Step by step mini sculpting

[Duke Donald]

Dear All,

I'm starting a step-by-step guide for sculpting a miniature. I'm in no ways a professional sculptor but I have been dabbling in sculpting for a while, and I've learned a few things through trial and error that may be useful to some of you. I would also be interested in feedback on how to improve on my technique.

As a side note, I've also spent a bit of time sculpting digitally, and whilst I'm already achieving arguably "better" results in far less time, I don't find it particularly enjoyable. Pushing putty is just more fun, and there is something about the process of creating a unique physical product with all its warts and all that feels far more satisfying.

For some completely random reason, I've decided to sculpt a 32mm Lara Croft mini. It will be based on the picture below, but I'll keep both guns in their holsters and sculpt two open hands. I will also keep some of the iconic features of the original Lara Croft such as the plait. In the next post, I'll go through the armature.

[Duke Donald]

As she is very slender, I'm building a very thin armature with 0.5mm wire. The armature is not the most fun step, but it is critical for a successful final product, and a good armature makes the sculpting process far easier and faster.

I started with one wire folded in two. In general I measure my armature precisely, but in this case, I used another mini with similar proportion as a guide.


I wrapped the duplicated 0.5mm wire with 0.2mm wire to form the body, and then cut the 0.5mm wire at the top. I added a pin to form the neck.


I then soldered the body. This step is optional and I could have used superglue instead, but I like my armatures to be sturdy.


For the feet, I twined a 0.2mm wire around the legs and kept it in place with a drop of superglue. The standard way to do feet is to bend the armature at the end of the legs. However, I prefer to use a small piece of extra wire, as it creates a more natural skeleton for the feet, and doesn't weaken the armature.


I then cut the feet and cover all wire with thin layer of superglue, which makes it a bit more robust and will ensure that the putty sticks to it.


Finally, I pose the armature and stick in on a cork


It took me about an hour to do the armature. Note that the legs look too long. However, the pubis will be 3mm below where the legs of the armature come apart.

[ShortscaleDave]

Good stuff, looking forward to seeing this progress!

[Michi]

Great explanation. I am keen to see progress on that!

[Duke Donald]

Thanks ShortscaleDave and Michi!

Below, I will go through the first steps of the sculpting itself. I generally do the body in three stages/layers. First I cover the armature with a thin layer of putty, then I detail the muscles and finally I do the skin and the fine detailing. As she's super slender, I directly sculpted the shapes of the muscles on the armature. I used a standard GW metal sculpting tool and two silicon clay shapers as they help getting a smooth finish. The putty at this stage is pure ProCreate (Greystuff), which is very similar to Greenstuff.

After washing the armature with soap and warm water, I added some putty over the whole armature except the arms.


I then shaped and smoothed the putty to form the main muscles. If needed, I added a little ball of putty to get more volume, as for example for the knees. I didn't put any effort in the parts that will be covered like the feet. Eventually, I got the result below and had to stop as the putty had essentially cured (pure Procreate cures quite quickly)

Front:


Back:

[Reed]

Very nice tutorial, many that I've seen don't develop the structure part that much.

[Remgain]

Thank you Duke!

Very interesting and absolutely useful!

Marco

[Billchuck]

Very interesting. I'm putting a pin in this so I can follow it.

[Duke Donald]

Thanks for the nice feedback!

A misstep in the step-by-step, I wasn't happy with the sculpt. It is too masculine, and it definitely doesn't match the Lara Croft picture. Besides it was a tiny bit too tall. Thus, I started again following exactly every single step I described before, and the pictures below are the new sculpt at about the same stage of completion than the one before.

Front

Back

[The Voivod]

Very cool.
I've been looking into this for a while, but never took the plunge.

I'll at least bookmark this thread and hope that this time I actuallt take some actions as well.

Thanks,

[Duke Donald]

Thanks again for the nice feedback Vovoid!

Some progress ...

