Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: CookAndrewB on September 09, 2021, 04:04:48 PM
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A few weeks ago I started playing an ongoing D&D campaign with my son, a buddy of mine, and his son. After a few missions of pushing around various colored dice on a map, I decided to custom make some figures for everyone as a gift. This was my first time sculpting at 28mm (vaguely) scale and I thought I would share the results.
My son's character Garo the monk.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145102.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145119.jpeg)
My friend's character Caraman the archer (fighter specializing in the bow).
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145141.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145158.jpeg)
My friend's son's character Valdosta the Halfling Rogue.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145213.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145236.jpeg)
On the whole, I can say two things really gave me fits; Faces and hands. Faces I'm writing off to the number of times these characters have been beaten about the head and neck with various weapons of war. You just don't survive that and look like Brad Pitt. lol The hands though... yeesh. The best I could do was Simpson's style three-fingered hands, and even those turned out a bit swollen as if they had been slapping bees all day. It was a great learning experience and gave me a real appreciation for the work of some of you do (and sculptors in general).
The intrepid warband poised for a fight!
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-090921145251.jpeg)
Any pointers on hand and face sculpting would be welcome. I think it is fair to say this will never be my day job, but I would like to improve in my hobby all the same. I feel like there has to be a easy way to get decent results. The sculpting equivalent of dry brushing highlights, or whatever. lol
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Those look pretty good for home-sculpts, especially since it’s your first time sculpting figures!
I don’t know if there are really any easy shortcuts for faces and hands - both are challenging! One option for faces would be to use pre-made heads or sculpting ‘dollies’. Hasslefree makes some heads and maybe dollies, and Reaper used to do some dollies (and still might, I haven’t looked for them in the catelogue for a while).
If you’re going to do your own faces, I think the main thing is to be patient and build them up in stages. Initially just get a blob the right size and orientation in place (and a bit smaller than you want the final head to be), and let it cure. Then use small bits of green stuff to fill in the details (brow and cheek shape, eyes, nose and lips, ears, then hair or headgear) in stages so you can let each part cure before working on the next one. It takes a while, but you’ll get a better defined end product and if a feature isn’t working, you can pull it off and start over if everything else around it is cured. I haven’t done much with hands, but I think the same approach should work (get a rough shape formed initially, then layer on details).
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I recently tried to sculpt a 28mm figure too, but I effed up the proportions a little bit and now I have a WIP sculpt of Sirenhead
(https://pm1.narvii.com/7620/2ea65741c94df8d9325a98c791740816531b74a6r1-1200-900v2_hq.jpg)
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Those are awesome. They have a certain charm that really works for me. Great job!
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Good work. Maybe for the eyes get some very small ballbearings, they work wonders.
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These guys are pretty cool! Not too far off, quality-wise, from my beloved Heritage Fantastiques!
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Thanks for the replies, all. Appreciate the kind words and hints in equal measure.
Not my first time sculpting, but I have avoided sculpting humans as there is some definitive standard to measure against. Sculpting 15mm aliens for my sci-fi gaming has been fine because legs that are too long/short, an oddly shaped head, and so forth barely matter as they are aliens. Yes, that is EXACTLY what that alien species is supposed to look like! Good job, me! lol
I think they have a charm as well, but I find that despite the flaws I'm awfully fond of my own creations. That said, I'm giving these to the players and I guess I have a little anxiety that they won't find them nearly as charming as I do. It is one thing to love your own child and another to try and find something endearing about someone else's kid. ;)
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It takes guts to tackle sculpting at any level, especially entire figures from scratch - I'd honestly say just keep practicing. You hit all the right beats and everything is recognisable as what it's intended to be. I would say in particular that you really nailed the 'flow' of clothing - that's seriously impressive. Keep at it :)
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I really like these :)
As ofters have said, the overall proportions are good and the clothes are very good.
The slighly oversize hands and noses gives them a sort of marionette puppet look, which is very charming.
