Need suggestions on Green Stuff molding & conversion

[DrClarke]

I\'m a 100% complete rookie when it comes to working with Green Stuff. Other than using it to fill in the slots on a base, this is my first use of it for actual sculpting.

Project: Convert an Axe Wielding Gnome to a Mace Wielding Gnome for D&D use.

Front & Back shots prior to conversion:

http://www.foolarchy.com/minis/pom01.jpg
http://www.foolarchy.com/minis/pom02.jpg

Front & Back shots after first part of conversion:

http://www.foolarchy.com/minis/pommace01.jpg
http://www.foolarchy.com/minis/pommace02.jpg
http://www.foolarchy.com/minis/pommace03.jpg
http://www.foolarchy.com/minis/pommace04.jpg

I\'m fairly satisfied with the mace conversion, although it was hard.

Now my questions:

1) The cleric doesn\'t wield a sword. So I\'m thinking about shaving off the sword & scabbard on the belt and either replacing it with a wand or a small crossbow (both of which the gnome wields). A wand doesn\'t seem >proper<, and the thought of sculpting a small crossbow seems impossible. Thoughts?

2) Are there any websites anywhere on teaching how to work with green stuff? The way I made the mace head just doesn\'t seem right. When I look at other people Green Stuff work, it\'s amazing.

I have more questions, but I\'ll just start with these. My current hang up is what to do with the pesky sword.

 

[Chronique]

I’m not a superb artist when it comes to the green stuff, but I’m better than average, and my specialty is converting, even though I have none of my conversion work posted here yet. I got the opportunity to talk to Chris Fitzpatrick at Gamesday in 2000, and I asked him what was the secret, seeing as how he may be the most talented man alive at sculpting the ‘stuff. What he told me I found to be the two best pieces of advice on working with the ‘stuff. He told me this: “The secret to working with the greenstuff is first, get tools that suit you,” (He has his own custom-made sculpting tool) if you’re not happy with your tool’s performance, your work won’t come out the way you want it. And “Keep your tools wet.” This is very good advice, as it later turned out, because sculpting dry can often times be like working with chewed bubble gum, and it ends up getting all over your tools, and pulling the ‘stuff away from the model, and messing up everything.

Well, as far as advice on what to do next, perhaps instead of sculpting the tines of the mace to sharp edges, you could cut small shapes out of plasti-card. That way, you can achieve more of a metal look, and then just stick them to the shaft of the mace using greenstuff. You can even then cut a barbed design into it that way, and make it look really ornate and sharp. …That’s what I’d do, anyway.
:idea:

 

[KatieG]

Green stuff and conversion

Have you considered trying to find a crossbow and just using one that already exists? I know Reaper makes a weapons pack that contains a crossbow, although it may be too large for your purpose. But you could also look at some old 25mm minis with crossbows and cut one off for your use. That way you\'d only have to use greenstuff to pretty it up rather than have to make it from scratch. My 2 cents...
--Katie

 

[nadine]

I don\'t have a lot of experience with conversions or scratch sculpting, but something you may want to try another time is mixing some Milliput in with the green stuff. It works well for weapons since you can sand it once it\'s cured to get out any odd bumps in the surface.

 

[Badaab]

GW has some really small crossbows that are loose on the Mordheim humans sprue... I believe they also sell the sprues in a box for the Empire army, something like Militia, or whatever. I don\'t keep up with much in the way of WHFB... sooo

But seriously, weapons are hard to sculpt, so I\'d just steal one from another model. Even for my attempts at sculpting, I use weapons from other models.

Joe

 

[jppatton1]

The best online resource I\'ve found is 1listsuclpting:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1listsculpting/

Lots of helpful folks who range from rank amateurs to seasoned pros.

I\'ve got a couple sections on my page that might serve as guides, but nothing _overt_ yet.

Joel
the Mini-A-Week project at Minutiae
http://www.minutiae-minis.com