My first attempt

[Armornv]

Hello pF people!
New guy here, never sculpted anything in my life. I usually enjoy sanding roadwheels, bending PE fenders, and pinning metal track links so I'm a litlle out of my comfort zone here!


I'm somewhat reluctant to post any of this, now that I've seen the most recent pics of what I've done.....


Anyways heres a rundown on what I have in mind.
It will hopefully be roughly 90mm.
This is probably far too ambitious for my first attempt but if you're gonna fail, why not fail BIG!
Ok, I am somewhat of a recovering World of Warcraft addict. It's an MMO video game for those not familiar. I really want to have a figure of my toon, which is a Tauren, but this puny little human will have to do for now.
If your not familiar with WoW, the proportion of the characters, weapons and armor, are all quite exagerrated. This figure will be a Fury warrior dual wielding two-handed weapons. full armor( I may decide to leave the helmet off), in a pose that is basically ready to fight, called melee idle I guess you could say.
Here's a screen grab of a random toon for comparison. Luckily there's a nifty website that has 360 degree views.

Pay no attention to the armor and weapons. (I already have different ones in mind.)

Here was basically the start.

It's quite amazing what shows up in pictures that your eyes just don't see.... I'm not sure I'm at all that happy with the current progress but I'll keep plugging away at it.
I see now that the chest could use a little more bulk, the right ankle is far too small, the left ankle, is far too big, the knees have more or less disappeared, and the arms as a whole need to be....fixed....as well as the neck area

I also kinda think the head I have on him looks overly big.
All that said, i'm hoping at least some of it will disappear once the armor starts being added.

I think the "scale mail" pattern on the legs turned out ok, I'm thinking next time maybe trying the insane individual placement approach.

Anyways...dare I say let me know what you all think? (remember, this is my first attempt)

There are a few areas that I may try and clean up first, bit the armor will cover pretty much all of the rest of the figure aside from the upper legs.

Anyways,
Thanks for looking! Comments and suggestions always welcomed!
(be gentle on the new guy)

Clint Shepherd

 

[Jim Patrick]

Not bad for a "newbie"! Not bad at all. Keep us posted.

Jim Patrick

 

[Armornv]

Thanks Jim!
I guess I should also mention that I did not sculpt that head(as if it couldn't be figured out on it's own) It was bought from The Lost Battalion. Only place I could find 90mm heads. From my eyes they look good. Casting quality is quite nice.

Thanks,
Clint

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Clint,

I think you've made a fantastic first attempt at sculpting. My advice would be to concentrate on getting the proportions correct.

To my eye the upper body seems proportionately larger than the lower body, which makes the legs look too short and the shoulders too wide.

If you search the archives here on pF you'll find a brilliant SBS called Sculpting 101 which shows you all the proper proportions for armatures.

I've attached a couple of the sculpting charts from that SBS to help you get a feel for proportions.

If you are going for a more heroic fantasy pose and the figure is intended to be this way, then please disregard my comments, and keep up the good work.

 

[Armornv]

Thanks Tony. I completely agree. To me, the torso looks too "tall" from waist to shoulders compared to to bottom half. While the characters in the game are somewhat exagerated, they don't have the same build as my sculpt does. I'm sort of hoping that when I do the belt, it will help to "hide" some of that length. I know that's not the right way to do things and I won't learn if I keep it up, but Short of trying to cut him in half and glue him back.....
Here is a pic of one thats as close to stripped down as you can get, just to show what I'm basically chasing after.

I do actually have the sculpting templates and it honestly started out quite close(to my eyes) but I think it went all wrong when I started bulking him out. I failed to use any reference at all, including the template, during that process.

I really appreciate the feedback sir! Every bit helps me get better!

Thanks,
Clint

 

[gordy]

Rock on! This is looking cool - and great subject (the video game cross-over)

 

[Armornv]

Hi again folks!
Unfortunately for all of your eyes, I have not given up on sculpting.
A bit of an update, some of the armor is on, there is another piece that goes on the upper legs thatI have left off because I think the detail will be easier to add that way. Still lots of work to do, but at least his head doesn't look quite as inflated as before. The hardest part will be the shoulders....for sure. I still have no idea on how im going to go about that part just yet.

