# Svartmetall's original sculpts - WIP



## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Well, it had to happen sooner or later that I would come up with something that just wouldn't fit into the epic *Death Guard WIP* blog. I've been wanting to do some designs of my own for a while now, since I'm constantly coming up with ideas for things to model - not just Nurgle, but all sorts of stuff - and since I'm really trying to improve my all-round sculpting abilities at the moment it seemed an opportune way to do so, by working on things outside my established field as a way to force myself to get better at the things I can't do yet. 

I brainstormed for an evening and wrote down a list of things that would be fun and educational for me to make, trying to steer away from any 'comfort zones' of stuff I can already do (I set myself a strict rule of no 'disease demons' or 'pestilence warriors') and now I've chosen three of those to be the first of my own designs to try and sculpt from concept sketches. The first of these to have work started on it is this, a Dryad Guardian:








Unusually for me, I nailed the concept sketch first time (I've been working on trying to improve my drawing, as well as my sculpting) with just a tiny thumbnail sketch on a random sheet of paper at work; the original of this drawing is just 1¾" high, but I got the look I was after straight away. For once. I'm kind of pleased with the amount of detail I managed to squeeze into less than two inches 

So, armed with a piece of art I was reasonably happy with, I set to work building the thing. Using galvanised steel wire I made up a basic armature to follow the lines of the sketch as closely as I could, then wrapped a thin skin of GS around it all to give the subsequent layers something to adhere to. Then began the work of building up layer after layer of GS to give bulk to the model; it's important to get the underlying shapes of a model correct, so you can use just a thin final 'skin' layer to give the final surface texture, knowing that the overall shape and proportions are already taken care of...









After five stages of adding bulk and shape to it, I've arrived at the current state of the model:
















I wanted very much to give the impression of multiple limbs coalescing to form an overall entity. The only real way I found to do this properly was to build up each line separate from the others and then blend them together; hopefully in the two ¾-angle shots you can see this organic blending of lines properly.

Here's how the model now looks next to the original concept art:








...the proportions are right, now, and all the lines are where I want them to be; he's about twice the height of a Space Marine, by the way. Now I get to do the really fun bit, with all the obsessive surface detailing of bark, twigs, small branches and patches of moss. This should be fun :biggrin:



C&C for the things that turn up in this thread would be most appreciated, as I progress with them. The next Svart originals, by the way, will be a ghoul and a bizarre scavenger-worm beast; I have concept art for them, too, but haven't yet begun on their armatures and don't want to just post random sketchy bits with nothing concrete attached. I've had a lot of people say a lot of very nice things about my Nurgle sculpting in the eighteen months or so since I started doing this, but I know that I'm now sailing out into what are for me waters as yet uncharted; I know I can do Nurgle, and will keep working on my Death Guard (the Rhino's almost done now, too, just need to work on the front plate) as well, but now it's time for me to man up and tackle the things I _can't_ do yet. Hopefully this will make me a far more rounded sculptor overall, and also result in some neat models.


_____


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## NurglingStomper (Jan 31, 2009)

Well I cant wait to see how this will turn out. Your WIP of the death guard ahs been excellent so far, so I expect to see the sa,e level of awesomeness!! Good luck


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## Da Red Paintjob Grot (May 6, 2008)

Very nice sir.Two thumbs up.


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## gwmaniac (Sep 1, 2008)

It's a good start so far! I look forward to seeing what the outcome would be, considering the concept sketch looks great!


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## Syph (Aug 3, 2008)

I know a fellow Wood Elf collecting moderator who'd love this...

That's really starting to take shape Svart - I don't know how you have the patience with GS. How long has this taken so far? Also, where do you get your GS from? It'd cost a fortune with GW's own brand!


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## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

Cor! That looks like it will be outstanding! I was just saying to Vash the other day how I was planning to sculpt a Treeman or two. The GW ones are just arsegravy in my opinion, the plastic ent isn't much better (though the cost helps!). I will be following this avidly and can't wait to see some paint on it!


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Syph said:


> ...where do you get your GS from? It'd cost a fortune with GW's own brand!


Yes, it would; which is why I buy it in bulk from Tiranti.co.uk. Between the original sculpts and the ever-growing Death Guard army, I get through _tons_ of this shit


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Wow and more wow.

