learned about the miniatures business? A lot really.

My original plan was to contract for two packs of 6 different poses, which would have allowed for the basic elements of any combat squads. This was a reasonable starting point, I thought. I found a sculptor that did good work for a price I could afford and worked out a deal with a caster that I knew. This was falling into place and I was well within a reasonable budget for my finances. It all looked like smooth sailing.

It turned out that I tapped my sculptor's talent right as he was about to make a serious shift in his personal life. This stuff happens and I could hardly fault a guy for trying to better himself and his family's situation. He's a person and still an amazing talent that I hope to some day tap into. I tried to give the sculpts some time but eventually I had to pull the plug on that work and find a new sculptor. Finding a new sculptor wasn't all that hard and I soon had the initial sculpts for the Chuhuac back on track but then I ran into another snag in my personal life that really set me back, so much so that I entertained, and finally went through with running a Kickstarter for the miniatures.

I feel the Kickstarter went well, overall, but I have to admit that my lack of experience in the industry really set it up for all the problems that came out of it. I was new to KS and felt that I needed to pad the campaign with all sorts of stretch goals and discounts to attract backers. While this worked, it escalated the scope of the project beyond my original agreement with my caster and taxed my sculptor. I could have, and likely should have stuck to the original plan, had faith in the quality of the idea to attract folks to it. This would have prevented it from growing in the monster it did and would have saved me a lot of stress and anguish.

Flash forward to after the campaign and into the production and fulfillment process. This period was a lot of wondering and stressing and having to adapt. We had issues with the sculpts when they went to molding. I had to modify master casts so they would work for production casting. Add to this that we had to change what type and how much metal was needed for the project. Heck, just getting the over 100 pounds of metal from the UK to me cost a good chunk of cash. This is where I really learned the most. 

During the process of actually getting the miniatures to production, I took in a ton new knowledge. In addition to technical details, I had to realize that none of this stuff went fast. Mold makers and casters are often piled under work and it can take time for your turn to come up. Then there is always the possibility that things might not go right in the mold. Many problems will only emerge once you have attempted to mold the sculpts. It really pays to have an expert look over your sculpts before you send them for production. A good caster will catch most issues before they go in.

So, moving on to after the Kickstarter is done and gone. What is there left to learn? Well, for one there is marketing and such. This is where it can be hard as an independent producer. I have ZERO advertising budget and so have to rely on low cost or free outlets. This can work, using blogs, Facebook and Google + as communications outlets. There are also a lot of hobby news outlets who will pick up on your material for free, but you have to keep the releases rolling for them to do so. This last part brings me to my biggest marketing realization.

Since the Chuhuac have gone into general release, sales have been less than I would have hoped. There was a bit of a push when they first came out but sales dwindled fast as the months went on. Part of this has to do with the lack of new releases. Now, I realize it seems odd to talk about new releases after having just dropped an entire range of troops, support and other elements into the market. The truth is that most of the immediate market was accessed by the Kkickstarter and with the Kickstarter having dropped everything into the hobby's lap all at once, there was an initial buzz and then...tumbleweeds.

The Kickstarter actually left me in debt. Despite having generated thousands of dollars and even getting a financial shot in the arm from family, I still could not cover the full cost of the Kickstarter which came out to something around $10,000. This meant that I wasn't in a position to invest in new projects to keep the ball rolling. Going back to the original plan for the Loud Ninja Games start up, if I had released the two packs and then rolled those sales into new development, I could have kept up a semi-regular series of releases that would have established a market for my figures and built the LNG name up. Instead I came into the world screaming and kicking with a mixed bag of emotions and then pretty much went silent. 

So, here I am. I have a full range of miniatures released that are barely selling and currently no way to get new items to market. Even if I could get the greens by sculpting my own, I cannot get them into production until I am square with my casters. This is where hobby craft might come into good use. Displaying my product in use by others and showing off my own paint jobs of my product. The problem here seems to be that, despite there being 125 people out there with my product, only about four have posted any images of their new toys to the internet. This is not a complaint, but it certainly doesn't help with exposure. I do not have a local outlet for 15mm science fiction gaming and so posting my own game pics is difficult if not impossible. 

Soooo... key points.

1. Consider taking it slow and steady. Consider your release schedule and how it will build your brand. 
2. Do not take a Kickstarter lightly. It is a lot of work and can go horribly wrong.
3. Get as much info up front and make your move only when you have all the details you can get.
4. Pick your vendors (sculptors, casters, etc) widely.
5. Stay hands on. Inspect, ask, bother, bug and otherwise make a pain in the ass of yourself with all your vendors.
6. Advertise, show off and otherwise figure out how to market your products. Give them away to some convention goers if you have to.

For those looking for information on Loud Ninja Games and its products -

Store - 15mm.co.uk/collections/loud-ninja-games

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/LoudNinjaGames?ref=hl
Blog - http://loudninjagames.blogspot.com/

Sculpting A New Generation

Today my 10-yr old daughter, Nim, picked up her first sculpting tool to try her hand at pushing greenstuff.

