By Jason Miller
Materials List:
3-4 corks (as large as you can get them #9 is common, #28 is best)
sculpting tools (in the LEAST get the GW one- I swear by it- its that good)
20 ga floral wire
30 ga floral wire
epoxy putty of choice (I recommend Green Stuff to start) or A&B
two sets of small pliers
pencil & paper
concept art if needed
Part I
The first step is to decide what you wish to sculpt- I recommend working on 3 sculpts
at a time: one human, one small animal, and one alien or other race humanoid.
Working on 3 different sculpts at a time will allow you to move onto your next sculpt
while one or more dry.
For inspiration check out online sites, magazines, and popular art- if you can imagine
it you can sculpt it.
Once you have selected 3 subjects sit down with a pen and paper (and any concept
art) and practice doing some sketches of your subject's body shapes. Start by drawing
a stick man- just a simple figure made from lines.
important as you need to get the angles just right! Now that you have the skeleton
add some meat to them bones...
Dont worry if you "can't draw" or "suck"- all you need draw are circles and rectangles
like in the examples below:
The secret is to draw a ball on any point that 'bends' or articulates- a rectangle joins
each ball. I find it best to draw out a few different poses and see which you like
best...
Dont worry about drawing clothes right now- focus on the shape of the body.
Part II
The next step is to take one of your little stick man shapes and recreate it out of wire this
is called an armature or skeleton/skelly. Pre-made armatures are called a 'Dolly'.
The advantage of a dolly is that all of the proportions are usually correct so you needn't
worry about how long the arms and legs need to be. This can be extremely helpful
when you are sculpting a whole line of figures as you would like them to be a
consistant size (usually).
I lightly filed some shiny marks on the wire so you can see each joint (knees, elbows etc)
Some people solder there armatures together but I find it much easier to just twist
the wires over themselves a few times or to wrap a thin length of 30 ga wire around
the 20 to hold it tight. Either way you do it be sure to leave a long 30ga wire around
the shoulder area to make a little 'head' loop.
Be sure to poke some holes in a cork and then feed the wire in- if you just push the
wire in without pre-punched holes you'll bend and twist your dolly out of shape. Slide
your dolly into the cork- be sure to measure at this stage or have a sample size figure
to compare to- you dont want short legs!
(Recently I have found it better to do only the bottom half of my dolly to start with.
Much of miniature sculpting is like this- break it down into smaller and smaller steps
and focus on one small area at a time.)
I sometimes put a small plug of GS on the twist to keep it from untwisting while posing...
See the secret here is to leave the arms as a longish loop- this offers several
advantages:
1. holds the wires even- this makes it easier to get well proportioned legs
2. allows for swords and other long items to be built right into the figure later
Personally I just use one length of wire and bend it into a loop then make a twist with
some pliers, adding the little loop for the head at a later date.
Part III
The final step is to add a little putty to your wire. Take a knife or similar tool and cut
off some 'Green Stuff'. Before you do you should know a little about green stuff. It
used to be sold entirely in 50-50 strips- in fact this is how Games Workshop sells it.
However when the blue (hardener) is beside the yellow they start to mix and harden.
Older putty will therefore have lumps on occasion as the two sides have already
mixed. The only recourse was to cut the centre out of the old strips. More recently it
has been offered in tubes- with the yellow and the blue as separate slugs.
In any case you don’t always want a 50-50 mix so however you buy your putty you'll
want to cut it into new portions.
The first time you add putty to the dolly will be more difficult- see the wire is very
smooth and doesn't have much substance so the putty will naturally slip and twist
around the wire- you cant work well with it! So the very first time you add putty to the
dolly will be a THIN slightly rough skin to bulk it up ever so slightly.
Basically you want to roll 2 little wee sausages- they should be just slightly thicker
than the wire itself ideally. Slowly press each sausage on one at a time and wrap
them around the legs and torso of the dolly. If you want to add an integral base then
be sure to lift your dolly slightly as if you just add to the putty you will take height off
your figure and give him short shins! For the legs don’t worry if they are not exactly
smooth- in fact it is better if it is slightly rough I find as it gives further layers of putty
better grip. For the base focus on pushing the putty into the desired shape FIRST. If
there is too much putty in one area slowly tease it towards areas that are lacking in
putty. If you find you have added too much putty then gently cut the excess away
with your tool- don’t worry! You can always add more later if you want but cutting and
sanding is more of a hassle.
Now repeat this with your other two subjects and make dollies for them. After you
finish each go back to the previous dolly and re-smooth the base- this is how to get a
nice smooth base. If you want a textured base you would do it last of all- most
textured bases are little more than a small round tool pushed into the putty repeatedly.
