Shoot missile, eat candy.

I've added a LAW launcher, chin straps, a right boot and a pouch thing. The idea of the pouch is to fill up the undercut beneath the launcher. I think it must be filled with delicious candy. The bag and boot are still "wet" so consider that they are in progress and I'll refine them more. I've started on another iteration of the X-95. I actually made a few more but the results were icky. This one is looking nice so far. V.08, I think...

We only need to complete this stage, make the leg drop holster, some odds and ends and that's it. On to the next guy! I'm adding tabs to the bottoms of the figures so when he's done we can have a little group photo with trooper #1. It's going to be pretty awesome.

Spare some change, mister?

X-95 / MTAR 21 V.08

OH! I almost forgot, there's going to be a secret surprise which is what this trooper is holding in his hands as a weapon. Can you guess what it's going to be? Write in the comments. :)

Invisible gun is invisible.

Gear is what's for dinner. Took a while to get around to it. I had a very pleasant time making the pouches. I left some room on his back for a disposable missile launcher or some other bit. I've beefed up his right shoulder while I was at it.

Comments welcome. 

When life gives you limes you try to hold as many as you can simultaneously

Can't seem to get around to sculpting lately. I wish I could progress faster. I guess them's the brakes, so to speak. I'll get there in the end. 

I added the helmet and arm. Doing a little experiment I discovered that if I cut through the baked FIMO it cracks and can fall off the Green Stuff so I pre cut the Green Stuff armature and baked on top of that. I'll do some sort of fitting between the parts. I need to come up with some way of temporarily re affixing the arm later on. It's important to be able to see the figure as a whole. Maybe Cyanoacrylate glue and then twist it off  when I'm done (low shear strength). I'm concerned a little about its heat liquefying properties. We'll see what happens. 

The hand had to come off because of several reasons. For casting you can't have trapped negative spaces so  with the hands holding a gun there's really no way to cast without separating the arms. I had written earlier about my desire for customizable figures and modular parts is part of that; I need to learn how to do it. I want to have better access to the main body and I can't reach with a huge arm in the way.

I think next I'll do the thorax and helmet straps (maybe in Green Stuff). After that there's another arm, another boot, a holster and various equipment. Write your suggestions in the comments if you have any. After that it's on to the next guy who will be in a slightly improved FIMO technique which will be awesome. (but not as awesome as the guy I make AFTER THAT ONE)

Experimental trousers

More work with the FIMO. Added ears to my head. I'll get back to him once I get more done with our earlier guy. I'm enjoying the properties of the material, details can be crisper and surfaces more flat. On the other hand it is less forgiving in some cases and I've yet to get as good an understanding of the work "stages". More difficult for me to get smooth rounded surfaces and it's less sticky by an order of magnitude so there's a higher minimal thickness of matter.

Note in the pictures that I haven't yet baked it so I'm going to try and refine it more and more and see what I can get. I'm happy with the silhouette of the boot which is the nicest one yet. The rivets of the knee pads were also fun.

My plan is to finish the pant and boot before doing the other boot and then on to the arms. I will probably, after I overcome my trepidation, try to use the FIMO to make another X-95.

I will try to have the arms with the weapon or placeholder thereof finished before going on to the thorax. I intend to make the helmet from Brown Stuff which seemed to work quite well. I imagine that in the future my technique will be such a combination of materials as I gain a deeper understanding of the best application for each type.


Comment or whatever I don't care.
Please write comments. 

FIMO JAG mix? Madness I tell you, madness!

Trying out the FIMO mix. I've seen some really impressive results on Minisculpture.co.uk where I frequent. The formula comes from a very well respected sculptor: Jacques-Alexandre gillois aka JAG  and is available here with a nice tutorial: http://www.miniaturestudio.net/tutorials/test-page-1/ .
It's 60% FIMO Soft  (Dolphin Grey) + 30% FIMO Classic (Leaf Green) + 10% FIMO quick mix.

