denducky said:
i tried to make it with Magic sculp, with thin rope, even with thin lead rope
and yesterday with green stuff,
never i get a good result
This is one of those things that gets easier with practice. You can do braiding quite well with copper wire or something similar but I think it generally looks better for work at a larger scale sculpted in place using putty. I would personally do it in MagicSculp.
After mixing I would wait about 10-15 minutes for the curing to proceed (improves the working characteristics for something like this) then press a blob of the putty into position, then roll out to approximately the correct thickness. Trim roughly to shape before starting forming the braid shapes using a needle, knife and any other sculpting tools you work well with; working out from the centre would probably be a good way to proceed to help maintain symmetry, then trim more accurately after doing the basic shaping and before working on the final details (if you want to do the braid texture for example). Buttons would be made in a second step, on the figure or made separately and glued into position.
Because of the amount of time the shaping process is likely to take I would recommend you do one button's braid at a time instead of trying to complete one (or both!) sides entirely in a single session.
You might find it useful to lightly pencil in the shape of the braiding on the uniform's front to use as a guide during the shaping process.
denducky said:
some one told me to day that i must put more yellow in my green stuff to make it elastic, perhaps?
You can mix GS 60:40 yellow to blue to change its working character a little - it's a touch less sticky this way. I use approximately these proportions for Kneadatite all the time and much prefer how it feels.
I don't know that it makes it more elastic though, I think more blue does that but regardless, it shouldn't be necessary for most things - it is plenty elastic at 1:1
On the overall bust itself, the face and ears look very good and the length of the neck looks just right. Proportionally though I think the shoulders are too wide. Also I would recommend you reduce the swell of the chest before proceeding and below the chest area most men will be reasonably vertical, no concave.
Lastly, unless you're really set on having the right hand 'in the frame' I would cut the bust right back to show less of the torso - just under the chest muscles is more than enough for a large-scale bust to look right, with the bottom edge angled upwards so it's far shallower in the back than the front.
Einion
