Sculpting Beginner

[Morlu]

Hey Guys,

I have set myself the task of scratch building myself a Skarbrand model (character bloodthrister) which will obviously involve a lot of scultping.

I have worked with green stuff before on other conversions e.t.c. but nothing like what im going to have to do for this so i was wondering if anyone knew of any good books to recomend with sculpting techniques/tutorials in or indeed if anyone had any advise to give here. Any help people could give would be very much appreceated.

Ill be putting a WIP thread up when i start but it wont be for a few weeks while i get some serious practice in first.

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Einion]

First off, welcome.

Second, search is your friend - if you\'ve spent any amount of time browsing you\'ll know this is not the first time a question like this has been asked. You\'re going to be pointed at the articles section just for starters (which technically I just did ) and there are literally dozens of how-to and step-by-step pages out there on the web for sculpting figures in various materials and various scales, many of which have been linked to in previous threads, although a quick Googling will get you to a lot of \'em.

In terms of books this is the best one IMO:
Bill Horan\'s Military Modelling Masterclass

Einion

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Get some Sculpey or FIMO and some practice of the techniques you want. The good thing about these clays is that they don\'t have a time limit of workability so you can go as slow as you want/need. Try a technique, wad it up and try it again. Try to view this as a model you will learn on. Shooting for perfection right off the bat (like I have a habit of doing) can be real self defeating.

 

[gary]

Check out www.theclubhouse1.net if you\'re not allready a member. This place has some great sculpting tips, lots of guys to give advice and it deals with a large range of sculpt sizes from 28mm to life size 1/1. And it\'s also realy good for getting inspiration.

 

[Morlu]

Thanks for the tips and info guys, all very helpful, im just waiting for a few supplies to arrive in the post and then ill be up and running, so expect some pictures of probably poor but enthusiasticaly sculpted minis sometime soon

 

[green stuff]

Unless you have a very clear idea of what you want to do, I think taking the time to sketch out what you want to sculpt under various angles can be very helpful and can avoid making mistakes.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Copying can be a real useful learning tool. Seriously........Look at something you like and try to duplicate it line for line.

 

[Dr. Tachyon]

Just like to reiterate my top sculpting tip - buy these dvds (I have them and they are awesome) for learning.

 

[falela]

Originally posted by Einion
In terms of books this is the best one IMO:
Bill Horan\'s Military Modelling Masterclass

Einion

@Einion, do you know where I can get a new copy of this book. All the places I looked at at were out of stock.

FLL

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by falela

Originally posted by Einion
In terms of books this is the best one IMO:
Bill Horan\'s Military Modelling Masterclass

@Einion, do you know where I can get a new copy of this book. All the places I looked at at were out of stock.

These titles were taken over by Osprey from Windrow & Greene so you can get them directly from Osprey if you need to.

A secondhand copy in good nick would be well worth looking for and I was going to recommend Abebooks, but the overseas shipping for you would kill any savings on the book\'s price.

Einion

 

[falela]

Thanks, Einion. Just checked the site, might as well buy a new one straight from Osprey (5 pounds flat rate world wide)

 

[Einion]

Excellent, that sure beats the going rate for a single hardback from most secondhand sellers!

Einion

 

[falela]

oh no, it\'s out of print even in Osprey. Guess have to rely on the 2nd hand after all :no:

 

[Einion]

Aww crap. Well, search periodically on Abebooks, different copies will turn up every now and then - it\'s well worth doing this for something you don\'t want to fork out a lot of money for (i.e. a lot more than their original cover price!) Another thing I\'d recommend is looking at the bookseller\'s inventory and ordering a few things from them at once, that way shipping gets divided between items, making it a lot more palatable.

IME it\'s well worth emailing the sellers and checking with them directly, maybe asking them to put aside the Horan book for you so it\'s secured - I once placed an order for a handful of books, specifically for an old Osprey title I was interested in that was really cheap, and that was the book that didn\'t get sent! Luckily I\'d ordered enough other titles that the shipping, split between them, wasn\'t too bad.

Einion

 

[Dragonsreach]

Amazon search UK
List of second hand copies via Amazon.