Making a Venator Head for an Asslessman

[aggro84]

Looks great!
It should make for a very impressive mini!
I decided a while back that I was far to impatient to sculpt properly.

 

[Asslessman]

Argh , I couldn't finish housework and hence couldn't finsh getting my hobby place in shape so no hobby done this WE. Seeing what you did though is a very nice relief. The mask has the dark/grim/sinister/grotesque look that suits just fine. I can't wait to work on them.
I'm even thinking about giving them a ride if I manage to find a harlequin jetbike hull and a deostick...
Anyway that's great and I am going to folloow your step by step process to try some heads myself.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Looks great!
It should make for a very impressive mini!
I decided a while back that I was far to impatient to sculpt properly.

Thanks. It takes a lot of patience all right, too complex a project and I loose the interest so I stick to bitesized projects for now.

Argh , I couldn't finish housework and hence couldn't finsh getting my hobby place in shape so no hobby done this WE. Seeing what you did though is a very nice relief. The mask has the dark/grim/sinister/grotesque look that suits just fine. I can't wait to work on them.
I'm even thinking about giving them a ride if I manage to find a harlequin jetbike hull and a deostick...
Anyway that's great and I am going to folloow your step by step process to try some heads myself.

lol I happen to have a Harlequinn Jet Bike. My girl had other ideas about how I was to spend the weekend also . I ended up getting a tiny bit more work on the nose done so he now has nostrils as well. He will get a Michael Jackson level of plastic surgery tonight to get the nose formed. I tried to do some provisional casts of what I had done but the gods of casting mojo were not with me as I was beset by poor fidelity and large flash lines - I will have to approach it using a more complex procedure next time on account of it's small size.

 

[theottovonbismark]

There is actually another stage before this one where just the curved nostrils are built out in a sort of half pipe shape - but I forgot to take a picture of it, doh!

With a nose in place I can start to see the character of the thing properly:

Next stage will be to work the eye and cheeks areas as they need some attention. The roughness will need to be smoothed out, especially the chin and forehead. The nose will need a little more work as well. Short iterations of sculpting seem to work best in general to avoid ruining previous work.

 

[Asslessman]

oO

Really impressed to see how it turns out exactly how it's meant. I learn a lot from seeing this because I would probably have made the step in a tottally different order...

Searching through the leadpile yesterday made me see Mr "Batt1" could be a very good Venator the way I see them with just a longer nose and a hood (or another haircut). Removing a bratt hairdo, how heretical ! (if anyone has a spare Bratt1, I'd happily trade them off of it )

 

[theottovonbismark]

The Bratts are a good base model for this project but you should be able to use bits from lots of sources as the Confrontation background and models are fairly anachronistic in their look and the Masque theme and common colour scheme will tie them together no matter where the figures are from.

I had forgotten about those Bounty Hunters on the bottom of the image, they are cool Jes Goodwin figures that I wish I had bought back in the day, but I have got of the tech gang models from a friend recently, lucky me.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Tiny bit more done on forehead and cheeks. Cheeks are not right yet. Next time I will only work on 1 at a time, easier to balance them that way!

Comparison with other mini:

 

[Asslessman]

Just when I was curious about how it was turning scale wise, you end up posting it next to another model. Greta. I have to scratchbuild a uzi too now.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Scale wise it is a little bigger than the initial face but then it should be a little bigger being some kind of futuristic technological mask. I may file the chin down a little as I think it will look more balanced with the nose. I am waiting until I finish the nose first before I rework the chin.

Have to keep working on getting the symmetry of the face correct - the face was never intended to be completely symmetrical (his mouth is deliberately slightly open more on one side to create a more creepy expression) but it should have a normal symmetry with the expression itself.

After I get through this face I we can look at making a small generic general purpose mask model which can be glued onto a standard Citadel plastic head - I think that might work OK given that the heads are pretty standard sized but we shall see. My GF had the idea that the hood could be a generic piece also so that might be a useful idea for later.

Scratch building an UZI should be straightforward using the plastic card and plastic rods/tubes approach.

 

[Asslessman]

Great idea for the mask option and hood. That is going to make converying so easy !

Building a uzi as you say should be no big trouble I guess.

 

[cheetor]

Great work here! A Venator gang will be an an old school pleasure to see painted up and on the table some time, lovely.

I had forgotten about those Bounty Hunters on the bottom of the image, they are cool Jes Goodwin figures that I wish I had bought back in the day, but I have got of the tech gang models from a friend recently, lucky me.

That tech gang is really cool. Im looking forward to seeing those.

I have a base coated Bounty Hunter 5 from the image shown if you want to borrow it when we next meet up.

Building a uzi as you say should be no big trouble I guess.

Surely there must be miniature uzis all over the place these days (unless you would rather scratch build one of course). The Foundry Street Violence range always has a couple of weapons and the like included with each blister. I may have one. If I do then I will give it to theottovonbismark and he can send it to you along with the Venator heads.

 

[Asslessman]

I have a base coated Bounty Hunter 5 from the image shown if you want to borrow it when we next meet up.

Let me give you my address

I may have one. If I do then I will give it to theottovonbismark and he can send it to you along with the Venator heads.

