Sculpting Chaos dwarf models. Advice wanted!

I sculpted this dude today:

First full model I’ve sculpted in a year ! As you can see he’s no hero - just some grunt! Would quite like to turn him into a unit of 5 or so similiar grunts.

Any advice on how to make copies of him? I have blue stuff, greenstuff and can get milliput. My previous attempts at doing similar things have been…mixed shall we say?

Also - very new to sculpting and there are some experienced sculptors on this site so any advice on upping my sculpting game is also welcome. :slight_smile:

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That fellow looks awesome! Very good sculpting, especially on the face and the scale armour. Fascinating details. I’m sorry I can’t give you any advice on replicating your sculpts - in fact, that’s a thing that I’ve got on my long-term hobby wishlist as well, so I’ll monitor this thread with great interest. :grin: Fine work!

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Great work, @Oxymandias! I can sense a future professional level sculptor here. I really like the details and the layering of surfaces going on. Great sense of depth with the coiled hair and beard as well.

I have never dabbled in casting models or parts myself with blue stuff, greenstuff or milliput, so I wish you the best of luck there. I’ve heard that blue stuff is the best way to go with moulds. I hope you get help and find a working way. Forgemaster @Nicodemus, what say you?

But I have some thoughts which, if not relevant for this sculpt, could perhaps be relevant for upcoming sculpts of yours.

Casters as an Option

Since the sculpt seem to be based upon parts of an existing miniature (2nd edition 40k Ork? correct me if I’m wrong) I’d be amiss to advise you to speak with a caster as an expensive but reliable option, unless you completely covered the shoulder plate and feet with putty and sculpting of your own.

If money isn’t an issue, than having a casting company make moulds and cast copies for you is a smooth way to go. It does mean waiting time, but saves you the hassle of dabbling with moulds and resins and whatnot in trying to multiply your sculpts. Of course, castings of a fully self-sculpted miniature can also be sold on the side via Ebay, or smoother yet, Etsy, for other collectors to purchase. Wink wink . :wink:

(I believe @tjub may experience a sense of deja vú here. CDO converters tend to be on a slippery slope toward casting minis.)

I know a few casting companies if ever you’d be curious.

Good luck, whatever you do!

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Just wanted to say great work dude! I have absolutely no experience or skill with sculpting in any sense (I failed big time even trying to GS a round shield aha) so can’t really offer any constructive critique other than it looks really cool!

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Thanks for the lovely feedback :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Yeah I took the ork boy and reduced it almost a dolly kinda skeleton and built it back up. Well recognised (although I dare say that my ork project being posted on this forum the other day probably gave it away a bit :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

I’d definitely be interested in getting something I sculpted cast up and produced to be sold at some point :thinking: - however I think a little more practise is needed before I’m at that level yet.

This dudes okay for my collection where I can give him a sympathetic paint job to best hide any of the dodgier bits but he’s quite a way off professional sellable quality. I’ve got to get better at making thin details. I find that things I want to be small and delicate end up being Too chunky. Luckily old school style chaos dwarfs and orks are all I’ve worked on and they are sorta cartoony anyway.

If I do get to the point where I sculpt something that I think is decent enough to be cast up (and without someone else’s IP poking out of one shoulder :p) I’ll most likely talk to you about casters you’ve used @Admiral.

…is that me putting my first foot onto that slippery slope you mentioned? Haha

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That models looks great, its a good start! Welcome aboard with the sculpting, indeed as @Admiral said its a slippery slope… :stuck_out_tongue:
Such a cool feeling to get paint on your own creations.
We have added a few useful tutorials to the sculpting section, feel free to add more if you find any useful.

You seem to have minimal undercuts as well, so by the looks of it it should be able to cast without problems.

Keep practice and you’ll have great results, patience is your best friend. :slight_smile:

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My advice is listen to @Admiral and @tjub :grin:

Great job on the that mini

If you are using bluestuff, then two things I have found that have really helped are getting the bluestuff REALLY hot, and using a container slightly larger than the model to stuff it all into. The hotter you get the bluestuff, the more malleable it is and will capture detail better without damaging the model. The container stops the bluestuff from spreading sideways and losing detail that way. I use a Lego form made of various sized pieces so that I can disassemble it easy after everything is set (it is surprisingly hard to do if you just make straight walls). I still haven’t quite got the hang of filling the right amount of greenstuff into the mould.

