Your skills are very accomplished and you are a thorough instructor. The miniature sculpting world owes you a debt of thanks. Great stuff Tom, thank you so much.
This is a fantastic tutorial, and very helpful to me. I'm currently fixing a Bones mini that had a really wonky blade on a sword. Now I have a much better grasp on what I'm doing. Thank you for sharing this.
Some things that helped me not giving up on sculpting: 1. Green stuff tends to be shipped when already hardened (from staying on the shelves too long). You can either buy new one or cut off the hardened Yellow component. I peel my yellow component from in between the hardened bits.. it's a bit of a drag but kneading that hardened component in there will never work. 2. Got some good tools like mini pliers, cutters and most importantly for me: Vaseline! 3. Got some miliput and mixed it with green stuff: Green stuff has the tendency to fall in itself, but while mixed with miliput it stays alot stronger. (4. Next thing i'm gonna buy: some hard plastic tools to squish the putty to get straight shapes: right now I use my ruler but i'd like something that's easier to handle)
awesome video, learned a lot. have this idea of og power ranger themed stormcast knights, but wanted to give them the authentic weapons that each ranger weilded (sword, bow, axe, etc.) gonna be referencing your vids for that project
i am not sure if this has been asked before, and if it is...i am sorry, can you please do a video where you make a miniture fantasy sword, like Links Power sword, the sword of Omens, he-mans powersword?? please?
patrick conrad thanks! While I LOVE mecha, it's highly doubtful I will do a video on that topic in the near future. Robots and technical things like mecha are not my forte.
I may not of noticed if mentioned in a previous video, but wasn't aware you mixed your green stuff with Aves apoxie sculpt like myself. I use it mainly when sculpting weapons/armour due to it being able to hold an edge very well.
Sonnyp Jim yes I like that mix a lot. I usually use it mainly in weapons and equipment as well. The under skinning of the armature is always done with a straight mix of GS though.
Ah that is what I have heard you state previously, in respect to using GS as the sticky under layer for your oven baked clay you work with to adhere to. I am generally avoiding using oven baked clays since I have a nasty habit of not finishing any of my sculpts, always tie up around 80% completion and move onto another project. Having a clay mini that will not harden until baked, would make me never have a chance of bringing any of my minis to a finish. lol Good Tutorial as always!
Dakota Garcia that is a Cintiq Companion 2 in the background and I LOVE IT! I have sculpted a few things in Zbrush. It's an amazing program and hope to have more digital minis to show in the future. I don't have an artstation, but keep hearing about it so I'll go check it out. Is it the DeviantArt of today?
I have had to deal with this myself. To be honest the best option is to make the entire blade from scratch and replace the old blade. However if the blade is thick enough, you can pin in a brass rod and sculpt on the missing part. But be VERY careful. You may end up breaking the part of the sword that is still there.
Very informative video! Thank you! How did you attach the sword once you're done? Superglue? Looks like there's green stuff behind the handle attached to the body? Also, how would you recommend repairing a sword that's been broken off the hilt?
I do use superglue to attache weapons from time to time. But try to avoid that if possible. Normally I just put a bit of greenstuff on the connecting wires and let it cure. If you have a broken sword on an existing mini, you'll need to pin the blade back onto the hilt/handle. Hopefully the sword isn't too thin to drill a hole for a new wire.
I am writing a young adult fantasy novel and want to cosplay my characters, but I need to make my weapons durable and realistic. do you think I could make a sword and dagger out of a cardboard base and then coat it in an Apoxie Sculpt?
Hmmm, that might work, but it will take a lot of Apoxie Sculpt. I would also recommend using something more sturdy for the understructure. Like a metal rod or thing sheet of metal cut it form. With all the time and effort involved, it might even be better to purchase one of those premade foam weapons. But that’s hard for creatives like us to do. We want to make everything ourselves :)
I mostly use GW acrylic paints, but any hobby paints will do. Sadly, no painting tutorials by me. Painting minis is just a hobby so I'll leave those videos to the professionals.
Hey Tom, very good tutorial! I am learning sculpture but I'm still very lost in proportions. I tried to make a kanana sword but it sucks --" Do you have any tips for me? Thank you! And keep doing that great job!
Weapons and small pieces of equipment are always tough. The reason is that for them to be "realistic" they need to be sculpted so fine that they don't read very well on the miniature (or cast well for that matter). I believe it making weapons and equipment a little more stylized. That means they can be slightly bigger or thicker to allow them to stand out better on the miniature. My advice would be to let the weapons be larger and as you get better at sculpting, challenge yourself to make them smaller and more realistic. But never forget to make sure they look good on the miniature even if they are a little out of realistic proportion.
It can be sanded, but not very well. In order to make it work as a sandable material, I mix in Aves Apoxie Sculpt with my greenstuff. Then it sands great!
David Taylor I used 24 gauge galvanized steel wire that can be purchased at any hardware store. For weapons I prefer to use the ridged brass rods sold in railroad modeling. The size I usually use for that is K&S 0.032 diameter (.81mm). If the blade needs to be thin that use a smaller rod. Hope that helps!
Hmm, I believe I heated it up for at least 30 minutes, but then I didn't file it until the next day. You don't have to wait that long, but be sure to let it cool completely before filing. If it still doesn't seem hard enough, bake it again until the cooled putty is hard to the touch.
That really does come down to taste. I generally prefer to use ProCreate for the bulk of my sculpting efforts when using putty. So if you want to be like me, than use ProCreate HAHAH. Thanks for the question!
YourAverageBuilder you add the first layer of FIMO if you want to sculpt a miniature with FIMO or another polyclay. If you are sculpting entirely with putty than you can skip the FIMO.
Valerio Casciola no you do not need to bake greenstuff. However if you expose it to heat higher than room temperature, it will speed up the curing process.
Valerio Casciola no problem. There is actually no clay used in this video. The green is greenstuff putty and the gray is ProCreate putty. Both are self curing. Thanks!
I have been scouring the internet for someone to do a skull and batwings or something batwing related...any chance you could do one. no love for night lords out there.
+The Game Gladiator I'll be doing skulls soon. Bat/Dragon wings maybe in the future. The best advice I can give is to look at the symbol you want to emulate and try to recreate it.
+Kevin Wang to be honest, I have no idea :) I mainly use the large files and smaller needle files that are sold individually at the front counter of RC hobby shops.
ok so I have a set of size 0 and size 2 clay shapers which were about 8-10$ for each set. Can someone explain to me why the firm and extra firm options are $40-70?????
These tools can be VERY pricey depending on where you find them. If you want a full set, I'd recommend Dick Blick: www.dickblick.com/items/04935-0000/ They have the set for about $25
Tom Mason thanks Tom! thats much more reasonable. i managed to find a single flat chisel extra firm for a reasonable price but ill definitely have to pick that set up eventually
I love everything I have seen of yours, but a suggestion is to keep your dialogue relevant to what we are seeing at that moment otherwise it becomes a little disjointed when I'm watching something on the screen but you're talking about something else which happened prior. You're a great resource regardless!
