Making a Venator Head for an Asslessman

[theottovonbismark]

Asslessman mentioned that he wanted heads that looks like the gang leader below for his Venators:

Found some good 3D inspiration on this guy:

Great idea, I could probably do that. Head sculpts are within my sculpting attention span. So first sitting...

I am using a head from the Empire Flagellents as a mannequin here to save time.
I put some techno crap on the back of his head which I will detail but likely this will be covered by a cowl.

Didn't want to risk adding any more details at this stage, important to know when to put it down.

 

[Chico]

You are a man of many skills that's looking rather good

 

[Asslessman]

Holy putty, you did it!

I didn't mention it but yes , this chaos sorceror was indeed one of the very good donors too.

I'm impressed, you captured it very well so now, there's no hiding it, Venator gang it is for me ! I'm curious to see how you do the hood since I foind it a very hard thing to sculpt correctly.
Congrats and many thanks.

 

[theottovonbismark]

No worries dude, I like this kind of project as it allows me to develop sculpting skills without having to commit to doing a full figure. If I was doing it for myself only I might never finish it. Working on a sculpt for someone else gives me the focus to get the thing finished.

I will just make up the hood as I go along mostly, I have read a few tips about sculpting cloth which I will try out on this guy - partially curing the greenstuff so that it is less moist and then rolling flat and cutting to shape seems like the way to do it. He will need about 2 more sittings before I can get the chin, cheeks and eye sockets in place but then he will really start to look like the John Blanche illustration. When I finish the head I will take a casting of it without the hood first and probably branch off to some variations from there.

I am happy with the progress so far anyway. How exactly were you intending to use the heads? Did you have any combination of parts in mind to build your Venators?

 

[Asslessman]

I have no combinations or parts in mind at the moment. I think I'll browse some plastic bits stores and see what shines at me. I already have the leader in head which would be inspired from this one :

with a more martial and probably less glamourous vibe. I have a body to start with and though I'm no sculptor, I think I can manage sculpting some renaissance "Louis XIV" hairdo (even though the guy above looks more like young Kirk Hammett).

The lad from the previous picture will be the henchman and I'll try to stick as closely as possible to the original concept using imperial guards and space marine scouts as a base, maybe with some imperial trousers to have a fit cut like on the pictures. Now I know I can have heads I'll start seriously lloking at potential donors.
The other fighters will be made as it comes depending on what bits I'll have found. Oh And I also have a siligum mould of Lucrezia Belladona's chest somewhere so I guess I could add a girl in the gang too if I find my resin back.

Heads are generally the last thing I had with pockets and tiny details because it all depends on the general pose and movement of the model.

We'll see then who is at the top of the food chain with Axiom's bratts and Chico's redemptionists

 

[theottovonbismark]

You know I have never noticed that picture before, pretty cool. He does look like Kirk Hammet, probably not a coincidence as I imagine Blanche to be quite familiar with Metallica's back catalog. These seem to be arisocratic Bratts - no reason why you can't be an Aristocratic Venator though. The soldiers of the empire boxed set had some good renaissance bitz - I must show you the pics of where I used those bits on an old Bratt ganger. Here is somone doing a similar conversion as I did:

More source material:

http://www.sodemons.com/rhrare/confrontation/index.htm

Check out the Venator gang on the end.

 

[Asslessman]

The good thing about conforntation is it seems to have influenced artists a lot (he,nce the afct you find appearances of them all in the drawings and it has a multitude of art considering the fact it was inly released in WD. Heavy metal stars of the time made their way in it too , perhaps without ever knowing it !

I love the Bratt, full coloured aristocratic SOB, that's what a bratt looks like in my mind !

I know this Solegend page oh too well but none of ots content is within my reach though (talk about the elite leader to Axiom...). The marauder venators are not entirely satisfying and I would love to make something more martial and less zealot, these seem tpo be the origin of both cawdor and redemptionists from Necromunda.
I went to a hobby shop during lunchbreak and now I have a little idea of what I want. I'll make the list and make the order in December.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Yes I agree that the Marauder ones don't quite hit the spot. Their heads and hoods are not too bad - a coupe of henchmen like that would look good I think. I prefer the "Elite Gang" bodies on that page.

I will do a couple of hours on the head when I get home from work and you will see the face start to take shape, most of the plastic will get covered in green stuff as I build up the structure of the face - if only I could get away with sculpting in work .