Silicone moulds are better. @Xander made a tutorial for his Hobgoblin conversions on the main site.

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Thank you - I will check it out. Silicone and resin was something I was reading about last night. Seems more appropriate for whole models. Blue stuff seems better for recreating shields, weapons and small bits in my experience. Appreciate the insight mate.

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@Xander A second kind nudge to copy over all your tutorials. See E-mail. :wink:

Changed the title to “models” as it appears I’m doing more of these.

Sculpted two dudes today. The basis for both models were pen lids. Trying to keep things like poses simple as 1) I’m new to this and 2) don’t want to complicate things with possible future casting in mind.

Anyway dude 1:

And dude 2:

Both need a little cleaning up tomorrow - but they are pretty much there. Quite happy with them to be honest. :slight_smile:

As always feedback and advice always welcome!

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I think the beard on the first is better than on the second. I’d recommend doing the cuts to represent the coils ‘tighter’ to improve them further. I’d personally also make them shorter so they’re not dragging on the floor but that’s just personal taste. :wink:

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Appreciate the feedback mate - I’ll take it board :facepunch:t2:

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Been sculpting again guys! As always feedback appreciated- still very new to this.

I wanted a dude with a man-catcher so decided to scratch build him

WIP (Zonk model for scale)


Then here are is the finished product:


Still not getting things perfect as they appear in my head. However I’ve been browsing CDO old and new forum and been getting tips and tricks. The rivets on the hat were a new trick and hands were done using ideas I saw on here. Plus scale wise I feel I’m getting it more like the actual size of a chaos dwarf. My last attempt was far too big!

Pic to illustrate:


As you can see the guy on the right is a big boi! He’s taller than a lot of my humans :joy:

Still considering a future project where I can cast up some minis - probably when I have 4-5 I’m happy with. Been looking at tutorials for silicone two part moulds and resin and looks like an interesting side hobby :thinking:

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Wow, that progression! Looks great to be honest! Very much in line with the Zonk models… 5/5. :slight_smile:

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Good work; I think what you should work on next is the chain mail. Don’t know of any guides offhand (Admiral might have one) but they shouldn’t be too hard to find. :wink:

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Agreed - it’s the part of the model I’m least happy with.

The arms were all done at once and I think making the holes deformed them slightly and made them look kind of wobbly. Also it made making the holes uniform really hard. In hindsight I wish I’d done scale armour on the arms too.

I think the wire arms need greenstuff on them to get an arm shape, and then once it’s cured armour could be applied.

Any tutorials in sculpting mail would be appreciated!

Im sure, otherwise I can have a look. Its not hard, but it takes some practice… :slight_smile:
Btw, @ Oxymandias I would do the volume first, and then once cured a bit add the chainmail on top, that way you dont risk messing it up when you are doin the chainmail.

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Beautiful sculpt and great progress! Love the detail level and design.

There are quite a number of chainmail tutorials around, e.g. this one. The technique is a simple one of alternating rows. I’ve mainly just done tutorials for stuff which others haven’t covered yet in order to plug gaps and empty niches. Fur and mail armour tutorials are plentiful out there.

You may want to practice some at getting more depth into the beard on your next sculpt. The beard and hair have good coil details, but the beard coils could do with some more depth in the valleys between them. The hair coils look fine from the front angle.

Also, the screwhead with an X look a little muddy. Next time you do one, try to push around the green stuff of the four “cake pieces” around the X inward against the centre, and see if you can get it crisper and sharper by playing around a little more with it. :slight_smile:

Keep at it! You’re getting better and better.

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Was never any good at sculpting so always find posts like these so impressive, looks amazing and the best bit about Chaos Dwarfs Online is that your always surrounded by amazing sculptors who want nothing more than to see you get better

Perfect place for you, if this is where you start can’t wait to see where you end up :+1:t2::vulcan_salute:t2:

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