The work is very interesting and with promising results. Some of the same sort of motions as when I'm working with the Green Stuff but with a different surface tension and drag. Much more smooth surfaced than the Super Sculpey Firm which is better for working in small scale. It's very responsive and much more soft than Green Stuff. Another aspect that's different is that I can, and find that I have to, go over the same detail again and again. Touching up, ruining and re-sculpting. I can leave the thing alone and come back when I'm disposed which is  a HUUUGGGEE bonus for me. I'm leaving it alone for now. It's supposed to "settle" after a few hours and behave somewhat differently. I'll then bake and try to continue. I like what I'm seeing so far!

Skulls, a disembodied face and a badass Ferengi

Yep. 

Might need a quick trip to the plastic surgeon. I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow. Maybe it's just the malformation of the cranium that makes it look all weird.

Another face practice. I thought maybe a mix of brown stuff will help but it doesn't so no. However I have seen some sculpting videos in my desperation and I think it has benefited from it. Still not "there"

The new skull pattern. I think with these skulls I'm going to make some super radical faces.

Another day another face

Added more anatomical mass to the body. I like how it's forming, especially with the exaggerated way I've set up the armature which is really helping define the body parts. With the arms being the restraining factor for the upper body my plan is to sculpt them in the early stages and then remove them for completing the rest. 

Another practice head.
Oh, macro photography and harsh lighting, why so unforgiving?
I'm starting to get a bead on things but I need to do several more.

Come ETC Trooper #2.

I've made myself an avatar for some forums I frequent. It's only really fitting for one of them what with the technical requirements and everything. I think it's kind of cool.

Check it out:

Trooper #2, Known to his friends as Badassington Grumptholomeau. Posed with a primary layer of Green Stuff. I'm leaving aside huge head guy for the time being because. Well. His head is too damn big. I'll see how I feel about it later on. In the meantime it's important to move ahead. So there. 

Come at me bro

Also, I've made a mold and cast some copies of my Alien Bust Concepts. They came out terrible by any commercial standard. The flash is practically a step in some places and the volumes get distorted. It's because I didn't/don't know how to make the mold properly. In the meantime I primed one of the lesser copies for a painting experiment. A couple came out "OK". I'll do some more and hopefully they can also be acceptable. Would you be interested in a copy? What would you do with it? Write your ideas in the comments.

The defectives

Paint primer drying

He who keeps making faces, his face gets stuck like that

Posing the figure. Building up the mass. This time I intend to create the full pose, with arms, before continuing to the details. Possibly make some sort of groundwork preparation for breaking up the figure. This way I can plan better on how and when to do the details. 

Haters gonna hate

I saw these amazing naturalistic faces on Cool Mini Or Not (maybe I should get on there some time) sculpted by a person who is somehow involved (founder maybe?) in enigma miniatures which look really good. I'm resolved to keep practicing making faces until I get better at them. More better. 

That's it for now. You may write in the comments if you wish.

TOP STORY: Tiny fighting man wears hat. Head is huge.

Measuring the new head it's a whopping 6mm from bottom of chin to top of hat. I'm slightly perturbed by this but I am rationalizing it by:

 1. some folks just got a bigger head than others, I should know, my hat size is the waist of a small lady. 

2. He's got exaggerated features which are somewhat more illustrative rather than naturalistic such as HUGE CHIN so it's not so bad his head is big(and his mouth is open). 

I'll try to control the head size better on the next ones. 

The caps bill still needs "filling in" as it's mostly green stuff putty that's been placed to support the wire and enable a surface to be placed on top of it.

The head is slightly over sized mainly because of huge manly chin

Speaking of miniature heads: here are the new "blanks". I think this shape will serve better as a face/head under-structure. We'll see about it tomorrow.

Face/On

Another face. This time it's good enough in my eyes to continue and make the rest of the figure. I've sculpted the face in one go over the skull shape and then added the back of the head, cap bill armature, ears and strengthened the chin some in a second session.

Baked busts.

I love the feel and matte texture of the baked material. I'm experimenting with the first bust to see about maybe casting these. The very large size may enable me to cast acceptable copies without more fancier equipment that I need. I'm super excited to see them painted if it works out.