Lunchtime challenge.

As I had nothing to do for a hour this lunchtime I decided to set my self a challenge, could I convert one of my WW1 French infantrymen into a 4ok Death Korp of Krieg Guardsman. I toddled of for a grilled cheese sandwich (it was lunchtime after all) and a quick think about how to do it. Once I'd decided what I'd do I started the clock and began.

1. Snip barrel of rifle and replace with plastic rod. Cut rod to 'lasgun' angle and run a file around the bottom to create the groove. 2 mins.

2. Cut a small piece of thin plasticard, score and glue to shoulder. 1 min.

3. Stick on French pack (Master casting for upcoming WW1 french) and entrenching tool (that I had lying around). 1 min

4. Take WW1 German helmet with gasmask head (master casting for upcoming head sprue so it was a little large for the figure) trimm off filter, file and drill to accept length of plastic rod for air hose. Glue in place. 6 mins.

5. Bulk out collar and cuffs, add eagle and central vane to helmet and tidy up face mask and shoulder pad all using green stuff. 8 mins.

6. Stick to GW base. 1 min.

7. Flat colours paint job. 28 mins.

8. Devlan mud wash all over. 4 mins.

9. Sand the base. 2 mins.

10. Ink the base. 2 mins.

I came back to it at tea time and drybrushed and flocked the base.

So there you go, a passable approximation of a Death Korp of Krieg guardsman from casting to colour in just under an hour. It's kinda rough and there are a few things I'd adjust or take more care over if I were to do any more but at least I know it sort of works. I'd been wanting to scratch this itch for a while now and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Stay lucky,

Soaps.

Meet Woody

Wocha,

You wouldn't know it from the amount I've been blogging but I have in fact been quite busy.

With little else going on I thought I'd give you an overview how the special Woodbine Design giveaway miniature 'Woody' came into being.

So it was a Saturday lunchtime and I was, of course, in bed. The phone starts ringing and it's Darren (remember him?)
Yeah, that's the one. Well he'd rung up to tell me that he had received the photos of the Gallipoli officers packs and wanted a couple of quick changes made. As we discussed what needed doing before I posted them on the Monday he asked if I had any thoughts on what we could do for a promotional figure to accompany the first release. To be honest I was still mostly asleep and burbled something positive whilst considering what I needed to do to the officers. Anyway I got up (eventually) and after a strengthening coffee and a fag or two I set about chopping up the officers and making the required changes. By the time Dr Who started I was all finished and settled in for an evenings rest and relaxation.

What? The officers? Yeah they got finished, why? Oh you want to see them? Fair enough.


So Sunday rolls around and I'm up in time for a Sunday pub lunch to celebrate the nan in law's birthday. Rolling home full of roast and cider I get ready for nothing most strenuous that a little light smoking and an evening of telly. About nine-ish I get an e-mail from the Beast letting me know that the pictures of the woodbine greens are up on the site. Suprised that the chaps are at work so late on a Sunday I decide to give them a ring. Damn fool...

So whilst we are chatting, and if I'm honest the main reason I rang was to get another ego stroke, Darren asks if I've managed to come up with a promotional figure. I explain about the pub lunch and apologise (half heartedly) for not coming up with anything. Then it starts, Darren and M'Lord Sherwell start laying it on thick about how I've let them down and what a disappointment I've been. The bleeding cheek. Then they lay down the gauntlet.
"C'mon theres 18 hours until the post office closes tommorow and even with eight hours sleep thats a good 10 hours sculpting time. Surely a sculptor of your calibre can come up with something in that time."
Now I wasn't going to fall for that load of old flannel so I gave them a mouthful of the old Anglo Saxon and hung up.

Well needless to say after only a few minutes my guilt circuits went into over load and I rang back to see if they had any ideas for a figure. M'lord Sherwell was inclined to a 'medical inspection' vignette but this was quickly glossed over and moved way down the list although, to nobody's suprise, not off of it. Darren suggested a figure based on a Mike Chappell illustration, which itself was based on a contemporary cartoon, showing an Austrailian soldier sitting on a crate playing 'two up'. The figure was just in shorts but Darren said I could chuck a vest on it to save having to sculpt the torso anatomy. Naturally I took this as a challenge. I started spangling together a wire armature and after skinning it with a quick layer of Procreate I shoved him in the oven to speed up the drying time and went off to my 'office' for a sit down. Upon my return from the smallest room I find the oven door fully shut and the temperature wacked up to full! Disaster. Bellowing for the wife I open up the oven and fear the worst. My fears are confirmed. Sitting in my bestest baking tray are a small pile of blobby goo and metal. It seems the wife had fancied a late night pie (which explains the chubby knees if you ask me...) and so came out and pre-heated the oven without checking inside. There was no reason for her to have done so as I have a strict policy of not storing the grill pan or baking trays in the oven and I almost never 'cook' miniatures, especially when she is at home. I gave the wife an undeserved bollocking then became utterly ashamed of myself and escorted her to the boudoir to make ammends. If you know what I'm saying. Whilst she prepared to receive boarders I sent a quick text to the Beast to let them know that I had just melted the figure and that I wasn't going to get the job done.

A will leave out the details of the next 86 seconds of action as it really has no bearing on the narrative...

Duty done a repaired to the balcony for a smoke (as you do) and noticed that there was a message waiting from Lord S.
"Del says stop doing a Sherwell you've still got 15 hours"
Flipping cheek! So I'm standing there on the balcony smoking and incensed determined not rise to their bait. And failing.

