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

Thanks, I'm going in with the specialist tomorrow to talk about options.
I'm hoping it won't be too bad and I can get things finished.

 

Good luck with the nerves Rikard, I had some similar hand/nerve problems many years ago. Learned how to pace what I do with my hands helps. I notice a lot of people who work with their hands tend to neglect them, for example and oddly enough (and way off topic) message therapists.

As a silent follower of this blog I must say it is great to see you work and explain the process. I've done some minor conversions with my Tyranids. Starting with a huge tube of GS that I have no recollection of getting, I filled in some gaps here and there and then added some filler to poses that were not intended, then moved on to make some of my own (silly looking) arms and extended carapaces - back when 'nids had those options. I only ever tried other mediums and clays for terrain, so I look forward to finding out more on those.

A critique if I may: while I really enjoy the razodon, perhaps you are a bit too caught up in the details and the amount of work being put into it? It seems to me like you are trying to prepare a monster to breath life into, rather than a fine addition to your army and a "how to" tutorial. The amount of detail is near overwhelming IMO, though appreciated through the lens of watching a professional work.

At your leisure, and health, I look forward to seeing this continue.

 

Thanks for the wishes and the critique, it's always handy knowing what other people think.

I can try to scale down on it, I feel this is probably because I am a very heavily into detail (descriptions of sculpts and processes), problem I'm having is trying to work out how to simplify it. I could post just photos with some bullet points, but I don't feel like that would really help.

I'll see what I can do when I get the final results/review on the hand.

 

Cheers, and either way I look forward to your work and tips. Just getting into the sculpting part myself, moving past GS to patch up things. I'll be looking for other posts on sculpting from scratch as I wait for more pics here. Oddly, I have plenty of the tools to sculpt. Picked up a dental pack of stuff from... I have no idea where, and lots of softer wooden tools for clay projects I did with some kids a few years back. So looking for to this.

 

I'm actually opposed to you dialing it back. As a big fan of converting and sculpting what I can, I really like the high detail tutorials so that I can better my own skills through the trials of others

 

Hyper-advance is a great motivator at times, so I guess it all depends on your RL work load. I have about two hours a week to paint, convert, list build, so for me the hyper-detailed aspect of it seems a bit much. I can appreciate it for those with more time, or even as a bookmark for me and future projects. But at that time, it seems like so much work for just one (woop'n ass wicked cool) unit. Also, I have too many armies to dedicate that much time to a single unit. Cheers for others!!

 

I love wooden tools for sculpting lizards, they are perfect, especially of weathered/scratched.scarred skin.

@NexS1
@blackrainbow

Ah, the dreaded catch 22.

Well the way I was thinking of solving this was to continue as I'm going, but for this tutorial, switching half way through the razordon one to less detailed could wreck the overall structure and make it harder for anyone following it.

The next one however....is the Salamander.




So you can see a sneak peak there, this one I will try to opposite and have a shorter more blunt approach, though it might well make more sense as some of the bits I'd cover normally, I've already highlighted in the Razordon tut. Finally as I'm sure you've noticed, my hands are much better now and I've gone back to sculpting.

 

Glad you have your health back! Good to hear

I like the sallie so far, I imagine you're going for a combination of the old and the new models?


I look forward to seeing your work. I plan on doing a bit of sculpting of an ancient stegadon helm on a saurus character and seeing what you can do with greenstuff is quite the inspiration

In addition, how do you deal with the spines and small spikes? Do you roll them into shape using a tool or your fingers? Do you use tweasers to apply them to the model?


Thanks

 

Not really....Elements of both, but more of a few touches of my own.

As for the teeth/spikes, never use tweezers. For teeth or REALLY small spikes I stick some green stuff on my thumbnail and pull off tiny bits, quickly roll it in between my fingers and then slide it into place.

 

Keen as mustard to see how the sallie turns out!!

Wow, the simplest way is often the best, huh? How do you get rid of the fingerprints, or are the bits too small for the prints to really show up?

 

Never had trouble with them to be honest,

I just tend to apply green stuff in small amounts, except on large areas/surfaces though, like muscles, but then again I will inevitably construct a detail layer on top of this.

Or just the act of pushing and pulling with sculpting tools will remove any prints left on the model, trying to do so afterwards, is not a good idea, you'll only scratch the finished surface.

 

I'll keep that in mind!!

Thanks Rikard

 

Sorry again about lack of updates, more fun (horrors) at work.

I'm really trying to get the Razordon finished as a minimum, but I ended up having to cut most of the underside away and start over there (including all four legs and a complete repositioning of the front two legs).

I did begin a new head for the razordon too, but having looked at it in later stages, I'm thinking it will make a much better kroxigor head instead (which I'll try to turn into a tutorial as well at some point).

 

That head is amazing, my friend!!

 

Wow. Looks great! I hope to see pics of the finished razordon some time. It was lookin' GREAT.

 

With this (incredible) ongoing project, do you field the WIP model?

 

Well this is a bit of a tricky question.... I'll start with the initial intentions I had but not give too much more away because it's a case of any hints I drop will give EVERYTHING away.

Originally I was going to use this head to replace the current Razordon I'm doing, but after getting to the stage above I realised it would be better on a Krox. I don't use Kroxigors as they're not very survivable and need buffing magically, however, I love them, the fluff and the art.


I make sure I now sculpt at least one full day per week (saturdays), I go to a local MTG and general computer game/hobby shop run by an awesome mate I went to school with (and one of three friends who actually got me interested in the hobby to begin with).

I am hoping to be turning out 3 kroxigors with a fair amount of difference between them, so they don't look like carbon copies of one another, this will be after the Razordon and Salamander though.

More stuff to come soon (hopefully), loads of other things going on that slow me down still.

 

Hi there!

Rikard, I have to say that when I started to watch the pictures you uploaded, I heard the sound of my balls crashing against the floor. Just freaking amazing!!!

I'm praying to all the gods available, hoping that Avatars will be able to sell also you Razordon/Salamander, because I don't like GW ones and yours are simply breathtaking!

You have any facebook page to follow you or keep track of your work, besides this topic?

Congrats and keep on the hard work!

 

Thanks for the compliment, I don't have a FB page, I figure my updates are far too infrequent to even try such a thing.


Can't say which company or other, I mean the work I'd need to do I just can't match due to all the other things in my life. At the moment, it's all just ideas and pondering, nothing has been discussed or agreed on with anything.

 

You can also apply a minute amount of KY jelly to your tools or fingers as you go. Quick dip, then lightly wipe it off so there is only a thin film. That helps when the weather is warm for me, as the GS setting takes longer and I get impatient on waiting. On cooler days, or just working late at night, after about 20 minutes you should be easily able to oh-so slightly move a (clean) tool over it to get rid of the finger prints. Really doesn't take much pressure at all to clean up. The hardest thing for me is keeping random floating cat hair out of stuff.