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Post by nyarlathotep333 on Jul 12, 2020 2:55:28 GMT
I posted this on the PP forums too, but thought I'd share it here as well. So I got the new sculpt Deathjack recently and it's pretty freakin' amazing. My biggest complaint is that, compared to the old sculpt, it's pretty small...more dynamic, but small. So to fix that, I decided to create a custom base for it. First off, I wanted some inspiration. I like the Deathjack art in the Forces of Cryx book by Mr--Jack. I don't think I'm allowed to post that image here (if I read the forum section on copyright correctly), but it's the one with the Deathjack standing on some sort of trench-work with tormented souls surrounding him. I'm not trying to be precise but instead use this photo heavily for inspiration. Step 1: Sculpt the BaseI knew I wanted it higher, and XPS foam seemed too light to attach such a heavy model to so I decided to cast the base in resin once finished. Here's the sculpt I created using XPS foam, dried sticks, greenstuff, and some skulls from my bits box.  Finished resin cast. It had a few small bubbles from pouring the silicone which were easily removed with a hobby knife. Overall, it turned out pretty good. Two of the bubbles got caught in the skull eye sockets which unintentionally makes it look like there's still an eyeball in each one. I may just leave those in there and paint them like that.  Step 2: Adding Barbed Wire and Attaching modelThe barbed wire is some pre-made stuff I picked up. I could have made my own, but this does the job and won't hang up on the foam carrying trays.  Step 3: the SoulsThis was a hard step to accomplish. It is virtually impossible to find 'blank' skeletons in metal that I could bend and pose. Everything out there is armored and has weapons. I found some from a company overseas (eBob miniatures) but they turned out to be too small - 25mm scale as opposed to the more 'heroic' 28mm scale most minis are in nowdays. I ordered some skeleton bits from Reaper and Secret Weapons stores but, being somewhat impatient, decided to start sculpting them myself to see if I could. The skull is from the Citadel Skulls box. Here's the start of that:  And adding the arms...this is going to be the focal point soul - the one in the front of the art with it's hands on it's head.  ...more to come |
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 12, 2020 6:23:40 GMT
Looking very cool so far! I like the base. I'm looking forwards to seeing how the skeleton turns out.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 12, 2020 17:15:17 GMT
 This one? It's up on DeviantArt, publicly available, so there's no reason you shouldn't be able to post it here. Not a bad choice by any means. I'd have made the base a bit smaller, I'm not a fan of big overhang bases, but that's a matter of taste. Did you use that Green Stuff World tentacle roller Soul suggested a couple of days ago to create the soul's "body"? |
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Post by nyarlathotep333 on Jul 12, 2020 22:36:44 GMT
Yeah, that's the art. The spine was sculpted with an Xacto blade. Unfortunately, I don't own one of the tentacle rollers. I am planning on picking one up eventually though, they look pretty slick.
The overhang wasn't planned to be that much initially. I made the base so that the DJ's feet fit on it and didn't hang off. I figured the spiked logs overhung a bit but were far enough up that it wasn't a huge issue, however I didn't anticipate the room the barbed wire was going to take up. It does overhang more than I'd like but I don't have the reserve silicone to make a new base mold at this point.
I suppose I could try and remove the barbed wire and make it coil a bit smaller though - that might help reduce the overhang. I'll give that some thought. It's superglued on pretty good at this point (a small drop of glue everywhere the wire touches the base) but I could easily cast a new base if need be too. I've got the resin for that.
I'd like to fit 2-3 'full' souls on there with some partial souls (like just the skulls floating out like the one wrapping around the chain on the right) here and there as well, but I am going to try and keep it from overhanging on the other side too so we'll see how many I can actually work in there.
My end plan is that once it's painted, I am going to use either water effects or UV drying resin (clear) and some tinting to make the spiritual effect - the 'flames' around the souls so to speak. I'm not sure which would work better. I'll research that more when the time comes.
