Simon, Your welcome. All too often I've done something to only discover on my own or by way of a friend that there was an easier way to do something. It's funny, all my other postings showed a 250k limit on images, now it's 50k. Is each member alloted a certain amount, or has it been changed?~Gary

Richard:

:lol: :lol: Don't give me ideas!!!!........How would you make a Rickenbacker bass out of Milliput I wonder??

Gary:

Not just you, the limit has changed. I suspect with the rapid growth of the site over the last couple of weeks, Gordy has had to set the limit lower.
I've found that I'm starting to look "around" problems more & more now, largely thanks to the simple yet effective solutions you & others have offered me lately

Thanks All

Simon

yes, it has been changed...
I hate to have to enforce file size limits but I'm trying to subtley encourage people to be effecient with their image sizes (not dimensions) four 250 KB images is 1 MB, doing the math it adds quickly.. planetFigure's growth has taken off rapidly:

Monthly Statistics for November 2003
Total Hits 495,493

having said that, there should be no problem at all posting quality images optimized under 50K.. JPG's offer the best compression where as GIF's are limited to 256 colors and BMP's are notoriously enormous..

Let me know otherwise, I'm still and always trying to find that "sweet spot"

~gordy

Hello all,

Sorry to resurrect this one, but, how do you guys tackle arms/hands?
Build up the musculature separately? Or block in the basic shape then carve the definition? (Or a bit of both?!?)

Once I’m over this hurdle, it’s pretty plain(ish) sailing ‘til I get to adding the hair & that cloak! (I think the wind might’ve dropped a bit by the time I get to that stage though! )

Cheers

Simon

Hi Simon

For hands it depend on how big they are, you can make a wire armature for the fingers, if not making a fist or a gripping pose and build around that. Only works for 90mm upwards and you do run the risk of making them too big.

Arms (and legs) I tend to make the musculature anyway because it helps with the pose.

Hope this helps.

Richard

Cheers Richard,

I've been toying with the idea of an armature for the right hand (left one's going to be sculpted as part of the sword handle) But, as you say, might get too big!

I've also toyed with the idea of giving this figure long sleeves!!! But that wouldn't look right I don't think

Simon

I've tried a few different methods for large scale hands. Recently I've taken to sculpting a basic shape and letting the putty set. After it's set I go to work with files and knives. I got my hands on some dental and surgical instruments a while back that are terrific tools for this.

Simon, No problem going back over arms/hands.

ARMS Put a thin layer of putty or clay over your armature wire. After this is cured add another layer. I would then add more material that starts to define the main muscle masses. This may take another 2+ layers of material, depending on how big/thick you want your figure's arms to be. You should be able to build the arms with the half sleeves on the figure, it might even make it easier than doing them in two separate parts.

HANDS This was always the most difficulit part for me to do. Though I still find it trying at times, I admit it has become easier to do. I initially build the hand minus the fingers. You could use an armature for the fingers though I biuld the fingers separately a section at a time. For example, the middle finger, I would make three separate sections for the finger. The first rolled out section is attached (glued) to the main part of the hand, with the next section being glued to this and so on. I then add two-part epoxy to where these sections join one another for added strength.

I hope this helps.~Gary

John:

Yep, this was my first thought for the hand holding the sword (might have to invest in some decent tools soon though!)

Gary:

I'd never thought of glueing the fingers to the hand! makes sense though! This is probably how I'll tackle the right hand now (It's got to have some "animation" to the fingers, I think)

Cheers guys, I'm starting to get quite addicted to sculpting now! (already started on my second piece!)

Simon

Simon

Don't do as I did, I have a whole pile of now unused sculpting tools, because I use two that I am actually basically competent with. that is a round edge tool, and a "dentists" tool that I got from GW.

but by far and away the most used tool item I use are toothpicks, that I can carve and sand to the desired shape

Richard

Richard

I know what you mean, I bought a (cheap) set of 6 double ended sculpting tools a few years ago when I started doing the odd conversion or two.
Since I started out with this though (and after reading Gordy's SBSs) I've found I only really use this one! I've sharpened it up, but being cheapo it doesn't hold an edge for longer than a nano-second + it's too wide for a lot of things (though i did manage to do the ears with this )
So I'm on the look out for a better quality/narrower one (some on tiranti's website look likely candidates)

Simon

Could I make a suggestion?

Ive found that sculpting tools can be very cheap if youre working in smaller scales like 1/35. Then you can use sewing needles.

The come in packages of 5-8 for about 2-4 $. Are easy to find in any sewing shop.

There are two differnt types. The sharp ordinary one used for common sewing. And the blunt one that is used for brodery or something similar. I dont sculpt much but these have been great help, especially the blunt one.

If one can ignore the funny looks from the clerks and other customers(if youre a male that is) also check out the knitting tools as they can be of assistance in larger scales.

That's something I'd not considered, thanks!!!
(always looking for the cheap alternative though sometimes there's not one!)

Simon

This company makes custom sculpting tools especially for miniaturists:

Perfect Touch

Thanks Bob!

There's some very useful looking tools there! (& they take PayPal which is always a bonus! )
Have you put that link in the links section here? It would be a good idea!

Cheers

Simon

Hello people,

Just a quick update with trousers!
I'm not sure I'm happy with them though (especially the right leg!) but they're there now!
Need to take a lot off the waist area to accomodate the bottom of the tunic & mail shirt, plus I just broke the left arm socket as I was removing the arm to scan! :angry:
Ignore the arm that's there, cos it's crap! <_<
I've just noticed too, that the tendon in the neck is going in the wrong direction!

Simon