Milliput is my friend

So a week of bits and bobs.  With my two new busts I wanted to get them ready for painting in the future.  So this meant time for the putty.  In the end it needed two goes to get all the holes filled.

Home made chisels

Firstly I trimmed down all the mold lines on the busts.  My new micro chisels I made recently worked great.  Rather than trying to scrape a mold line (very hard across hair for example) instead I could just cut off the line straight on, a small bit at a time.  The little 2mm chisel was great.  Wish I had made these years ago.

On the large roman figure there were a number of small holes/negative bubbles to be filled in.  On the back of the figure an edge had been broken off (about 4mm x 1.5mm).  This also had some stitching pattern on it so after I had built up the area I got a second thin roll of putty and lay it down and then put in the pattern.

For the smaller celtic bust there was a major negative bubble at the bottom of his cloak.  There were also a few gaps between his arm and body.  Finally on his helmet the edge banding was missing from approx 25% of the rim.  Some very thin putty and deep breaths were needed to get that fixed up.  It’s very hard to get the putty to stick on initially when it is that thin without squishing it down flat.

For larger scale figures (like busts) I prefer to use Milliput (standard) over Kneadatite aka green stuff.  As Milliput goes very hard it can be scraped and polished.  This is essential for repairing a cloak for example where you need to have the repaired putty section as smooth as the other adjacent areas.  After putting on Milliput to an area I first smooth it down with a sculpting tool.  Once the area is looking right I then use a damp paint brush to remove any tool marks.  After the Milliput is dry I then will usually scrape the area (if possible) with a scalpel blade.  I also make sure I scrape some of the surrounding resin area to ensure both the resin and the Milliput are the same level (i.e. no step up/down).

For smaller areas I like to mix Milliput and green stuff 50/50 as is easier to work with but goes reasonable hard unlike green stuff by itself which stays very rubbery.

Preshaded figures

I undercoated/preshaded all the Terminator game figures and both the busts in the usual black then white highlights.  I was thinking about spraying the terminator figures with a metallic coat but decided that to get full coverage of the figure I would end up loosing the preshading as there are a lot of nooks to get the paint into, which means a number of spray coats to get them all.

For the busts I drilled out a hole in the bottom for mounting.  I need to work out their bases next so I can cut and glue in the right size of brass rod.  I don’t like to be gluing and measuring up bases once the bust is painted.  Late in the weekend I went and got some more wood from the hardware store around the sizes I think will work.

Underground entrance

Tunnel entrance

Rough ground scatter

I did a bit more work on some pieces of spot terrain.  Two underground entrances and a small area of rough terrain.  I think the rough terrain may end up being for LotR or Saga.

More troll love, with pre shade highlights

Lastly did another Dungeon Saga troll.  Only two more to go then the base set is all painted :)