Sculpting Tips - Nurgle arms

In yet another short tutorial I will show how I am going about sculpting arms for all my Nurgle followers - on the example of a Bloater I converted for Blood Bowl. I had a specific pose in mind for this guy and no bits were good for it, so I decided to make them on my own. Thankfully, the nature of those rotting meat sacks gives some leeway when it comes to anatomy, so doing things like this is both easy and a good opportunity to practice some sculpting. I started with some paperclips that I bent in the desired shape with fists glued at the ends - hands are a completely different story when it comes to sculpting, so I prefer to use existing bits when possible.

The next step is to cover the paper clip with blobs of greenstuff - just adding more and more until I was satisfied with the amount. It's okay to use fingers at this point.

Now is the time to apply the rough structure to the arm. Here I was using a small, round clay shaper to define the musculature like the deltoid, the biceps and the forearm. I wanted the flesh to sag a little here, to show that it's not all nice and healthy, so I also roughly sculpted that on the underside.

When I was satisfied with the general form, it was time to smooth it out. For that I used a big, round clay shaper and round, flat clay shaper, moving them carefully over the ridges and blobs, smoothening them out gradually. It's important to make it wet here, both the tool and the greenstuff - water, oil or saliva works just fine. Some places may need a sharper detail at this point, like the crease on the 'elbow pit' - I used the side of the pointy sculpting tool for that here.

When that is done, it's time for textures and other special effects. First, I used the pointy sculpting tool to make the open wound - by making small holes tightly around a circle and then adding similar dots inside the circle until it looks messed up enough. Then I used the scalpel (or an Exacto knife) to add ridges on the forearm, to simulate straps that go together with an armor plate that he will have there. I also made several small holes with the pointy tool, randomly in small groups - it enhances the rotting effect I was going for here.

At this point, the whole thing is ready to cure. If I want to add some boils on the skin here, then I like to use Liquid Green Stuff for that (mixed with varnish for added sturdiness) applying them on the cured greenstuff in the same spot in several layers. An alternative would be using small blobs of normal greenstuff - being extra careful about smoothening out its connection to the rest of the flesh. Here I have the other arm, already finished - it was created in a similar way, only during the first step I used several greenstuff balls to create the structure, rather than trying to emulate any kind of musculature. Then I smoothened the connections between them with the clay shapers and added some holes and texture.

And here is the right arm seen from the front in all of its bubbly, disgusting glory. Here you can also see another kind of trick that I often use on my Nurgle miniatures - a ball pressed into the soft greenstuff. Every time I sculpt something and I'm left with extra greenstuff, I roll it into balls of several sizes precisely for this reason. By pressing such a ball into the soft putty, you can create a boil with a clear border between it and the rest of the body. It can be an eye, a boil, or a botfly egg - and the greenstuff that is raised during the pressing can represent swollen, inflamed tissue around the thing.

Matthias Schwarzfeuer

It's been some time since the last odd necromancer, now it's time for the second one - Matthias, the fancy necromancer who's living under the delusion that all the death and decay around him is actually a pristine elegance. The unpainted conversion of this miniature can be seen HERE.

While Alarich was kinda complicated to convert and straightforward to paint, this one was the opposite. There's barely any conversions on him and an overabundance of freehands. It was challenging a bit, especially keeping the patterns visible while giving them some depth, but also a nice change from other, dirty necromancers in my collection. It was also a good opportunity to do the trick with just polishing the sword on a metal miniature instead of painting it - this guy sure looks like someone who uses a very shiny, clean weapon.

As a piece of trivia - I took his name from an old, old Vampire: the Masquerade character I played, from my edgy teenager phase ;)

Yet another necromancer shown to Hautfell during his search for allies was Matthias Schwarzfeuer. He was sitting alone in a dilapidated palace in the Varsavian wilderness, being tended to by undead servants. Despite all of that, his manners were overwhelmingly noble and royal, his clothes clean, ornate and impeccable. He was indeed a necromancer, quite powerful at that, but he thought, that his profession wasn’t an excuse to stop caring about looking and acting as a noble should. Schwarzfeuer addressed his undead minions with Empire military ranks and still considered himself an important Empire citizen. It was unknown if he was so elitist that he refused to acknowledge the reality around him or he was just stark raving mad. Nevertheless, he acted as a competent ally and necromancer, as long it was an old nobleman Hautfell talking to him - he wouldn’t debase himself taking orders or advice from those beneath him.

