Finally Starting from Scratch

One of reasons I started this blog in the first place was to keep track of my progress as I worked towards the goal of sculpting my own miniatures. Hence the name of the blog.

Now, I've already done some spaceships (with Full Thrust in mind) and airplanes (with Canvas Eagles in mind) carved out of wood, but the real challenge to myself, the ultimate goal, and what has become most interesting to me as I've been on this journey, is to sculpt people.

I must admit, even while I have been modding Heroclix and gaining that experience, the actual idea of making a mini from scratch has been pretty daunting. In fact, the first thing I read on the subject of sculpting miniatures from scratch was on a website called Storm the Castle. The site owner, Will, has a series of tutorials that start you out with sculpting six inch figures in play dough and gradually working you down to smaller scale figures using finer putties and tools. I read much of it. It's probably a good tutorial, but...

But, I jumped right in to modding Heroclix with the thought that I can start out simple with them by adding or changing out simple objects at first and then working into more difficult stuff, like clothes, then limbs, and eventually getting to hands and faces.

Then, almost one year ago, I felt somewhat confident enough to start a miniature from scratch. I put together a wire armature using a strand of chicken wire that had not been twisted into the fence form and some green stuff. I watched a few videos that show how to make armatures and then I started.

In July, this is what I had:

My first armature (top) after the first layer of green stuff is applied. I had mixed up too much green stuff, so Patriot (bottom) got some scale armour.

Then I didn't touch it for months, choosing instead to mod some 'Clix, paint some 40k Tyranids, D&D minis and MtG: Arena of the Planeswalkers minis. Then the COVID 19 hit and I didn't do any modding or painting until late April when I took a couple of hours to add to my armature. Filled out legs, arms and torso. I realized that my model might be a tad on the small side for 28mm, so I figure it could be a female character. Then I made a head. Maybe it took a little more than a couple of hours. With a little putty left over that I wanted to use up, I made a sword as well.

My scratch-built mini as left in late April.

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Today, while I sat with the kids to help them with homework, I added some armour and a shield.

Just poked holes to try and mimic chain mail, looks more like some kind of animal hide covering. Something I'll want to figure out in future sculpting endeavors. Her shield is cut from a twist-off cap for a packet of apple sauce. The sword was formed around a piece of paperclip.

So there she is, my first sculpt from scratch!

I'm happy to be done and excited to start painting! While there are some things I will be trying different on future sculpting, I am pleased with how this one turned out. I learned a bit and got something cool in the end.