3-4 corks (as large as you can get them #9 is common, #28 is best)
sculpting tools (in the LEAST get the GW one- I swear by it- its that good)
20 ga floral wire
30 ga floral wire
epoxy putty of choice (I recommend Green Stuff to start) or A&B
two sets of small pliers
pencil & paper
concept art if needed
Part I
The first step is to decide what you wish to sculpt- I recommend working on 3 sculpts
at a time: one human, one small animal, and one alien or other race humanoid.
Working on 3 different sculpts at a time will allow you to move onto your next sculpt
while one or more dry.
For inspiration check out online sites, magazines, and popular art- if you can imagine
it you can sculpt it.
Once you have selected 3 subjects sit down with a pen and paper (and any concept
art) and practice doing some sketches of your subject's body shapes. Start by drawing
a stick man- just a simple figure made from lines.
important as you need to get the angles just right! Now that you have the skeleton
add some meat to them bones...
Dont worry if you "can't draw" or "suck"- all you need draw are circles and rectangles
like in the examples below:
The secret is to draw a ball on any point that 'bends' or articulates- a rectangle joins
each ball. I find it best to draw out a few different poses and see which you like
best...
Dont worry about drawing clothes right now- focus on the shape of the body.
Part II
The next step is to take one of your little stick man shapes and recreate it out of wire this
is called an armature or skeleton/skelly. Pre-made armatures are called a 'Dolly'.
The advantage of a dolly is that all of the proportions are usually correct so you needn't
worry about how long the arms and legs need to be. This can be extremely helpful
when you are sculpting a whole line of figures as you would like them to be a
consistant size (usually).
I lightly filed some shiny marks on the wire so you can see each joint (knees, elbows etc)
Some people solder there armatures together but I find it much easier to just twist
the wires over themselves a few times or to wrap a thin length of 30 ga wire around
the 20 to hold it tight. Either way you do it be sure to leave a long 30ga wire around
the shoulder area to make a little 'head' loop.
Be sure to poke some holes in a cork and then feed the wire in- if you just push the
wire in without pre-punched holes you'll bend and twist your dolly out of shape. Slide
your dolly into the cork- be sure to measure at this stage or have a sample size figure
to compare to- you dont want short legs!
(Recently I have found it better to do only the bottom half of my dolly to start with.
Much of miniature sculpting is like this- break it down into smaller and smaller steps
and focus on one small area at a time.)
I sometimes put a small plug of GS on the twist to keep it from untwisting while posing...
See the secret here is to leave the arms as a longish loop- this offers several
advantages:
1. holds the wires even- this makes it easier to get well proportioned legs
2. allows for swords and other long items to be built right into the figure later
Personally I just use one length of wire and bend it into a loop then make a twist with
some pliers, adding the little loop for the head at a later date.
Part III
The final step is to add a little putty to your wire. Take a knife or similar tool and cutoff some 'Green Stuff'. Before you do you should know a little about green stuff. It
used to be sold entirely in 50-50 strips- in fact this is how Games Workshop sells it.
However when the blue (hardener) is beside the yellow they start to mix and harden.
Older putty will therefore have lumps on occasion as the two sides have already
mixed. The only recourse was to cut the centre out of the old strips. More recently it
has been offered in tubes- with the yellow and the blue as separate slugs.
In any case you don’t always want a 50-50 mix so however you buy your putty you'll
want to cut it into new portions.
The first time you add putty to the dolly will be more difficult- see the wire is very
smooth and doesn't have much substance so the putty will naturally slip and twist
around the wire- you cant work well with it! So the very first time you add putty to the
dolly will be a THIN slightly rough skin to bulk it up ever so slightly.
Basically you want to roll 2 little wee sausages- they should be just slightly thicker
than the wire itself ideally. Slowly press each sausage on one at a time and wrap
them around the legs and torso of the dolly. If you want to add an integral base then
be sure to lift your dolly slightly as if you just add to the putty you will take height off
your figure and give him short shins! For the legs don’t worry if they are not exactly
smooth- in fact it is better if it is slightly rough I find as it gives further layers of putty
better grip. For the base focus on pushing the putty into the desired shape FIRST. If
there is too much putty in one area slowly tease it towards areas that are lacking in
putty. If you find you have added too much putty then gently cut the excess away
with your tool- don’t worry! You can always add more later if you want but cutting and
sanding is more of a hassle.
Now repeat this with your other two subjects and make dollies for them. After youfinish each go back to the previous dolly and re-smooth the base- this is how to get a
nice smooth base. If you want a textured base you would do it last of all- most
textured bases are little more than a small round tool pushed into the putty repeatedly.
