A bit of advice from the Pro's...

[Leon]

I've asked some of our own sculptors to pop by and give everyone a bit of insider info on how to get started on sculpting your Monsters!

[Techno]

OK...
First question from Capthugeca, regarding materials used in the sculpt.
Seeing as Leon is intending to press and cast the winner(s), the material used will need to be something that will withstand pressing.
Green Stuff, Brown Stuff, ProCreate, Milliput etc, would be fine...basically any two part epoxy putty 'wot goes hard'.

Magic Sculp is also a very nice putty to use BUT..... will probably be far too soft (initially) to work with on the very smallest figures.....Although you can mix it with Green stuff etc to 'stiffen it up' a tad.

Hope that helps.

Cheers - Phil

[clibinarium]

Luckily I wrote a guide to basic 10mm sculpting shortly after I started 10mm, for my Yahoo! group. Its been sitting there for some years now, so I might as well put it here.

It was probably while I was doing the first late Romans, before I tried horses, or any other scales. From that point of view its perhaps unusual as its a 10mm beginner's guide written by a 10mm beginner, so might be more attuned to beginner's issues than I'd be able to write now. I've left it as written, but where there's something I've changed or learned to do better I've added more comments in red.

Hope its useful


10mm Sculpting â€" a beginner’s guide.
Version 0.1


The blind leading the blind.

Here is a guide to getting started- really it’s only what I have learnt by my mistakes. I myself started only four months ago, so there are some notable omissions, most obviously how to do horses and the use of armatures- as I learn these techniques I will update this guide.

Things that worked for me may not work for you; but keep trying. You will probably be as unimpressed as I was when I was told it takes lots of practice, but it is true. ‘Learning by doing’ is a phrase I dislike, but it is especially true here. I still believe this, but that shouldn't put off beginners. The same is true of painting, but that doing it well doesn't put off beginners, should hold for sculpting. Anyone can have a go and get a result.



You will need;

·   To paint first. It may sound odd, but if you can paint a 10mm figure well you can probably sculpt. Sculpting is just painting in 3D. Paint lots of 10mm figures, but in as detailed a style as you can manage- the ‘Dallimore’ or ‘Foundry’ method is best. Do not dry-brush or use washes- these techniques have no application in sculpting. The brushstrokes you use to highlight folds in cloth or pick out individual fingers are the same you will apply with your tools in sculpting. If that sounds like crazy-talk, you will see how useful it actually proves when sculpting. Draw it too. I no longer need to do this but it can be helpful. If you can't draw a horse tolerably well, you won't be able to sculpt it. I don't mean it should look like a Da Vinci horse, but it should be roughly right in proportion, use a ruler if you have too.

·   To think small- start with a very small goal. Converting figures is the way to go. My first attempt was changing a tricorne into a broad-brimmed hat. Work your way up steadily; the caveman who sets out to build the internal combustion engine will give up before the one who tries to invent the wheel.

·   Not to think small - these figures are no different than 28mm or 15mm, they are just smaller. If that’s a bit too Zen now, you will see it in time.

·   To persevere â€" your first attempt will look absolutely awful; accept this now. When it happens you can say to yourself ‘well at least everything is going to plan so far’. Then start your second attempt in the knowledge it will be better.

·   To be patient- you must sculpt one tiny aspect at a time- try to do too much and it will not work. Even a belt buckle must be left to cure; otherwise you’ll stick that giant finger of yours on it two minutes later.

·   To multitask- you wouldn’t normally paint one figure at a time, so don’t sculpt that way either. Have a number of figures on the go at once, so some can be curing while you work, this will stop you smudging work already done.

·   To look at other people’s work. Scale is not that important. Look at a 28mm figure; copy it if necessary, try to reproduce the folds in cloth. 10mm will be a bit more forgiving with the shapes of hands and so on.




Basic tools

·   Putty- I use exclusively Greenstuff and Brownstuff, both of which are easy enough to get hold of. Miliput I found to be of limited use as at this small scale it is so brittle that it simply breaks and snaps. And then I dicovered Pro-Create, ("greystuff" though no one calls it that) I rarely use anything else now. It is easier to work than greenstuff and has much of the " file-ability " of grey stuff. I love it, the only downside being that "greens" look  more attractive that "greys".

·   Wire- you will need this for armatures. Brass is best, available from most modelling shops. I don’t recall the gauges I bought, but needless to say they were the smallest ones I could get hold of. Recently I discovered fuse wire, which is very cheap and easy to obtain from most hardware shops.

