54mm sculpt help

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emopainterguy

New member
I\'m planning on starting a 54mm sculpt soon. I printed out scaled artwork for the model and noticed a couple things. The head, bolter, grenades, and backpack, are all more or less 30mm scale (that is standard 40k size). Should I stay true to the artwork, or scale things up a bit?

My other concerns are of the actual sculpting. I plan on using fimo for the bulk work, and green stuff for the detail work. Now if I\'m using fimo I need to use a base (to stand the mini on during sculpting, not for the final product) that wont get wrecked in an oven. Should I use the fimo directly over the armature or should I put some green stuff down first (I\'ve heard that helps the fimo stick better)? Is it ok to bake the fimo, do more work in fimo and bake it again or would this be a problem?

Sorry for so many questions I just wanted to get things out of the way before I started.
 
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Ritual

New member
On the scale issue... That depends on what you want the mini to look like I guess. If you want realism then you need to downsize things like weapons as they are very exaggerated in 30 mm. But, on the other hand, you might want to keep the exaggerated look of the smaller minis. But my guess is you will still have to make the guns relatively smaller than in the 30 mm sculpts, or it will look absurd.

I haven\'t used fimo, but my guess is you could bake it several times. Don\'t take my word for it though. But, fimo bakes on quite low temperatures, right? I mean, it\'s not scorching hot temperatures... So I would think baked fimo survives those temperatures. But someone with acutal experience could probably give you a more definitive answer.
 
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generulpoleaxe

New member
bake the fimo for a couple of minutes less than the packet tells you to.
you will avoid burning it then.

and ritual is correct, you can bake it several times if you wish to harden part of it and then sculpt a bit more and so on.
 
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emopainterguy

New member
Thanks for the replies. I think I\'m gonna try to keep it as close to the artwork as possible, that way I may even be able to use some of the standard bits on my sculpt.

If I\'m adding more Fimo after i\'ve baked it will it just stick on or will I need to fix it in place some how? I know from working with normal clay after putting something in the kiln any more clay added will not stick to the baked clay...

Once I get some progress done I\'ll post a pic and see what the consensus is on the scale...
 
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Ritual

New member
I know I\'ve read that some people use superglue to make new putty stick to the stuff that\'s allready set.
 
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emopainterguy

New member
I do that with green stuff occasionally, but I\'m not keen on supergluing fimo and then baking it... I\'m not sure but I wouldnt want to risk the fumes from cooking superglue lol...
 
moonmin82

moonmin82

New member
fresh fimo sticks to baked fimo just fine. the fimo soft clay is really easy to smooth on too.

i would in no way recommend baking anything that has touched superglue!! and thats not just because of fumes... read on...

CYANOACRYLATE ADHESIVE / SUPER GLUE:

\"Flash Point 176° F\"

\"Unstable. Avoid high temperatures. high humidity, and materials such as water, alcohols, amines and alkalics which may cause polymerization which may be exothermic.\"

anyway... panic over!

from pics ive seen id asume corks would survive the oven, although id not like to say for definite :beer:
 
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Prophet

New member
Originally posted by emopainterguy
I\'m planning on starting a 54mm sculpt soon. I printed out scaled artwork for the model and noticed a couple things. The head, bolter, grenades, and backpack, are all more or less 30mm scale (that is standard 40k size). Should I stay true to the artwork, or scale things up a bit?
Click to expand...

I\'d stick with the artwork. I\'m not a big fan of larger figs that still have the horrific proportions of 28s.
My other concerns are of the actual sculpting. I plan on using fimo for the bulk work, and green stuff for the detail work. Now if I\'m using fimo I need to use a base (to stand the mini on during sculpting, not for the final product) that wont get wrecked in an oven. Should I use the fimo directly over the armature or should I put some green stuff down first (I\'ve heard that helps the fimo stick better)? Is it ok to bake the fimo, do more work in fimo and bake it again or would this be a problem?
Click to expand...

A block of wood or a cork works fine. You won\'t be able to use Fimo directly on an armature. You\'ll need to build a solid core to work from with a harder putty first. Green stuff will work fine or that. This also helps keep the fimo thin enough to avoid cracking. Rebaking is fine.

Sorry for so many questions I just wanted to get things out of the way before I started.
Click to expand...

No worries.
 
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Prophet

New member
Examples of fimo with GS underneath:
http://z14.invisionfree.com/prophet/index.php?showtopic=20
http://z14.invisionfree.com/prophet/index.php?showtopic=50
http://z14.invisionfree.com/prophet/index.php?showtopic=49
 
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emopainterguy

New member
Thanks for the info guys. I was about to give up on the fimo and just use green stuff as I couldnt for the life of me get the fimo to stop moving around on the armature lol. I\'ll give it a shot with a bit of green stuff over the armature, but to be honest since its pretty thick wire, and a lot of the model will be thin it might almost be better to use green stuff for all of it. Well, I\'ll see how it goes.

As a side note I thought i had a lot more fimo but my last pack seems to be completely unusable... I\'ll see if I can\'y pick up some fimo soft tomorow.
 
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Jericho

Consummate Brushlicker
The main issue with sizing up a Space Marine is the thickness of the bolters, knives, etc. You don\'t have to increase that quite as much as the other dimensions to keep it looking more realistic. You can size them up more or less the same way, but feel free to give the models a bit of a leaner appearance.
 
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emopainterguy

New member
Who said anything about a space marine lol

I\'ve got the main part of the armature finished... I will do the majority of the body, then add the arms. When I did my mock up earlier the arms kept getting in the way so I figured best solution would be to do them seperately and attach them later. The bolter looked fine on the mock up, more realistic even... The back pack was a fair bit too small, I may be able to use peices from it, but I\'ll definitely have to sculpt the main part.
 
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Jericho

Consummate Brushlicker
Sorry I somehow just made the assumption when you were talking about bolters, grenades and oversized proportions ;)
 
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