Duel

[Bodhi]

Just a thought on standardization:

I've restarted my elves in a more durable material (2/3 green stuff, 1/3 brown stuff, some detailing with Tamiya putty) and for every arm "socket" and every arm "plug" I use the thickest drill in the set sold by Heresy miniatures (don't know how drill thicknesses are measured I'm afraid...). First I drill a deep hole, then I fill the hole with a little putty and press with the OPPOSITE end of the drill. That way the holes become smooth and perfectly round with a flat "floor", using just the drill produces a pretty jagged hole.
The plugs for the armsockets I do using a flat bit of putty in which I've made holes to the exact same depths as the ones in the figures. I can then just push the arms unto those and get rightsized plugs without having to mess with the figure.

This way all arms for all figures follow the exact same standard.
If everybody followed the same standard the conversion possibilities would be endless....
Just a thought 

[Custom_Hobby]

Terrific idea Alf.

[messiahs-abomination]

Great idea Alf, roughly how deep are you making the "female" half of the join?

Curse the cloud over the south coast of England! It's ruining my light...

[Bodhi]

VERY shallow - to facilitate casting. Just half a mm. It's enough to make assembly easier. For real "throwing against the wall" strength pinning would still be required (but also made easier because of the flatbottomed holes and relatively broad "pegs" or "male halfs" in the armjoints). For normal relatively careful handling it should be OK with use of good superglue.
I also try to make the females adjoin so that they will run straight along the casting line which is a problemsolving excercise of not to small amounts when creating the basic poses.

[eyeolas]

This all sounds so cool, wish I had ever tried to sculpt anything, or use green stuff for more than making a hip after converting an ork nob to fit on a bike.

[Bodhi]

Curse the cloud over the south coast of England! It's ruining my light...

I work in the kitchen. I have two strong lamps in the roof and two strong worklights, all on at the same time (though admittedly one work light is most of the time bent down over a pieform - my variety of a putty oven).
My wife usually complains when she enters the kitchen because it's so much light it hurts her eyes 
I live in Sweden. Half the year it's dark the greater part of the day. Can't rely on outdoors light at all.
But I usually take my sculptures out for little walks. The best thing is really to see them in all sorts of different light conditions. Some mistakes are discovered better in strong contrast light, others better in dim light, others better in surround light and so forth.
And then that horrible horrible HORRIBLE camera of course comes and reveals things most displeasingly. That's a reason I don't allways do WIP shots. I get depressed and loose courage to go on.

And Eyeolas: I've been at it with SOME type of sculpting for about nineteen years now (though only green stuff and other epoxy putties for about seven) and I'm still learning. So it's a LONG learning process (or I'm a slow learner...) but it's rewarding in the end...



Or so I've heard... 

You're 14 so if you start now by the time you're 40 (as I am) you will have been at it for 26 years. And you'll probably learn about a zillion times faster than I do (young people allways do) so just think about the amazing sculptures you're going to be able to produce  (and don't give me crud* about talent. Talent is... about 5% of it, the rest is practice, practice, practice) so you really have no excuse  (goes for everyone else to by the way...)

[messiahs-abomination]

This all sounds so cool, wish I had ever tried to sculpt anything, or use green stuff for more than making a hip after converting an ork nob to fit on a bike.

Alf's right, I've only been doing this for about a year, and I'm leaps and bounds better than when I started. That's not to say that I'm good, just better.

I'm 40 so a late starter. I give myself another year and I'll be looking back on my early efforts with a mixture of scorn and pride.

The more you use the different putties, the more you come to understand their properties, and how those propeties change over the couple of hours (or less) that they are workable for.

VERY shallow - to facilitate casting. Just half a mm. It's enough to make assembly easier. For real "throwing against the wall" strength pinning would still be required (but also made easier because of the flatbottomed holes and relatively broad "pegs" or "male halfs" in the armjoints). For normal relatively careful handling it should be OK with use of good superglue.
I also try to make the females adjoin so that they will run straight along the casting line which is a problemsolving excercise of not to small amounts when creating the basic poses.

Cheers Alf, I'll bear that in mind when I'm doing the arms on my stuff.

[S1ND3X]

22 years old here and i've been at this lark for about 6 years now, though i always had plastecine as a youngling

[eyeolas]

I have a cool idea for what I would do, but since I am not very good (I could round off two joints, add fingers, change arm and leg positions etc), but am not nearly good enough to start making models of my own, would I be able to base my models on GW or other people's models and heavyily convert them. If that conflicts with copyright or other things like that (you guys who sell minitures will be able to tell me) then I could just ask someone else if they wanted to try my idea.

[Custom_Hobby]

A knight is a knight, or a space suit is a space suit. I say go ahead and try it out. for right now just get in there and practise sculpting even if you use a figure as a dolly. They are for your personal enjoyment and there is nothing wrong with that. You might find you enjoy it once you get into it.

[eyeolas]

Well, I'll see what I think after my first model (which I will be able to find a use for some way or another). I was thinking an outcast race of yuan-ti (snake people), from alot of different places (mostly the warhammer fantasy range and whatever catagory green stuff falls under). I'll do a bit more reaserch to look at parts but I think it will be doable

[Bodhi]

would I be able to base my models on GW or other people's models and heavyily convert them.

GW: I'd be extremely careful. The stated rules here say "Intended for sale". GW are notoriously aggresive in defending their Intellectual property.
Ebob has dollys that are clearly stated as being "Useable for commercial purposes", he also does horses under the same conditions. Same with the weapons and heads from Hasslefree miniatures.
A lot of other companies make dollys to but since they don't clearly state them as OK for commersial use it seems to be generally assumed that as long as they are COMPLETYELY covered in green stuff the sculpt counts as original anyway. But that one IS a bit of a grey zone.

For practicing and learning how to sculpt and for doing stuff that is NOT to be sold there simply is no problem. Anything can be used and converted and most sculptors seem to start out by converting (not me I've never done a conversion in my life... I lie. I DID put a short beard on a Hasslefree figure just to try the feeling. I didn't like it  )

[Custom_Hobby]

I thought he was just doing it for practice. That is why I wrote that. If you are thinking of yuan-ti there are some great pictures in D&D books.

[eyeolas]

For inspiration of an idea, I whent to the DnD website and looked at the galleries of each book. It eventually hit me once I saw an illustration (which wasn't labeled yuan-ti, but still) and dived into the GW site. I will be a total mix of everything I find that works for the model, and once it's done I'll post it and the experts* can tell me if it is deamed origional.

* people who sell things for a buisness at current.

EDIT: They will be based on this picture that I really like http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ss_gallery/49120.jpg

[Custom_Hobby]

Very good choice. I look forward to seeing it.