In this video I sculpt a Warhammer Old World Chaos Dwarf miniature. My first ever mini kitbash and mini sculpt. Patreon link below: www.patreon.com/AnvilofDoomMiniatures Music by Karl Casey @ audio bat #warhammer #warhammer40k
For your first time sculpting, you did a great job! Try some Super Sculpey firm. For any super thin parts you can use CosClay as it is flexible and not as fragile after baking. Once you have completed a section, bake it so you don't squash the details. You can use some bake and bond to add on more sections if needed but at that scale, you should be ok to add on details. The more you handle the clay, the hotter it gets...the more soft it is. You can always refrigerate the sculpture for a bit to cool it off and firm it up.
I have an entire Chaos Dwarf army from back in the day. I'm really tempted to revive them seeing how the army is "legacy" supported in the new "Old World".
You will be disappointed that they got rid of most of the units that aren't FW 8th edition. There is no classic bull centaurs for example. The legacy document has no actual legacy.
I’ve been wanting to sculpt for a while, and this is the exact kind of thing that I love to see. There is a miniature sculptor on RU-vid, Tom Mason, who does great work and has lots of great advice. Step by step on making your own minis. I haven’t finished your video yet. Paused it just to say this. Back to it. Love your channel.
Thanks so much mate! Yeah I’ve been wanting to give it a crack for a while as well and when I saw the clay I decided to pull the trigger. Thanks for the channel recommendation, I’ll make sure I check him out 🍻
Mate, this is great! Love that you just got cracking rather than spending days online figuring out tools/approaches etc. great to dive in, have fun and keep the energy and then know what you want to learn for the next stage. Plus the end result is really fun. Hope you do have a go at painting him. Love it!
Different putties for different purpose. Milliput is good for filler to cheaply bulk out an larger model, greenstuff is an all rounder, and tamiya putties are fantastic for fine detail. Also, re greenstuff - the ratio of blue/yellow matters - more yellow = slower drying and more rubbery - more blue = faster drying and harder. Regarding tools, the best tools are clay shapers - also known as colour shapers. These are silicon tipped sculpting tools that act a little bit like paint brushes and let you achieve smooth finishes on detail easily. I use a chisel and rounded cone shape tool mostly, in combination with my hobby knife.
Some tips: you can make tools for indents really quickly using clay and just stick it on a stick, take it off or bake it. Otherwise use greenstuff. You can also bake it and keep working in order to not smush details. Treat baking like hitting save on all the work you like so far. Otherwise, looks great!
I think the negativity at the start of the video was totally unwarranted, you did amazingly well! A few tipis: Bake each completed section as a save point of sorts. Don’t be afraid of mixing media, you’ll see a lot of GW “greens” that use plasticard and brass rod to model flat surfaces or shafts. Stuff like a banner pole made of brass and a shield made of heated and bent plasticard etc. On top of this I totally recommend using “grilliput”, a 50:50 mix of green stuff and milliput for more detailed sculpting, it has the slight tac, stretchiness and smooth finish of green stuff with the rigidity and sandability of milliput once cured. Ideally you can make your bulkier forms with bakeable polymer clay and then finish the details grilliput. Don’t be afraid of sculpting trinkets and details off the model and then attaching them later. Lastly, invest in some blue stuff/oyamaru and make press moulds of cool textures such as scalemail, you can then imprint those textures on thin bits of grilliput and wrap them round other forms. This is especially good for making things like fur cloaks etc.
What a fantastic idea, a fun project, and a great homage to the past and the historic ways of making miniatures. A standout video all around. Now please paint him!! 😃
What a fun project! Another trick for the clay is to sort of use "save states" and bake bits when you finish them, rather than try and keep the whole mini in progress at the same time. I saw someone recommend sculpey and they have a product call Bake and Bond for just that purpose.
Baking everything when done was your mistske. I dont sculpt with clay but putty uses the same principle of being patient and working in layers to get better results.
Love this first attempt and can’t wait to see another with what you learnt deets! I recommend checking out North of the Border, he does bigger clay sculpts, but I feel the process will be the same even on the mini scale! But yeah, main things are, armature on a base so you don’t get prints all over it, silicone tools for smoothing and baking in stages 🤙🏼
That's definitely impressive for a first try! I think with a few tips, like working in stages to harden the detail you did prior to avoid smudging it, you'd be quickly quite good at that! Never tried it myself, seems extremely daunting, just filling gaps with greenstuff is challenging. All of the classic minis were done with greenstuff, that's usually a bit harder so possibly a bit easier to work with, but otherwise likely more difficult with it's drying time and tendency to get stuck on everything.
Nice to see videos like this and I hope it inspires the community to give sculpting and other aspects of the hobby a go. I’ve got some super sculpy hidden somewhere and will give it crack myself. Great video as always mate.
