Here are the last (until I order more) figures of my tribe! From left to right, they are an archer (who will serve as the Chief's wife), the chief and the firemaker/holder.
I finally added flights/feathers to the archer's quiver of arrows. that was some frustrating tweezer action, but it got done and looks all right.
The chief still needs some bindings/straps around his waist and leggings, that will be finished as soon as the greenstuff cures. It's difficult to see his stone axe in these pics, but hopefully, you'll get a better view when I do my multiview photo after I've painted him.
For the inside of his fur cape, I plan to paint cave animals (Lascaux style). And the hide he is wearing will get a leopard print paint job.
The fire holder will be left bald (the "spiritual' are bald in my tribe) with a little bit of facepaint. It is difficult to see here, but his fire "lantern" has a little bit of sculpted fire in it.
With my next order, I hope to find a decent throwing pose so I can use an atlatl. In fact, I've made some extra weapons including an atlatl I made from one piece of brass rod. I simply bent the rod around and carved out some nicks where the dart meets the thrower. Here, I have a better pic of a stone axe such as that being held by my chief.So Monday and Tuesday will be priming days. These are the last pics you'll see of the greenstuff. Unfortunately, I won't get around to painting any of the tribe until next weekend at the earliest. But I am excited to get these painted up. I feel good about crafting my own tribe (at least crafting the clothing, equipment and weapons over Bronze Age's great sculpts.) And I think the paint is really gonna pull these conversions together.
I may pick up some more generics and try other things such as fantasy, medieval or sci-fi figures. I won't do whole groups or tribes, but simple one-off figures. And I still would like to add a few more figures to my Waiteri. My usual limit on the number of figures I get in one genre is the number of those figures I can fit into a Chessex figure case. I think the Waiteri, at 54mm, are already close...maybe I'll see how many can fill two Chessex cases.
Hey Carmen-
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I have to say you're making really impressive progress with the sculpting. You've gotten far more adventurous since you first started with the sculpey hut back last year or there abouts. :-)
I was wondering how you handled the cape on the chieftan here, specifically having it flowing out to the side. Did you let it cure most of the way before shaping it, or is there some other trick for it? I have a similar putty project in mind, but I'm a complete novice with it. I did a coat years ago and it always sagged and drooped a lot before it hardened, so I was never succesfull in modelling one standing out away from the figure.
Any advice you might have would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
-blackfly
Hiya, Blackfly!
ReplyDeleteI started off the same way as with the other hides: I flattened out some green stuff on a smooth (slightly oiled to prevent sticking) surface. This piece was thicker than the hides to allow some "space" when I engraved the fur.
After all the hair was sculpted and the edges torn a bit, I picked up the whole piece with a needle (I do most of my greenstuff work with a needle) and placed it on the chief's back, teasing the top corners into place.
HERE'S THE TRICK I used to get the wind-swept position: I have one of those little hobby helpers -- the little device with a couple arms with clips at the ends (and sometimes with a magnifying glass attached) -- I clipped the chief, a few inches above the table, by his leg into place with his left side facing down (and his front side turned up just a touch) so that the cape would droop off to the one side. Then I folded and draped the cape until I liked it. Gravity kept the cape facing in the direction I wanted. The folds remained since they weren't fighting gravity either.
Then I let it hang while the greenstuff cured.
Let me know if you need more details.
Carmen
P.S. I've been trying new rums-- Sailor Jerry is nice with ginger ale, and Kraken is good with cream soda (I'm new to Kraken; gonna have to keep experimenting.)