Worm bust part 2 and Mujahideen 1/35 figure

The worm bust

Over the last week or so I’ve been working on finishing the worm bust.  The areas that I worked on were the eyes, robe and collar and green skin area (esp the neck).

For the eyes I wanted to bring out the faceted shape of the eye (modelled from a cheap plastic bead).  I highlighted the edges quite strongly but that didn’t really get the effect I was after.  I then added in some streaks radiating from the pupil and added some darker adjacent lines to help with the look.  I made the inner eye a triple colour, being purple, inner white, black pupil.

For the cloth area I added some light blue on the shoulders and back to give a few points of contrasting colour and to add some details to the figure.  I used a base of VMC Prussian Blue and highlighted with white and shaded with VMC Dark Sea Blue and orange.  For the collar I made a crisscross pattern and then filled in the lower triangles.  The yellow areas were then highlighted with JS Light Yellow and white.

For the green skin area the neck needed a lot of work.  It was a uniform dark area so I went back and repainted with the base colour and then was more selective on the shading.  On all the small ridges and muscle areas that I had sculpted on the neck, these were highlighted up like the top of the head but not to the same level.  I also redid some of the top of the head adding in some more contrasts to break up the large areas on similar colour.

After that the under base was painted a very dark maroon/purple and the figure was glued into the wooden base.

So that was the first figure that I designed (well, made up on the fly), sculpted, cast and painted.  Not sure how many I will do but really glad that I did one and it worked out ok.

ADV Mujahideen 1/35 figure

Awhile back I purchased some 1/35 figures off eBay.  One was a Mujahideen from the 1980s by ADV.  Really liked the natural pose of the figure and the flow of the clothing.  Also I have not painted non-caucasian skin much (read almost never) so this was a good reason to try to see if my colour mixing skills had improved.

Well the have, but not much wrt to skin tones.  I have always struggled with skin tones.  Hence why I didn’t try non-caucasian skin.  My first attempt used the below mix

JS Raw Sienna
JS White
JS Yellow Oxide
AP Black
spot of VMC Red

This colour struggled, being too grey/purple and the highlights too pale.  Wasn’t happy by the time I had painted the skin areas.

Looking in my skin colour recipe book (yes, why didn’t I look there first?) I used the mix of

JS Burnt Sienna
JS Yellow Oxide
AP Black
JS White

But this just gave me purple/grey which is a sign of too many complementary colours in the mix.  Of course I had painted all the skin areas and shaded/highlighted before I stepped back and went “nope”.  I think the AP black is on the purple side slightly.

So I revised and tried

JS Burnt Sienna
JS Indian Yellow
JS Black
JS White

This gave me a great looking dark skin.

Shades - Burnt Sienna, Black, Red, VMA Armour Brown
Highlights - Indian Yellow, White, Red, Light yellow

Again I went and painted away and the skin looked good.  However it was too dark (almost African).  So I went back, made what was previously the first highlight colour the base colour and repainted the skin for a third time.  This time I think I’m in the ball park.  I also started blocking out the rest of the figure with the base coats.

AK-47 and anti-tank mine

Dress of the area is very plain, with tops and pants the same colour.  The clothes are Raw Sienna plus white, the ammo pouches are JS green oxide plus Indian yellow.  The hat is tan and the jacket a mix of Burnt Sienna and black.  For the clothes I made the pants a slightly darker base to avoid the two pieces of clothing blending together.

The base will just be the rock base that he came with.  No fancy 3 month dioramas this year.  Well maybe one but that will be later on and the Reaper Bones figure “Spirit of the forest” may be getting the fancy base treatment.

Worm bust part 1

So I started on my worm bust this week, however most of my time was spent doing some shed jobs.  Sometimes you just have to let the urge to chop pieces of wood into smaller pieces take over.

I wanted to have a limited colour range used on this bust.  The best thing about making your own busts is that you have an unlimited number to try things on :)

For the back shell I used VMA Scarlet, VMC Red and JS Napthol Crimson.  Some JS Pthalo green was used in the shading as well as some purple ink.  For the highlights I added some JS Cadmium Yellow mid to make orange (and later white) and mixed that in with the base.

For the eyes I’m thinking of yellow with white highlights.  For now I have just blocked in the eyes with JS Cadmium Yellow mid.

For the skin I used JS Sap Green as the base.  Highlights are done by mixing in JS Yellow light and shading by adding in JS Pthalo green and violet red/purple to the mix.  I’ve done some work on the top of the head but haven’t done anything on the area around the neck and below yet.

For the shirt I made a burgundy red/purple from the VMC Red and highlighted that up with some purple ink and white.  The collar is JS Yellow oxide with some JS Cadmium yellow mid  added.  I think I want to add some pattern to the shirt to add some detail as the figure is quite plain.

As you can see not many colours there with some (Cadmium yellow mid, purple ink, pthalo green) being used on multiple sections to try and tie things together.

