Finishing Things I Started

Its funny how some projects get abandoned and languish forever and then you get a moment of inspiration and you finally finish them off. Well this one isn't quite finished but it has surely waited for quite some time. It started simply. Get some cool Khurasan scifi guys and remake them as steampunk foot soldiers. That was way back in November of 2012 and I really didn't think it would be a big deal. Then I ran into The Problem. In this case it was making the fancy steampunk rifle to replace the stock AK-47 style one they had. I went through a couple of unsatisfying options before I ran out of interest and it got pushed to the side.

The sculpted rifle and backpack ready for molding.

I came back and played with it a couple of times each time giving up without much progress. Finally, driven at least partially by my self imposed time table to finally play a game, I settled on a design I liked. A week of frustrating sculpting, and another few days of trying to get the mold to actually cast right, I have a finished product.

Sketch I made for the rifle design. It kinda looks like a Games Workshop Imperial Guard Lasgun now that I look at it.

I'm going to try to paint one up quickly since I'm really hoping they turn out the way I envisioned.

I think the rifle turned out a little too big really. I didn't notice that the Khurasan mini is more of a true 15mm as opposed to the usual 18mm that most of the rest of my stuff is.

Apologies for the poor phone pics but I was rushing to get him onto the paint table.

Continuing my thoughts on Victorian roads from earlier I decided on a new basing style with patches of bare cobblestones and mostly dirt.

Dr. Oculus

This past week hasn't been very productive hobby-wise. Hopefully I'll be able to get some projects finished this week though instead. In the meantime here is a picture that my beautiful photographer took of an old miniature of mine Dr Oculus.

The good doctor was used in a Victorian Superhero game run many years back. As an agent of the crown he used his various vision based powers to root out the festering menace in the very belly of London.

This was taken to try out the new macro lens she got for graduation. I'm excited to get some more stuff completed so she can take some more great pictures for me.

"As under a green sea"

  To begin with the Walloon Jacquerie was only remarkable in the speed and quantity in which the anarchists and workmen assembled and marched on Liège. Although contact was lost with the troops sent to guard the colossi foundries this was not noticed until much later and at first the attention of the Belgium command was focused on dispersing the rioters. This proved more difficult then first expected due to them being remarkably well armed. Nevertheless, the discipline and drill of the Belgium troops soon led to them having the upper-hand and they were shortly hunting down the scattered pockets of die hard revolutionaries. 

  It was at this point that many believe Professor Emil offered his services and research to the desperate hold outs. It is unlikely they understood what exactly he was offering but grasped at any possibility to turn the situation around. As the Belgium troops were storming the last stronghold of the revolutionaries that the spore clouds were first encountered. In the alleyways between the worker's tenements it was described as a "green-yellow fog" and like moving "as under a green sea, small particles darting about like minuscule fish." 

  At first the troops merely coughed and gagged on the spores, but as soon as they made it into the last hideout the source was revealed. The interior of the house was coated in a thick layer of fungus and great mounds pumped out the spores like bellows. Amongst the fungi shambled great heaps that once were men but now had become something else. And even as the figures lurched forward streams of spores blew out from gill like vents along their body. The soldiers did not know it then but soon the spores they inhaled would transform them the same way and much of Liège would resemble those small, mold covered rooms. 
                                                                                                         - A History of the Liège Incident

The first of what will probably be many fungal creatures is done. Here are a few fun fungus facts. Fungus are more closely related to animals than plants. Some of the largest known organisms on earth are fungus colonies. One covers 8.9 square kilometers and is estimated to be 2400 years old. No wonder Professor Emil is so obsessed with fungi!

Scale Comparison

The Cabal

Rough sketch of Cabal Soldier

Next on my cast of players is the Cabal. Right now I'm going to work on two figures for them. The first is a foot soldier. For the time being I'm going to use Cryx warjacks for the Cabal's colossi. In order to tie the soldier to that look I'm going with a skull mask for him. Plus since the Cabal is a secret society within secret societies it lends a bit of masquerade to the figure. He's armed with a ray gun due to the Cabal using a unique blend of mysticism and technology. Plus I haven't made one yet and I want to.

Slenderman

The second is the Slender Man. They serve as observers and hatchetmen for the top ranks of the Cabal. I wanted a pose that would show off their inhuman physiology but not be over the top. I kinda like this look but I'd like to do a more hyper action pose and a more rigid standing pose in the future.

Soldier a little further along

The beginnings of the Slenderman

The Liège Incident

I've decided to try to concentrate on trying to build up the characters to portray a certain event in the history of my steampunk world. I'm going to focus on a fictionalized and greatly altered historical event, the Walloon Jacquerie. In the real world this was a semi spontaneous anarchist/worker's revolt that was put down by Belgium troops in the Liège area in 1886. I'm going to make it a little weirder and use it to introduce several power groups.

Fungoid in Liège

One of the main characters we've already met, Professor Emil. Next up is one of his creations an unholy melding of man and fungus and the final product of the professor's experiment into creating the perfect socialist society.

The sculpt so far.

Looking Back, Looking Forwards

I realized today that I've been posting on this blog for 6 months now. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about it. First I think that my original goal of motivating myself has been met. Second my focus has definitely changed over that time. Getting a new job ate into a lot of the time I expected to have and I had to scale back my plans. On the plus side sculpting, with it's built in stops to let the putty dry, fits perfectly into my schedule. Plus I've found that I really enjoy it.

I also came to realize that the part of the hobby I like the best is the storytelling. I'm not a skilled writer so the best way I have of creating a world and showing others is with miniatures. While I enjoy playing games I'm perfectly satisfied with shaping a world that others might enjoy or play in.

