by Mike on June 22, 2009
in 15mm
first 15mm miniature
When you’re sculpting a miniature, do you ever feel like crying? And not because of sheer joy when you witness your sculpting skills but because your sculpt isn’t quite turning out the way you envisioned? With my first 15mm miniature, I felt like that. But a voice inside of me said that I should finish him, and I’m glad that I did.
Even when I find so many things that I don’t like about him, there are things that I like– things that I wouldn’t have found if I had stopped sculpting. I like his right arm and the simple folds that were created. I also like his helmet, even when the edge near his left cheek isn’t so clean.
Another reason that I’m glad I finished him is because I learned a lot through the process. One of the big things was seeing what happens when you sculpt without armatures in the arms. I’m not sure why I did this but I only used an armature for the body and head.
Having no wires to support the arms can work if the arms are close to the body. You just have to slowly build up the arms and cure it in your oven before adding more putty. In this manner, you’re essentially creating a base to work off from, like having an armature.
So these are the things I’ll take with me– some good folds, a helmet that I like, and a lesson about working without armatures– things that I can use to help me with my next miniature.
In my previous post, I showed you the Steampunk Detective that I finished up today. Posting the picture of him got me thinking:
“What’s the best size to show 15mm minis?”
Here’s the original size that I posted (before changing to a smaller picture):
The camera I use can get pretty close and take pictures in good resolution, so much so that upon seeing this pic of my Detective, I noticed that he looks a little different than what he looks like with my naked eyes– a little more imperfect. But these imperfections don’t bother me so much because in real life, you wouldn’t be able to see them. At most, if you held this miniature as close to your eyes as possible, you could probably see detail as shown in the picture below.
On my monitor (1600 x 1200 resolution) and holding up my ruler, the miniature in this pic measures an exact 30mm. You can see less of the imperfections that you get when viewing at a magnified view. I like this size for showing 15mm because you still get to see detail but not so much that you see all the imperfections that you wouldn’t normally be able to see. Then there is actual size like the next picture.
If I hold the actual mini up to my screen, this picture is a perfect match– 15mm. But maybe this isn’t fun to see on a website, a picture of a mini so small. What do you think is best? When you visit sites and see 15’s, do you like to see their actual size? or perhaps a magnified view to see detail? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Tagged as:
Detective
This is my Steampunk Detective, a character I’m developing for my sci-fi world. To help me with the sculpting process, I decided to use a concept drawing as reference which was really helpful.
The concept, which is just a simple sketch, gave me an idea of what I wanted to do with the miniature–one hand on his waist, the other holding a raygun, and sporting a coat.
Sketching is quick and it’ s a process of brainstorming, a chance to try different ideas to “find” the design.
With the Steampunk Detective, I did a simple sketch and liked the design and pose. It was enough for me to get started sculpting and gave me a blueprint to follow.
I’m also developing a sort of steam-powered robot inspired by anime. I want to mix the aesthetics of anime mecha with Steampunk. The mecha is standing next to the Detective but with the mecha’s design, I’m not happy with it just yet so I’ll do more concept sketches to brainstorm.
Tagged as:
Detective
Here’s another 15mm I did the other week of a Trooper in heavy armor. I like how the armor turned out but when I sculpted the other parts… I couldn’t think of ideas on the fly.
So for my next mini, I’m going to do some concept drawings to work off of. I’ll try to figure out the design in the drawing so when I get to sculpting, I’ll have an idea of where I’m going with it.
I’ve heard of sculptors who don’t work off of drawings– that’s really cool. I’ll have to experiment with both approaches.
Tagged as:
troopers
15mm Heavy Trooper
For the past month I’ve been sculpting 15mm miniatures and having a lot of fun! I was inspired by Ground Zero Games and heard great things about their game, Stargrunt II. I wanted to try out the rules but didn’t have any 15mm miniatures so I thought I would sculpt my own army. My plan was to kill two birds with one stone– Make an army for Stargrunt and dive into the world of sculpting 15mm, get some practice, and see if I like sculpting in this scale.