Still need to cleanup, even out some areas before I go on, but here's a few pics. Enjoy and I'm sorry if breaks your monitir!!!

p.s. Sorry for the dark pics. The milliput was giving me some nasty glare for some reason so I had to kill some of the lighting.

 

[gordy]

Loooking cool Clint!

The pale green is that milliput + Duro ?

 

[Armornv]

Thanks Gordy! It is indeed milliput and kneadatite's green stuff, which I think is the same as Duro's stuff. I find the mix is just a bit easier to work with for me for certain things. Smaller, thinner areas are easier to do. It's also easier to see imperfections and such than pure white. But that's just me talkin' !

Clint

 

[Armornv]

Hey folks! Thought I would throw out a quick update on this guy. I am a VERY slow worker, so not a whole lot done since last time. I have the forearm guards smoothed down to a basic shape and the boots basically roughed in waiting for the rest of the detail to be added. Finished up the chest and back armor,(Yes I do realize the rivets are not AT ALL the same size, and one appears to have fallen out lol....just one more thing I need to practice!) and also got a start on the shoulders. For me, I think the easy route will be to make one and cast the other since the basic shape is exactly the same, only the detail on them will be different. I think the next thing will be the belt while working on the shoulders.

Thoughts , comments, and suggestions always welcomed!
Happy Holidays to all!!

And here is the last shot of the night showing the blade of one sword blu-tac'd to his brass rod of a nub for a hand. I will more than likely have him dual wielding the same sword which is quite common in the video game. Just one more thing that makes it easier on me by casting the second instead of trying to sculpt another one just like it.

Enjoy and thanks for looking!!!

 

[TWOMOONS]

It's coming out really nicely...first sculpt or not.
Don't automatically think you can't do a head...I see so many talented guys go at a figure, but approach the head as it's just not part of "the sculpt".
Learning how to do heads will open up a new and varied world for you...I would suggest sculpting heads is the singularly most important aspect.
Another thing: You can use the 7 1/2 heads high formula all the time...actually more like 8...but heroic and fantasy type figures, which seem to be your interests, are mostly a different scale...that is maybe nine or even ten heads high. (small head basically--big body) proportionately....with bodies larger that a normal every day person. This formula is used by illustrators all the time, and looks quite good with the genre.
Good luck...looks good!

 

[Armornv]

Thanks Phil! Glad you like it. thanks for the tips on the head formula.

More to come soon!

Clint

 

[gordy]

Whoa! That's one heck of a blade

 

[Armornv]

Hello again planet!
The combination of the holidays and my turtle like pace, I haven't gotten much accomplished on this, but I thought I would show a couple of pics th show the progress to this point. Most things are just blu-tac'd into place for the pics. Still a very long ways to go. After I took these I sanded of the helmet detail as it just wasn't looking very good. gonna give it another try in a bit.I have made 5 different molds for various things to keep from having to sculpt an exact duplicate. Two different molds for the shoulders, the sword, the knee guards, and the upper leg detail. Whew!
Anyways, heres the pics. Lots of cleanup and what not to do, but comments are very appreciated!
Anyone have a good method for doing rivets? I haven't been able to pull it off very well....

Thanks for looking!!

Clint

 

[gordy]

Looking cool Clint!

Rivets.... small? large? hundreds in a straight line or a handful here and there?

 

[Armornv]

Thanks gordy!
The rivets I need are for this guy. Only 14 of them. Same size. Different areas of the armor. They're pretty small. I've tried rolling tiny balls of putty-can't get them the same size or perfectly round. I've tried using those to create a half impression in putty and making copies-but I cant get them trimmed well enough.... Do the pros just sculpt them in place or what? I'm at a loss.


Clint

 

[gordy]

In the past I've made a pilot hole where I want the rivet and then form a small ball of putty and push it in the hole (for anchoring) then lop off and shape the wet putty to the desired shape.. flat (button) or domed (as a tank rivet) etc...

 

[Armornv]

Thanks for the tip Gordy. I'll give that a try next.


Clint