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Yep, just keep practicing. I'm thinking I may squeeze in a little extra practice by sculpting some key NPCs for the campaign. Low pressure on those as I'm really the determiner as to whether they look like the characters. I worked with my son quite a bit to get his monk right. Color of clothing, hair, etc. The others will be a bit more of a surprise. So hopefully, they match the general mind's eye image the players have.
Again, I appreciate the comments.
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Good work mate! Certainly far better than what I could sculpt.
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The one thing that jumps out at me is the number of fingers, but since it's consistent across them for the 3 fingers and a thumb, I'm assuming that's a style choice there
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The one thing that jumps out at me is the number of fingers, but since it's consistent across them for the 3 fingers and a thumb, I'm assuming that's a style choice there
Yes, I went Matt Groening on them. Mostly that was a "not sure I can squeeze in another finger and still get them to shape the way I want" decision. My talents currently end at three fingers and a thumb! lol
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With campaign turn 2 under our belt, I decided I needed to get some monsters on the table and stop using dice to indicate their position on the map. Since mission 3 involved a goblin raid on the resort/amusement park where the party is currently staying, I did a little digital kitbashing with some freebie goblins from http://www.illgottengames.net/ (http://www.illgottengames.net/)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-131021133019.jpeg)
All the figures shown are freebies from Thingiverse. A few canonical notes about these goblins.
1) They are the goblins of Clam Island, which is a tropical location. Shirts just make things hot.
2) This tribe of goblins has become addicted to a particular healing sandwich that the resort makes with a secret ingredient. Hence, they are also a little on the pudgy side.
3) Rather than using bows, the goblins have a rudimentary black powder weapon which we just call the "boom stick." This is described as looking like a pan flute on a pole, and is essentially comprised of bamboo packed with black powder and rocks, and lit with a wick. Used indoors it is not only a projectile weapon but has a chance to stun people (including themselves) as well.
The kitbashing efforts included adding the horned helmet to the chieftain (center), The chieftain's pole mace, all of the boom sticks (replaced spearheads), and the spear goblin's shield (second from right, front). I also did some left/right mirroring for variety, but that is pretty low-level manipulation.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-131021133036.jpeg)
And a look at the goblins compared to a human for scale. I did want to keep them on the short side of things.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-131021133108.jpeg)
All figures were printed on an Anycubic Mono SE. The total time for the batch was about 1.5 hours.
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Great work mate!
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Thanks. As I'm not entirely sure how long these figures will see use, I didn't want to put a lot of time and energy into them. This is somewhere between my normal standard and "at least it got painted" standard lol
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"At least it got painted" lol I like that
These are cool. DEfinitely tabletop worthy if only for a couple of encounters.
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This is Rugolf, the ogre that turns the Ferris Wheel at the Silverpearl amusement park. He is a 3d print of a Milton Bradley Battlemasters Ogre Champion.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-141021141740.jpeg)
I made Rugolf to act as a challenge for a battle in town. The general idea was that Rugolf was enraged by the goblins above, and would come crashing into the scene swinging his mace at anyone that got near him. The challenge would be that Rugolf is a member of the theme park staff, and thus is a "good" guy, though a dim-witted and angry one. It would be bad to kill the friend of one of your employers.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-141021141754.jpeg)
Fortunately, the party caught onto this angle. Unfortunately, my dice rolls with Rugolf were abysmal, and he ended up standing like a statue, completely perplexed by any attempts to communicate with him. I was hoping that they might enlist his help, or enrage him to attack. Pretty much anything to make him of interest. And yet, the dice said that he should basically refuse to do anything.
Here is Rugolf compared to a regular, if not a bit tall, human.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-141021141812.jpeg)
I gave him a little extra love in the paint job department as he was supposed to be a focal point for the game. And yet I don't think he even moved one time in the scene. :? lol
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Love those goblins - they turned out a treat.
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This stone golem started life as a Super Mutant from a pack of Fallout "green army men" style toys. I needed a stand-in in a pinch and discovered that this fella has no discernable markings that would indicate he is from a post-apocalyptic franchise. So a simple grey paint job and I got myself a golem!
