Tutorial How to sculpt lizardmen: All your base...

We shall see...

He's finished (virtually, just tweaking a few bits to satisfy a few minor personal naggings).
I'll get some more photos taken and then a tutorial shall follow.

 

Key points here were to do as much as possible in one sitting, trying to hide joins/lines would be really hard as the sail is rather thin, so hiding lines would only add bulk to it.

• Sculpted the top side first (in one sitting), by adding green stuff bit by bit (between the lines of wire) and pushing it from the centre towards the opposite ends (so the thinnest part is in the middle of the spines).
• The second evening I repeated the process on the opposite side and after letting it become a little harder (so it's more gummy and less sticky), I pulled the tips up and away slightly with my fingers. This did not leave finger prints because the putty had become less pliable.

Round about this time, as well as towards the end of the project, I started adding in frills here and there, but did my best to not get too carried away. A few simple frills around the legs, chest and flank, something that would have function (remember the giant Salamander from the last tut), by catching water mid stroke to help propel it forward through the water.

It's also about this time I came on to revisiting some old friends, scales (something I think can be skipped over given how much I've covered it in the past).



I also re-worked the feet, adding in scales, smartening up the webbing between them and adding some thicker/rougher texture to the shins.



Much of it from here is mainly just making sure I go over the model, hiding lines and joins, cutting away excess/blurred areas and making doubley sure I didn't miss anything out.

 

Awesome Salamander!!!!

 

Thank you, I have put some feelers out to a few companies like I said, nothing yet, so looks like a bit of a non-starter, but these things happen.

 

It looks great. How does it disassemble for mold-making/casting?

 

It's surprising to hear that companies are not jumping at the chance to cast this model. It looks so awesome.

 

I have no idea to be honest, I definitely think it would have to be resin and not metal. There's few air spaces along the body, the tail/rear end could be one part, the sail as a separate piece and I think the head should be on it's own.

It happens, sometimes these things can be a big risk taking on, even if they personally love the look of a mini, there's still no real guarantee it would do well. Although if @woogity is able to start his own company I'd happily give him dibs on the Salamander and any other piece I've done (I still have my Oxayotl in my av, for example).

 

That was initially just a "GW haven't really done one, so I'll have a go".

Personally though, I think Woogity has that in the bag, but again, yes, if (when I've finished it) he wants that one, then I don't see why not. The more variety of models in a company that starts up, the better.

 

That is splendid idea! I just want to see your models available for sale!

 

I have talked to some of the sculptors that work for Reaper about how the process works. Generally, it is the sculptor's task to engineer the sculpt so that it can be cast without undercut zones or parts that would trap the cast piece in the mold.

Unsure what you mean by air spaces. [[ looks puzzled ]]

 

Oooh, be still my fragile heart... Rikard and Woogity joining forces... That would be... That would be... *sway~~*

*Insert Take My Money meme*

 

Here you go I haven't bought my Salamanders mostly because I hate their look, so I would definitely bought this predator.

 

ooof such pressure!!! Would require a much better business mind than mine to handle that XD, and someone with alot more free-time as well XD


The sally looks excellent dude , love the crest! love that toothy maw! and the wild and twisty horns! the meaty tail is really interesting too! like those gecko's that store nutrients there or something like that!

anyways i would love to see the mounted character you have in the pipeline dude! would be really interesting to see how you tackle posing ect of multiple characters like that in more traditional medium, I found that really difficult!

 

You're already way ahead then I am business wise (I'd struggle selling ice-cream to tourists on a beach in the summer).
Really glad you like the salamander and I'm grateful you encouraged me to keep at it, as I was going to forget about it at one point.

As soon as Gor-rok is finished I'll get back on the mounted character.

Cheers mate!

 

Sorry for such a quick double post, but it seemed a better option as there's a lot of overall info between the two posts.

@Caprasauridae, pendrake, Trociu, NIGHTBRINGER, Crowsfoot and Pinktaco.

Thanks so much for all of your words, who knows what might happen, I'm not blowing a fuse trying to sort out casting them all, but I never chuck any sculpts, so who knows.

Just a smallish update with a scale comparison, basically the fluff I started writing for the post end times event is focused around the Lizardmen changing (some through adaptation of leading without Slann, others literally, something that came about form reading the original Dragon Isle fluff).

Gor-Rok is getting big...but I still think I will be able to rank him up when he's done.

 

Boy your work is phenomenal, it's just awesome! I've been lurking this thread for sometime but haven't really posted, I'm deffinetly jelly of your skills my friend and would love to be able to purchase that model someday

Me and a friend of mine are looking to start up a minis game. Basically an answer to Fantasy that we've been cooking up for a while now. My friend is business savvy and I'm a freelance illustrator. We would love to have someone on board that can sculpt such as yourself. If your interested throw me a PM and we can talk.

 

That sounds like quite a bit more work than I'm capable of, I don't sculpt full time, so it takes a while just to do one mini.

 

Hey that's fine, it's all good I understand! Either way I love your work looks great!

How do you sculpt your eyes so well? I'm trying to improve my sculpting skills and eyes are tough for me.