Well, my prior work - the were-fox - is still on the sculpting table and is progressing very slowly, largely because I am not happy with the relative lengths of the thighs. So, in this regard, yes I have let it split a bit.
But when I ordered the Reaper Grave Guard I also picked up two packs of sculpting armatures and they are incredible!
What I have found is that my sculpting abilities are not too shabby, it is my capability to get the perspectives correct in the basic build that really let me down. These armatures allow me to have that already done, and I have a couple of projects now underway that I am really excited about.
The first is a beserker for my Valkyrie team. There is very limited variation in the original Valkyrie miniatures, so I wanted to do up something different for the blitzers/beserkers. The idea was a model in the same uniform as the others, but more wild and unkempt to represent the Frenzy skill.
So I used a female armature as the base and did very little to the basic stance. I also used a Reaper head and positioned it so it looked as if she was screaming at the sky in frenzied rage. From there I started sculpting. I decided she would have lost one boot in her raging and would have a torn and frayed t-shirt (when I paint her up there will be blood spatter as well). I am almost finished, I just need to add the final details to the helmet (wings and their distinctive visor/goggles), perhaps add a little bit of definition to the left arm, and base her up properly.
The only real problem I have with her is that one glove is slightly bigger than the other, and it is exacerbated because the bigger one is also the one on the arm without a sleeve. Hopefully a little bit of bulk on the arm will fix that. I'm also not 100% convinced about the chainmail brief. It might look better painted, but I think it is too round. Still, I'm just getting my head around this, so next one will be better.
The other job isn't as far advanced, but I think you can still see the idea. When I stood back and looked at my wood elf (feral elf) team, the Duskrunners, I just didn't like the wardancer options (currently two centaur-like elf figures). I have been talking about using air elementals for some of the star players, but I figured, perhaps a better option is to use them for the wardancers! I couldn't really find a decent model to represent what I was after though (the Malyfeaux Squalls being the closest) so I figured I would have a go at sculpting them.
Here is the result thus far. The idea is a female armature as a base, hovering in the air and swept back into the wind. I don't want too much detail in the body, it being just a rough humanoid form the spirit is taking, and the face will basically only be eyes - which makes it much easier for me to sculpt.
I have only done a basic sub-structure for the swept back air and some of the sculpting that sweeps from areas that are "deep" in the layering process (like behind the knee, under the breast, around the neck). The next step (when this layer dries) will be to add some sweeping, from the bottom up, on the higher areas like the calf, thigh and hip, shoulder and head. Then I'll need to also add the arm and complete the foot. Of course, that's just one side, then I have to also do the other side!
I probably won't have these ready for AusBowl, the first real outing for the Duskrunners, but who knows! Stranger things have happened.
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