Harpies, Scorpions, Ghosts

 

Few more shots of test sculpts/prints. 

I'm not sold on the colour schemes yet but they paint up nice none the less.

New Sci-Fi soldier

 The Tox Troopers have been needing a target to shoot at for a while. I'll do a scale test print of this guy soon.

More test prints - Mythology

I've finally nailed my style and scale (I think) for this range, and possibly all future ranges.

Lots of trial and error but these things print out great at 28mm all the way up to 35mm. Even 25mm - I have some at that scale for use with the GW LOTR range.

Next up is the painting test and then I'll start working towards a plan for retail sometime this summer.

(I've sculpted a lot more stuff but these are the closest to production ready, and the larger wraith was a print test, it needs a few tweaks back in zbrush)

30mm Mythology prints - Skeletons

Quite happy with these things, there's a few tweaks here and there to be made but I'm into the swing of it.

More than anything it's learning how the 3d sculpt on screen will translate into a physical print. That, and settling in on a style.

Critters

Some WIP shots of various bugs and general nuisance critters. These will prove useful for tons of ranges...

Tox Troopers remastered

After a long hobby drought I got a sculpting itch, so jumped in on a whim a remastered my tox trooper sculpts. I have no idea if these are still on sale or in stock at anvil industry at the present time.

In terms of remastering it was more than touch ups here and there... I completely chopped off all the feet and re-sculpted them (I never used to be good at feet) and added some more bulk to the lower long coats.

When I originally made them it wasn't to proxy into an existing game system, the style of my sculpts was very slim and tall, unlike most of the popular ranges out in the market. I've picked up some Games Workshop stuff recently and think I'll use them as heresy era traitor guard at some point.

If I can finish up a heavy weapon trooper and some command/characters I might have them cast up.

They are still quite slight and make the old space marines look suitably superhuman. Compared to the newer Primaris space marines though they will be completely tiny... so I did a mock up of a heroic style trooper...

Greek mythology - scale comparison and compatibility

So here's the final post in this little series for now, showcasing the scale comparison:

(left to right in the above image)

• Victrix plastic torso, converted using MOTN metal head and arm parts
• MOTN hoplite miniature
• MOTN Faun archer miniature
• Victrix Greek archer, converted to use a MOTN head.

I now need to clean up and prepare the masters for production molds... a painstaking task.

Final shots below, these were test sculpts with my dollies. Some of the arms are wonky but I painted them up anyway. Here I'm experimenting to see if I can do hoplites with the left arm and shield all single piece with the body (so only the head and right arm would be multi-part). I'll likely take this approach with my god specific warriors and regiments.

And lastly, my humble little conversion parts gracing the Victrix plastics.

Stay tuned for more Greek mythology developments.

Test Sculpts - LOTR scale.

Just a quick sneak peak of some test sculpts... an orc and a robed eastern guy (next to a some of the amazing perry sculpted LOTR plastics.)

The guy in robes represents my good middle eastern faction, to face off against my Fallen Dwarf range. The head is just a stand in for the time being, this may be an option alongside the intended head design.

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!

25mm Heroic Style - sculpts to tick over

A few shots of this personal project.

I like doing these things now and again, usually it's to keep me ticking over if I've lost my mojo for sculpting miniatures I intend to cast up (I can make these rough and less polished, and occasionally experiment with new techniques).

Jumping the shark with 25mm heroic.

This is a strange little personal project, which I'll make no excuses for other than mild curiosity!

Commissioning the mold and some casts will cost me about £150-£200 so it's not a major endeavor.

Following the purchase of some power armoured super humans... I want some mild mannered run of the mill cannon fodder human soldiers. Done in a heroic style, with a 25mm height, I'm targeting a stylistic cohesion with the addition of a visible difference is size. The superhuman's will look superhuman!

The miniatures are in 3 parts, legs, torso and head. The torso's have the rifles attached but even then, 5 different torso's with 5 different legs will provide 25 individual poses.

