Ben's Miniature Gallery

Kade Mireth-Orat (part 1) added Sep 23, 2005
With the general lack of Star Wars minis available, I don't think I'll ever find anything to fit my wife's Zabrak pilot character. I also don't want to hunt all over for another sci-fi type min to convert, so I've decided to take on my first sculpting project. I picked up a ribbon of Green Stuff in a Citadel Modelling blister pack at the local hobby store some time back, just in case I ever needed it. I also have a few tools that I used to use on modelling clay when I was a child. One is a burnishing ball tool, with a different sized ball on each end. The other hs a curved, flat round shape on one end and a curved, dull pick sort of implement on the other. I'm glad I didn't lose track of these tools over the years, since they're ideal for this sort of thing. I laid my hands on a cork and began to try to build an armature. I had some very fine brass wire and some stiff piano wire immediately to hand. The brass wire was far too flimsy to make any sort of skeleton. The piano wire was very sturdy; in fact, it was so sturdy I couldn't get it into any sort of useful shape. I looked around some more and found some insulated copper wire I'd used for an automotive wiring project some time ago. It's about 22ga, I think, maybe 20ga. There's no marking on the spool. At any rate, it was very easy to shape and held its shape well. I'm worried that it's a little too soft, but hopefully the putty will be sturdy enough that it won't matter. The hardest part of working with the copper wire was pushing it into the cork; it tended to bend instead of go in. Finally I got enough of it secured that I could start building my body shape. I started with two pieces of wire about 3.5" long. I twisted them together into a torso, then splayed them back out for arms. I untwisted the wires a little to reduce the overall height of the skeleton, as it will need to coexist with the old 25mm West End minis. I think she'll still be a little Amazonian, but I don't want to try sculpting on too small a scale my first time out. I made a small wire loop for the head, twisting one of the free ends from the loop around the torso and the other around an arm. The result was a fairly well secured head that I could position without it coming loose from the body. I put the first layer of putty on the torso, head, and legs. Following advice from some online sculpting guides I've left the arms naked at this point to allow easier access to the torso. I decided to start adding some of the basic body shape at this point. I want the figure to look unmistakably female, so I added some shape to the hips and thighs. Since Zabraks have no hair, the face and body will be the only way to determine gender. I don't know how well I'll be able to sculpt the face, so I'm trying to make sure the body is recognizably female. My initial concept is to sculpt her wearing a flight suit, which should be fairly easy to do. I'm not sure what I want her arms to be doing, but one will probably be holding a blaster vertically, with the other held out behind, hand down. The head seemed to take on some shape as I messed with it, and it seems to be looking over to the right, which works just fine for me. Once this first layer cures, I plan to work on the upper torso and add feet, then maybe begin defining the clothes. Next I'll work on the arms, and leave the head for last. I've found myself putting my finger on top of the head as I sculpt the body, so I'll save the head for last so I don't mess it up while working on other things.
category: /other | permanent link