Harec learning journey. (Mainly starcraft)

[harec]

Hi,
A newbie here, I came to this forum looking for a good place to share my experience sculpting miniatures.
As newbie I am not sure if this is the correct subforum to post this thread, (If not I apologize in advance and I guess I will have to talk with the admins to change the place) as It is going to begin being a sculpture log. Anyway my plan is to sculpt and paint them.
I consider myself a sort of a beginner in sculpting and painting as I still have a lot to learn. So please any comments and suggestions are more than wellcome.

Lets begin.

A couple of months ago I bought a bag of plastic soldiers based on starcraft. Some 54mm zerglings and Terran marines in different poses and I thought to myself that It would me nice to have more toys. So I begun searching for information, artwork and so on. This is going to be the log of my journey. From concept to finish paintjob.

Right now I am in the middle of the first set of zergs I have planned, I carefully choose them to go from easy to hard so I could improve during the process. As well unfortunatelly I don't have much freetime during the week so I am going slowly.

The first post is going to be the changeling.

[harec]

I decided to start with something easy, and the changeling fairly is.
Here is the concept.


The first step for me is to draw a scale blueprint to start.



With the blueprint the next step is the armature.(Photo with a marine as reference)



Then I fill the armature with aluminum foil and paper modeling putty.

New step was milliput.


Here the is a comparison again with the plastic marines. I was really happy with the organic posture of the miniature.



Then I added som bulbs



And finally right now I am in process of adding texture with green stuff.





And preparing the head with a plasticard armature.



Later I will post a bit of my other projects, but more simplify as you already know the process I follow.

[Sicks]

This is looking amazing so far, already way beyond any sculpting I could do lol looking forward to seeing more

[harec]

Thanks Sicks, I see, in order to help anybody with even less knowledge in sculting than me I will try ti post photos of all the process, as well fell free to ask. lets go to the next one.

The changeling is a great training for wire armatures, but there are more tipes of armatures, especially in this scale. Son my next choose was the baneling, it is a lot bulkier and has an sfere form when running.

It was actually quite a challenge as In the game (Starcraft 2) It is not very crear how they change from normal walking mode to ball rolling mode. Fortunatelly Y could see it very clearly pausing Legacy of the void's first cinematic.

So lets see.

Like before I follow a very sistematic aproach when sculting,

1st, concept



2nd Blueprint



Then plasticard armature instead of wire armature.



Filling of the armature with aluminum foile and this time clay putty (It is the same quality as paper putty, I just run out of paper putty)



And now the actual point in witch I am blocked for the moment. Milliput phase.





I am not moving from here because I an still not happy with their heads, but I am actually happy with that big and sexy butts

[harec]

So after preparing the 2 types of armature that I know, (I have also made hibrid of both in the past but not needed now) the next one I decided to make would be a really big challenge.

And big is the jey word.

An Infestor.

Concept



Blueprint

Starting Armature


Reinforcing the armature as it is a monstruosity



Filling it (Aluminum foil)



First putty layer (Clay)



Second putty layer(Milliput) With some warhammer miniatures for scaling



This one is still un milliput phase as It is really big and I have to go slowly sandpaperinh everything.

[harec]

Ok 4th one and this is the end of todays spam

This ones are not made from scratch, just a conversión, but a big one.

As some any fan of starcraft know, infestors tend to eat terran marines when still alive so they can throw them in the battlefield with some improvements.

What we know as infested terrans, or infested marines.

This time the objective is to transform them untill I get 4 multicomponent infested terrans so I can build my owns as I pleased.

concept.



Vountaries for the experiment.



After some estructural improvements.



Some extra lims



Some example layouts, (The parts are just temporaly glued with sylicon)



And finally a closer look.



And that all for today, We are fully updated, I have to check some things in the forum as there are a lot of new stuff to learn so probably future updates will have improved photos and layout.

[KruleBear]

Cool a lot of sculpting going an in the forums at the moment. Welcome to the insanity.

[harec]

Ok the creatures continue growing. Here is a little update.

Changeling skin is growing day by day like a disease



As well I have started texturicing the infested marines




And as well looking at the painting threats and tutorials of this forum I realiced It is actually worth it for me to have registered. There are plenty of tutorials with a very hight quality.

As I mentioned this project is using a bunch of toys as reference.
Here you got the terran marine.



The cuality fo the cast is probably the worst I have been to work with, but jet very fun.



This is the state of a dominion marine previous wathering, It has just slightly lights I am not sure if heavy lighting it would end up well, as I have learnt how to light a couple of days ago.

I have one question to you, fellas painters, I have found that the finish of my actual paints shines, I was wandering if can make it matte applying a matte varnish.

[warrior4520]

Love the photos of your sculpting progress.