I sculpted the upper body using Procreate mixed with 20% Fimo. The breasts are huge, but it's Lara Croft after all. She may still need to undergo breast reduction surgery prior to clothing:


Talking about surgery, Procreate and Greenstuff cannot be easily filed even after even when mixed with Fimo, which is probably the biggest downside of the two putties. The only way to fix something is to cut and resculpt, like the right buttock in the picture below. For minor fixes or structurally weak bits like the arms, I do not add any Fimo to the mix.


Now with arms, and a proto-head. For the proto-head, I put some superglue on the wire of the neck prior to adding a little ball of putty. She looks like a bodybuilder with pneumatic breasts, but she should be prettier once she gets a proper head.

[Duke Donald]

Head nearly finished:



I'm reasonably happy with the face. She has an air of Angelina Jolie, which was intentional. I can upload intermediate pictures if anyone's interested.

[Remgain]

"I can upload intermediate pictures if anyone's interested."

Yes, please!

Thank you!
Marco

[boneio]

Seconding the above!

[Duke Donald]

With pleasure!

First an overview of the tools. The silicon shapers are not mandatory, and I only started using them a few weeks ago, but they're really helpful. Apart form the the, I used a standard GW shaper, a needle on an old toothbrush and an old scalpel, a blunt cutter blade would work equally well. The aluminium box is to have a clean surface to cut the putty. I've got some other tools but these are the ones I used for the head. I didn't use any vaseline but it is always good to have some at hand if the putty is sticky or difficult to smoothe.



With a bit of practice, it is not so difficult to sculpt decent heads. What remains tricky though, is to make them look like the model and to sculpt them at the right scale. Very often, I realise when I've finished a head that it is too big. This is just a tiny fraction of the failed heads I sculpted.



Anyway, below I'll detail some of the steps.

First cover the tiny ball of cured putty with fresh putty, making sure not to add too much material. I used Procreate with 20% Fimo. This makes the putty easier to work with and extends the curing time. If I need a break for whatever reason, I put the mini and the fresh putty in the freezer. It stops curing and I've resumed working on sculpts as long as 24 hours later and didn't notice the putty had cured significantly in the meantime.



Then give it a general shape of a head and create some depressions for the eyes. I also mark the place of the mouth.



Continue shaping the face and add the nose. I very generally add a tiny triangle to create the nose. Here I didn't and simply created the nose by pushing the putty in the middle from the eye socket. This was a mistake, which I regretted as I struggled sculpting the nose later on.



Add a little ball of putty for the mouth. Sometimes, you also need to add a ball of putty for the cheekbones or the chin. Here, I didn't.



Cut the ball in two with the blunt scalpel/cutter blade to shape the mouth, I often have to add "another mouth" on top of the first until I get the good shape and sufficient volume, in particular for female faces.



Try to keep the cat away, and if possible also its hair!



Continue shaping. Don't worry if it doesn't look great. I sometimes don't know after an hour of sculpting whether a face will look good in the end.



When the face looks alright, but not perfect, it is time to add the eyes. I prepare a new batch of putty (generally pure procreate or greenstuff). There are many ways to sculpt eyes. I personally generally add a small ball of putty in the eye sockets (the photo below is at that stage - then for some reason my camera refused to take any picture). I then use the mounted needle to squash this little ball to create eye lids and create a smaller depression. I then add a tiny (really tiny!) ball of putty into the new depression created by the needle, which will nene the eye  itself. This needs to be pushed very gently in place trying to keep it "egg-shaped". It can be challenging is to keep the eyes symmetrical and right eyes are far more difficult to sculpt for right-handers. At this stage, I generally also add the ears, but I was a bit slow as i was fiddling with the camera. I'll add them later.



Then it is time to finish the sculpt by fixing imperfections and giving it an expression. Don't necessarily give up even if things don't look amazing at this stage. It is surprising how sometimes one well placed stroke of the sculpting tool can completely save a face. Conversely, it is equally easy to ruin it, which is super-frustrating.