I returned to my desk and for the second time that evening knock up an armature. By this time it's eleven o'clock and I determine to get the armature done, flesh it out a bit and then go to bed and finish it in the morning. Somehow this doesn't happen. I get started and then just sort of keep going. Before I know it it's half four in the morning and I'm done! Five and a half hours from wire to finished figure. Frankly I was stunned but actually quite happy with the result. I snapped off a couple of quick shots and e-mailed them to the Beast along with a request for a 1pm alarm call and went off to bed.

So at 1300 Monday afternoon the phone wakes me up and Lord S give me a hearty verbal pat on the back. Darren's on next equally pleased. Quite a nice way to woken up, but probably only second best. And then Darren (never satisfied if you ask me) pipes up with 'Did you decide not to bother with the fag in his hand then?'

Balls! We had discussed putting a cigarette or packet of smokes somewhere on the miniature (well it was for the Woodbine design company after all). Determined to get it just right I got up and straight to work. Twenty minutes with a bit of wire and some goo and Woody was finished, fag in mouth and packet of smokes by his side. A further photo shoot to get final approval and he was given a quick blast under a lightbulb (he wasn't going anywhere near the oven even if the wife was out) and despatched to the GPO.

So there it is, the tale of Woody the Digger, quickest sculpt I've ever done and one that I'm very pleased with indeed.

Huh? You want to see him too? Okay, only fair I suppose.

Meet Woody.
Yes it is a stock head but come on I was on a clock and you know how I hate doing faces...

Stay lucky,
Soaps.

Largin'it!

Wocha,

This week I will be finishing off a commission piece I'm doing for a friend. It's odd but the only private work I seem to get offered these days is completely unrelated to wargaming. It may have something to do with the Beasty boys general threat of leg breaking should anyone else try to hire me but that is pure conjecture...

Anyhow, a good chum of mine is getting wed this year and has asked me to do the figures for the top of the cake. Unconventional as they are the happy couple wanted to appear as they would on a normal day so the groom is to be in slacks and rugby shirt nursing a pint of beer whilst the bride is wearing field hockey goalie kit! I have had the project on the go for months now working on and off between other projects and this week I will be finishing it off so I thought I'd post up a few of the stage by stage shots I have been doing at various points.



Here is a shot of the early stages. I tend not to base these large scale figures on a wire armature preferring to use a plasticard silhouette. I bulk this out with putty as normal to give a basic body shape.

You can see the silhouette clearly on the bride and make out it's edges on the groom.

Here are the basic shapes now fully bulked out.


Now that the basic shapes are done I start adding the clothing and equipment over the top.


And this is where we are at the moment. By the end of the week they should be finished but I wont be posting any of the finished figures until I get a shot of them painted and on top of the cake!
This isn't the first large scale commission I have been given. I've done a few large scale historicals and fantasy style figures for local collectors but my favorite was a piece commissioned by the mother-in-law for my brother-in-law's birthday present. As it's the only one I can still get hold of I borrowed it back for a quick photo. So here he is:- Asterix the Gaul!


And to give you an idea of the size of these pieces:


And in other news.....

Obviously, the Saxons are on hold for the week, or at least until I finish the cake folk, but all of the dollies are now posed and most have their tunics on and I'm working through the laborious task of putting the putties and leg bindings on them. Once this tedious job is done I can move forward with finishing some full packs so there is something to show you.

I am having a curious yearning to do something with pirates. I have yet to explore this.

My tournament bug has now passed thanks to a proper spanking at the WPS club challenge. Let's talk of this no further.

I quite fancy doing a secret project of some kind but always end up blabbing. So I wont.

This weekend the wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Quite frankly neither of us thought anyone would remember but loads of people did, which was nice.

That's your lot. See ya.

Soaps.

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.

Making Faces: Noses

Final phase.
PIC 1) Take a teeny tiny blob of green and place it in the the nose hole.
PIC 2) Blend the two sides into the cheeks and around the eye sockets.
PIC 3) Using a sharp knife cut the blob to length using two cuts to form a kind of point. As you make these cuts it will naturally push the soft goo outwards causing it to flare slightly and become nose shaped. Magic!
PIC 4) Flatten off the tip of the nose and then poke in the nostrils. Job jobbed.

All of this work was done using a flat chisel size 0 clay shaper with a size 0 angle chisel used to do the nostrils.

As requested next tutorial will be scale armour.

Soaps.

Making Faces: Chins, cheeks and mouth

PIC 1) Start once more with the inevitable blob of goo this time applied to the face below the eyes.
PICs 2+3) By running your sculpting tool around the eyes ensure there is a definate ridge that forms the cheekbones at this stage aswell square off the sides of the face. Push the excess goo away to form the lower jaw. Push the cheeks in towards where the nose will eventually be and flatten off the front of the blob to form a sort of muzzle.
PIC 4) About halfway down the muzzle push in two parallel lines. These will form the mouth and lower lip.
PIC 5)Push in the sides of the materiel between the parallel lines and blend the edges. You should now have a small rectangle to represent the lower lip. There we go, stage three is complete and all that remains is the nose.

Stay tuned.

Making Faces: Brows and eyes

The brows fore head and eyes are formed from a single blob of green.
PIC 1) Place it on the top of your piece just above the score line. Smooth it out to form the forehead area.
PIC 2) Using your sculpting tool push a thin strip into the scored area. Your blob of green stuff will look a bit like robocop.
PIC 3) Push the centre and edge of the scored section in so you have two areas standing proud. Shape these as shown to form the eyes. At the moment they are standing proud of the 'face' but when we add the cheekbones and jaw they'll
end up being recessed.
PIC 4) Push the main body of the forehead in a bit so that the areas just above the eyes standout a bit and form eyebrows.

All of this took longer to type (and probably longer to read) than to do. A little later I may go back and, when they are mostly cured, adjust the shapes of the brow ridges and refine the eye shapes.

Next: Cheekbones and Jaw.