For killing the shine, Testors Dullcote is the best I've used. It really gives a true matte finish. I've also tried Vallejo Acrylic Matte Varnish. You can apply it with a brush, which is nice for me (Dullcote is an aerosol spray, and I don't have a good place to spray things in the winter), but it's really more of a satin finish. It's not terrible, but it really doesn't come close to Dullcote.

[harec]

Love the photos of your sculpting progress.

For killing the shine, Testors Dullcote is the best I've used. It really gives a true matte finish. I've also tried Vallejo Acrylic Matte Varnish. You can apply it with a brush, which is nice for me (Dullcote is an aerosol spray, and I don't have a good place to spray things in the winter), but it's really more of a satin finish. It's not terrible, but it really doesn't come close to Dullcote.

Thanks, I am practicing in order to have my photos acording to the forum standars.

About the painting as I am spanish I guess I will try Vallejo, Dullcote is not sold here, I am glad to hear that I can use a varnish to do so, I will check the brands sold here, maybe there is somethign better than vallejo.

Cool a lot of sculpting going an in the forums at the moment. Welcome to the insanity.

Thanks I will try to help as much as I can with the little I know.


So just a little upday today As I have been working on the infestor and even having working for 2 days there is no big diference With the latest photos. As I usually say to myself Sculpting is a matter of patience.

As I said I am very happy with the painting info I am getting to I am preparing 4 terran marines to practice all the tecniques. It is going to be 4 diferente factions marines. In order to do so I am preparing some shields layout.
I made a shiled Inspired by the war pigs mercenaries and a medic shield as well.

Warpigs


Medic



My shields made of plasticard and some putty



And a marine scale comparative photo.

[bgcdazzler]

Yay, another sculptor! Welcome aboard.

Love the hugely ambitious projects you have here.

[harec]

Hey I didn't realiced your WIP had sculpting, serius business you have there

[Gandalf the Grey]

The scale is insane ! Brilliant but insane !

[harec]

The scale is insane ! Brilliant but insane !

And I have just started, I have some really really evil plans coming. But we're not getting ahead of ourselves. I will just say It is going to be worth it to stay tuned.

I didn't planned to work today but It turns I finally have.

Here is the head of the changeling, still in inflatable doll state.



On the other site the skin has reached the neck.





And just as a small thing the infestor leg is growing.

[Maenas]

Hello Harec! Hola!

I've been seeing a lot of posts about modelling around these forums and there is quite a lot of people doing so. Have an eye around and you will find great ideas.
Specifically for Plasticard (ABS or not ) I recommend you Blackadder's thread, he just builds full tanks, warships and a lot of other impressive things (Titans too)

I must admit that I saw a Spanish writing on your last pic that made me think, *hey! we've got a same country fellow here!* and then I saw you were from Madrid and next step I was reading your blog, which is very interesting indeed!!

Thank you for sharing your info here, I will be following your posts just to learn more about your way of modelling. Thank you and welcome around! Bienvenido

[harec]

Hola, gracias.

That is why I join the comunity, actually I had already seen Blackadder's thurderhawlk, I didn't knew he had more, and actually It was funny to know that I have already seen his other Jobs surfing on the internet.

In fact he has really cool stuff and he is someone to take into consideration, but I am planning to create and bring here my own method for creating huge robots and tanks with my own new tool I am building. It has taken me a lot of efford and time and probably this weekend I will have the first results. Worst case scenario, before this moth ends.

Ya veréis tengo grandes planes.

[harec]

Kick update,

I have finally found a good way of shaping the infestors head witch was really problematic for me. After 3 tries this is the first head I like. Caparate plates are missing just take that into account



And the changeling keeps growing, I have added hornes and I have correct some skin parts.



And that all for now, I may take some days of to finish another unfinished projects and then I will come back with energy to sculp teeth, witch are quite a pain.

[harec]

Hey this time is a small update, I have been working the hole week on the other supersecret project I still cannot show As well I am waiting for a putty resupply that will arrive next week.

I have found in the masive spanish team miniature guide, a recepe for a new putty and I have been messing with it, It is quite nice indeed.

The receoe is a mixure of milliput standar with plastiline, (You must choose a good one, I use JOVI)

50-50 aproximately but a bitmore of milliput than plastiline is desirable.

Te result is a putty similar to milliput but a lot smother, softer and with a longer working span. The end resilt is a lot softer when cutting (Actually you can cut the surface a bit with your nail) but solid.

Here is an armour plating of the infestor I made.







I got a little bit overexited with the new putty and I made to many scars, I will correct that on the next session, but I is nice to have a new putty to work with.

[bgcdazzler]

Love all the experiments you're doing here. It's nice to try new materials.

I will also say I'm glad I checked this thread on a non-work device, as the picture of the infestor's head looks very, very rude.

[ArchArad]

Always nice to discover a new WIP thread. I've just started playing around with sculpting so it'll be fun to see the different techniques and experiments you have going on as you progress.