Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Scale armour

Finally!

Here is a step by step on how I do my scale armour. I have recently started working in Procreate (cheers Bill!) which is fantastic but previously everything was done in green stuff so the material doesn't matter. All work is done with size 0 clay shapers and for this project I used a flat chisel and an angle chisel.

Step 1: The dolly was prepared. Arm are removed and the skirt was added and allowed to dry then a thin skim of goo was applied to ensure an even flat surface for the armour layer.

Step 2: A thin skim of goo was applied all over the area to be armoured. No more that 1/4-1/2mm deep. Leave for a short while to cure a bit. Around 5 mins at room temp should allow it to firm up sufficiently.

Step 3: Using a sharp craft knife cut parallel lines horizontally into the base layer. These should be roughly 3/4-1mm apart. Apply a slight upwards pressure to give an impression that each row appears from beneath the one above.
The end result should look something like this. Although maybe a touch neater...


Step 4: Using the flat chisel tipped tool neaten the rows to ensure each has a flat, even surface and maintains the appearance of projecting from beneath.
This is what you are aiming for.

Step 5: FAG BREAK!(optional but it does allow the goo to cure off a bit more)

Step 6: With a craft knife divide each row with vertical cuts approximately 1mm apart. I tend to start with a row around mid chest. The rows above and below will tend to narrow as they near the waist and neck so if you were to start at either of those points by the time they reached the chest the scales would by enormous. Offset the cuts in each row to give a brickwork kind of effect.

Should end up a bit like this:

Step 7: Lastly, using the pointed end of the Angle chisel tool with the 'blade' side away from the figure, push upwards into the bottom of each scale cut. This will form the final shape of the scales by rounding off the bottoms and help to flatten the scale beneath at the same time. If you are using something else to form the scale shape then lightly pressing the flat chisel tool against each row after forming the scales will help to define the surface of the scales.
The end result should look quite nice:

Well there you go. Not entirely sure it was worth waiting for but there it is. The armoured areas will be edged with a thin border of goo to hide the uneven edge scales. After belts baldrics and cloaks have been applied much of this work will be obscured but it's much easier to do all of it and cover it up than try to just armour the bits you can see once the detailing parts are added.

Cheers,
Soaps.

3 comments:

Bill T said...

Cracking demo Soaps. I'll give this a go on my Saxon King and see if I can pull it off as good. How did you find the putty to use?

Soapy said...

I like my goo goo-ey. GS seems to get a bit stiff and hard to work if it's a bit chilly in the office but the ProCreate stays sticky no matter what the room temperature.

All in all cracking stuff.

Soaps.

Bill T said...

Glad to hear you like it. I'll order more :o)