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-131021132332.jpeg)
As this figure is very big, the tiny skulls on his hip actually worked well as 28mm scale skulls.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-131021132350.jpeg)
Here is a 28mm figure (if not a slightly tall one) for scale.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/52/15049-131021132407.jpeg)
Next up will be the evil cult turned into frogs and crabs, working on turning themselves back into evil cult members so that they can kill the (also evil) wizard that turned them into crabs and frogs, to begin with. When the game started, these frogs and crabs were supposed to be just simple wilderness encounters, but the party read evil intent into them and I just ran with it. And since then, they have been doing shady things on the periphery of the campaign and the party gets a certain sense of paranoia whenever a crab or a frog enters the scene. The figures are from a wide range of sources, and are in the progress of getting the proper "I don't know how much effort I want to put into a crab figure" level of paint.
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Hey, Andrew, love the goblins, ogre, and stone golem! What does the golem do at the park, collect ride tokens?
Looking forward to the frogs and crabs, and their unholy vengeance!
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What does the golem do at the park, collect ride tokens?
Looking forward to the frogs and crabs, and their unholy vengeance!
Well, one golem (not possessed or controlled by the Wizard) was part of a puzzle. The golem stood in the center of a room facing one door and behind it was a locked iron gate. Around the outside of the room were smaller alcoves that had a magical shadowy curtain. If the golem is touched it attacks the last person to touch it, but never takes damage. To unlock the gate the Golem had to turn around AND see that there was nobody there. So an attack would have to be performed from the alcoves in a manner as to turn the golem around. At the end of every turn, the golem reset in the center of the room facing one of the two doors. If one door opens, the other shuts, but that didn't really matter too much.
The possessed golem was holding a frog turned human (The cultists into Frogs was more of a Freaky Friday situation where the frog/crab souls had to go somewhere so they went into the human bodies and became the quasi-imortal amusement park staff) who had learned some alchemy by observing the Wizard Dward, and was getting close to cracking the anti-addiction potion for the amusement park's healing sandwiches. The plot gets pretty twisty. So the Goblins were hired to deal with the crab/frog cultists, but then became addicted to the sandwiches and focused all of their energy on raiding the amusement park to get sandwiches. Because the frogs/crabs-now-human staff is of a magical origin they really don't feel the effects of the addictive nature of the sandwiches, and they eat a TON of them to stay healthy to the point of near immortality. Sort of like eating so many preservatives that your body won't rot... but on the soul level. So the goblins were bribed by the wizard in a golem to capture the one person that could stop them from being addicts, thus ensuring that the cult could continue doing what they are doing. This seems weird since the wizard banished the cult, but the party is going to find out that the cult can bring the wizard back from his pocket dimension (which the wizard can't do himself), and then the wizard is planning on laying the smackdown on the cult once and for all. But that won't happen if the cult is stopped, which the former servants (frogs-turned-human) know, hence they were trying to stop the cult and keep the wizard locked away because they hate the service industry.
It is all a bit twisty and has developed on the fly. For a while, the group was working for the wizard under the guise that he wanted to protect the amusement park (his creation) and so they needed to stop the goblins. He was a bit dodgy about the cult's motives and actions but assured the party that the cult was harmless. While quite evil in terms of crabs and frogs, they were just lowly critters after all.
There was an old lady who took tickets. My son's character ended up hiding under a desk with her while a goblin hunted for them. Not particularly brave, but they did survive.
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Quite the narrative you have constructed mate. Very cool.
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Storytelling is the fun part of being the DM! Well, that and the improv of trying to react to the unforeseen things that the players do. It is all good mental gymnastics.
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If life gives you a crappy Supermutant, turn it into a stone golem! That's what my grampa always used to say.
And he is a crappy supermutant. :D But works really well as a golem. The stiff pose actually works very well for that purpose, and the cheeky facial expression gives the impression that he's really enjoying unlife. :D A nice contrast.
