How to Sculpt Tyranid Carapace

 Though long-time followers of the blog will know I've done a video before on sculpting Tyranid/organic armour, I took another run at it as part of my How To Sculpt Tyranids subseries. In this episode, we bulk Terry the Tyranid up with some armour plates!

An Honest Review of Green Stuff World

 

I posted a new video this week in my ongoing SculpTron9000 ridiculous reel series (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyjaTOn1cvVKzrHCX9Y51ijKTcYLv0ZxB), but this one was a bit more serious.

For a long time now I've been frustrated by Green Stuff World's scummy, anti-community business practices, and baffled that so many people still give the company their business. Whenever I mention that I would never shop at Green Stuff World, I invariably get the response "what have you got against Green Stuff World?"

It got kind of tiresome to repeat their litany of transgressions, so I thought about making a video about the whole issue, but the reality is that Tabletop Workshop already made a fantastic video on the topic, though in German (there is subtitles, and it's worth your time to read them!):

Then I realized that my ridiculous SculpTron9000 video format might be a good way to hit the high points of why Green Stuff World is the worst, without retreading the ground TWS had already covered.

It also allowed me to add to the YouTube video description the tags and links for the folks involved in this saga so far.

Anyway, here it is in case you missed it, or in case you weren't aware about just how scummy Green Stuff World is. In the video description, I also note some other sources for greenstuff, and I have no kind of professional relationship with any of them other than having decent service when I've dealt with them.

Have you had challenges sourcing greenstuff where you live? If so, let me know in the comments on this post, and we'll try to find you a better source.

So long, and happy sculpting!

 

Converted Tyranid Tyrannofex - #Gunbeast4

In case you're not familiar with my past work on Tyranids, it could be said that I've got a THING for big, beefy Tyranids, and for Tyranid gunbeasts. So it should come as no surprise that my most recent Tyranid project consisted of marrying those two interest into a BIG BEEFY GUNBEAST!

As this is the fourth gunbeast I've made after my Exocrine, Dactylis, and upscaled Dactylis, I decided to organize my posts about the project under #Gunbeast4. 

When Life Hands You Lemons

It all started with me learning the hard way that, if a deal on the internet for a model kit seems too good to be true, IT LIKELY IS. 

I got what I thought were two Tervigon kits for a STEAL of a price...only to find out it was the seller who'd stolen from me when what I received in the mail were two shitty, chinacast recast of a Games Workshop Tervigon kit.

How to Sculpt: Getting Started with greenstuff

I've done a number of sculpting tutorial videos over on YouTube, but if you're just getting started with greenstuff, and you have only 3 minutes to spare, here are my quick tips that you need to know. Once you've got these down, I very much encourage you to check out my other video tutorials on YouTube.

Also! If you're already familiar with my tutorials, and you have a suggestion for other videos I could produce, let me know in the comments below what I can help you sculpt.

Tyranid Broodlord Genestealer Patriarch Conversion - Nyarlathotep

I can't say no to a commission that involves creating a horrible monster. Ostensibly, this one was meant to be a big Tyranid beastie: either a Broodlord or a patriarch for a Genestealer brood that had taken a decidedly Eldrict turn somewhere along the way.

However it could just as easily be any kind of horrible chaos demon.

Usually clients allow me a lot of freedom when developing the design for the beasties they ask me to build for them. This client, however, was pretty exacting about keeping the design very close to the source material, which was this Yugioh card for Lovecraft fan favorite: NYARLATHOTEP!

HORAY TENTACLES! IA! IA! FTHANG R'LEH! 

AHEM.

To say I was thrilled by the challenge would be an understatement. Not only did I get to give flesh to an ancient horror, I got to do it in the service of the Hive Mind!

How To Sculpt Organic Armour - How to Sculpt Miniatures Episode 7

I've been dragging my heels on this one for more than a little while, but I'm happy to announce that my next full-length How to Sculpt video is live on my YouTube Channel!

This one focuses on sculpting organic armour, of the type most commonly seen on Tyranids. However, in this video I also detail how the process for sculpting Dark Eldar armour plates is essentially the same. I also do the whole sculpt big, then sculpt small approach in this one.

I hope you find it useful!

And if you've not been over to my YouTube channel yet, please head on over and subscribe as I'll be releasing a couple more videos soon, and subscribing on YouTube is the best way to get notified about them as soon as they drop.

Happy Sculpting!

How to Sculpt Amatures - How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 6

Got a BRAND NEW How to Sculpt video coming at you, this one focusing on getting started with armatures.

It's also the first wholy new video I've shot in nearly 4 years! I got a bit disheartened with how much work goes into these things, and how little folks seemed to care about them.

