Figure Sculpting: Resources

I have been sculpting miniatures in a semi-professional way for around 15 years now, although the past few years have been less productive due to my family commitments.

28mm Scale Knoll sculpted by David Drage. Master lost by client!

When I started out there was very little, if any reference material for budding sculptors to refer too, and even the staple sculpting material, Greenstuff (more correctly known as Kneadatite Blue/Yellow) was somewhat mythical and a supplier took quite a bit of tracking down, I actually bought my stock from the manufacturer in the US for sometime!

Over the years all of that has changed, there are no end of places to find advice about anatomy, sculpting, use of armatures, tools and materials; readily available online. Greenstuff and other sculpting putties are easliy found at many figure selling websites and even in your local Games Workshop store (if you are prepared to pay the price they charge).

Before I start posting regularly on figure sculpting I thought it would be worth putting up a list of the sites and resources that I have found useful.

Web Forums

Luthor Arkright, 150mm figure sculpted by David Drage. Project abandoned!

There are several forums that cover some aspect of sculpting, but the two that I frequent the most are:-

Frother Unite - Be warned, the language and general attitude on Frothers can be difficult to get used to - there is something of a "boys club" atmosphere on there that can be quite off putting, but there is no denying that the Frothers love their figures and, in amongst the venomous and purile comments, there is usually some very constructive advice.

Mini Sculpture - This is a relatively new community that has been created exclusively for figure sculptors to discuss their work, exchange information and critique miniatures, both in progress and finished.

Blogs

There are quite a few blogs that are of interest to figure sculptors. Most are simple the blogs of experienced sculptor, passing on their thoughts and experiences, however some are more specifically focused:-


Make Your Own Sculpting Tools - This blog features some very good advice and instruction on making your own tools. Most sculptors end up making or altering their tools themselves that this blog goes in to some depth on making the more popular tools.

28mm SF Marine figure sculpted by David Drage.

The World According To Tom - The blog of veteran sculptor Tom Meier. As well as showcasing some of Tom's work (as he produces it) it also includes some wonderful insights into anatomy and proportion with regards to miniatures. I find this blog essential reading and Tom's explanations anatomy and sculpting technique are very enlightening.

Green Stuff Sculpting - Mainly based around the more advanced conversion of figures than out and out sculpting this site does offer some interesting ideas and is well worth checking out.

Massive Voodoo - Although primarily a first class figure painting blog, it does offer fairly regular articles on sculpting as well. To be honest the level of painting and and quality of photography alone make this blog worth following by anyone interested in collecting, sculpting or painting miniatures.

Last but not least...

I must mention 1ListSculpting, the Yahoo Group for figure sculptors. This sight has been an important place for anyone interested in figure sculpting to find information for many years. It is well worth signing up, even if it is just to download the FAQ, which is a treasure trove of information for starting sculptors.

Royal Marines and Navy c.1850, sculpted by David Drage for Scheltrum Miniatures

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Painted by Mike Schraner.

Over the coming months, I am planning on doing more articles on figure sculpture, both looking at the development of my own figures and also possibly doing some tutorials on different aspects of sculpting miniatures.

Toy Soldiers: Going 15mm!

I have recently been caught up in the growing trend for science fiction wargamers to move from the traditional 28mm size figures down to the smaller size of 15mm.

This has been inspired by several things, firstly 15mm figures are cheaper, I can get a pack of 6 or 8 premium 15mm figures for the same price as 1, or possibly 2, 28mm figures. Secondly, there are a whole new selection of companies that are injecting new life in to the 15mm Science Fiction market. Critical Mass Games, Khaursan Miniatures and Rebel Minis for example. There are also the longer running companies like Ground Zero Games and Alternative Armies 15mm.co.uk that have large selections of popular figures and vehicles.

Personally, I have been putting together a force of Critical Mass Games ARC Fleet miniatures. These armoured figures are your basic sci-fi humans, much in the "Halo" or literary "Starship Trooper" style. The vehicles are little works of art, produced in a combination of resin and pewter parts.

I have also been putting together a small force of Ground Zero Games Kra'Vak, which share some similarities to the movie "Predators"!

The Kra'Vak figure sculpts have been around for a good few years now, probably don't equal the modern figures that are around, but with a lick of paint they still come out really well. Also their vehicle are suitably different in design to my Arc Fleet force that they are easy to tell apart.