Adokul the Monk part 1

Adokul the Monk underway

So finally back to Adokul the Monk.  I had a few high level goals around the look of this figure:

- a general warm tone overall
- various points of distress on the clothing/armour.  The lower parts of the skirt are sculpted as damaged already.
- keep the metallics muted so that they don’t end up being sparkle points

Working my way up the figure (as I wanted to do the underside first before too much paint went on) I started with the skirt.  For this I wanted a dirty/stained linen look.  So I used some Jo Sonja (JS) Raw Sienna, Warm White and VGC Bleached Bone on this.  I’m pretty happy with it except of the area on the side of the knee.  I think that needs another go as it looks a bit too forced.

Leather strap details

For the leather straps hanging from his belt I used VMC Leather Brown and VMC Medium Fleshtone as the base.  For highlights I added more Fleshtone, Bleached Bone and White.  For the shades I used AP Strong Tone first to give the leather a bit of a sheen.  Then I used the Leather Brown and some old Citadel purple ink for the darkest areas and wherever the leather straps crossed.  This really helped pop out the layers so the straps didn’t look like one mass.  Then I used the Bleached Bone as an undercoat on all the small trim details on the ends of the straps.  This was then covered with Vallejo Gold.  I used some more of the leather brown/purple ink mix around the gold to help accent it and then a thin glaze of VMC Dark Sea Blue to tone down the gold as it was a bit too harsh.

I then base coated the armour in a mix of VMC Prussian Blue, Dark Sea Blue and White.  I painted the chest eagle in JS Yellow Ochre to give me a rough idea of the colour contrast and to undercoat the area.  I want to chip the armour after I have finished shading it.  There are lots of little raised trim areas on the armour, I’m not sure if I will also paint them gold.  It may become a bit much for the eyes to handle.

Chain of insanity

The figure has two books chained to his belt.  I think the two don’t look that good so just went for one.  There are tiny holes at the top of the book that the chain needs to go on.  So I had to cut one link of the chain, open it up with tweezers, loop it through the hole and then squeeze shut the open link.  The first one took about 20mins, the second under 10.  Lots of deep breaths.  Then I had to drill out the attachment points on the belt, thin down some plastic rod and measure and cut the chain.  I must be getting more mellow as there weren’t hardly any harsh words needed to get this done :)

So good the be on the way and with a reasonable idea of the direction I want this figure to go.

Finally a pre-shaded shot of the worm bust which shows the details a bit better.

Worm bust done and resin casts, plus some Terminator Genisys

Casting of the Worm bust (need a real name)

So on my worm bust I finished off a few little areas and smoothed everything down ready for casting.  I use PinkySil for my silicon moulds.  For the housing of the mould I used a plastic cup as the container as this means when I am doing castings I can just use the same type of plastic cup to hold the mould together.  This was important as I knew I would have to slice the mould at least half way down to get the figure out.  Once the silicon was set I did the standard curvy cuts in the silicon so that the mould halves would mate back together well.  I unfortunately cut the bust in a few areas while cutting it out.  Also the head was at the bottom of the mould and the head crest and buggy eyes are quite hard to get out of the mould.  Harsh words were spoken.

Master and test casts

Then it was onto casting use Easycast resin.  I made a mistake on the first few castings by over shaking the resin and this resulted in lots of bubbles in the cast.  The next few were better, but still some bubbles.  I then switched from mould release spray to talcum powder to coat the mould.  I had read that the talcum powder draws the resin into the small areas of the mould better.  Turns out that is correct.  Had the best cast of all.  Just a few minor bubbles that I filled with Milliput and I added some putty to the front collar.

Collar redone and brass tube glued in.

Like all my busts I made a base for it first as I don’t like to have to do that after the figure is painted.  I also glued in the brass tube into the base of the figure.  I undercoated the figure black and then did the white zenithal highlights as per normal.  So now it’s ready to go.

I found the whole process really rewarding.  Key was to take it slow and only do one small area at a time and let the putty dry.  There were at least 7 sessions of putty work and quite a bit of scraping in between.  My hand made 2mm micro chisel was great for that task.  The second pair of eyes/opinions my wife added helped a lot too.  When you have no clear idea of what you are trying to produce (i.e. just winging it) it’s good to have someone else point out the defects.

Terminator Genisys figures

While I was waiting for paint to dry I cranked out 4 more Terminators.  These guys are going to be pretty easy to do.  Pretty much the sci-fi equivalent of skeletons.  Of course the humans are going to take much longer.

Before I paint my worm bust I really want to get back to Adokul the Monk.  However I still don’t have a good idea on his armour.  Getting a mental log jam on that.  I think I’ll just have to take the plunge and get some paint on him.

Worm bust sculpting

So just did more sculpting this week.  Also tried some Milliput Superfine (white) and green stuff (GS).  However that didn’t work as well as I hoped.  It was a bit too crumbly while I was working with it.  However when it set and was hard it was fantastic is smooth out.

