Sculpting Chainmail Tutorial

It's been awhile since I posted a tutorial so I thought I'd do a quick post on sculpting chain mail. The following is an excerpt from my "Basic Sculpting" textbook I wrote awhile back for some sculpting lessons. It has been edited slightly from it's original version.

Step 1

Take some putty about 1mm thick and roughly the same size as the area to be covered, flatten it between your fingers and apply it to the area by gently pushing it onto the figure.

Step 2

Smooth out the putty making an even surface using your sculpting tool and clay shaper. Be sure there are no air bubble’s or seam lines and that the putty is thick enough. If there are any areas showing through you must pinch off a small amount of putty and apply it to the surface.

Step 3

There would normally be a slight hollow under the pectoral muscles. Add this contour by gently running your tipped clayshaper underneath these muscles. You want to create a smooth hollow.

Step 4

Now add the surface details. Start by taking your exacto blade and faintly cutting a grid pattern of horizontal lines about 2mm apart down the area until you cover it. This is your rows of rings.

Now you need to add the rings. Take your pin tool and gently poke holes along each grid line. Continue filling each row with rings until you have completely filled the entire area.

Sculpting Putty Part Four- Drying and Storage

The putties I described earlier all have the same properties and methods for storage and drying. You should only keep about an inch or so of putty out in your work area at a given time, chances are you will never use more than this amount on a given project. The rest should be stored in the freezer to keep it from drying out. If putty is left out it will slowly cure from the exposure to air and you will notice that your putty will have small lumps of hardened putty that will generally not mix and leave your putty with a rough, gritty texture. Make sure you "pick" out any such lumps before you start working.
Keeping putty in the freezer retards the natural hardening process so if you find you are working on a piece and have to leave for any reason before you have a chance to finish you can put the piece in the freezer and it will keep it from drying for a short period of time ( I wouldn't push it past 24hours). When you come back to work on the piece just pop it out of the freezer and in a few minutes it will thaw and you can resume work.

Drying
Once putty is mixed it will "air" dry within roughly 20 minutes. Air drying does not mean that it is fully dry, in order to completely cure the putty needs to be "cooked" in a oven or type of kiln that we sculptor's refer to as "The Cooker". This precision engineered piece of equipment is an amazing amalgam of common household parts that can easily be assembled by even the most novice modeler. Here is my cooker:

I know.. I know.. your asking yourself "how can I ever obtain the parts for, let alone construct, such a wondrous device?" Well here's how:

"The Cooker" Parts List*

1. A large empty coffee tin (don't waste the coffee! Drink it!)

2. A simple desk lamp or heat lamp (these are larger and may be necessary for larger coffee tins, you want to be able to rest the lamp on top of the tin)

3. 1 50 watt bulb (DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, use any higher wattage, it will melt your figure!)

Once you have gathered your part simply cut open one side of the tin with tin shears or similar cutting devise (be very careful here we don't want any dismemberment) as shown.
That's it your done!

To dry putty in the cooker just place it inside for about 20 minutes and the putty should harden. Brown stuff will harden to the point where you can shave or sand it and green and procreate will fully cure so that when you touch the piece it won't warp or distort. I recommend cooking any project at each stage before going on to the next to ensure that you have a solid base to work on and you don't accidentally smudge something you just spent a half an hour sculpting (trust me I've learned this the hard way).

Hope you enjoyed the tips on putty, oh and yes the photo didn't make it past the sensor due to NDA reasons.

James

Sculpting Putty Part Two - Green Stuff

Today we are going to cover the most commonly used sculpting putty "green stuff". Green Stuff has been popular with miniature sculptors for many years. Also made by Polymeric, green stuff is widely available, here is a link: http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=PSI000-23.

You can also find green stuff at most miniature companies however I would recommend doing some price shopping before you buy, compare the price to the length of strip you get. The product above is about a 2 foot strip (don't quote me on the length but I'm very close) for $12.00.

Green Stuff comes in a multicoloured strip (yellow and blue). The blue part is the hardener and the yellow part is the softener. When mixed in a 50% 50% ratio it will cure in about 20 minutes. Again if you use more hardener the putty will be thicker and harden faster; add more softener and it will have a thinner consistency and take longer to dry.

Green stuff has a very soft consistency to it. This characteristic makes it ideal for organic sculpting. It's great for things like faces, capes, hair, and other non technical objects. It is somewhat hard to master using green stuff (something I still haven't managed) but once you do it can hold very sharp features; just take a look at any of Tom Meier's work and you can see how truly amazing this putty can be in the hands of a master.

My only gripe about green stuff is that it can't be sanded or shaved once it dries. It is very unforgiving in this way. If you mess up a part or need to smooth something out you pretty much have to cut away the offending section and redo it.

Next up -Procreate