My gamer buddies and I have not settled on a good set of rules to use yet, as again there are a whole selection of new rules floating around to choose from. I am probably going to base my ARC Fleet figures to the size set out in the beta rules for Critical Mass Games own rule set, but we have been looking at several other sets that are out there too. These include Grunts, FUBAR and a few others that don't spring to mind at the moment.

Grunts certainly seems to be generating a good bit of interest at the moment though...

For anyone interested in watching the developments in the current 15mm science fiction gaming field, a couple of blogs certainly bare watching:-

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/

http://firebase15mikemike.blogspot.com/

http://www.gruntz.biz/

http://miniaturereview.blogspot.com/

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In future I will prefix any wargaming article with the title Toy Soldiers:, this will hopefully make it easier to identify the wargaming articles!

Model Making: A New Toy!

I have just purchased a new belt sander for my workshop. It finally arrived yesterday and I got it up and running this afternoon.

Wow, I can sand anything now!

Lest We Forget!

Model Making: Reddiprene38: Modelling Material Review

I have just written a review of Reddiprene38 modelmaking material for the SFSFW blog, you can read it here:-

http://sfsfw.blogspot.com/2009/10/reddiprene38.html

Games Night: Formula Motor Racing

Jeff brought along a new game to our games night last night called Formula Motor Racing. This is another games designed by Reiner Knizia so we were fairly sure it would be a winner, and trying not to get to corny it moved straight through the field into pole position.

 

Each game plays in around 20-30 minutes and is good fun in itself but, mirroring the actual Grand Prix season, players tally their scores over a series of games to see who can win the season.

Simply put, the mechanic of the game is down to playing cards that either advance cars through the race order, move them back, or possibly knock them out of the race completely. The cards are colour coded with a colour for each player and also black, which can be used on any players cars. As cards are randomly drawn players do not get the cards specifically for their own colour, so you  often have to play tactically to improve your position in the field. The first 6 cars at the end of the game score, and the order that they finish in is the order that the they start the next race in.

Once the series of games is under way it soon becomes apparent that the game is as much about pushing other players down the ranking as it is about getting your cars up it. As soon as one player starts to take a lead over several games all the other players start actively forcing him out of the scoring.

This is an extremely simple game to learn to play, but it is incredibly addictive. I imagine we will be playing this regularly as a secondary game to other games that may finish early.

Well worth looking out for.

 

Photos from Boardgamegeek.com

Game Night: The New World, A Carcassonne Game

We played this version of Carcassonne once in October last year (and got a couple of the rules slightly wrong). We decided to give it another spin as Carcassonne is always a fun game in any of it’s versions.

New World: A Carcassonne Game is one of the latest incarnations of Carcassonne. All of the games in this family have the same basic tile laying mechanic, where you slowly build up the landscape and score points by claiming cities, roads and other features in either short term points grabs or long term planned strategies. Each new variation has had a slightly different mechanic, making  them all interesting to play and re-playable in fairly regular rotation.

New World has taken many of the different elements from the other games and brought them together. It still has the basic town and road construction and claiming, but it also add the meadow/animal mechanic from Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.

New World does change somewhat from the other games in that instead of starting from a single tile in the middle of the table and spreading out from there, it starts from a board that presents the East coast of America, tiles are then laid down to represent the expansion of the settlers as the spread west. Also, to facilitate the advance westward to meeples have been included that represent “surveyors”, these are slowly advanced westward as each player scores points and any of the players meeples that fall behind the surveyors are removed from the board. This certainly changes the dynamic of the game and adds a nice twist to the now familiar formula with Carcassonne.

We did find a few rules that are not explained as well as they could be, but after checking Boardgamegeek.com and a experimenting with a little game-play we got over these. Our feeling is that this is probably down to the translation from the original German rules.

We managed to get two games in over the course of the evening, and this is after a fairly late start (around 8.15pm), so clearly once game play becomes more familiar this is going to be quite a quick and fun game.

Between the members of our gaming group we have almost all of the versions of Carcassonne, and this is a welcome addition. Personally I have Hunters and Gatherers and would like to acquire Carcassonne: The City at some point. New World will also now be added to my wish list.