After doing a few sculpts, I’m enjoying it a lot. These next pictures are troopers that I did. They’re mostly just experiments and my attempts to “sculpt in the moment.”
15mm Sci-fi Soldier (masked)
There are a lot of things that I like about sculpting in 15mm. One of them is that you can finish a miniature fairly quickly and see the results of your hard effort in no time. On the flip side, if you mess up it’s not too bad because you can quickly start another one and try again.
What’s cool is that sculpting seems to be more about impression and implying features. You don’t have to worry so much about detail because the figure is so small. With that said though, I still try to add all the detail that I can. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
The picture below is a “Dew Drop” Trooper. The helmet is shaped like a drop of water so… that’s the name I gave him. Maybe he gets inserted into battle from a Dew Dropship?
15mm "Dew Drop" Trooper
Tagged as:
troopers
A few weeks ago I did this sculpt to practice. I like how it turned out although the head seems a little narrow. I’m using a free software called Picasa 3 to edit the pictures that I take. It’s a little neat program that allows you to resize and crop the image and add captions if you like. You can dowload it here.
Sky Admiral
Sky Admiral (profile)
Tagged as:
bust,
sky admiral
I didn’t get to sculpt today so I thought I would share with you pics of the tools I use for sculpting. The first is my favorite that I made just recently, based off of a homemade tool by Gene VanHorne.
Custom Tool -- Spoon Tip
I saw an article about this tool on a blog and followed the instructions. Basically, I took an old tool that I got from Dick Blick Art Store (it had a needle in it) and removed the needle. Then I took a paperclip and with a hammer, made the end flat. With some sand paper (basic fine grade) I then sanded it to the shape of a spoon. The other end of this tool has a tip I made into a fine point, almost like the tip of a needle.
The great part is the paperclip fits perfectly in the hole left by the needle that I took out. Everything stays secure with some putty. I absolutely love this tool! It’s the perfect size for pushing the putty around.
Sponge Can
To prevent the tool from sticking to the putty, I use Odorless Mineral Spirits. I bought this cheap at Joann’s Etc. (a craft store). This technique I learned from watching Stefan Niehues sculpt on his YouTube channel. He uses a sponge so I emptied a tin can that held gaming dice and put a sponge in there (also bought at Joann’s). Now whenever I sculpt I pour a little pit of mineral spirits on the sponge and then wipe my tool on it. It picks up some of the mineral spirits and prevents the putty from sticking.
I also use various clay shapers but as you can see from my other posts, I don’t do a good job of smoothing my sculpts — something I have to work on.
Sculpting Tools
I’ll talk about the exacto blade in my next post, another Gene VanHorne Homemade tool.
Tagged as:
homemade,
mineral spirits,
tools
I’ve decided to start this blog to document my progress of sculpting miniatures. So far I haven’t done any completed figures, mostly just studies. I started with some heads about a month ago.
Head Practice
To practice, I place a little Procreate epoxy putty (my sculpting putty of choice) onto some copper wire and stick it into a wine cork. Then I let the putty cure in my homemade oven before adding some putty to sculpt with. The wine cork is great because it’s easy to grab and with a twist of the wrist I am easily able to see the sculpture from different angles.
These studies are a lot of fun to do and one of my next tasks is to get them down to scale. I’m aiming to do some 30 mm figures and right now it seems that all the work I do is a bit big for that scale.
I’m also doing some anatomy studies of the figure. Here is one that I did this past week:
Anatomy Study
Soldering Armature
To get the armature made, I use the same 18 gauge wire that I bought at a local Dick Blick art store. I solder some joints (very badly) and then with some pliers, bend the armature into a pose.
Anatomy Study (back)
To lay in the mass, I’m following the examples of Bruno Lucchesi in his book, “Modeling the Figure in Clay”. In it, he starts with an armature, then sculpts the skeleton and finally adds the muscle. For me, it’s a great way to learn the shape of the skeleton and see how the muscles are connected. I hope to do more of these in the coming weeks.
Tagged as:
anatomy,
heads
