Improving

Added a couple more heads tonight, and strengthened the chin up a bit on the last one, which was worth a bit more work.

Here they are

Getting There

Here's the latest attempt, a definite improvement I think, starting to get a feel for what works and doesn't. This one might be a keeper.

Anyway, a few more to try yet .....

Hussars

Did a little work on a couple of new heads tonight, I'll post the results up in a day or two once I've finished them

Note the comment about the hussars, and looking back, I see I didn't ever post up a picture of the finished castings. So just for interest, here are the two officer figures, just undercoated and given an oil wash.






Sorry, don't have any painted ones, started ages ago, got half a dozen done in the paint scheme shown previously, then decided I wasn't happy with it, and stopped. Other things have since taken priority.

Don't want to paint them now, as it will give Doug huge cavalry superiority in our upcoming southern campaign! Ha Ha!

Analysis

Little bit more painting tonight (don't panic Doug, I am still painting as well!)

But took the time to do a little analysis of those first three heads, before I do the next batch.

Ok, so the positives, looks like I will be able to do it, I can achieve the detail I'm looking for working at this scale, which is hard to gauge from the photo's, but isn't huge (the heads are in reality only about 4-5mm high)

However, it's also apparent I haven't got it quite right yet.

So assessment of what I think I've got wrong:

1. The heads, well at least the first two are too long, they look stretched just a bit too much. Now I do want thin faces with character, we're not going for a modern "huge pumpkin head" look, so that's ok, but I think I've gone a little too far. Having said that, I haven't added the things that widen the head out, like ears, hair etc, neither have I added the top of the forehead/hat, but even taking this into account, I think a little less elongation is called for.

2. The third head is better in this regard, but it's probably too far the other way, and also the nose is too fat. That added to the "frowning" look makes it all a bit scary (might be good for a "charging/aggressive" figure though!) I could probably fix the frown by adding more of a forehead, but the nose isn't going to get any better.

So slightly less length and chin, go steady on the nose, I'll try that with the next few and see how they look.

Heads up

Wow, over a year since my last post!

Well, given that this blog is supposed to be about making miniatures, I think I can be excused, as I haven't done any sculpting since then.

Various diversions etc with painting some figures for Napoleonic and AWI mainly.

Been experimenting a bit on the painting front with oil washes, and I like the effect, still learning though. Anyway, the downside to using oils is that they take ages to dry, and to cut a long story short I got bored!

I'd mixed up some greenstuff for use on a couple of AWI Willie command figure conversions, and the sculpting bug bit again. So whilst waiting for the paint to dry I thought I would knock something together.

Been thinking a lot about the figures I've sculpted to date, and whilst I am quite pleased with them, I think they lack a little "spark" in some respects. I think it's because I tried too hard to make them "accurate" and didn't think enough about movement and character. The command figures I've been working on are a good case in point. Suren's sculpting in many ways is "wrong" if you analyse it, but they have that little bit of stardust about them that makes them very special.

Now I ain't ever going to be as good as he was, but I thought I'd have a go at trying to capture the style.

So first up ...... heads!

Previously I just used the ebob dolly heads and "enhanced" them a bit. Worked fine, but the end result was "functional".

So I've had a go at sculpting some heads from scratch this time. And here (minus any ears yet!) are my first attempts. I plan to just play about with heads for a while, and try to develop some which I like. I suspect none of the above will in the end make the "cut" but we'll see how things evolve.



I'll post up some more pics as more heads are done.

Not actually sure what I'm going to end up sculpting yet!