Sculpting Question

[Aliengod3]

Ok so I know that when you sculpt you make the armature and then bulk out the mini until you are satisfied with how it looks. But in the case of making casts the miniature is then cut into various pieces (ie the arms are normally removed from the body for casting reasons, possbily the head). How is this done? What tools are used? It seems like it would be difficult to cut throught the metal armature without damaging all of the detail that was sculpted. Anyone know how this is done?

 

[DarkStar]

If you need to cut off a piece you can use a jeweler\'s saw to accomplish the task. I picked up mine at a model railroad hobby store. Along with several dozen blades since they tend to snap. People will say \"well, I never break any blades on mine\" and that\'s fine. But I do so I keep a big stash of replacement blades, they\'re not expensive.

Also, when sculpting alot of care is taken to plan the piece out for casting purposes and figure out beforehand where the parting lines are going to be and what pieces are going to be problematic and have to be cast up seperately. Sculptors will often create the sculpt with detachable parts by creating complex armatures with \"plug and socket\" type of fittings allowing for ease of removal and attachment of joining parts.

This method is used in large and small scale sculpting for anything that needs to be cast up in multiple parts. A quick example would be to sculpt a torso area, cut of the wire on the armature for the arms, build up a small \"female\" indention in the torso where the arm would join up, then sculpt the arm around that, using vaseline as a seperating agent around the join. Sculpt away while temporarily attached, then remove before casting.

 

[freakinacage]

talc also works well as a separating agent

 

[Aliengod3]

so it is better to prepare the armature for such a separation before sculpting?

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

This is a good question and i ve often wondered how people do this job neatly as obviously any delicate details around the area to be cut would have to be re-sculpted. I need to get this skill down quick as I am doing a test sculpt soon for somebody and it needs to be good.

I am currently sculpting a troglodyte warrior and although i dont know whether or not i am gonna cast him i am going to make it as easy as possible to do so just in case. I have a base just about done on which i was planning to sculpt the feet and then have the join around the ankles, the arms i have not put on the armature as i will sculpt these seperately and make a socket join. I may seperate the head also - i havent got that far yet, only the legs have been completed which i am texturing (photos soon). There is no way i am hacking this up with a saw lol!!

 

[NGArtStudios]

My sculptor just cuts off the arm or whatever else is being separated from the mini. I believe he uses a jeweler\'s saw but that I am not sure of. Once he cuts the piece off he then carefully fills in whatever minor damage was done to it and creates the \"joint\" whether it be a ball and socket or other type of connection.

 

[donga666]

Having chewed the ears off of more than one GW sculptors. Some of them actually sculpt some models twice! One as a design piece them another simply for cast process.

I would also believe that of some of the larger scale stuff looking at the way the joins are sculpted into the detail (buy a Pegaso model to witness such design brilliance!).

Some manufactures make extensive use of precast blanks to speed up the design to cast process.

Then some designers own a saw

 

[Aliengod3]

Interesting stuff. I went to Allan C\'s website. He has a couple WIP\'s for some sculpts he has made and he starts off with a full armature and at some point cuts up the sculpt to divide it up for casting and I just do not get it.

 

[DarkStar]

Originally posted by Aliengod3
Interesting stuff. I went to Allan C\'s website. He has a couple WIP\'s for some sculpts he has made and he starts off with a full armature and at some point cuts up the sculpt to divide it up for casting and I just do not get it.

If you go the way of cutting off pieces, one would simply cut the sculpt with a jeweler\'s saw (they are very precision tools), then resculpt any lost detail by touching it up. It\'s a razor thin blade that is capable of making \"jeweler\'s\" precision cuts in metal.

Hell, speakng of razors, the wire we\'re cutting into at this scale can be cut with a sharpened razor as clean as you want. Just press into the epoxy with your sharpened razor (sharpen it with a dremel and fine grades of sandpaper to paper thin or buy a custom surgical blade). Press through the epoxy into the wire then press through the wire, going round the wire in a \"rocking\" motion then remove the piece and resculpt any lost detail.

Not sure if you\'re trying to understand how they\'re getting away without having to resculpt anything, because that\'s not the case. You will end up resculpting detail after a cut usually. Cut, then touch up. If you\'re thinking that the cut is just made cleanly with no further work to be done, then I would like to see that done as well as they would be machine people and machine people would be awesome to watch for awhile.

edit: forgot to add, I remember a thread on a large scale figure where the sculptor goes over creating the connection joins after cutting, nice big pictures but a very long thread, read through if interested in seeing pics of that process, here is the link: Kent Kidwell tutorial

You\'ll see the process down the thread in post #16.

 

[Aliengod3]

Thanks for the help everyone. Also thanks for the link Dark Star