Another bit of Svartmetall magic in the making.

What do you work with tools wise?

Heres a company that may be of use/interest to you btw.

http://www.sylmasta.com/acatalog/index.html

Various GS types as well as brown and a couple of other putties.

On a unrelated subject you may want to vote for the Plague Tower in the link in my sig. :Wink:


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Thanks, *Vash*, I already knew about Sylmasta since I'd ordered a bunch of Magic Sculp from them (after Mark Bedford recommended it to me at the FW open day) - haven't gotten around to trying it out yet but I have some hols starting tomorrow so will use at least some of that time to experiment with it, along with hopefully getting a lot more progress done on the Dryad, the Ghoul & the scavenger-worm beast. All I know right now is that it smells nasty :biggrin: 
I also have some FIMO clay which another guy from GW recommended to me; I'll be using that for the basis of the scavenger-worm beast, as it'd use way too much GS to make the whole thing from that alone.




> What do you work with tools wise?


For this Dryad, I've mainly been using a proper metal sculpting tool; *SilverTabby* from RelicNews gave me a full set of tools for Christmas like this one:








The main one I used so far on the Dryad is the one fifth from right, with a flattened spatulate end and another which is similar but more curved and sharper. That's seemed to work best for blending and smoothing down the areas of GS on this armature; I also used a somewhat flattened-out cocktail stick to help tamp down the edges of newly-added GS sections for a seamless-looking join. Once I get to the bark-and-twigs detailing stage, though, I suspect I'll be back to my usual thing of using the back edge of a scalpel blade for scoring very fine lines and cocktail sticks for slightly larger detailing. I don't know why, but that just seemed the intiuitive thing to use for me from pretty much day one with sculpting.

Plague tower voted for, SAH!

_____


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

I've started adding the detailing and bark texture to the Dryad:








It's a fair-sized model, so it's going to take a while to do it all, but I like how it's shaping up already; I have a 1:1 scale printout of my concept sketch for it sitting on my workstation so I can constantly refer back to see that everything's roughly where it should be. Doing the bark texture definitely appeals to my obsessive-compulsive side


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

The lower legs and 'feet' are pretty much done now. 

Front:








Back:









Some three-quarters views:


























And, for a size comparison, here he is next to a short-ish Plague Marine:


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## Lucius The Typhus (Apr 5, 2009)

Are you planning for using him in an army? if so what would he be?


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## ghazgar (Jun 8, 2009)

wow thats some insane GS'ing 

how long did it take to do roughly?


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

> Are you planning for using him in an army? If so, what would he be?


 Nope, he's purely an exercise in trying to improve my sculpting, I actually think of him as a generic Dryad rather than any kind of GW figure. And even if he were, I'm _incredibly_ unlikely to ever make any form of Elven army (can't stand the poncy gits); the only thing I'd ever want an Elf figure for would be to corrupt it to the service of Father Nurgle and make a Plague Elf :biggrin:



> How long did it take to do roughly?


 Erm...I'm not actually sure, I haven't been keeping track of hours spent on him so far. Since he's basically a self-improvement exercise, though, I'm more concerned with getting him to look right than anything else.


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## Imperial Dragon (Dec 22, 2007)

That's really nice tree you got going on there.
Always good to see more of your work.


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## humakt (Jan 2, 2008)

Its a Tree!

Now I quite like the idea of plague elves for some reason. Must make a mental note of that one and maybe use it at some time in the future.

Back on subject, this really is some awesome GS work.


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## Lucius The Typhus (Apr 5, 2009)

humakt said:


> Back on subject, this really is some awesome GS work.


What??? just awesome??!?! AMAZING! How dare you insult Svartmetall by saying it's just awesome!?!?! :biggrin:


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

And here we are with most of the torso's bark texture done and the first foliage added, and also the beginnings of the inner parts of the head:








I realise the head looks more like half of a squashed fly's head than anything else right now, but have patience, young Padawans - build up into something close to the concept sketch it will, layer by layer 

Three-quarters views:
















I wanted the bark around his hips to look like it was fracturing and cracking as he walked, the hip movement causing the bark to splinter and reveal the smooth heartwood beneath the outer layer. I realise this means I may have thought about this too much.

