Sculpting practice : A Worm!

[stoiss]

I originally started posting about my little practice project over at my local gaming forum, but since it's not in English I figured I might as well start a thread here - this time in English of course.

Some time back I stumbled over some of Hydras's sculpts over at Warpshadow here, and figured I might as well have a go at some of his techniques.

In fact I have been collecting a number of tutorials on sculpting Xenos bits and pieces that I'm going to try out in the coming time.

So far my modeling work has been limited to existing models being chopped up, pinned, bulked up, detailed including the occasional "Chinese leg extension" and before that the usual "gap filling" task that we all have to deal with once in a while.

This time I'm doing it from the ground up with steel wires, tinfoil and a mix of Aves Apoxie for the larger things and Green Stuff for the detail work.

There's a nice overview of the different modeling putties and their characteristics and price here.

Armature


Getting setup.


Initially I'm going to start out with a simple shape : a worm of some kind, but that depends a lot on how much I get carried away with the work.


The Apoxie actually smells a bit like GS ... well the B-component DOES smell like peanut butter before mixing ;D
The consistency is a bit like marzipan, but after about an hour it becomes denser and easier to produce details in.

After 24 hours the Apoxie has hardened. It looks and feels mostly like ceramics at this point.

[stoiss]

Right now the "worm" stands at about 16.5cm which is a couple of cm taller than a trygon as I understand it (don't own one myself).



The pieces of cardboard (yes I had pizza) are there to give me something to sculpt binding tissue against as well as define where the sections of carapace should separate.

[stoiss]

I have to admit that the carapace didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it, but then again this is only a practice object.

Note: Water + Apoxie = BAD!!

Apoxie turns almost to soap when worked or rubbed with water making it very hard to make out the details.

I have read that epoxy based putties don't like water and fat (GS being the exception) and that Nivea hand creme (the blue one) can be used to prevent tools from sticking to the putty.

Also I'm going to get hold of some thin plasticard the next time ... cardboard just doesn't hold the shape very well after it has been wet once.


A couple of pictures of the method I used:







Apoxie also doesn't like to get stretched...

Guess it's going to take time getting used to this material.







In the end I suppose I should be satisfied with the result even though it's taking some time getting used to Apoxie coming from GS.


After this I will be working on the front of the thing.

[Grythic]

Looking great so far

[Deathnid]

*coughtrygon*

[Shadowwolf]

very nice continuity in the sculpting of the plates! :-) Keep it up!

Shadowwolf

[Moontyranid]

omg its lagiacrus

[Hunger]

Very nice. I wish I could sculpt!

[Phenious]

Looking very nice. lots of ridges in that armor. Next you should work on the mouth I want to see what you intend for that!

[rick]

How did you make those plates? Could you possibly link me up?

Been working on a Swarmlord, wouldn't mind it looking like your worm

[stoiss]

Dec 10, 2011 17:14:41 GMT rick said:

How did you make those plates? Could you possibly link me up? ...

Hydra has a nice tutorial here (almost at the bottom of the thread).

[stoiss]

I got a bit work done on the front. Still some way to go though.

Here's a couple of pictures of the process for the front carapace pieces:



This involves mostly shaping with a clay shaper, trimming excess pieces and lifting with dental tools and stretching the putty with pinched fingers just like the back carapace.




I have bulked up the areas I feel should protrude or simple be more defined, before adding the the actual ribs on top (next).


The plan for the head is to have a split-maw just like the predator from the movies or the mawloch for that matter.

I'm also planning to have an extended maw with multiple rows and small teeth and maybe a long tongue with rippers at the end for pulling in prey.



The head will probably have to be a bit wider to hold all this. I'm considering making something similar to the Red Terror or may just something the same size and shape of the Carnifex front plate.

[Grythic]

wow this is coming on really well

[Hive Carnithrope]

MUST... SEE... END... !!!

[t⊗theark]

My god, you're so goof at sculpting. I think I'm in love!