·   Wax carvers- you will see these recommended by most sculptors, but in 10mm I found them too big for the fine work- close up their edges can be a bit irregular and when you apply this to putty minor blemishes will become major flaws. To me the various shapes were mainly useless; experiment for yourself.

·   Colour shapers- can be found in good art supply shops- intended to push colour around a canvas or to sculpt clay. Like a paintbrush with a solid but soft rubber head, these are absolutely indispensable as far as I am concerned; they improved my results overnight. A bit more expensive than wax carvers, they are worth every penny.

·   Scalpel or Exacto-knife â€" essential for sculpting straight edges and cutting away excess putty. You will do well to dull the blade for the sake of your fingers by cutting though cardboard or newspapers first. Even after that be careful.

·   Rat tailed files- small files you will occasionally need.

·   Nail file (emery-board in America?)- the sand paper type, very fine.

·   Old figures- great for providing rough shapes that can be filed into what you want.

·   Pliers and wire cutters- for working with wire. Nail clippers are a useful cheap substitute and are actually better for close in work as they are much smaller than wire cutters.

·   Pins and needles- good for picking out fine details, and essential for sculpting mail.

·   Hammer- for flattening wire. Brass wire can be flattened out, a length of small gauges can have its tip flattened and filed into useful micro tools for very fine work. May also prove useful for venting occasional frustrations. Pilers with a flat (not serated) edge can be used for the small lengths that are employed with 10mm figures, just to crush the wire flat

·   Corks â€" good basis for holding armatures while sculpting.

·   Magnifiers- useful if you need them, personally I don’t, and found the refraction off-putting; a bit like the Eskimo having to adjust his aim to spear the fish. Try it for yourself.

·   Hand drill and drill bits- for drilling and inserting wire. Get the smallest you can find from a model or hardware shop. Be careful with them the smallest will be extremely delicate.

·   A lamp- for heating the figures. A spotlight lamp is handy, but any method to heat the figures will work e.g. a radiator. Don’t use the oven- extremely inefficient. Don’t use the microwave, especially if there are metal parts. Work on a number of figures so that you can get a rotation of cured and curing figure going.

·   A mirror.... Eh? That figure you have lovingly sculpted for hours will look a bit different reversed in the mirror; and it will enable you to spot the fact that his hand is three times the size it ought to be.




The body

·   I myself to not make armatures from scratch (yet). I cannibalise 10mm figures I have already. I use Pendraken figures, so in a sense I am converting figures albeit in a very extensive fashion. As my work is being produced by them this is not a problem. If you intend to market your work this may not be appropriate for you. Do not use someone else’s work. If your work is for your own use its not an issue. Anyway if you are starting out it will be unlikely you will be doing it commercially. By now I can make my own armatures, but do so rarely in 10mm as its quite fiddly in 10mm.

·   Take the figure and cut away the clothing and equipment- this can be pretty rough but don’t break the figure. Use a file once the major bits are gone. Keep the face and hands if you can. Try to keep the limbs relatively thick- too thin and they will break later on If you want to change the pose cut off the limb(s) and drill a hole where the joint is on the body.

·   If you are changing the limbs use fuse wire. Drill a deep hole into the body, the width should be very slightly more than that of the wire diameter. Put a tiny ball of putty (the stickier the better) over the hole. Get a bit of wire, much longer than the intended limb and push the ball into the hole with it, until it stops- think of ramming a musket ball down the breach. Remove any putty that has spilled out, and make sure the seal between hole and wire is tight. Once it is cured cut the wire down to the right length- keep a whole figure to compare lengths. Cut ‘long’ at first and then cut down to get the right length â€" cut it too short and you will have to start over.

·   If you are doing this with legs keep a bit below the foot- you will need this to stick into a cork while working or the eventual base. If starting out I suggest you keep the legs and base until you get more proficient.

·    If your figure is holding a sword this should be included as part of his wire ‘arm’. Pose the arm only after the wire is cut. As it is so short it is easiest to use needle-nosed pliers.




Using putty
·   Firstly all sculptors will tell you to mix very little; this goes doubly for working at this scale. Even the oft-quoted ‘pea sized’ bit is likely to be too much; whatever the smallest amount you think of, is it’s too big. However you will get used to wasting lots of it, and its not that expensive.

·   Mix equal amounts. With Greenstuff use a bit more blue if you want it to set harder and faster, more yellow if you want it softer and stickier. If you are using it to stick two items together use more yellow and use it soon after you mix it; its adhesion will be highest in the first ten minutes after mixing. Greenstuff is a useful ‘glue’ as much as a sculpting medium.

