Men of March

Bigglesworth here - amateur sculptor, mould maker and now roofer.  I am pleased to report that I executed an air-tight, and water-tight repair on our back stair and have been unmolested by the last series of rains.  I've been able to get some time in at the work bench and have three new knights to show for it.  They are uniformed in a similar fashion to the first knight I sculpted last month.  Ian asked me to post some progress shots of how I build my figures so I have posted those below.

I like to start with a sculpy dolly on a wire armature.  I know most people probably prefer to go right to the putty, but I have a thing for sculpy.  You can see that I try to build as much anatomy as possible to guide the sculpt as it develops later.

I work my way from the bottom up with the epoxy putty, dressing the legs and adding the chain mail skirt below the tunic.  I usually also add the heads at this stage.  Note about heads - I suck at them.  You can see how much I struggle.  I ended up swapping these heads out before I finished the sculpt.

I then add the tunic and layer it over the chain mail skirt.

I finish up the torso and add headgear before placing the wire for the arms.  I probably let the helmet get too larger on some of these last sculpts.

I finish the arms, add the chain mail around the neck.  Unlike my last sculpt, I decided to try integral swords and maces (what am I thinking?).  The shield will still be a separate cast for these figures.

I am pleased with the dynamic poses that came out of these sculpts.  The last figure I sculpted was a nice start, but seemed a bit flat to me.

Because these poses are more complex, I foresee more challenge in making moulds and casting these figures.  I made the swords so thin they are almost transparent - my chances of getting that to cast are not good.  The figure with the mace also has his scabbard directly behind him - very tough for making a mould.

I'll let you know how these guys take to the goo bath.  If anyone has any tips on how to improve my approach, please feel free to chime in and help me out with some pointers.  Thanks so much,

Bigglesworth out.