Sculpting Tips - Roman-style headcrest

In this short tutorial of sorts I will show how I tackled this topic, on example of a Nurgle Bloater I converted for Blood Bowl.

I started with making some kind of 'foundation' on which I would be sculpting - so I cut tiny quarter-circles out of a metal can lid, heated it up on the stove while holding it with tweezers and stuck it in the plastic helmets of the warriors while it was still hot. The melting of plastic around this piece of metal both creates a hole for it and secures it very firmly after cooling. It could be done with a tiny saw and glue too, but this option was faster for me. Still, I had to be extra careful!

When that was done, I sculpted the metal 'base' of the crest over the lower part of the metal, using an even mix of greenstuff and milliput. This mix is good for anything that's supposed to be metal, as it makes filing and creating sharp edges much easier. For that reason, it doesn't have to be especially tidy at this point - except for the connection with the helmet itself - that will be difficult to file, so it was better to make it right from the start.

I sculpted it using the side of the pointy sculpting tool to sculpt the recessed part underneath and flat, sharp clay shaper to flatten it from above.

After it has hardened, I filed the ridges of the thing to create sharp edges and generally make it smoother.

Now it's time for the crest itself. I used a blob of greenstuff (this time without milliput) and put it over the piece of tin that was sticking out.

When the greenstuff was still fresh I used the 'scythe' sculpting tool to press the greenstuff to the tin at the base and create the first impression of the crest's hair. The general shape of it is also created at this step - thinner at the bottom and wider at the top. Give it now about 40 to 60 minutes to cure a bit.

After it's hardened a little more it's time for the detail work. This time, using a scalpel (or an Exacto blade) I sculpted the rest of the hair, trying to be tidier at the base and allowing myself for more messiness at the top.

At the same time I used the pointy sculpting tool to texture the top surface of the crest - by pointing and jabbing it vertically.

And again, after another 30-40 minutes, when the overall structure should be pretty rigid, I went back with the scalpel to refine the details, to deepen the crevices that didn't look pronounced enough. The top edge needed special attention, because it was difficult earlier to make grooves there without flattening the whole form too much - now it should be easier. I also randomly widened some of the grooves to make the whole thing look messier - he is a Nurgle guy after all - but it can be omitted in other cases.

That's it for now, the crest is ready to be painted. It's no masterwork, but it should work for now.

Blood Bowl Nurgle Team - Bloaters WIP

I converted the Rotters and then some Pestigors for my Nurgle Blood Bowl team, now it's finally time for the Warriors, or how they are now called - the Bloaters. Those big, slow and bulky roadblocks are the core of the team and my favorite positionals in the team, the stars that crush the opposition with their mutated fists.

Ones available in the current GW kit are fine models, but in no way how I envision those players. After playing Blood Bowl 2 video game, I imagine them more similar to stereotypical Chaos Warrior, with armor and spikes. The most obvious choice in this situation was to revisit the delightful kit of Putrid Blightkings. I choose 4 of them, leaving one to serve as a Head Coach later and went crazy with the conversions representing their skills, just like my other players from this team.

Wanting to justify their heavy armor, atypical for modern Bloaters, I came up with a backstory that they were displaced through time by Nurgle, many, many years forward, making them living (?) relicts of the old ways. To go extra ancient I gave them roman-themed names and crests on the heads. This brings them all together as the special players and strengthens the effect of how ancient and out-of-touch with the modern Blood Bowl fashion they are.

Here are they all together:

And some closer photos.

