Making a Venator Head for an Asslessman

[Asslessman]

Looks like there won't be just a fistful of venators...
i'll make the first btach a test squad and i'll see if yellow rich GS and clay shapers can get something out of those horrid sculpts of mine...

 

[theottovonbismark]

Looks like there won't be just a fistful of venators...
i'll make the first btach a test squad and i'll see if yellow rich GS and clay shapers can get something out of those horrid sculpts of mine...

Start another one while you are fixing up some of what you have already, he is bound to be much better from the lessons learned first time round.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Started fixing the nose last night, the rhinoplasty will continue tonight and should resolve the issues with the nose I have. I am working a little more definition into the eyebrows and the eyes in general. Once I get this face fixed up I will add the hood, just like the illustraton. No pictures today as it was way past my bedtime when I finished *yawn* . I would hope to have the head finished this weekend and then I mail him off to you early next week (with that chaos warrior you covet ). Can you PM me your address when you get a moment JB, I don't think I have it. I will post up some pics tonight after the next session on it.

 

[Asslessman]

You're a godsend, I'll do my best to have first batch ready for BOYL.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Sorting out that nose:

 

[Asslessman]

Seán, the heavy salivating caused by this will be put to good use to smooth the ones I've made (with a little yellowish GS too)

 

[Obscure Creator]

Its very nice indeed!

 

[theottovonbismark]

Its very nice indeed!

Cheers Diego.


I decided to create more definition in the eye area. Need to put some more work into the left eyebrow in the picture also before I start on the hood. I am moving a little bit further away from the eye shape in the source material but can't be helped now, have to make it look good one way or another.

 

[Chico]

The giving head to Mr Ass project is shaping up real nice, good job

 

[theottovonbismark]

The giving head to Mr Ass project is shaping up real nice, good job

He said he would buy me drink if I gave it to him.

 

[theottovonbismark]

Still shaping the face...

 

[Asslessman]

I can hear mutants and psykers shaking in fear
They can probably hear me shaking with excitement ...

 

[theottovonbismark]

Every time I do some work on this piece I look at it the next day and decide to tweak some small part of it again.

Kind of like Father Ted...

 

[theottovonbismark]

Hey JB. Social commitments were, as usual, causing havoc with my time for working on toy soldiers but I stole a few hours here and there to work on the Venators (and also my frog in a chicken suit ). I am at the stage with the Venators where I am building complete hooded heads now in a production line to meet the demands of your increasing pile of Venator torsos .

This is a siligum press moulding from the master with the beginnings of a hood:

Here you can see the master, the pressmoulded face with hood and another pressmoulded face:

I can "edit" these pressmoulded faces to create some variation pretty quickly and make many heads where there was once only one. This is a good way to build up a number of heads quickly for a bunch of Venator henchmen. I can't wait to give one of them a huge nose . I am still working on the master in minor ways also as he needs more smoothing out before I am happy with him.

 

[Asslessman]

Pressmoulding in siligum? Is that possible? Or do you mean Instant mould?

anyway, it looks terrifyingly sexy and yes, some orders have been made to make an army of venators a tangible dream. .
GIve yourself a good manly kiss on the forehead from me

 

[theottovonbismark]

You French guys with your manly kissing , you would have been burned at the stake for that by the priest when I was a lad in this country .

I did indeed mean pressmoulding using Silligum. That is actually the first use for siligum I came across years ago when reading a sculptors blog. If he wanted to create a lot of similar shaped pieces on a miniature he used to make a siligum press mould for it. I suspect that Siligum is better for this kind of work then instant mould but I can't say for sure as I don't have any instant mould to compare it to. I make the pressmould big and square enough so that it can take a small bit of pressure from my smoothing it down with a clay shaper, the head was perhaps a little over 1cm square or so.

I am hoping to get a number of heads with hoods completed this week, based on this press mould, with some individual sculpting variations to each one. Knowing me, that means I will be trying to dial up the freakishness factor .

 

[Asslessman]

I'm surprised. Siligum (well the one I use) is so flexible pressmoulding anything in it makes it take weird shapes which is why I onlyreserved it for casting and kept instantmould for pressmoulding. If you can make it work, that's a discovery I'll have to try again then.

I am hoping to get a number of heads with hoods completed this week, based on this press mould, with some individual sculpting variations to each one. Knowing me, that means I will be trying to dial up the freakishness factor .

Freakishness is more than welcome !

You French guys with your manly kissing , you would have been burned at the stake for that by the priest when I was a lad in this country .

I precised on the forehead you know, we're not russians... oh and from what I heard from irish priests, I'd have been more afraid of their kisses than of mine...

 

[theottovonbismark]

I precised on the forehead you know, we're not russians... oh and from what I heard from irish priests, I'd have been more afraid of their kisses than of mine...

To be Irish and be un-abused is to have the feeling of dodging a bullet.

We really do feel hopelessly awkward when other Europeans do all that greeting kissing stuff, generally we prefer to just wave at the other person from a safe distance and say hello, even shaking hands can be stressful . Thankfully people in the Brittish Isles do't do much of that stuff in general.


Getting back to Siligum, it is flexible but it returns to its shape and it is more stiff than the greestuff. You have to be careful when taking an impression of it not to move the thing being moulded - best to anchor it to a slottabase first and then apply the siligum around it, or you can put a lump of siligum on the base and press the thing you want to make a mould of into it (but this way is more distortion prone. Ideally you should have some kind of set up where you have your part anchored to a base, and some walls built up around this (lego, wood, etc.) so that you can apply even pressure to the surface to catch the details but you can get away with just pressing it into a blob if you do it with the hand of confident experience.

 

[Asslessman]

I meant for me the hard part would be pressing fresh GS into the siligum mould, taking good prints is not the hardest part I find. but GS is so stiff I feel i need to have a really hard mould. I can show you pics of GS prints looking like Dali paintings because the pressing part changed the shape of the mould...

We really do feel hopelessly awkward when other Europeans do all that greeting kissing stuff, generally we prefer to just wave at the other person from a safe distance and say hello, even shaking hands can be stressful . Thankfully people in the Brittish Isles do't do much of that stuff in general.

Do not worry, I've spent enough time in UK, USA and Ireland to know a distance is appreciated and that I should refrain from intempestive cheek-kissing with other bearded folks. Some of you who've been especially good to me may not escape a good handshake and a pint though...

 

[theottovonbismark]

If you think that the mould is distorting then either the silligum mould is not thick enough or possibly you need to put more yellow into the mix. When I am putting the green stuff into a 1 piece mould half I roughly measure out the volume I need and then push it into the mould so that it just overlaps the open part of the mould sllghtly then I apply pressure by using a size 6 soft clay shaper and sweeping accross the surface applying gentle diagonal pressure rather than trying to put force directly into the mould.