Then there's the heads, I've gone overkill and have 7 different styles! 35 heads in total will be included in the mold!

I've also thrown in 3 blank torso's so I can make characters, command and support miniatures.

This is purely for personal use but I might have some available to purchase for any mad modeller's out there that want to give it a try!

Off to the mold maker these go. 2 legs weren't photographed here, I'm still working on the "conversion bits" that will use the free space above them in the mold.

Another test mold... 28mm, 15mm & 10mm

Here's a shot of another mold I'm commissioning from another new potential caster!

If they work out I'll be able to use them as masters and dollies for lots of variants and tweaked poses.

There's a few bits and pieces in there, specifically to test the quality of the mold and casts!

A quick run down for anyone interested...

• x5 10mm scale sci-fi troopers
• x4 15mm scale Fantasy Spearmen (different races)
• x4 28mm scale clockpunk rifles (details and clockpunk elements will be added later)
• x1 28mm scale Fallen Dwarf Spearman
• x1 28mm scale Orc Hoplite, with 3 different heads.

This will be shipped off in the next few days, then I'm preparing another lot of minis for another test mold at another caster...

Then once that's done I can get back to finishing lots of sculpts, preparing new ones and looking forward to working with a new (potentially more than one) casting outfit! Cool.

Faun Archer Prototypes

These seem to have turned out not too bad!

When I make retail versions there's a fair number of tweaks and improvements I'll achieve, including more varied poses. Overall though this is the direction I want them to take!

Exciting times - mini's going off for a test mold and cast.

I mentioned on my last post I'd found a local resin caster, very cool guy and great equipment: Hive City Terrain! Judging by the size of some of his terrain I'll be able to make BIG stuff... cool.

I've selected a few mini's to go in for mold making and casting. These are tests just to calibrate and start pricing things (how hard are they to mold, what's the best resin mix to use on them, etc.etc.)

First group are a safe bet and I've selected them because they are virtually "sale ready". Heroic style techno gothic parts. These will cast easy.

The second lot are the real test... will those spears survive? Will the rifles be too thin and prone to breakage?

Lets find out....

17mm...

One minute I'm trying to paint up some of the great Copplestone 15mm* barbarians, next minute I've started sculpting a load of minis in the same scale!

I'm torn between casting some stuff up like this, could do a skirmish/dungeon crawl set... or could do full blown armies in ranks maybe.

Left to right: Uruk-Hai Spartan, Arabian good guy spearman, Far Eastern legion bad guy, skeleton.

(spot the Fallen Dwarf. His heads loose in case I want to use this as a little dolly"

Few others in progress as well but not photographed.

I'll take a break from sculpting for a few days and have a think about what to do with them...

*actually 17mm.

Just a Dwarf test sculpt....

I'm sculpting a great variety of things at the moment, mostly tests and proof of concepts for various projects. Here's an idea I knocked out in about an hour...

LOTS of other sculpts but I can't publish it here yet: my stuff has a good habit of appearing on news blogs and forums and occasionally being taken out of context.

OK maybe one more pic...

More soon!

Greek Mythology... maybe

Just messing around with some putty...

Usual story on these: “personal sculpts, for my own use, blah blah” but yes I'll probably make them available to purchase one day.

Initially these might be individual loose parts (heads, weapons, shields) which people can use to augment some of the amazing Ancient plastic miniatures out there.. Victrix are a personal favourite of mine.

Good chance I'll just make a lot of the mythological beasts and characters, along with conversion parts, and we can rely on the Hoplite/human heroes to come from other manufacturers. The Fauns will probably be my first target.

The horned head will be used as a fantasy Minoan/Cretan – lead by the Minotaur who has busted out the Labyrinth and usurped king Minos.

The front right head will be a black armoured Serpent Hoplite – lead by Medusa and the Gorgons.

Faun dollies:

WIP – Poseidon/Atlantean/Trident/Dagon/Mariner Hoplites