Blah blah C&C, yada yada...


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## Mordeth (Aug 26, 2008)

Looking real good! And you are right about our thought of the head, it really do look like a squashed fly's head...

Hmm, the bark at the hips seems a bit odd to me. after all, its a living tree and the bark is like its skin. Although you could make it look decayed and stuff, then it would be a great addition to the model! 
Beware, the great dryad of Nurgle, Defiler of Nature!


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## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

It's coming along really nicely!  Can't wait to see it finished, just one thing though:

Nurgle dryad = bad!


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Tiny update - here's how the head is starting to shape up this afternoon:


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## AM. (Jun 16, 2009)

I'm really impressed with the tree texture you've achieved. Nice work :good:


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

And here's the finished 'face':








A ways to go yet, but I'm liking the way the twigs'n'leaves stuff is starting to look, especially when built up in layers as here. It's always nice when a sculpt starts to resemble what you originally had in mind, and this guy's now starting to get there.


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

i is so jealous..... waaaaaah!


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

It reminds me so much of Pandemonia (something like that) the wind Guardian force off Final Fantasy VIII lmao.


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Quite a bit more work done on him now:









Some detail shots:

























I'm pleased with how the foliage came out in the end; it's painstaking, because you have to do each leaf and twig individually to get it to look right, but worth it in the end. I'm also happy with the contrast between smooth heartwood and striated bark across the whole figure, it's visually consistent and gives a nice depth of texturing to the model overall. All that's left to do now - bar some smoothing out of texturing around the tips of the branches - is finishing off the branch that's running over the top of the left leg, and the right arm/club detail. He's definitely starting to look a lot like my original sketch now, which I'm pleased with; at least _something_'s going right at the moment. 


_____


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## fdshfn (Jun 24, 2009)

dude, it looks awsome!!


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

And here he is - my first completed original sculpt.



















The finished result next to the original concept sketch:









..I am pleased. I'm sure my sculpting will get better as time goes by - I'm working damn hard to make that happen - but this is my first original design and as such he'll always be special to me.



_____


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## fdshfn (Jun 24, 2009)

looks great, keep up the good work :victory:


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## Concrete Hero (Jun 9, 2008)

That's some very impressive work dude, you should certainly be proud!

How big is he? Do you have any scale pics?


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

looks awesome only suggestion i can make for your next wip... make the pose more dynamic cose you definatly have the skills


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## Underground Heretic (Aug 9, 2008)

I didn't know Pappy Nurgle had ents. Either way great job.


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

And now, here are some early WIP shots of the next thing I'm working on: a little Ghoul. 
















Size-wise, he's a little bit shorter than a Catachan. Pose-wise, I wanted him to look as though he'd been disturbed halfway through munching on a corpse he's just dug up, hence the half-risen 'alerted' posture. There's obviously a long way to go on him yet, but I think the musculature's starting to look about right - he needed to be reasonably well-built or else he wouldn't be able to dig up bodies to eat, but the diet of dead flesh has given him his pot belly and visible ribs due to low nutritional value. Don't worry - he'll have a loincloth to cover himself up in the near future 

I'm also working on two other humans at the same time, one normally-built with well-defined musculature and one a big fat bastard. Between these three figures I'm intending to make some serious progress on sculpting decent-looking humans and humanoids, something that's long been a big mental block for me but that's also a very important step towards being able to consider myself a proper sculptor. I've actually made quite a few previous attempts at this sort of subject matter, but this is first human(oid) figure I've ever done that I've felt able to show to other people; the results of my preceding attempts over the last 6 months or so were...bad. 


As always, all C&C is welcomed, especially in this case in an area I know I'm currently weak in.


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## AM. (Jun 16, 2009)

It looks really good mate.
I'd add more GS on the shoulder blades and try to made the rib cage a little higher than it is now, imho. Something like that:










Appart from that, any chance to see your progress in those humans?


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## Bubblematrix (Jun 4, 2009)

wow, inspiring work, I hope to try some "naked" GS sculpting soon - nice to see how good it can look


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

AM. said:


> It looks really good mate.
> I'd add more GS on the shoulder blades and try to made the rib cage a little higher than it is now, imho.


