Monday, November 19, 2012

More weirdness

I seem to alternate sculpting efforts between the middle ages and a strange distant future when pigs walk around on their hind legs and wear space gear.  Two figures - the green sculpt and the cast - painted versions.







Monday, August 27, 2012

Inching Forward - Maybe





Sorry for abandoning my post for a while - I have been following you guys out there doing amazing work, and I have been getting in some sculpting time, but not nearly enough.  My meager offering, two archers and a mounted knight.



 You can see that I've been utilizing the horse torso and head that I casted in my earlier post.  Setting in the wiring to bend the legs in different configurations works well.  Hope to be posting more soon.
Senior B

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Noble


Sculpted this medieval civilian over the weekend.  You can see I sculpted him over one of the dolls I cast a few weeks back.  It really made the process go smoothly.


On a whim, I built a cloister for my nobleman.  He looks a bit lonely inside it.  I think I need to populate the courtyard with more peasants, knights and merchants.

My nobleman stands by and watches his horse start to take shape.  Yes, I am going to be attempting horses soon.  Stay tuned to see how they come out.

Monday, January 16, 2012

I did this?



I've had mixed results on some of my latest 28mm sculpts, but I think I got lucky with this figure.  It is probably the cleanest 28mm sculpt I've done to date. Thanks for tuning in.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

January Sculpts






A mixture of 28mm and 54mm sculpts I'm working on.  I'm pleased with some aspects of my sculpts, but I'm disappointed with how sloppy and rough they look in comparison to the work of professional sculptors who work the putty so cleanly.  The bottom sculpt is a bit of a departure for me.  I thought that doing a minimally clad female figure would be a good exercise in anatomy.  If you thought the bottom sculpt was a woman, than I consider it a success.
Thanks,  Mr. B

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Another metal casting tutorial


Best wishes to everyone for the Holidays.  I am back to my core mission - primarily - creating chaos in the kitchen with my white metal casting experiments.  This is the 28 mm knight I sculpted a while back.  Unlike my first 28mm figure, I decided to go for it and make his sword and scabbard integral to the main cast and not separate pieces.  I gave myself a very slim chance of success with this in a drop cast figure, but it worked!  This is revolutionary for Knight Craft.  I can see myself moving forward with all sorts of figures now - I still need to add the shield as a separately cast object.




You are all familiar with these steps.
I have actually started casting dolls for myself so I can start producing figures more efficiently, making multiple figures from a base cast.  This is actually a doll for a 54 mm figure.  That is why I made the mould of him in the buff. Armor, helmet, clothes and weapons all get added in different ways to this figure.  You can see I have long rectangular drop holes in the top of the mould.  I've discovered that having this large void to pour into at the top of the mould provides material that forces the white metal through the entire mould.
 This is one 54mm doll and the 28mm knight cooling after I have removed half of the mould.  If I am too impatient and try to remove the cast from the mould before it has sufficiently cooled, I end up breaking delicate features like the sword and scabbard.
Here are two dolls I've cast to use to make multiple figures at 54mm.  One is standing and one is running.
Heads, yes I sculpted and cast a number of different heads at 28mm and 54mm to swap on the dolls that I've created.

This is a 28mm doll that I will use to make multiple figures.  I decided to do this doll without a head.  The stance is intended for an archer, but I think it can be made into a few interesting figures.

Here is another image of my final cast knight coming out of the mould.  The base is a bit thick.  That wierd little bubble between his legs wasn't in the original sculpt.  I think it was from an air bubble that got stuck in the silicon when I was making the mould.  The little bubble under his arm pit pops right off, but the bulge between his legs is sort of permanent.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

The slip trench

Hello friends - Bigglesworth here.  Mrs. Bigglesworth decided to go with friends to spa country here in California for a weekend of mud baths, massages and facials.  What is a miniature enthusiast to do with the house to himself for a weekend?  - maybe Germans vs. Russians mayhem in 1/72 scale!






A friend who knows I love creating things in miniature asked me to create this scene for him.  It is a late war skirmish with the Germans holding a fortified position against those pesky Russians with their T34 tanks.


The Germans are holding shallow slip trenches with sandbag protection and the Russians are charging out of the tree line.  The sandbags were all made with sculpy - you all know how much I love sculpy.






The Germans have a piece of self-propelled artillery and a light tank to defend their position.  The light tank is actually a modern British tank at the wrong scale painted to match the bombardment tank - but whats a bit of anachronism among friends.

A close-up of one of the Russians.






Another view of the German trench line.


This is a process shot of the trenches being built.  I layered foam core around the trench openings and the craters were also cut out of the foam core.





The armor being painted.





A close-up shot of the German self-propelled artillery.





Over-spray on the furniture - Mrs. Bigglesworth will not be pleased - in fact, I'm toast.

The armor and infantry were all from Plastic Army - I didn't sculpt any of the figures or build any of the armor.  I know I've been distracted by my space pigs and now this scene, but I promise that I have been working on more knights and gearing up to do more casting.  Promise to get back to crafting knights soon.

Thanks,

Bigglesworth.