 

[Asslessman]

Couldn't wait so I placed the order at the end of lunch break, I have ordered a few bits plus the ones I already have which should make a very good gang, just waiting for some heads to appear

The venators have officially reached rank #1 in the gang priority list with the sensei gang (previous #1) coming right after them.

 

[theottovonbismark]

lol any excuse to buy some minis.

 

[Chico]

lol any excuse to buy some minis.

That's my motto hehe

 

[Asslessman]

lol any excuse to buy some minis.

Talk about impulse buys...
Anyway, this venator has been in my head since 1997 and now is the time. The world is ready.

That's my motto hehe

Funny, I thought it was "any excuse to lift my shirt and show my bare chest"

I wonder if pressmolding the faces of these two (considering the fact they're already painted) would be a good idea or not :

 

[theottovonbismark]

More details added, back of head changed slightly. Rough shape coming together now but cheekbones needed before it can start to come together.

 

[Asslessman]

Apart from the fact that I see a venator head blooming from the void in front of my eyes, I have to say seeing how it takes shape and the steps you go through is really interseting and it will prove priceless when I get myself to doing this kind of work. I feel I get both the fish and how to catch it (don't know if you have this expression) which is the absolute best!

Thanks a lot Otto

 

[theottovonbismark]

Apart from the fact that I see a venator head blooming from the void in front of my eyes, I have to say seeing how it takes shape and the steps you go through is really interseting and it will prove priceless when I get myself to doing this kind of work. I feel I get both the fish and how to catch it (don't know if you have this expression) which is the absolute best!

Thanks a lot Otto

Yes we have that expression, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". It is the basis of the Irish social welfare system (except we do it backwards obviously).

It's a process that works in layers so you have to plan ahead as much as you can preferably using good source material. What you don't see from the pictures are the tools I am using and techniques of getting the damn green stuff to cooperate.

I didn't discover this for many years but the most important tool is this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Shaper-F ... lay+shaper

If someone had turned me on to these years ago I would be a lot more advanced in technique, but I am making up for lost time now. The other main tools are dentist style tools. The one in the middle that looks like a spear is the most useful one as it is used to cut off spare green stuff at the bladed end and to shape small details on the other end.

http://www.thewarstore.com/product46086.html

The last thing is that once the green is dry you can go at it with sharp hobby knife and files (the one my girlfriend uses on her nails is better than the modelling ones I have so it pays to try out any file to hand to see which works best on the green stuff) to reshape bits you are not happy with or to get a smooth finish in certain types of area - have to have a delicate touch for this as the green stuff can be delicate and easily gets messed up if you are not careful.

The next stage for this Venator is tricky as I will need to work on the area around the lower eye sockets and the cheekbones, but when finished will give a good idea of the shape of the finished product. After that it's tidy up work over the weekend to get as smooth a finish as I can. The big photos blown up on my PC screen magnify imperfections and are great for seeing where you need to work on to get it smooth. Bear in mind that those rough looking bits are much harder to see on the physical sculpt so I would likely miss them otherwise. I would like to get a provisional cast done on the un-hooded version by Sunday with a bit of luck. If that cast is good enough it might even form the basis of a couple of variants, we shall see.

 

[Chico]

Looking good , I'm sure theres a joke about giving head to an Asslessman somewhere in this

 

[theottovonbismark]

I will give head to anyone who asks me nicely.

 

[Asslessman]

I knew about the tools and I do use them. The rubber brush is an absolute must I agree. I have 3 of them in different shapes and stifnesses to do the trick. The real tricky part is to stop soon enough and not to try to make too much at once and this is where I tend to fail.
You make me want to try to sculpt a head this week end, I'll try to cast the faces I already have and to create some new ones. You only learn by doing things anyway so let's not shy away from it.

 

[theottovonbismark]

You might be able to get those faces to come out with a press mould and then they can be trimmed to shape and stuck onto a plastic head - definitely worth a shot I think and you shouldn't need to strip the models to get a decent result.

Everyone struggles with when to stop. When you are working on greens if you ask yourself "should I be stopping now, I don't want to accidentally ruin that nice detail..." then you probably should! I would advise that you try to plan the build in distinct stages (like a storyboard) and work from the inside out. The more you do the more you will learn how the medium behaves differently in different mixes of blue and yellow and as it cures - more blue cures harder and is good for flat details, more yellow cures softer but is best for details that are intricate like fur for example.

This forum is excellent if you want to see some amazing work and get some great tips:

http://minisculpture.co.uk/

 

[theottovonbismark]

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