Sculpting scales

[Margo]

I\'m planning to give one of the miniatures I\'m working on now a cape made of dragonhide -- a bit like the ones some Dark Elf models have, but with a thinner texture. Does anyone know any tips for sculpting scales?

I remember there was something about it in WD, but I couldn\'t find the issue If anyone remembers what issue it was in, it would be great, too.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I have sculpted scales. I made a small tool with metal. The tip is a \' u \' shape the size of the scale. Lightly stamp the u in rows, offsetting every other row. Then with a knife with tip that is broad not slender, 30-45 degree angle. Where each u touches the other gently press this area down so that it looks like the one scale is going under the next. Once you get it going it\'s not hard, it just takes patients. Good luck.

 

[ralfmetal]

dragon scales

hi ..the issue no of the white dwarf is 274 it was the one with tammy haye`s darkelf noble with the sea dragon cloak me thinks hope this helps.cheerz ralfmetal.
stop press!!! or a quick read of the article says sculpt rough cloack shape first the use small balls of green stuff and press into shape..

 

[Medved]

remember my saurus in the WIP thread? well this is how i did it.....

sculpt the cape first.....rough folds and so forth. the get some green stuff and roll it into long really thin sausages making sure there is a little water underneath (not too much or it will not stick to the cape) with a knife cut away a little chunk and roll it into a ball with moist fingers (not wet!) then pick it up with your sculpting tool and tease it gently onto the cape (this is hard to do beacuase its a fine balance between not enough stick and too much) then flatten the ball out with a wet , flat tool. then repeat many times. i found that clay shaper brushes are great for this. use a little more yellow than green (more time to work with it) for the scales , more blue for the cape.

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hope this illustrates.... for edged scales just tidy up the edges with a flat tool when almost dry

 

[Wolf_Fang]

you only need 1

at back ... as for scales.. waht kind? snakelike make lots of Vs only with another smaller v ontop of it.. and layers lots of layers lol

 

[minimaker]

As you can see there are several techniques. I\'m not sure what kind of scales you need but I\'ve just made a quick demo using a technique based on the one I learned from Sandy Garrity:
http://shorterlink.com/?6IGIJG
She does something similar on dragons and it gives you more freedom than stamps. You can vary the scale size a lot easier.

These scales took me about 15 minutes to make. Including interruption for making pictures.

Some techniques from this page can also be adapted for different types of scales:
http://www.lyonstudio.com/Sculpting/Sculpting%20Textures.htm

Edit: just found a pic of a dark elf with dragonscale cape http://miniature-painting.net/cgi-bin/gallery/gallery.cgi?action=display&gallery=Visions6&page=8 lol . Not the type of scale I showed. In this case I\'d go for a combination of the flagstone and knobby scales textures in the Lyonstudio articles. Medved\'s technique should work too.

 

[Margo]

It never stops to amaze me how wonderfully helpful and friendly people are here. My deepest gratitude to everybody who helped me with this matter!

 

[minimaker]

You\'re welcome. Just make sure you show us the results.