Hi Everyone,
Over the years I have picked up some short cuts and techniques when sculpting and I will be listing them from time to time under our `Quick Tips` section at www.120mini.com. I am sure there are a myriad of different methods, I am not saying mine are the best but they may be of interest to some starting out in sculpting military miniatures.
This is the first. It is my method of making a British helmet although the method can be employed to make any helmet and virtually anything with a hollow interior with no undercut.
Using soft to medium wax on a piece of plastic card, make the rough outline of the helmet, you can use profiles cut from plastic card to get certain shapes and angles. It does not need to be totally accurate, although it does need to be approximately 1mm smaller than the finished helmet in all proportions, this helmet is 1/10th scale, for smaller scales you can reduce that to about 1/2mm smaller.
Cut under the helmet to leave a defined edge at the bottom of the helmet.
Roll out some putty about 1mm thick on some cartridge paper, use copy paper if you want a smoother finish, I use miliput and talc to stop it sticking to the paper, roll,turn over and talc the other side, do this repeatedly until the desired thickness has been obtained.
Lift the putty and drape it over the wax former you made earlier, teasing the putty into the sharper angles of the profile with a wet brush, any tears in the putty can be repaired when the shell is dry.
Cut away the lower edge of the putty and allow to dry.
Once fully cured the wax and miliput shell can be removed from the plastic card and immersed in boiling water to remove the wax, when the wax has melted away you are left with a hollow helmet shell which can now be filed and sanded to the exact shape.Texture and add detail as required.
I used matt black enamel and ground salt mixed in with it to leave a texture on this helmet, the rivets and chin strap are miliput.
Over the years I have picked up some short cuts and techniques when sculpting and I will be listing them from time to time under our `Quick Tips` section at www.120mini.com. I am sure there are a myriad of different methods, I am not saying mine are the best but they may be of interest to some starting out in sculpting military miniatures.
This is the first. It is my method of making a British helmet although the method can be employed to make any helmet and virtually anything with a hollow interior with no undercut.
Using soft to medium wax on a piece of plastic card, make the rough outline of the helmet, you can use profiles cut from plastic card to get certain shapes and angles. It does not need to be totally accurate, although it does need to be approximately 1mm smaller than the finished helmet in all proportions, this helmet is 1/10th scale, for smaller scales you can reduce that to about 1/2mm smaller.
Cut under the helmet to leave a defined edge at the bottom of the helmet.
Roll out some putty about 1mm thick on some cartridge paper, use copy paper if you want a smoother finish, I use miliput and talc to stop it sticking to the paper, roll,turn over and talc the other side, do this repeatedly until the desired thickness has been obtained.
Lift the putty and drape it over the wax former you made earlier, teasing the putty into the sharper angles of the profile with a wet brush, any tears in the putty can be repaired when the shell is dry.
Cut away the lower edge of the putty and allow to dry.
Once fully cured the wax and miliput shell can be removed from the plastic card and immersed in boiling water to remove the wax, when the wax has melted away you are left with a hollow helmet shell which can now be filed and sanded to the exact shape.Texture and add detail as required.
I used matt black enamel and ground salt mixed in with it to leave a texture on this helmet, the rivets and chin strap are miliput.
Thank you for sharing!