Wel that would be very kind of you, I've only been living in ireland 3 months but this very little time made me realise how nice most Irish were and you 2 are raisong th ebar even higher.
If I can avoid scratchbuilding one, I'd prefer, I'm a lazy fool but if I have to build one myself that's ok, it gets me out of the comfort zone which is good to improve.

 

[Chico]

I've only been living in ireland 3 months

Your living in Ireland now? Guinness Flavoured Cheese anyone?.. Oh that does sound nice actually

 

[Asslessman]

I've only been living in ireland 3 months

Your living in Ireland now? Guinness Flavoured Cheese anyone?.. Oh that does sound nice actually

No, that's my poor english level's fault. I stayed 3 months on Irlean to work in a greyhound farm some years ago, now I'm in France.

 

[Chico]

Arhhh fair enough.. Ok enough of me de-railing this thread, back to you getting head

 

[Asslessman]

Arhhh fair enough.. Ok enough of me de-railing this thread, back to you getting head

We'll see if your underhive savages still act cocky when the emo-aristocratic bounty hunters come for them !

 

[theottovonbismark]

Bit more done before the lure of Battlefield 4 China Rising took hold....

Worked on the forehead and eyebrows a little. Started to smooth out the models right side of the face also. Then put it down before ruining the nights work! I must be improving as I only needed to redo the eyebrows three times.

 

[Asslessman]

Great!

technical question :
Do you smooth by carefully filing or by adding thin quantity of putty you blend with the rubber brush (or maybe you do both)? I always find GS doesn't file as nicely as Milliput.
I've heard Brown stuff is a good compromise but since I already have ahuge quantity of fresh GS, I'm using it for the time being.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Great!

technical question :
Do you smooth by carefully filing or by adding thin quantity of putty you blend with the rubber brush (or maybe you do both)? I always find GS doesn't file as nicely as Milliput.
I've heard Brown stuff is a good compromise but since I already have ahuge quantity of fresh GS, I'm using it for the time being.

That's a very good question. I do both really. If I am using a file then I am usually correcting where I have put on too much putty so it is fair to say that I really try to avoid filing where possible. Green stuff is not the best for aggressive filing and your work can fall apart if you are not careful.


Filing

Get some good quality nail files for this kind of stuff. As I mentioned previously the files that the manicure experts use are superior to most "modeling" files I have used. Green stuff behaves a little differently depending on the exact mix, I believe that in theory filing the more yellow mixes (soft plasticity for fine details) is more difficult than filing the more blue mix (harder plasticity for flatter sharply defined areas) but I would have to verify that more before I stand by it fully. The key thing to remember with filing is to use a good file and be gentle and don't forget to regularly clean off deposits from the file as you go for maximum efficiency.

This is the kind of thing I use for most of my filing:

A nail buffer can be useful for getting a smoothness to stuff, although I have not used one on this project. I have seen my GF remove the visibility of scratches on a rental car with one of these babys (she has 733t filing skillz). You can pick them up in cosmetics stores (or steal them from your wife), I don't think they are expensive. I like the ones with 4 different surface textures for combined filing and buffing:

http://www.ourvanity.com/photos/emery-board-nail-file-selection-tips-4.jpg



Blending/Smoothing

Green stuff smoothing/blending is the best way to go for a nice finish. In an ideal world I would be slowly building up to the top layer without the need to file.


The key things I have discovered with blending/smoothing are:

Use a high yellow to blue ratio so that it is sticky and spreads nicely - it also takes longer to dry and finish is more delicate.

Keep lubricating your tool, I tend to use my spittle for this but you really need it to spread use Vaseline (have to have at least one innuendo for you Chico ). It's not a great idea to use Vaseline for all lubrication as it does not evaporate from the piece in the manner of water and generally you only want it to be wet for a couple of minutes at a time. Vaseline is great for when you need to sculpt a fur cloak or hair or some such high detail area where it would be a pain in the hole to have to keep wetting it and obscuring visibility of your work.

When pushing the putty be gentle, it may not look like it is moving but trust me it is. It's better to use many gentle strokes than it is to plough the shit out of it, very much like making love to a beautiful woman . The lighter your touch the smoother the finish. If it's almost perfect but you cant quite get it to cooperate leave it and come back to it the next day and make it perfect then.


Milliput and Brown Stuff

I have never used brown stuff (I also have a pile of GS) but I do intend to get my hands on some, a lot of exceptional sculptors swear by this stuff. It seems to be great for swords and armour etc. I have used Milliput years ago and it seemed to be OK. I will have to get my hands on a new batch of it to try it again. One surprising thing I learned is that a lot of sculptors actually mix the different products to make their own custom mixes. See the mini sculptor forum for more details http://minisculpture.co.uk/index.php.

 

[Asslessman]

Some very useful tips here, especially about filing GS ratios.

For (putty) lubrication, I haven't found anyting better than spittle because it evaporates AND sticks to the tool as opposed to water.I know some people like to use PEBEO retarder to do this but I'm reluctant to using expensive stuff like this. n another hand GS is epoxy and therefore toxic so licking your rubber brush may not be the smartest move around...

I'm going to put all these very good advice on the venato gang and on the grav-attack I'm working on atm..

It's better to use many gentle strokes than it is to plough the shit out of it, very much like making love to a beautiful woman

You killed me with this one, does it mean you do it the blunt way with an ugly one ?