Sculpting a 1/32 Figure in Polymer Clay from Scratch

[Neil Merryweather]

Arm looks fine to me Neil. I don't think clothing in those days was close fitting.
John.

Thanks John, but they are usually the same on each side of the garment! Now I've done the other sleeve (will post tomorrow) it will have to go:tired:

[Neil Merryweather]

Hi Neil
Excellent work on the hair. The helmet strap fits well with the hair. Very clever way of doing the arms - detachable. Hand looks good. I realise it would be cheating but could you cast a hand from another figure or is each hand very specific to each figure? This whole SBS is very enjoyable.
Jim

cheers Jim.
Casting another hand wouldn't be cheating if it was for personal use only , but in this case I have a faint hope of selling him so he has to be all my own work. But I prefer to sculpt anyway because of the way the hand fits on the shell. So I will be biting the bullet

[Neil Merryweather]

Apart from this being a great modeling showcase its a very informative blog as well Neil. Learning a lot my friend. Many thanks for sharing

That's very kind of you to say Steve, thank you

[Tim Marlow]

Fantastic SBS Neil. Your technique and advice is first rate. I know what you are saying about the upper left arm looking a little overdeveloped, but think it might just be distortion from the camera lens.

[GerryW]

To me, that arm looks fine - if he's been lugging those shells about for any length of time, it'll have put muscles like Charles Atlas onto him!

[rtfoe]

I'd re-do the arm Neil to be honest. Easy is the reference to the size of his thighs...even Charles Atlas couldn't have grown those. :smiling2:
The pose is good...perhaps whittling down his back and arm tunic and shortening the arm from the shoulder to the elbow just a tad wee bit might do the trick.
Fantastic SBS as all have said and many will attempt scratching figures referring to this for inspiration.

Cheers,
Richard

[Neil Merryweather]

I'd re-do the arm Neil to be honest. Easy is the reference to the size of his thighs...even Charles Atlas couldn't have grown those. :smiling2:
The pose is good...perhaps whittling down his back and arm tunic and shortening the arm from the shoulder to the elbow just a tad wee bit might do the trick.
Fantastic SBS as all have said and many will attempt scratching figures referring to this for inspiration.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks Richard for the kind comments.
It's going to happen
And I'm going to completely remake it because the hand is too big anyway and if it goes wrong I won't have destroyed the original. It may well be due to the elbow being fractionally too far forward as you say so a new armature is required.
Ironically it's probably due to not following my own advice and making a rough naked arm before the clothing. Serves me right

[Neil Merryweather]

Fantastic SBS Neil. Your technique and advice is first rate. I know what you are saying about the upper left arm looking a little overdeveloped, but think it might just be distortion from the camera lens.

To me, that arm looks fine - if he's been lugging those shells about for any length of time, it'll have put muscles like Charles Atlas onto him!

That's very kind Tim and Gerry, and it does look less of a problem in real life, but I have decided. What's more, I've gone on record, so it's happening!
Thanks for your continued interest
N

[GerryW]

Thanks Richard for the kind comments.
It's going to happen
And I'm going to completely remake it because the hand is too big anyway and if it goes wrong I won't have destroyed the original. It may well be due to the elbow being fractionally too far forward as you say so a new armature is required.
Ironically it's probably due to not following my own advice and making a rough naked arm before the clothing. Serves me right

After measuring on the photos, can see what you mean - elbow comes nearly to the waist, and given that he's carrying a weight, probably should come about the bottom of the rib-cage?

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks all for your input on the left arm. When you see the end result of this you will see what I mean.

I didn’t bother gluing this arm in place like I did the left one as it didn’t work as I had intended. I started as always by trimming away the Milliput to a minimum-especially at the shoulder joint, and then adding small amounts of clay to the armature. I still didn’t follow my own advice and make a naked arm, but I did add less clay to start with and I got away with it on this one.



I deliberately didn’t go to the top of the arm either, saving that for later. Once I had enough clay in the right places I smoothed it out by rolling with the conical silicon tool



We have good reference for the creases in the right arm so it was easy to copy them, using the point of the chisel shaped tool to make alternating v-shaped indents up the forearm.



Once I had done the whole arm I refined the surface with the conical tool and added small creases with the chisel tool. And I trimmed the cuff with a scalpel, making sure it wasn’t too fat where it rests on the hand



I cooked it at this stage, then I Vaselined the shoulder socket and adjacent area on the figure, added more clay to the top of the arm and finished that in situ; and cooked it again. Here’s a shot of the arm joint



These woollen uniforms got really creased with wear so I made a big effort to show it.



I have always had a fascination with creases and folds in cloth, which goes right back to when I started art classes at school-I remember really enjoying drawing denims, although I couldn’t do it now.
I made a point of adding some bagginess at the elbow



And here he is complete-except for BUTTONS! Mustn’t forget them….



I think the size discrepancy with the hands is very plain in this shot.

and just to make the point

I measured the photo across the knuckles and there is a millimeter difference

I am not going to blog the resculpt, but that’s my next job.

Thanks all for looking

Neil

[Mark1]

See what you mean, the right arm looks spot on

[GerryW]

Certainly looking great all together :thumb2:

[Neil Merryweather]

See what you mean, the right arm looks spot on

Thank you Mark

Certainly looking great all together :thumb2:

Cheers Gerry

[Neil Merryweather]

I've done the new left hand and made DAMN sure it matches the other one

I was too impatient to use Milliput this time so I just made the first layer on the armature wire with regular Firm BeesPutty. It seems to have worked ok, but I have got a very rigid
set-up with this position, so the flexibility will not be a problem. To make the positive location in the shoulder socket I used my old favourite UV fly-tying glue (with Vaseline, of course), which worked brilliantly. It cured instantaneously once I was happy with the positioning and set rock solid, so the arm didn't come out half way during the sculpting.
I added the shirt cuff this time as it will be quite visible looking down inside the sleeve .

Because he was going in the oven anyway I thought I would also add the buttons at this stage.
I placed a small blob of clay in position, flattened it and used a small metal tube as a cookie-cutter. I pressed into the remaining clay with the tip of the conical shaper to keep it in position and create the rim of the button. Then I carefully removed the excess from the outside.
I did the same for the tunic buttons

The top two ARE there, they just don't show in the photo.
And looking at this pic I have just realised he needs shoe laces!
That's all for now, thanks for looking
Neil

[The Smythe Meister]

I'd re-do the arm Neil to be honest. Easy is the reference to the size of his thighs...even Charles Atlas couldn't have grown those. :smiling2:
The pose is good...perhaps whittling down his back and arm tunic and shortening the arm from the shoulder to the elbow just a tad wee bit might do the trick.
Fantastic SBS as all have said and many will attempt scratching figures referring to this for inspiration.

Cheers,
Richard

Indeed they will Richard :thumb2: .......
....... and i`ll be one of them........... not yet mind!!:tears-of-joy:
Andy