I want to sculpt 2 salamanders for my army (I dislike the base models and I am not willing to pay 140 AUS dollars for 2 models as I am a student and thus have no money). Can anyone give me some advice about how to go about it, I was going to start with a squat wire frame and wrap it in one layer of tin foil as it helps bulk them out, aside from that does anyone have any suggestions? Any help is appreciated
My advice is to have a frame and to work in layers. I use milliput as my sculpting medium, as it is both easy to use and (more importantly) cheap. I would start out with making the body first, then sculpting limbs and appendages on later. My very first sculpting attempt was an ogre tyrant. I used wire and made a stick figure with some wire wrapped around the belly for additional support. It did not turn out well. It is very difficult to judge the proportions that are going to look good when you are just working in wire. Start with a small bundle of cut wooden toothpicks. Chop them down to less than the total length of your expected body and glue maybe 4 or 5 together. Once the glue is dry, put a layer of milliput around your bundle, and try to get the rough shape of the body (but don't bother with details, yet). Once it cures, you can either apply another layer of milliput and sculpt all of the details, or you can start the limbs. Hopefully this helps you a little bit.
Yup. Most hobby shops have it. It comes as two tubes. Cut off a small part of each tube (equal size) and mix them together. You then have about an hour of to do all of your modelling before it gets too tough. It cures in about 5 hours. It doesn't stick to water, so when you are cutting it or using tools for sculpting, keep them wet and clean them off when you are done.
Why not keep an eye on the WargamerAu buy/sell/swap section? I have three previous edition Salamanders (with the sail back) I got second hand I'm very happy with. Alternately, go rummage through a toy shop and you never know what cheap plastic dinosaur or monster will take your fancy. I myself use a DnD ankylosaurus mini as two kroxigors in a Cohort unit.