I deliberately went for those proportions to emphasise the fact that this isn't a human.



AM. said:


> Apart from that, any chance to see your progress in those humans?


 Yep, as soon as they're far enough along that pics are worth posting


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## Liber Heresius (May 10, 2009)

wow, very nice mate! You definitely have some sculpting skills. I think you've just inspired me to give this a go! :biggrin:


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## AM. (Jun 16, 2009)

Fine. I'll look forward it :wink:


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

Svart, I am in awe of your sculpting abilities. Simply awesome work.


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

Svartmetall said:


> ...Pose-wise, I wanted him to look as though he'd been disturbed halfway through munching on a corpse he's just dug up, hence the half-risen 'alerted' posture...
> ...I'm also working on two other humans at the same time, one normally-built with well-defined musculature and one a big fat bastard...


Do I smell a diorama upcoming? 
The start of the ghoul is looking ace - this will turn out awsome just like GS tend to do when you fiddle with it:wink:


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## Broken Sword (Jan 5, 2009)

As always, fantastic work, but when can we see more of this work in progress.


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

> ...when can we see more of this work in progress?


Now :biggrin: 

Here's the Ghoul with feet and a loincloth added. Working out how to sculpt feet drove me _crazy_, I just couldn't get the hang of it somehow, so here I must give thanks to a friend of mine for her advice in this department. Here he is with feet and toes (I know I still need to add shin bones): 








I like the little touch of the knot in the cord holding the loincloth on; it looks loose enough that it might fall off, giving you the appalling prospect of a Ghoul full frontal...


And here's another new figure I'm working on, as part of my 'learn how to sculpt humans, you dumb bastard 101' program. He's a fat bastard holding a sword over his head in the classic two-handed "I'm about to chop you in half" pose.
First, the basic figure with Realistic Flab[sup]TM[/sup]:








And next, as he is right now with the first stage of the chainmail hauberk he'll be wearing:








Chainmail's very fiddly to do, but oddly satisfying. It was hard to think up a name for this guy, but in the end I decided to go with something simple and dignified like Fat Bastard With A Sword...


As always, more when I have it.


_____


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

from the last pic of the learn how to scuplt humans pictures it looks like the thighs are too long in proportion to the shins. or the shins are to small.

otherwise they are looking good


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## Cleitus_the_Black (Jun 8, 2009)

Well I think it looks good, but I know nothing. I can only imagine how tough chain mail would be to sculpt. Kudos!


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

One thing I've learned over the last week or so is that hands are a bugger to sculpt! Here are the Ghoul's:










I wanted him to have large hands with a lot of flat area, since he'd need that to help with digging up his next meal


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Here's FBWAS with finished chainmail hauberk:









The trick with getting chainmail to give the correct final overall shape appears to be to put a layer of flat GS in place - following the desired final shape of the mail - then letting this cure hard before adding a thin final layer over this and applying the chainmail-pattern texturing. 








Doing it this way means you have a firm basis for the chainmail layer, which won't then get pulled out of shape by the process of applying the actual chainmail texturing itself (since this involves pulling the GS around with a pin).

Next up are his boots, then his (shudder) head. Getting the hang of sculpting 28mm-scale heads is driving me _crazy_ right now...


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## AM. (Jun 16, 2009)

Those guys look really good. Nice chainmail :good:


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

Great tip on how to do chainmail. Never thought of it that way with a "solid under-layer


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

I can try and work up a chainmail tutorial if people would like...?


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

_*wipes sweat from brow*_

Now with boots and two-handed hammer:









...more when I have it.


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Well...here, at long last, and after _much_ effort spent battering my way through mental blocks (I probably made 15-20 faces in the process of working out a method that felt right to me, doing them in batches on bits of armature wire stuck into sprue), here's the first 28mm scale face I've ever done that I'm not utterly ashamed to show to people:








...I wanted him to look as though he was actually having to make some effort to lift this huge great hammer over his head...








Damn, but trying to get my head around sculpting human faces has felt like ice-skating uphill from the start; Nurgle and general Chaotic craziness has felt pretty instinctive to me from day one, but this has been the opposite end of the spectrum. I know I'll just keep improving on them over time but this is my first bearable one, and as such I'm attached to it; it's always nice to beat something that had been defeating you.