What you see his is the result of five minutes work from the hands of a child who's only experience with working with sculpting mediums is your usual modelling clay and school projects. I showed her how to sculpt a face once with conventional miniatures sculpting tools and techniques (as I know them) and then smoothed it over, handed her the tools and left the room with the simple instruction of, "Come get me when you are done". I didn't want to hover and run the risk of micro-managing her or making her nervous.

I think she did an amazing job for a first go.

The next thing I will show her is how to construct an armature and bulk out the body form.

-Eli

The Devourer in the Dark (Part One)

THE BUILD

I have been wanting something big, nasty, and Lovcraftian in my collection. Unfortunately, much of what I really like is either beyond my current budget or, in many cases, not released yet (Kickstarters). So, I have enlisted my own sculpting/converting skills to bring something to the collection.

Take one cheap, plastic frog, apply green stuff..and...

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I blocked out the details in a quick-curing, horrid smelling putty. It only takes about 5 minutes or so to set, smells like burning hair, but allows me to set the basic forms so I can get on to the fun stuff. You also see some of the early details here, including the fleshy mass in the mouth that I later decided to get rid of.

Here you see the basic form and shape put together. I really should have put the tongue/tentacles and teeth in later, but I have a habit of growing inpatient on conversions and put it all together. This will come back to haunt me when it comes time to paint.

The next step was to blend the putty work into the original frog toy. I applied thin layers of putty over the green putty, except in areas where I wanted the smooth texture to remain. The primary tool for this process was a .05mm mechanical pencil tip with the lead pulled out. This makes a nice, find pock marking. In some areas I used the hollow end of a plastic stir stick (the red kind) for slightly large pocks. Where the patches came together, I pushed them into one another with the tip of my sculpting tool to hide the edges. There were also a few details I enhanced at this time, such as evening out the sensory lobes (top of the head) and the venom sacks (cheeks).

Once all the details had hardened and I was satisfied with the blending, I shot the whole thing in a even spray of black and a spritzing of grey. I find that this always makes a conversion or scratchbuild look better as it unifies the various details. The grey will serves as my basic pallet for what I want as a gaunt, sickly color scheme fitting a Lovecraftian terror.

The next step is to get painting, which I should be able to accomplish over the next couple of days.

-Eli

Conversion Fun

A quick post today to show off what can be accomplished with simple conversions of existing figures. In this case, I'll use examples of my own sculpts that are available through the SHM line at 15mm.co.uk. Each of these miniatures was sculpted by me, then cast in metal and then subsequently converted and recast, creating new figures, sometimes with very substantial differences.

Vergans

The Vergans are a plant-based species I created as a one-off and then later as a set of conversions representing a space-faring crew of Vergans utilizing acquired, non-native equipment. This helps them blend into existing space gaming settings.

Original Vergan Sculpt

The Vergan Free Traders were some of the more substantial conversions I have done. while the basic figure remained the same, I added gear, packs and even weapons and instruments to the figures. After adding the additional equipment was added, I then added tentacles to handle them. Curiously, the nature of theb ase sculpt allowed me to make slight changes in the orientation in the "poses" without actually having to change the head or body position. The multiple eyes on the head meant that I just needed t chance what direction the equipment pointed and hung change the direction the figure was posed toward.

Vergan Free Traders

Burgansians

The Burgansians were an attempt to incorporate a piece of substantial tech into the sculpt. In the case of these aliens, this took the form a floating chair. This allowed me to work with seated poses and in the initial sculpt, this was a rather relaxed, confident pose. I saw him as a sort of fixer or contact.

Original Sculpt

In the subsequent sculpt (and an upcoming one as well), I modified the pose, altered the face and even added to the hover chair. I also added a secondary character to the sculpt that could be anything from a pet, or perhaps even a juvenile Burgansian. A little added costuming, also changes the nature of this figure and he could easily pass for some sort of noble, ambassador, or maybe just another fixer.

    

Burgansian Conversion

Calamite to Varlish

The third example presented here is a case of a conversion from one species to an entirely new species. the original Calamite was a distinctly aquatic looking species dressed in a simple robe with a few charms and trinkets.

Calamite Preacher

The Varlish was converted directly over the top of the Calamite sculpt. This meant a bit of bulking up but, like a good tattoo cover-up, I used the original lines of the Calamite to guide where I added to the putty and the final shape of the Varlish took form. Much of the change occurred around the face where I retained the conical shape of the Calamite head, but broadened it into a menacing set of eyes and an odd, overbite mouth. The arms were extended a bit to conceal the original alien arms which were changed into sleeves to accommodate new hands. I then added more finery to the chest to show the change in "occupation" from preacher to envoy.

Varlish Envoy

I love doing these sorts of conversions and I used to do them just for personal use, but this way others get to share in my madness.

Take care,

-Eli