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Man! All I can say is, I wish you were my DM!
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Man! All I can say is, I wish you were my DM!
That is a better compliment than just about anything I can imagine! I'm just glad the party puts up with my weird twists and turns. From reading your comics I think our brains must work similarly. lol
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Cult of crabs and frogs... Um, former cult now crabs and frogs? Whatever, here are the grunts:
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/53/15049-281021173432.jpeg)
Files from Thingiverse.
The Amphibromancer, and his half-halfling, half-crab, elite guard!
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/53/15049-281021173500.jpeg)
The weird crabby halfling guys were a lucky find. I had much better luck finding various frog-wizard models.
And the whole cult is ready for their day in the sun!
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/53/15049-281021173521.jpeg)
I'm currently busy sculpting the "big bad" Dward. I did a little work on his background and decided that he was a simple adventurer once upon a time. Not a very good one, and he spent his career failing to rescue princesses, never quite reaching the treasure, and getting spanked by any number of cave-dwelling monsters. Then, one day he found an odd item on a dead adventurer in a cave. This odd codpiece had a demonic face, and once worn the malevolent demon, Nix started to worm his way into Dward's brain. The first major undertaking as the champion of Nix was to seek out a cult that was (unsuccessfully) trying to summon Nix. Dward was to convince them that he was the champion of Nix, and guide the cult towards success. That was the plan. Dward's reputation as a second-rate adventurer and the codpiece's irritating magic (it tempts people to stare at it, and then berates them for looking at the wearer's crotch as if they were a pervert) caused the cult to eventually banish Dward. After years of exile with only the Demonic codpiece for company, Dward hatched his overly elaborate plan to create an amusement park to lure the cult where he would trap their souls in helpless beasts and get his revenge. The demon Nix delighted in driving Dward mad and delighted in the absolute absurdity of the plan. There really wasn't a downside where the demon was concerned.
So we know the plan worked. We know that sometime after the plan the cult organized and hatched their own revenge plot. We aren't sure how Dward got trapped in the pocket dimension, but he claims he can't come back to reality himself, though he can pull things from reality into his pocket dimension. We also aren't sure how the cult was going to bring him back, but the group caught them performing a ritual on the beach that incorporated a piece of Dward's cloak shaped into a voodoo doll of sorts. Of course, this is where the party attacked and (barely) defeated the cult in their first encounter. So we will never know what would have happened if the cult completed the ritual.
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Those crabs and frogs are brilliant mate!
Of course I am a big fan of crabs and frogs though so I may be a bit biased. Mrs. GG was not impressed when I said that if I live long enough to see functional anthropomorphic body modification I would be tempted to become a crablike creature.
And Kermit has always been a personal hero to me.
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I just realized that it is the Cult of the Edible Legs. :P Perhaps that was the true end game for Dward. To turn his former cult friends into a delicious meal!
I think that also makes him a bit like Gargamel in some respects. Both were probably not great at their magical arts. Both would like to eat their foes. And I believe I can sculpt up this hair and eyebrow combo!
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3b/22/d5/3b22d54d5684ffa0082b01c8132e3e4f.jpg)
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Slow updates here, but Dward has been sculpted, killed, and the campaign ended. Here he is with my son's monk, replete in his wizard's pajamas, wearing his boots of Ugg, and of course the demonic codpiece of Nix.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/54/15049-240322194739.jpeg)
With that campaign ended, I've started working on some new characters. For me, I've been working on a Kenku, street urchin, warlock named Caw Craw Ka-Caw, because I want the DM to say that over and over lol
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/54/15049-240322194806.jpeg)
I tried to make him look a little worse for the wear with patched clothing and an old rusty dagger. I think the patches turned out ok, but the tail feathers really work for me.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/54/15049-240322194822.jpeg)
My son has decided to give up on his monk for the time being and focus on playing a high elf druid. So that will be my next character to sculpt. I've got two weeks before we play again, so I have plenty of time.