But I've been getting a steady stream of subscribers to my YouTube Channel of late, and that, combined with a swift kick in the ass from my brother Hydra, inspired me to get this video shot, edited, and uploaded inside of 24 hours! No dragging my feet on synching audio and editing down. Just a one-shot, direct to digital product.

So it's a little rough around the edges in places, but I hope you like it and find it helpful!

Note: I'm also posting this from my phone, so I'm sorry if it Le Bust.

Kroot Tyranid Hunter Killteam - Kitbashember... the rest of the weeks

After making a good start on the first week of the Kitbashember project, real life happened. As a result, I got off my nice tempo, but I still endeavoured to crank out as many Kroot Tyranid Hunters as I could and to keep up my rhythm.

In the end, I cranked out 7 Kroot in total, which I'm happy with, but it still grinds my gears that I didn't make the full 10.

In my last post, you saw the first three members of the team:

The Trooper and The Heavy

The Priest

Kroot Tyranid Hunters - Medic

And I teased the Medic, but here he is in his full glory:

How to Sculpt Stitches & Sutures - How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 5

Sculpting stitches using greenstuff / epoxy putty is a process that looks like it should be fiddly and complex, but is surprisingly easy to pull off when you have the right instruction. It's for this reason that I'm so excited to share today's video with all of you today. This is easily one of my favourite things to sculpt :D

So, just like how I did with the spinal columns video, I will start by showing you the process in large scale using plasticine (ew), and then move on to show it in small scale in actual greenstuff mixed with apoxie putty.

The immediate application for this technique is for sculpting flesh that has been hurriedly stitched back together on something like a pit slave or a haemonculus flesh construct. However, if you hold back on all the puckering and stretching of the flesh around the stitches, and leave it more smooth, you can easily use this technique for creating roughly stitched leather for things like Ogre Kingdoms, Oruks, and Skaven. Heck, I'm sure that a chaos general could even apply this tutorial with great effect :)

I didn't mention it in the video, as it can be obnoxious, but please click the link to the video on YouTube and like, comment, and share the video from there to get a few more eyeballs on it. I spend a lot of time and effort making these videos for free, so I'd love it if you could help me get them to the widest possible audience!

If you've got any suggestions for videos you'd like to see, please leave them in the comments below. Our next video will be about sculpting organic armour plates for Tyranids and Dark Eldar, and after that I'm wide open for suggestions :)

< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 4 - How to Sculpt Spinal Columns

How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 4 - How to Sculpt Spinal Columns

Well, it's been a while, but—inspired by the warm and fuzzy comments on YouTube—I climbed back on the hobby tutorial horse. I present to you How To Sculpt Miniatures Episode 4: How to Sculpt Spinal Columns!

If you've got a long memory, you may recall that this is our second run at a spinal columns video. However, I assure that this video is far more...um...professional...than that video, and far less German :P

This should be useful for any flesh crafting Haemonculi out there, any Hive Tyrants, particularly those looking to craft some massive Tyranid terrain, or maybe even plaguelords or other chaos generals looking to make some fleshy, daemon constructs.

I hope you enjoy it. It is a good deal more in depth than previous videos as it focuses on one topic, and my future videos will be in this style.

If you've got any suggestions for videos you'd like to see, please leave them in the comments below. Our next video will be about sculpting stitches and sutures, and I've got one more slightly Niddier one in the can, but after that we're wide open for suggestions :)

< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 3 - Skills & Applications

How To Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 3 - Skills & Applications

For the third How To Sculpt Miniatures video, we're going to be combining what we covered in videos 1 and 2 by applying different tools to putty to see the effects they create.

Once again, these first three videos will rehash the information I shared in my original How to Sculpt Miniatures posts, which is best geared at sculpting beginners. However, even experts may discover some helpful tips :)

With this one posted, we've finished covering the first three articles, so next time I'll be sharing a re-do of the shakey-cam How To Sculpt Spinal Columns video I did back in the day.

As always, please let me know in the comments below if you have ideas for things you would like to learn to sculpt in a video.

> Next: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 4 - How to Sculpt Spinal Columns
< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 2 - Putty

How To Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 2 - Putty

Next up in my series of How To Sculpt Miniatures videos: how to use epoxy putty!

These first three videos will rehash the information I shared in my original How to Sculpt Miniatures posts, which is best geared at sculpting beginners. However, even experts may discover some helpful tips :)

Once we've got the first three videos taken care of, we'll move into new territory, like sculpting armour plates, stitches and sutures, and spinal columns. I've also been rolling around the idea of doing a tutorial on sculpting nurgle-y things like worms, pustules, gross drippy stuff, and third eyes. Anyone interested in that sort of thing?

As always, please let me know in the comments below if you have ideas for things you would like to learn to sculpt in a video.