*EDIT* I do have to say that the Deathjack was sort of my introduction to the Iron Kingdoms setting, and still one of the coolest models in my opinion. I saw the old D20 Monsternomicon in a bookstore back in the day. When I flipped it open, the Deathjack was the first entry I saw in it. That along with the fact there was some sort of mechanical lich on the cover made it pretty much an automatic purchase at that point for me. I wasn't aware of the tabletop game at all back then, but Cryx has always been a pretty cool faction for me once I discovered it because of the Deathjack model. I've got the original sculpt that I painted back in the day as well - it's an example of how far my painting/modding skills have come for sure.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 14, 2020 15:25:41 GMT
Yeah, that's the art. The spine was sculpted with an Xacto blade. Did you use a blade because sculpting tools weren't giving you fine enough detail? I occasionally use an X-acto retractable blade knife (which looks like a pen and has a tiny, tiny blade) when I want to press in really fine lines, but mostly I use steel and silicone sculpting tools. |
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Post by nyarlathotep333 on Jul 14, 2020 17:17:31 GMT
Yeah, that's the art. The spine was sculpted with an Xacto blade. Did you use a blade because sculpting tools weren't giving you fine enough detail? I occasionally use an X-acto retractable blade knife (which looks like a pen and has a tiny, tiny blade) when I want to press in really fine lines, but mostly I use steel and silicone sculpting tools. Yeah, I have several Xacto handles, two of which I use for sculpting - the blades long ago got too dull to actually cut anything. The bigger blade I mostly use for cutting off a chunk of greenstuff from the strip, but both come in handy when trying to sculpt fine lines. I do have a set of silicone sculpting tools as well, along with a few metal and plastic ones I've picked up over the years too. I tried a few of them at first, but the Xacto seemed to work best for the spine. |
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Post by nyarlathotep333 on Jul 15, 2020 3:09:59 GMT
Ribcage is done...I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but it will work. This is actually attempt #2, the first one I had to remove and start over as it wasn't working out very well and it got at to a point where starting over seemed easier than trying to work with what was on the armature.  |
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 15, 2020 9:57:56 GMT
Ribcage is done...I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but it will work. This is actually attempt #2, the first one I had to remove and start over as it wasn't working out very well and it got at to a point where starting over seemed easier than trying to work with what was on the armature. nice facehugger.  |
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 15, 2020 11:46:58 GMT
I do like that ribcage, but I'm not sure about it's position in relation to the arms; it feels a bit too high? I dunno, maybe that's just because it's not finished and it will look better after you add more bones, like the shoulder blades.
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Post by nyarlathotep333 on Jul 15, 2020 23:55:50 GMT
I do like that ribcage, but I'm not sure about it's position in relation to the arms; it feels a bit too high? I dunno, maybe that's just because it's not finished and it will look better after you add more bones, like the shoulder blades. I just noticed that as well now that you've pointed it out. It actually is a bit too low, but only on that side - the other side isn't as bad. I think I can fix it, or at least hide it a bit, when I sculpt the shoulder blades and arms. |
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 16, 2020 0:13:52 GMT
I do like that ribcage, but I'm not sure about it's position in relation to the arms; it feels a bit too high? I dunno, maybe that's just because it's not finished and it will look better after you add more bones, like the shoulder blades. I just noticed that as well now that you've pointed it out. It actually is a bit too low, but only on that side - the other side isn't as bad. I think I can fix it, or at least hide it a bit, when I sculpt the shoulder blades and arms. it shouldn't be too much of an issue if you make sure to sculpt the limb a bit more inward, I think, put more putty on the forward/inside part of the arm. |
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Post by elmagnifico on Jul 17, 2020 1:15:26 GMT
Plus, it's a smoky soul boy getting sucked up by Deathjack's bling of hate, a bit of deformation is easy to handwave.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 17, 2020 4:20:14 GMT
Good point.
Of course if the sculpting doesn't work out you could always get them 3d printed. Hey, you could even get them printed in clear resin for that ghostly look!
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Post by nyarlathotep333 on Jul 17, 2020 22:31:39 GMT
Just a quick update, I've had some family-related stuff going on so I haven't been able to get any more accomplished on this. Hopefully I'll get some more work done this weekend. Thanks for all the comments so far too, I appreciate all the feedback!
@soul Samurai - I'd love to try 3D printed clear spirits, but unfortunately I don't have access to a 3D printer, nor any idea how to manipulate a 3D file to get what I want from it. It's a great idea though - I did download Blender a while back, perhaps if I can find some time I'll play with that a bit to see if I can create anything.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 18, 2020 3:26:46 GMT
Just a quick update, I've had some family-related stuff going on so I haven't been able to get any more accomplished on this. Hopefully I'll get some more work done this weekend. Thanks for all the comments so far too, I appreciate all the feedback! @soul Samurai - I'd love to try 3D printed clear spirits, but unfortunately I don't have access to a 3D printer, nor any idea how to manipulate a 3D file to get what I want from it. It's a great idea though - I did download Blender a while back, perhaps if I can find some time I'll play with that a bit to see if I can create anything. What I would do is find a rigged skeleton model; I just ran a quick search for free skeletons in Turbosquid, there seems to be some available that are pre-rigged in Blender format (although come to think of it, a skeleton doesn't really need to be rigged as it it doesn't need to deform, though it does of course make it easier): www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free/skeleton. Posing pre-rigged models isn't too hard, there's videos on how it works and I can give you some tips to get you started. You could then get it printed by a printing service like Shapeways, although if it's just a few human-sized skeletons then I don't mind printing it for you on my resin printer. My current selection of resins is a bit limited, but I do have a "clear" resin - it's actually slightly yellowish, but it should be fine if you slap on a blue or green glaze or something, which I figure you want to do anyway. I also have opaque white and black resins if needed. |
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