Captain on the left was the first that I made and which gave me the least problems when deciding what to do. This is easily my favorite pose out of the Blightkings kit and came together beautifully with what I had in mind - the stone under the foot got changed into a ball, left hand was in great position to sculpt a scary pincer there (instead of some variation on Wolverine claws, I went with the classic interpretation of the 'Claw' mutation) and the outstretched hand was perfect for a 'thumbs down' gesture, bringing even more Roman themes into the whole mess.

The second one has 'Stand Firm' as his upgrade and this one took the longest to design. At first, I wanted to give him thick and bloated legs, but then it would be too similar to the captain's right leg - so I left this topic for a while. Only later I decided to turn his legs into a mass of swarming tentacles and worms - which both greatly illustrates how well is he glued to the ground but also fits Grandfather Nurgle perfectly.

Here below, the guy on the left is the one that rolled doubles when leveling - and he got 'Jump Up' which helps players get up quickly after being knocked down. To represent that, I decided to give him a lot of spider legs sticking from his back - which would prop him back easily after he falls down. His body was the most armored of all the Blightkings, so to retain some balance I decided to make him completely unarmored from the breastplate up - like rotting meat rupturing a metal can.

And the last one is the Bloater with 'Mighty Blow'. I thought about representing it quite a lot and many options were just not good - giving him a large fist could be confused with 'Big Hand' while adding a lot of spikes on it could be confused with 'Claw'. I considered giving him a heavy hand made out of stone, but in the end, I decided on giving him a thick, flexible appendage ending with a spiked ball - like a fleshy flail of sorts - with a sporty armband to keep him properly themed. Hopefully, it's heavy- and slow-looking enough not to be confused with a 'Tentacles' mutation.

There were many different topics here, so once again I did some photos of the actual building progress, to show some of the 'behind the scenes' stuff. They turned out rather long though, so to avoid extending this post to infinity and to get some a post buffer (which I could use for personal reasons right now), I will post them as separate posts in the upcoming weeks, I hope they'll be interesting enough.

I will update this post accordingly to have all those little sculpting tips together with the miniatures they are related to.

First one is about sculpting the Roman-style headcrests that all of them sport:

The second one is about sculpting sick, disproportionate, bloated arms that I did for the 'Stand Firm' guy. Followers of Nurgle allow for some leeway when it comes to anatomy, so it's both quite easy to do and a good place to practice greenstuffing.

The third and the last one is about the wriggling, tentacle legs of the 'Stand-Firm' guy. It explains the principles of doing a similar composition of tentacles, how to sculpt different kinds of slimy appendages, together with instruction on how to quickly make suction cups for those tentacles.

The Three Hunters

Today I have some Skin Wolves from Forge World. I always liked those models but I couldn't find a good excuse to incorporate them into my collection. Well, I could use them as Varghulfs, but I already have some of those and they are all bat monsters, having werewolves added to that mix didn't sit well with me. Then, when I started expanding my collection beyond just undead and came up with body-horror-themed 'Dwellers of the Bog', those wolves suddenly found their place.

They fit right in as they are so the conversions are minimal here - I added the Lady's sigil on their bodies ('painted' on with Liquid Greenstuff mixed with gloss varnish, visible at the bottom of the post) and filed off any Chaos iconography. The painting was pretty straightforward, I went with light human skin and dark wolf flesh for the contrast. Only on the hands themselves, I tried to go for the 'flayed flesh' effect to bring more attention to them and I think it turned out pretty good.

Once upon a time, there were three hunters, masters of their craft, who were trying to help their starving village during an exceptionally strong winter. Most of the game was already hunted down - everywhere but in the lush garden that belonged to the wise and beautiful enchantress. She forbade anyone from hunting on her grounds, but the hunters were desperate and they decided to try nevertheless. They fell down a great stag - but as they were rejoicing, the enchantress appeared before them. They shook with fear, but the wise woman told them that the rule was just a test to find those truly skillful and brave. In reward, she offered them a chance to become better hunters than they could ever be - strong, fast, resilient, with keen senses. They could also hunt in her gardens without restrictions and their village would never know hunger again. They just had to swear their allegiance to her. Three hunters agreed and they took the stag back home, where they were greeted as heroes. After a great feast, they woke up at midnight, horrifying transformation ripping their skin open and breaking their bones. Turned into crazed, grotesque man-wolves, hearing the Lady’s whispers in their ears, they killed and devoured every single person in the village. Ever since that night, they roam Varsavia on the Lady’s of the Bog orders, only occasionally turning back into humans to realize what they agreed to.