> Next: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 3 - Skills & Applications
< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 1 - Tools

How to Sculpt Miniatures 6: How to Sculpt Hoods

When posting photos on them online, someone requested I do a tutorial on how to sculpt hoods, so here it is: my long-delayed return to my How to Sculpt Miniatures series!

So remember these guys? They're my Genestealer Cult Enforcer squad, which is a fancy, made-up name for a bunch of hooded, shotgun-totting Neophyte who are meant to escort my cult's higher-ups into battle.

To make them stand out and seem covert and insidious, I wanted to give them hoods to match the hood I will eventually put on my Primus, based on this guy:

So, without further ado, I'll get into the materials, tools, and process you need to follow for sculpting your own hoods!

Converted Dark Eldar Grotesques & Aberration (Flesh Friday)

What feels like a thousand years ago, I converted the guys below as part of a commission to create a haemonculus coven for a client.

...And they had some cool little details...

...and they took me FOR. EVER.

When I decided it was about time I do my next batch of Grotesques, I wanted to get them done quick and get them painted so I could see how my test scheme would work on them. I made them part of my October Modeling vow of stuff I would get done by the end of the month to keep me motivated.

It worked pretty well:

Coven Reaver Jetbike Conversion (Flesh Friday)

In my ongoing quest to convert haemonculus coven versions of every dark eldar unit in the codex, I've been rolling around the question of reavers for a long time. Well, I always knew that I wanted to convert them to look something like miniature Talos, but I wasn't sure how I was going to pull it off.

Until one day a couple of weeks back when I was just messing around with a Hellion skyboard and a reaver jetbike canopy. I placed the skyboard on top of the canopy, and—BY GOD—it just...fit. As in the two model components pretty much slid together like they were meant to be that way.

Cronos Parasite Engine Conversion Complete! (Flesh Friday)

I posted my thoughts on the Cronos Parasite Engine model a while back. The summary was that, though I love everything about the Talos/Cronos kit and all Our Man Jes did with it, when I hear the description of the Cronos as a soul-sucking parasite, I picture something far worse than the be-tentacled-but-faceless existing Cronos plastic model.

I picture an insatiable, avaristic horror: a gaping, needle sharp maw stretched wide as it hungers for souls. I picture this:

A twisted, dangerous, grasping thing. A soul vaccuum. A monster from under your bed. An utter nightmare from your darkest dreamings.

So I built it, and I'm pretty damn happy with the results. Here's a rough, 360 tour:

How to Sculpt Miniatures 3: Sculpting Skills

This How to Sculpt Miniatures series is my attempt to demystify the idea of sculpting your own miniatures. It seems that more and more people are taking cracks at it these days as the means of production are getting so very cheap and third-party casting companies are growing like mushrooms. Still, no matter how many head-swap bits are retailed, there is going to come a time when you have an awesome idea for a miniature, and there might not be a compatible, ready-made bit. You're going to have to make it yourself, and it is my belief that the only thing standing in your way is a few helpful tips.

UPDATE: I updated this article on Wednesday May 9 to add in a fourth Caveat. It was the type of thing that seemed obvious, so I left it out, but I have since realized that it is pretty important if you've never sculpted before or are just starting. Be sure to check it out below!

The following is best viewed as a continuation of How to Sculpt Miniatures 2 as I wasn't exactly sure where you break that article. Now that I've gone over the putties I use and have talked a bit about how to get a bit more out of them, I'll be getting into the nitty gritty of how parts 1 (tools) and 2 (putties) come together.

How to Sculpt Miniatures 2: How to use Epoxy Putty, Greenstuff, Apoxie Sculpt

This How to Sculpt Miniatures series is my attempt to demystify the idea of sculpting your own miniatures. It seems that more and more people are taking cracks at it these days as the means of production are getting so very cheap and third-party casting companies are growing like mushrooms. Still, no matter how many head-swap bits are retailed, there is going to come a time when you have an awesome idea for a miniature, and there might not be a compatible, ready-made bit. You're going to have to make it yourself, and it is my belief that the only thing standing in your way is a few helpful tips.

Like I mentioned in my previous article on tools: I don't consider myself a trained professional, just an experienced amateur. Thus, I'm going to be talking about the putties I use, but, unfortunately, I won't be able to tell you anything about super sculpey or milliput, procreate or brown stuff. But that's alright because it's my goal to convince you that all you really need for 98% of your sculpting projects are two reasonably cheap, readily available putties. This article will be a general overview with a few tips about how to have more control over your putty, but it got a little long, so I will be saving hands-on techniques for my next installment. Still, I hope you find this one helpful in getting you better acquainted with sculpting mediums.

UPDATE: I've just polished off the video versions of these tutorials, and you'll find the second video, all about putty, below. The video is best consumed as an illustration to this article, so I'd still recommend reviewing both. ENJOY!