_____


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

Svartmetall. You are a man of superlative skill.


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

It's not threadomancy if you have something new to add! 
:biggrin:
Here's what I've been working on for the last few weeks (hence the comparative lack of new Death Guard activity) - an original sculpt of a Tanith scout:










I did him as part of my ongoing program to improve my sculpting, and since humans are one of my weakest areas - quite possibly my absolute weakest - this seemed to be a good thing to have a go at. While there are still definitely things that could be improved upon I'm still fairly happy with him, he's a big improvement over my last attempt at a human figure.


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

Man, that is amazing. 

When do you start work for GW?


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## alasdair (Jun 11, 2009)

Wow thats nice- Great sculpting! Do you make these from scratch or do you have any concpets or inspiration?


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Excellent work Svart! As I think I have mentioned before I absolutely love that Dryad sculpt and it is most impressive how closed to the original concept art your final product turned out. The Tanith Guardsman is really sweet! I am particularly impressed with the rifle stock. The detailing there is fantastic! Good work as always mate:good:


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Much better face! Have you tried reproducing stuff like an SM etc?


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

*posting from work*



Marneus Calgar said:


> When do you start work for GW?


I wish. I have a little way to go yet before I'm ready for _that_, I suspect...


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## DrinCalhar (Jul 10, 2010)

Nice work with the GS.


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

Wow, that scout is awesome!
+ rep


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

Svartmetall said:


> It's not threadomancy if you have something new to add!
> :biggrin:
> Here's what I've been working on for the last few weeks (hence the comparative lack of new Death Guard activity) - an original sculpt of a Tanith scout:
> 
> ...


Fantastic work so far.

You say humans are your weak point so I'll try give some criticism to help. I'm not a sculptor so this is just stuff I see with my eye.

The first point is the only obvious one to me. I think his arms look a little too skinny. They of course look better than the ridiculous size of catachan arms, but in comparison to the rest of his body they seem to have very little mass. 

I think the inside of the cloak (between legs) looks a bit unfinished as it is. It seems a little like you got to that point and though it wasn't important. 

My last point is in the side on picture, where his hand connects to the lasgun looks a little strange, but that may be the photo. 

Don't take this as negative though, you've done a fantastic job here. I think you've given him a lot of character and the details are very nice. 

Look forward to seeing him painted :grin:


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

I'm going to agree and disagree with Immortal Reaper.

I think the arms are perfect. They are pretty well proportion to the body and head. The hands might be a touch big, but its hard to tell. 

The hand holding the lasgun looks awkward, like he doesn't quite have a grip on it, or as though he is pinching the handle and doesn't actually have his hand through it.

And the inside of the cloak between the legs, does look unfinished - its partially a matter of missing texture in comparison to the exterior, but I think it has more to do with the folds. The folds on the outside of the cloak are 3 dimensional and deep, on the inside the cloak is pretty smooth.

Great work though! I've done some sculpting, and you are doing excellent!

Edit - On the barbarian guy, there's an issue with the chain mail. The texture of it is good, but its too form fitting. Chain mail _Hangs_ from the structures of the body. So it falls from the shoulders and droops from the arms. It seems to follow the body too closely, more like . . . a defensive sweat suit. The quality of depth that is created by the mail separating from the body in the areas where it hangs or falling over it, really sell the look of chain mail.

Cheers,
Kreuger


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

OK, so, this isn't exactly an original sculpt but since I talk about it in *the latest episode of Interesting Tactics* I thought I'd stick up some pictures; I did a copy of Grimgor Ironhide from scratch late last summer, and here's how he turned out:


















He was pretty challenging to do, but it taught me a lot and I'm pleased with how he turned out.


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## demon bringer (Oct 14, 2008)

Exelent sculpting, it makes me look at my own GSing in shame


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## Unforgiven302 (Oct 20, 2008)

Looking at your sculpt of grimgor and the picture on gw's site I am having a hard time seeing any difference! Absolutely beautiful work!


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

Svartmetall said:


>


:shok:

Thats beyond damned good man, mad skillz there :bow:


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

Fantastic stuff!!


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