[Archive] Making stuff fuzzy

Thommy H:

Okay, so a long time ago my fiancée bought me a LOTR Mumak but I had no use for the thing and hadn’t built a model that big in years, so I left it untouched. I’ve felt guilty about this for years and years, so now I want to do something with it and I think making a Chaos Mammoth is the way to go, since I have a Warriors of Chaos army and I want to make them a bit more barbarian themed. I’ll make a new howdah for it and fill it full of Marauders.

Problem is: it’s not fuzzy. I have no experience with green stuff, and no desire to cut my teeth on sculpting fur on a massive plastic model. I seem to remember someone here (Nitro?) talking about using static grass though. If I cover the thing in patches of static grass then spray it in undercoat, will this produce a useful layer of fur do you think? Does that work? I’d rather not ruin the model, but I want to make it into something that’s of vague use to me.

Tarrakk Blackhand:

Try the concept on something else for practice. If you see it and don’t like it, you’ve only ruined a test piece.

Try flocking it.

nitroglysarine:

Problem is: it's not fuzzy. I have no experience with green stuff, and no desire to cut my teeth on sculpting fur on a massive plastic model. I seem to remember someone here (Nitro?) talking about using static grass though. If I cover the thing in patches of static grass then spray it in undercoat, will this produce a useful layer of fur do you think? Does that work? I'd rather not ruin the model, but I want to make it into something that's of vague use to me.

Thommy H
It worked nicely on a couple of old chaos hounds I converted to cover bad casting joins about 10years ago. All I can add is LAYERS - it gives a cool matting effect.
It does give a nice finish, but as Tarrakk said, give the effect a go on a old knackered model first to see if you like the effect.

Thommy H:

Layers? So multiple layers of static grass or multiple layers of paint?

And I was gonna try it on something else, yeah, but I thought I’d get some advice before I just wasted time (and static grass).

nitroglysarine:

I tried two layers of static grass, the effect of fur was heightened,

rather than grass on my back painted, if you get me.

Da Crusha:

check out this thread Thommy, in here he glues static grass on the entire model and then shows it painted at the end.

http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=40.msg48#msg48

Thommy H:

Hey, that’s Kyte…

Thanks for the link, Crusha - exactly what I was looking for. I can figure out how to do it, I just want to know that it’ll look okay. I’ll try it on something disposable first anyway.

Tarrakk Blackhand:

Love how the Rinox is compaired to a CD Hellcanon!

Have fun with this one Thommy…and remeber to post pics!

Baggronor:

I imagine it’ll look very fuzzy, whereas what you might be after is shaggy. Wolly mammoths had quite long hair and I dunno if static grass will work. Also, it would be a challenge to highlight nicely, might end up looking really scruffy.

But yeah, try it on something else first, preferably something similarly large but disposable; what looks ok on a 25mm dude won’t look so good on something much much bigger…

Does it even need to be a woolly mammoth? Not all mammoths were woolly and not all Chaos Warriors come from snowy parts of the north.

Thommy H:

I imagine it'll look very fuzzy, whereas what you might be after is shaggy.
Hmm...that's a fair point, actually.
Not all mammoths were woolly and not all Chaos Warriors come from snowy parts of the north.
Yeah, see I thought about this - there are any number of excuses for why it wouldn't be woolly (mutation, they shaved it, he could be from a volcanic region of the Umbra Chaotica, etc. etc.) - but it seems a bit too much like an excuse for why I didn't bother to change the basic model. I don't want it to be like I just Warhammer-ed up a Mumak.

Hm. I'll need to think about it anyway.

Baggronor:

Lol @ image of Marauders shaving a mammoth.

Well, perhaps you could armour it up?

Add tentacles and such from the Spawn kits? A two-headed mumak? Perhaps a bit too far…

Or you could bite the bullet and GS him up. That’s a lot of drying time though…

Thommy H:

Yeah, and as I say, I’ve literally never used green stuff before. Not even for filling or anything. So this would be my first attempt, on a massive model, trying to sculpt decent surface texture. You can see why I’d be looking for a simple alternative.

Honestly, it would probably be absolutely fine to leave it with no fur, but I want it to be recognisably a Chaos Mammoth, otherwise it’s just an Oliphaunt with Marauders sitting on top instead of Haradrim.

nitroglysarine:

good luck with the conversion!

Tarrakk Blackhand:

Got an old fur (Fake) coat? Cut that up and glue on the sections like they did with the original King Kong!