PROJECT III

WOLVEN GRAVE GUARD
by Confrontation (Rackham)
Conversion Report Part 3-3

Painting Report Part ?-? >>

ADDING LITTLE BITS & PIECES

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The different parts were ready, the base was finished, time to assemble! This is why the pinning was done (see pic 08). I scewed the the leg part on the base and made sure it was in the position I wanted the finished mini to be. Then I took the torso and looked how it should go, and glued the parts together using 2 part epoxy glue (the advantage of this over superglue is that it also fills gaps (superglue needs a perfect fit to work best))

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When I started I thought up this image of what the mini should look like. It should be a shaman, so I wanted extra pouches, bags, feathers etc (and the trophy head on his left side had to go!). This was the time to sculpt those. To cover the place the head once was I first added an extra 'skirt' part, then the pouches, the feathers, and last the flask.


Few basic tips here:
1. greenstuff mixed with miliput (the white (fine) variant) gives you the stuff that I made the lower part of the flask with. It can be polished with water or Vaseline (the top coat of the stuff almost dissolves in water!) much better than pure greenstuff, and it can be sanded much better when dry. Normally I only make weapons with it because of those qualities, but here it seemed logical to use too.
2. When the lower part was finished and I made the top part (without the cork) the hole thing was covered in Vaseline. You would want to use this (not the stuff you use for...... ahum ("a dirty mind is a joy forever" :) ), but the stuff you can buy at your local DIY shop to preserve your tools with!!) because you get this clean smooth effect when you use Vaseline on you tools (I use it also on a little brush after the greenstuff dried for like 30 minutes to really polish the surface of eg. muscles, robes etc.) But try putting a tiny piece of greenstuff onto that flask (too resemble the cork) when covered in Vaseline, impossible! So the tip here, when working with Vaseline (try it if you haven't!!) and you are adding bits of greenstuff, use a tiny drop of superglue! Glue the still SOFT greenstuff onto the still greasy, in my case, flask, it won't firmly glue it to each other, but it will hold when you do your sculpting! Be careful though, don't use too much glue, and be careful where you use the glue, the still soft greenstuff will go rock hard in a matter of seconds, and can't be sculpted again!
After the stuff on his hip I added a rope around his waist, not that I wanted to, but the torso didn't fit that good into the leg part, leaving quite a large gap unfilled.

COMBINING ALL LOSE PARTS

H e a d - Time to add the head (if I had to do it again I would probably do the left arm first, but anyway...) I glued the head on, again using 2 part epoxy glue, and started adding hair to cover the little gap between head and torso. Also here it's good to use Vaseline, it smoothens the small lines you make, making it look more real!

L e f t A r m - Going to his left arm, bit tricky, this is where I discovered that I probably should've done the left arm before the head. I glued the left arm on, supporting it with tape, to hold it into position, and let it dry. After that I sculpted the rest of his upper arm, simply by connecting the lines on his lower arm with the ones on his shoulder. The arm in place it was time to re sculpt his goatee. I had previously clipped his old one, drilled a hole and glued a piece of wire into that. Then I took a bit of green stuff and kneaded it roughly into shape, put it in place and cut it with my hobby knife & home made dental tools, leaving small cutting marks (representing hair!) in the greenstuff. When I was satisfied with the look and the cutting marks were all around, leaving no flat areas anymore, I just pulled most off the green stuff off again..WHAT you say, let me explain: Because you made sure the green stuff was solidly connected with his chin and made those cutting marks, you will not pull everything clean of. Using a pair of tweezers I gently pulled of small strands of green stuff leaving very thin and very lifelike hair! After that it's best (most of the time this is a good thing to do, when you're satisfied with a certain sculpted detail!) to make the hair wet with a old brush and water or use Vaseline instead (this works even better!!). This makes the 'skin' of the greenstuff more even/smooth, when you pull the greenstuff away you rip all those fibres apart and in that state the greenstuff isn't that strong and will look crapy when painted, now you polish/restore the surface of the greenstuff so to speak. Just 'paint' water/Vaseline along the 'hairs' and you'll see!

Tip: Vaseline is great when sculpting, but it makes it all kinda messy, and the new greenstuff won't hold on greasy surfaces that good, so after letting the greenstuff dry for a day, I washed it with warm water and soap, using an old soft toothbrush. Do this often, and you'll see which parts aren't glued properly too! (at least do this before undercoating, because you can't see it (even if you haven't use Vaseline!!), the grease is there! If you don't wash the mini with soap, the undercoat won't hold!)

R i g h t A r m - After the wash I glued the right arm on and, like with the left arm, resculpted the upper right arm simply by connecting lines. Problem was however, that because of its new position a right armpit had to be made, something that I saw just now. So after letting the greenstuff dry and sanding it a little where needed (grit 800-1200), I started cutting away. After that I sanded his armpit, to remove the cuttingmarks.

FINAL TOUCHES

Ok almost finished, few things to change. I removed the burn mark on his right shoulder to resculpt his arm, so I wanted the one on his upper right leg gone too. He is going to get tattoo's, but they will be painted on! I just covered the mark with an extra piece of fur/cloth.

The extra horns, rags on the top of the wand an sword, and any other piece of freely hanging cloth (read greenstuff! :)) was given an coat/touch of superglue, this to prevent movement/holding it into place. I just hate it when those loose bits bend and cause the paint to crack, when you apply a thin coat of superglue (both sides or it will curl up on you!) it goes rock hard, and you will have a better chance to keep that coat of paint in one piece! And then for the real last touch, the 2 arrows. I looked and tried a lot before coming up with this method of making arrows, because one way or the other, they always seem to get to large! I use short pieces 0,5 steel wire (I use steel again because this doesn't bend that easily, making sure you end up with straight arrows!) and 0,75mmx0,2mm plastic strips (bought at a local hobby shop that sells little trains and stuff). These strips I cut in 4 mm bits with an 45 degree angle and then the difficult part starts, I glue 3 of those pieces onto the end of an 0,5 mm steel piece of wire with superglue. I mostly do 10 at a time, ending up with like 6 good arrows! Take your time, but try it, those are the only good size arrows I know of!

After all this work I let the mini thoroughly dry and harden for a day, and then unscrewed the mini from it's base. I washed the base with soap and a soft toothbrush, making sure he was clean and 'fat free!' I screwed the little screw back into the right foot of the mini and clamped the end of it with a pair of automatically locking pliers, washed it like the base and let it dry.