·   Mix the putty thoroughly- roll the two bits together and then into a string, join the far ends of the string i.e. double it up, and twist the two strings to get a ‘barber’s poll’ effect. Roll this into another string and repeat- this is an efficient way to ensure even mixing. Try not to roll and cause too much friction, or heat it too much with your hand- remember heat cures the putty. Make sure your hands are washed. The natural oils in your skin will coat the putty and make it less adhesive.

·   Putty will stick to most things (try not to walk it into the carpet), most frustratingly to your tools. This can be solved with lubrication, the easiest method is simply to use saliva; its (ahem) cheap and readily available. You can use oil, artificial saliva, alcohol and even water, but the stuff in you mouth works best.

·   Use Greenstuff for most things; flesh, clothes, and armour. Use Brownstuff for regular edges; swords, spearheads, shields. The Brownstuff is less malleable than Greenstuff, but can be filed. Greenstuff can also be filed but leaves a flaky surface which is difficult to smooth out again. [Use procreate and you'll not have to distinguish. They really ought to be paying me for all this endorsement

·   Putty cures with heat, but room temperature will cure it in about an hour to the point where it is unworkable. It’s probably too sticky in the first five or ten minutes, too hard after thirty to forty-five minutes. In between is your window, and shows why you shouldn’t mix more than small amount of putty.  

·   If you have putty mixed but can’t use it put it in the freezer (not the fridge). This will slow down the process of curing dramatically. It will keep for a couple of days. It will feel rock hard initially but gentle warming in you hand will bring it back to life. Quiet at the back.




Sculpting

·   Most important- one tiny bit at a time- don’t rush and let each feature cure before you come back to a figure. If you try to do more than one bit you will smudge your work, or push it out of shape.

·   If what you are attempting goes awry don’t be afraid to tear it off again, or indeed cut it off if it has cured, as starting again is much easier than trying to fix a disaster.

·   Think of any object ‘exploded’ i.e. not about the object, say a helmet, but about the simple shapes that make up that object- cylinders, spheres, flattened circles etc. Then slowly build up each shape in turn, adding them to the figure. Remember to let each part cure separately before you move on to the next.

·   Working this way obviously takes time, so have five to eight sculpts being worked on and curing at the same time.

·   Apply a blob- very small, and push or flatten it out with your colour shaper. If going around an arm or leg, the blob should be ‘pancake’ shaped and wrapped round the limb. I use a pin to place the blob accurately and then manipulate with the colour shaper

·   Keep practicing- there is a knack to getting the putty to obey you, which you have to learn for yourself.

·   Smooth the surface gently with the colour shaper to get rid of marks like fingerprints- lubricate the colour shaper and go back and forth very lightly until the surface is nice and smooth.

·   Keep a 10mm figure you like with you so as you can compare the size of items quickly- it is very easy to sculpt something two or three times too big if you don’t check regularly.

·   Specific bits-

o   Hands- make a blob roughly the size of the hand, perhaps a bit smaller as it is to be flattened. Forget the thumb for now. Flatten out a bit when on the figure, and wrap around the object the figure is holding (if any). Hands are roughly hexagonal. Three even cuts with a fine blade will give you the spaces between the fingers. Use a separate bit of putty for the thumb. Check the size as mentioned above- hands are the easiest to sculpt out of proportion. Massive hands are a perenial problem in all scales. Great big catchers mitts are common. A handy guide is to put your hand over your mouth ("speak no evil" style). It pretty much fits between the bottom of you nose and the tip of your chin. You can check the width of the figure's hand against his face with just a glance.
o   Feet- roughly the same as hands.
o   Mail- get a needle and file the end a tiny bit- too sharp and it won’t work well. Apply putty to area and make as smooth as possible, and not too thin. Then prick holes in the putty in lines as if writing left to right. Move down and start the next line. Mail is not a series of random holes- its very regular. For the best mail go left-right and then resverse right-left for the next line (like ploughing a field) Easier said than done in 10mm though!
o   Spears and swords. Use bare brass wire for spears- for the head either hammer it flat and file to a pointed shape, or as I prefer, put on a bob of putty and push it into a rough spear shape, then file nice sharp edges when cured. Brownstuff is a must for this. Swords are done the same way but need a wire ‘spine’ to sculpt against or you’ll be pushing putty back and forth all day. Make the weapons slightly oversized- if they are too small they will be easily broken when cast- casting always loses some size in your figure anyway. Again, Procreate will be fine
o   Cloth- smooth Greenstuff for this. Put in folds and creases sparingly, much as you would when painting. Use a colour shaper for this, one with a point.
o   Shields etc. Any item that is flat or regular is best sculpted out of metal. If you make a scutum out of putty it will probably warp around the edges when moulded. I find it useful to take the shields of 15mm figures off and use a rat tailed file to file them down to 10mm shape. Bosses and so on can be added with Brownstuff. If you intend to have lots of figures with similar shields, cast the shield itself. This effort will be repaid; it will give consistency between figures, and will save you sculpting it again and again (it is extremely difficult to get two separately sculpted shields to look the same). Though not yet attempted by me this will be even more true of firearms and the like. Put the maximum effort into getting the shield perfect, as any mistake will be repeated in all copies. You can use miliput for this but it will be brittle if thin. Don't worry about perfection if its a one off. If you can keep it close to the mass of the body it need not be made of a strong material. If hled completely against the body it could just be sculpted on like clothes.
o   Pouches etc- just put on a rough blob and than push it into the shape you need. When it has hardened slightly use a blade to put in features. Remember if it is something like a quiver, put the different constituent shapes on separately and slowly.
o   Belts- very tricky. Roll out a blob and thin as you need and then apply the thread with a needle on one part of the figure, or stretch out the blob with you fingers- this tend to break easily though. The ends will likely be too thin so cut those away. Use a colour shaper to push the thread down into position very gently.  Too hard and it will smudge into the body- too light and it won’t adhere. This is the hardest thing for me- I still have to have a couple of goes with each attempt.




