Mythology test sculpts

These are all test sculpts, they will not go to production!

I have lots of dollies, heads and shields cast up for this project so these were some quick experiments - I also have some fauns and other bits and pieces kicking around related to this.

Overall these sculpts were useful explorations on how I could integrate the shield, left arm, main torso and head into a single piece cast, with only the right arm being a separate part (where required by the miniatures pose). It was also a good chance to practice sculpting bare arms and work out what style I like, and how much detail I wanted to show - I'm not a fan of completely ripped musculature that makes the mini look like it has no skin! I eventually got a quick and simple routine down for doing arms so feel quite confident about future sculpts.

With tests like this you learn what works and what doesn't... so what doesn't work is trying to sculpt arms after I've attached the shield! For the next proper round of sculpting I'll be sculpting the arms in full before adding the shield. Also, some of the arms are a bit wonky, and long, so I'll be knocking off a mm or two on the production sculpts.

Speaking of the production sculpts, and the project... I'm still trying to decide how to proceed! Here are my ideas.

Design ethos - make these scale and compatible with the Victrix plastic range of ancients.. I love the Victrix stuff!

Idea's...

1. Full range
Simply do a couple of factions with spearmen, swordsmen, archers, honor guard and the odd myth unit here or there, like faun skirmishers, cyclops warriors or harpies.

2. Limited myth range
Stick to doing the elite and mythological themed units - we can all use existing plastic sets for the rank and file and just make some god aligned elite units, like honor guard or myth units.

3. Band of heroes
Themed heroes and small retinues, aligned to certain gods or situations - Theseus and the Minotaur, Jason and the Argonauts.

4. Dungeon Crawl - Descend the underworld/Brave the Labyrinth
Different styled heroes and a selection of myth units: infernal hoplites, shades, troglodytes, snake men and some monsters.


There's no reason I can't make a load of minis and tick some boxes across all 4 ideas of course!

Help me out and let me know your thoughts!! All going to plan the first production casts will land in early 2017.

I'm off to prepare a couple of these for painting - test sculpts are one thing, I also need to see how the heads, shields and torsos's take the paint too!