Great first try, I think you nailed the aesthetics ! TIP: you can bake in stages, so the under layers are stiff and not destroyed when applying the top ones.
Really impressed with this dude. Better than my first try! The main recommendation I'd make is to use a sculpting handle - basically like a painting handle, so you don't have to handle the model. In terms of clay, sculpy fimo professional and cosclay are all widely used. Grab whatever's easy. Hope you do some more of these. Sausages and balls are our friends 😂
I love this little dude ❤. He looks great. I’ve been tempted to try sculpting recently. I’m painting up lots of classic metal Dwarfs, and while I have loads of elite guys, I’m very short on standard warriors. Be great to make a few, and maybe get them cast in metal, so I could have a proper unit.
I quite liked the results you got. Brilliant work for a first time. I've done animals in polymer clay a fair bit, but very few people. You were using a very different set of techniques than I came up with - I don't tend to use tools much, which I need to change if I want to get more detail than I historically have.
I use milliput for most of my stuff… its a 2 part epoxy so it cures in about an hour. This means I can sculpt a bit and leave it to cure before continuing so I won’t ruin it. It’s much easier than trying to sculpt everything all at once
That looks like so much fun. I’ve tried 3d modeling on pc, and it just wasn’t for me, maybe I should give the hand sculpting method a try. I agree about old minis having character, maybe they aren’t as pretty or refined as newer models, but they are still beautiful pieces of art.
Miniatures were/are traditionally sculpted using Greenstuff. After mixing the blue and green parts you usually get about 1 hour to sculpt for it starts to harden and cure (24 hours to fully cure). But this is one of the best things to come out of a mini painting channel in ages. Experimenting with the different art forms that make up the hobby. Do you have a have Oldhammer sculptor?
Glad you liked the change of pace. I definitely want to explore all the different aspects that make up the hobby 👍 I really love Jes Goodwin’s sculpts as they are peak Warhammer to me. Thanks for the support!
You should use sculptey clay and no aluminum foil. Jusr layer the clay. For one mini it takes at least one week. GW like most at the time made conversion of basic models to sculpt 5-6 miniatures.
Your intro made me think this was going to be awful, but you've done an amazing job! Yes, he's large, but the details are incredible. Will definitely need to see him painted... and given a name!
Awesome. I tried this once and it did not go well, I have limited artistic skills lol. My 8 yo daughter, however, made Mrs Potts from left over babybell wax. Maybe I should show this video😅
Its really hard to keep it small scale if your foil ball is already bigger than the reference mini you're using :P Also, you may want to give greenstuff/milliput a try for sculpting, its a whole different experience. You have limited working time but its easier to work the mini in different stages. (also my first mini sculpt was also a chorf! :D )
Well done. you want try monster clay , or super sculpey . you might get silicon sculting tools some toooh picks I can't remember what its called it rod with two small metal balls one on each end of it i hope this helps abit
I would recommend gloves next time so your fingertips don't affect the clay, it saves a lot of work! Looking foward to seebyou put some paint on him next time.
I’m so happy to see your video ! I’m giving a try on sculpting these days, too and I’m very happy to see you getting things done ! Like the sculpt and I definitely want to see it painted ! How tall is he, btw ?
he looks great bud! You should check out another fellow Aussie by the name of Trent over at miscast for sculpting info Looking forward to seeing more :) And yep, lets get him painted up!
You have a talent for sure but first up, use gloves to avoided finger prints. Then build and bake as you go along to stop smooshing it all well its soft.
well yes its god one hare a thing you think of do a mold yes so make other you think doing your clay guy last fore more time and make a mold with five guy but if no one be best yes i am thinking casting five at time will do it little fast the just one at time but up to you agen if nope we up to you but that what do casting as meny as need but thats me will see what do with it as do
This turned out great considering it was your first go! I'll echo a previous comment and recommend Tom Mason's channel. He has a a pretty comprehensive library of very clear and helpful tutorials. I think what's holding you back the most here is the armature. A good, solid foundation makes a great difference, and spending a bit of time planning out the mini at this early stage would make your life so much easier down the line. I'll drop to link to Tom Mason's tutorial on the subject, the first in his how-to playlist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-baRlEC-ixsk.html I look forward to seeing more sculpting experiments! Cheers
Thanks mate! I really appreciate the advice and the recommendation 🤝 I’ll definitely check out Tom’s videos because I’d love to improve and hopefully make something on the channel that’s up to a great standard 🙌
For the chain mail pattern, you may be able to use the same technique for making it with green stuff. Make a robe or skirt first then take the end of a brush and stab at it in layer lines to make the holes. Does a pretty good job at replicating the pattern.
Incredible job! Subscribed. You can create an entire armature with super long legs that you pin into something or clamp wood around to make a handle. Wrap foil around it where you want and just cut the excess off at the feet when you're done post bake.