For further advice check out the tutorials on;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1listSculpting/
It’s geared towards larger scale, but most basic techniques are the same.

Clibinarium

[Techno]

Brilliant Clibby !.

I think you've covered just about everything....Great 'article' 

Cheers - Phil.

[Annatar]

Great article!

Found some things confirmed, which i assumed.

Read a lot of things that were new to me!

Thanks a lot !!!

[Kassad]

Sob! In 10mm and 6mm for my sculpting and conversion, always I used wax (for dental prosthesis use). Not ideal stuff for mould making. Good work and funny to every competitors

[Techno]

Hmmmmm....

I'm assuming you don't do anything with RTV Leon ?

Cheers - Phil.

[Leon]

you don't do anything with RTV?

[Germy]

Well I'm not really a pro when it comes to sculpting, more a sort of mad scientist 
I can only echo what others have said, one of the things sculptors forget in their early attempts is the ability for the miniature to be moulded and cast.

So do pay attention to the overall strength of the model and at this scale try and avoid too many sticky out bits 

What I would also say is remember the scale and play up to it. A 10mm monster should be instantly recognizable, so throw in some nice big features, teeth, claws, wings.
(although it would be nice if the finished miniature still fits in the actual dungeon  )

Good luck, I'm really looking forward to seeing all the entries.

Germy

[clibinarium]

Germy gets the credit as the first person to give me advice on sculpting when I took my first faltering steps in sculpting. It would be remiss of me not to mention that.
And what he says about casting is essential too!

[Germy]

Germy gets the credit as the first person to give me advice on sculpting when I took my first faltering steps in sculpting.

Yeah still waiting on that cheque in the post 

[barbarian]

I bought some Procreate after seeing the work of Clib.

One word :

" Meraviglioso !!! "

Combines the texture of the Fimo and the quality of Greensttuff ( for casting)

Smooooooooooothhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy.

B.

[Pawel Chrzanowski]

Thank you Clib. It is wery helpfull. At the moment I'm in a half way - only re-sculpting Pendraken figures or re -positioning legs etc . Hope one day i will do my own figure
P.

[Techno]

That's the way you want to begin, Pawel....Follow Clibby's excellent article and you won't go far wrong !
Remember the two 'P' words.....Practice and patience.

Cheers - Phil.

[Dunnadd]

hi - clibanarium - thanks very much for posting that guide. What size of colour shapers work best for 10mm and 28mm respectively?
The smallest i can find by googling or looking on ebay are size 0. Can you get them smaller than that anywhere or is size 0 ok?

also what shapes are most useful or are all shapes useful?

Would a magnifying make-up mirror do as a mirror for modelling, or if not, what type is best?

Also would aluminion armature wire be any use? I was googling and found this - smallest is 0.7mm diameter
http://www.hollinbrow.co.uk/hollinbrow/armaturewire.htm

They do brass wire down to 0.25mm diameter
http://www.hollinbrow.co.uk/hollinbrow/brassmodellingwire.htm