Sculpting an anthro badger warrioress…

[Lovejoy]

With the leg fur textured, I started on the hands. I mixed up some more Green Stuff, and rolled out a short length, which I wrapped around the sword handle and pressed into place, flattening the finger area. Then I cut in lines to separate the fingers, and followed with a shallow line cut across the fingertips, to show the claws. Then I spent a while tidying and refining the fingers. Next I rolled out a thin strip of putty to make the thumb; I pressed one end into place, then bent it around and marked in the claw. That was the hand done, but I spent another half hour or so generally fiddling and obsessing over smoothing and tidying it... 

I did the left hand the same way.

[Lovejoy]

Then I returned to the body of the model. More fresh putty, and I rolled out a length, and wrapped it right around. Then I pressed it into place, and shaped it roughly with the metal sculpting tool, before gradually smoothing and shaping the folds of the cloth with the silicone Clay Shaper.

[Lovejoy]

Next I switched back to Brown Stuff, to make some scale armour. I pressed it into place, shaped it, and smoothed the surface as well as possible. Then I cut in a series of horizontal lines, and then indented the putty at those lines, so they formed a series of ridges rather than a flat surface. Next I started cutting in small vertical lines across the ridges, forming a brick-wall style pattern. With that done, I carefully dragged each of the 'bricks' downwards, stretching and separating them slightly. Then it was just a process of gradually refining each scale individually. It's really very simple – it just takes a long time!

[Lovejoy]

Then I went back to sculpting her clothing. Using more Green Stuff, I added clothing to the front of her arms. I didn't need to do the back, because that will be covered by armour. And because that armour will need straps to hold it on, I made indentations at various points on the arm clothing. Straps and belts tend to pull clothing in, and cause folds and the like. So to make a sculpt look realistic, you need to plan ahead and make sure you've accounted for that – straps just laid over flat clothing won't look right, unless the clothing is a very tight fit.

[Lovejoy]

While the arms were curing, I added a quilted jack to the body. I applied a layer of Green Stuff, and smoothed the surface. Then I made a series of very light diagonal cuts, and spent a lot of time gradually softening and blending them with the Clay Shaper. I also made a small indentation at each point where the lines crossed to complete the 'quilted' look. 

Then I made and indentation right around for her belt. Next I rolled out some very thin bits of putty, and pressed them into place to form the belt and armour straps. I had some putty left over, so I used it to add the lower part of her hood.

[Lovejoy]

Then I moved onto the armour on her arms. I used more Brown Stuff for this; I used small blobs of putty to form individual sections of the armour, smoothing them carefully one at a time, before adding the next piece. I did this on both arms, and let it cure.  

[Lovejoy]

While that was curing I decided to add a cross belt to her body; thankfully the body hadn't fully cured, so I was able to make an indentation for it first! I also attached the shield. I'd already sculpted the inner side of the shield, but I forgot to take photos… sorry!

[Lovejoy]

I then went back to the arms – the armour plates were cured, so I was able to use fresh putty to finish them off. I rolled out some long thin bits of putty, and used them to edge the elbow armour. I also added a couple of circular pieces to act as joint protection. I also added a small decorative shield shape to the shoulder plate.

[OSHIROmodels]

Thanks James! I probably should have put it in 'How to' straight off, shouldn't I? Sorry! 

No worries 

Just let me know when you're done.

cheers

James

[Lovejoy]

While the armour was fully curing, I used more Green Stuff to add a hood to the back of the model. I also had to add a bit more fur to the back of the head/neck, to cover the join there.

[Lovejoy]

Next I decided to add a Fleur-de-Lys to the shoulder shield (they have a proper name, but I just can't remember what it is!) I took a ball of putty, pressed it on and flattened it. Then I cut away the sides to leave a diamond shape. Then I made four cuts with the blade. I made two more cuts near the bottom, and gently pulled the lowest part down slightly. Next I made two cuts across the middle to form a band, and began gradually teasing everything into shape, just poking and prodding, followed by lots of smoothing, then a bit more poking and prodding until it looked right….

[Lovejoy]

One of the things I like to do is make every miniature a single piece; I'm not a fan of multi-part metal models, mostly because I always seem to break them! So this badger needs to be a single piece.

The problem is, as she stands, that won't work. If we tried to mould her at this point, the mould would flow around the arms and lock her into place, making it impossible to get her out again. Solutions to this are – either cutting the arms off, and casting them separately, for a multi-part miniature, or filling in the gaps. Naturally I went for filling in the gaps!

The key to this though is making sure that the 'filling' looks like it's meant to be there; making it a useful part of the model. And that's where pouches, bags and other equipment come in! In this case, I added a bag and some pouches; just the basic shapes. But that left a gap behind the sword hand, which I decided to fill with a large blob of putty, that I would turn into a coil of rope.

I added flaps to the pouches and bag, and simply cut a series of lines into the blob to look like coiled rope. And with that, Ceinwyn Quickblade, Badger Warrioress, was finished! :-)

[Duke Donald]

A great mini; it's nice to see it through the different stages. Thanks for the tutorial!

[dampfpanzerwagon]

A great mini; it's nice to see it through the different stages. Thanks for the tutorial!

I agree - thanks for the step-by-step.

Tony

[beefcake]

Very nice result there. Great tutorial too. Thanks