I’ve learnt that having different materials (straight Milliput, Milliput + GS, Milliput fine + GS) it not a great idea when trying to smooth things down with a scraper (i.e. knife blade/chisel).  Each material has a different hardness level so scraping across materials means you bite out more of one material over another.  So despite trying to eliminate bumps between putty areas you can add to them.

I’m always annoyed when reading some tutorial/blog and the author does the “forgot to take a picture of this stage..”  Oh well, joined that group now.

Going thought the stages:

Added some more to the shoulders and made the lower back shell segment into a cloak.  I needed some more material on the bottom of the bust as it was looking very top heavy.  Also added some detail around the eyes.

Collar added

Adding in some nose ridges (missing photo ;) ) in Milliput superfine/GS, hence the area that looks like toothpaste.

Head ridge and nose area done

Redid the top of the head and added a head frill and top ridge.  Also some more on the top of shoulders and added some more neck ripples.  I extended the neck area behind the eyes to make the eyes less sticking out.

Neck/eye area

I then put some two part epoxy on the base to smooth it out and reinforce it.  Then the wife mentioned I needed a mounting base so scraped out that a bit and added in a base made from Milliput.  I also fixed up the collar with some GS.

Great idea, wrong time

Next up is to clean up the base and slice off the shoulder edges to make a clean edge.  I’ve also smoothed down all the figure with 800 grit wet and dry sandpaper.  With the base done I’m seriously considered casting the bust in silicon to see how to do that for a complex figure.

Mounting base added

Love the flu, Milliput and Terminator Genisys

Back from a sickness enforced break.  Had the worst flu/cold for a long time which wiped me out for the better part of two weeks.  So work has been a bit patchy…

Terminator Genisys figure

I finished off the first trial Terminator figure.  I base coated the figure with AP Gun Metal and VMC Dark Sea Blue and then applied a heavy wash of AP Dark Tone.  Then I dry brushed the figure using:

VMA Metallic Black - whole figure
AP Gun Metal - head to knees
AP Plate Mail - head to waist
AP Plate Mail + VMA Aluminum - head to shoulders
VMA Aluminum - head

I always dry brushed down the figure in the same direction, i.e. the strokes from the head down to the toes.  This works much better than the usual ‘back and forth’.  Pretty happy with the result in the time frame so will continue to do these figures in the background.

Mold box setup on larger resin piece

Adokul the Monk got a lot of base work and his head painted.  My original idea of the base wasn’t working so I went for a cobblestone base instead.  I purchased an A4 size resin cobblestone section at the MOAB 2016 bring and buy so decided to use it.  Rather than cut it up (and I suspect the resin is quite brittle as it already has a repaired crack in it) I cast a mold of a section.  I used a part of that for the base.  The dwarf statue head was then glued down with some Milliput underneath it to make sure there were no air gaps.

Cast section on figure base

Test fit

For the head I went for an orange (ish) hair colour.  I haven’t worked out what the headband will be yet, need to decide on the armour colour first.  However I got a bit of a mental block there and nothing seems right.  So rather than force that I decided to have another go sculpting something (the previous attempts never really went anywhere).

Adokul head

Rather than sculpt a figure I decided a bust would be easier (bigger scale but less figure anatomy) and do a non human so that any oddness looks more intentional ;)  The rough idea is some kind of worm/sea creature/alien thing.  Real sculptors draw pictures.  I can’t draw so doing it all freestyle.  Note that isn’t a good thing.

Stage two (missed getting a photo of stage one)

I started with a base of Milliput Standard around a paper clip armature (no picture of that).  I then rough bulked out the figure with more Milliput.  For the eyes I got some of my daughters plastic beads, filled in the hole and super glued them on.  This will give the eyes a real alien multifaceted look.  I didn’t have the eyes tracking as I was thinking of getting the whole chameleon vibe, with multi directional eyes.  That was partially successful.  I should have made one eye looking forward and the other looking way up instead of just to the side.

Stage three

To do the main sculpting I used a mixture of Milliput Standard and green stuff at 50/50.  I find this is butter like but holds well and doesn’t dissolve like Milliput does if you use too much water to work it as I tend to do.  I did the figure in a number of sessions

- back scales
- neck, mouth and head crest
- neck and eyes
- expand neck base (done in milliput only) and chin

Stage four

The eye sockets need some more detailing (next stage) and the head crest needs to be worked out.  The mouth needs more detail (teeth?).  Probably some more secondary muscles/veins on the neck too.  Then I need to work out how to give some character.  I’m having a great deal of fun with this so far.  Previous sculpting attempts (at a 54mm figure) never got past the rough bulking out stage.  I’ve also made myself a few sculpting tools as well so managed to get some shed time in there as well.  Both are rounded blunt edged tools to help lift up putty and smooth together putty joins.

Stage five (the yellow Milliput didn't come out right in the photo)

No real end goal here.  Just learning and trying.  If it all looks ok I might try and make a mold for resin casting as an exercise on how to do more complex molds (mostly I have done simple one sided molds).