Yarema the Giant

Recently I kitbashed a bunch of wight heroes - and today I am finally bringing you the first one of them painted - Yarema the Giant, the legendary Bodyguard of Kings.

Just as with Alarich who started the collection of Necromancers, Yarema was also the most straightforward of them when it came to painting. Verdigris on the armor, reddish fur, dry bones and a black cape with yellow freehands - just like Zlyshko for example. Still, his size makes him extra imposing and the patterns on the back are always fun to do, so I'm quite happy with him too.

Yarema didn’t kill a dragon on a lone mountain, he also didn’t change the fate of any battle by himself, but he was so good at his job that he got buried with all the ceremonies befitting a hero. Yarema was a bodyguard to Varsavian Kings - a giant so imposing and intimidating, his mere presence was enough to deter most attackers - and others got quickly pulverized by his monstrous mace. He was also surprisingly perceptive and clever, able to uncover assassinations plots before they could come to fruition and dismantle them quickly. Thanks to that, Yarema managed to outlive three different kings, who all died because of natural circumstances. After his raising, Zlyshko is more than happy to have him as his personal bodyguard, practically eliminating the danger of assassination.

I also made a small comparison of Yarema and Zlyshko to show just how big a wight built around a space marine cape really is.

The Lady's Gardeners - WIP

EDIT: The finished unit can be found HERE.

This Sunday I have a big converting project to share, some Sylvaneth Dryads.

Years ago I came up with the idea of introducing some visceral, flesh-horror themes (think John Carpenter's "The Thing") in my collection - mostly in the 'Dwellers of the Bog' faction - and the first example of that were the Flying Horrors. Now I am going back to this topic, bringing you some progress on the Lady's Gardeners - Dryads 'blessed' by the Lady of the Bog.

I always liked this kit and wanted to do something with it, especially when I decided to make my army forest-themed - but they didn't work in my undead army at all. Only later when my painting became less about creating a valid army and more about creating my own themes I have found a place for those tree ladies. I thought of them as foul parodies of real Dryads, pieces of wood which the Lady forces into movement through flesh-bending magic and uses them as horrifying guardians in her realm.

Thanks to that I had a lot of possibilities when converting them, adding various fleshy and bony bits that I found in my box and sculpting tentacles and other fleshy appendages. For the faces, they have just the Lady's sigil carved into them. The only irritating part of the kit were the mold lines - removing them from all the branches was worse than scraping them off ribcages!

Here are them all together. Only one picture because unpainted and in those numbers, they are quite a mess:

And the close-ups on the singular Gardeners:

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Recently I thought that I could make those WIP posts a little more interesting by actually showing the sculpting progress and the techniques that I used.

Here I decided to show how I made the one on the bony 'stilts', probably my favorite from the bunch. I started with cutting the limbs at the knees and elbows, drilling holes inside them, gluing thin brass rods inside and securing them at the connection with small amounts of milliput - mostly because those rods tend to rotate inside their holes after fiddling with them too much and milliput helps to prevent that.

After that, I create a mixture of greenstuff and milliput (ratio 1:2) to sculpt the bony horns. In 'reality' They are supposed to be hard, bony material, so using milliput-heavy mix makes the sculpting more convincing and also much easier to sand afterward.

Using that much milliput made it more difficult to sculpt it properly, so I sanded it to smooth, sharp finish - exactly how I envision bony protrusions on creatures such as this one.

And finally, I used pure greenstuff to sculpt some fleshy connection between the spikes and the wooden body of the Dryad. I was making thin pieces of putty, which I was then 'draping' them over the joints, adding additional ridges or stretching them with the sculpting tool as needed.