Looking ahead I guess more of the same for the near future. More sculpting updates and I think I might try to tell a little more of the background I'm coming up with for my creations to live in. I'm excited to see where the next 6 months take me!

The Ghug

After working on 15s the monster sized Gug was a nice break. Also the fact that it is all organic and I don't have to worry about straight lines and hard details made it easy to sculpt.

I like the way he came together and I'm happiest with the texture on the skin. I stumbled on it accidentally while working on the torso and ended up redoing the legs afterwards. But in the end it was worth it. I used a square clay shaper to lightly work the texture in and tried to use it to emphasize the underlying shape. Then I came back and added some more random lines kinda crosshatching it. I think it gives a nice elephantine texture.

First encountered at the Siege of Delhi during the Mutiny the creatures known as "Ghug" can as quite a shock to the British troops. This particular creature was called Bhaksaka Gaja which roughly translated to " Eater of Elephants." British troops later came to discover that the creatures were summoned in a bloody ritual at Cawnpore by a sect of Thugee sorcerers. The Ghug were only matched by the steam powered Colossi that the British had been using as mobile siege weapons. The battles between the savage creatures and the clanking giants became a recurring story throughout the Indian Mutiny. 

Professor Emil

This is the first of my more steampunk style guys. I think the more caricature style definitely comes across better at this scale. At least with my current skill level. I used some plastic rod for his cane/pipe and it worked pretty well. I might try making a mold of him so I'm gonna hold off on painting him for a while.

Professor Emil 

While a famed mycologist and vocal socialist Professor Emil is known mostly for his role in the Walloon Jaquerie or as the British call it the Liege Incident. It is still unclear if he undertook his experiments understanding the outcome or was simply insane. The end result of course was carnage and the almost entire destruction of the city of Liege in an effort to eradicate his "Fungoid" creations. 

Gug

I'm not really happy with a setting unless it can feature huge monsters fighting with giant robots. So it was inevitable that I was going to add some creatures to my steampunk setting.

The Gug is a classic if lesser known creature from the Cthulhu mythos. I've always liked the distinctive and very alien arms on them. I wanted the creatures in my setting to have that same bizarre, alien feel without looking too extraterrestrial. More warped and beyond human imagination instead of creature feature or men from Mars.

My designs are strongly influenced by Guy Davis's artwork on BPRD. A must read as far as I'm concerned. And of course by Mike Mignola and Hellboy. My Gug is inspired by the creature that attacks Seattle in the epilogue of the first BPRD: Hell on Earth arc.

Sketch of Gug creature seen in Delhi during the Mutiny. 

Inspector Collins

Overall, out of all my sculpts so far this is the one I'm most satisfied with.

Inspector Patrick Collins has always been the odd man out at the Yard. Promoted from constable after finding the kidnapped Lady Byron, and taking a bullet in the shoulder for his troubles, he has never really been accepted by his comrades. It's no wonder then that he has has been assigned many of the bizarre crimes that have been occurring in London. Certainly not thrilled by the assignments he is too much of a professional to not devote his full capabilities to the so called U cases. 

Mrs. Amelia Pelham

Many distractions and delays later I finally finished the Victorian Lady. I'm happy with her face but hands are still my downfall. I thought I would start adding a small story about each figure that would help breathe some life into both the figures I'm making and the larger world I see them fitting into. Most of this I make up as I'm sculpting. It keeps me interested and motivated to finish them. After all it is easy to stop creating some random sculpt but much harder to finish work on the imperious Mrs. Pelham. 

Wife of Reginald Pelham, owner of Pelham Dry Goods And Mechanicals, Amelia Pelham is one of many middle class women very much involved with the spiritualist scene of London. Here she is hurrying to a seance with the renowned medium Antoli Keerard with little concern for what the neighbors think. And certainly none for what Mr. Pelham thinks. 

 

 

Steam Armor

Normally when modeling I work more or less on the fly. But recently I've tried to plan things out a little more. Part of my new method has been making sketches of what I want to work on. In the past I've done some rough sketches for terrain I've been working on but I've been trying to go a step further for my sculpting. I'm not the best artist by any means but working this way lets me focus my ideas on what I want to make.  Although I'm pretty sure it will evolve as I sculpt it.

So this is the sketch I made for my first more steampunk miniature. I wanted to make a steam driven power armor or steam armor as it were. I decided that it would be of Prussian manufacture, probably from the Krupp factories.

And here is the beginnings of the sculpt.

Call Scotland Yard!

Still working on sculpting. I started some more steampunk figs but they aren't really far enough along to show any pictures yet. But I do have three of my previous sculpts coming into the home stretch.

The first is the Victorian lady that I started in the first batch. Her dress is mostly done but her face is giving me troubles and I've redone it multiple times. Currently she is in between faces, hopefully to be corrected today. 

Next up I wanted to do a classic Victorian constable. I like this guys face but the hat needs some work and I'm afraid he ended up being a little on the large size. Also his pose isn't exactly what I planned but I'm not sure where it went wrong.

Finally, the inspector. I wanted him to look like a Victorian version of the hard boiled private dick. Hands in his pockets and hat pulled down low. This face definitely is coming off and of course his bowler needs to be added afterwards.

Overall, I'm happier with these three than the previous three so I'm making progress. I'll post some more pics when these get finished and the next trio are further along.

More Victorian Sculpting

Looking at my pictures from yesterday I can't help but notice the flaws. I think this might be because the pictures are enlarged letting me see much greater detail. This has given me the idea of trying to use a magnifier when I'm working on these guys particularly the faces, hands, and other details. I also want to work more detail into their pants and try to avoid that seam line on their inner legs.

In the meantime I finished off my street tough/ pugilist. I'm happier with both the face and hands on him but I feel that there is definite room to improve. Finally a pic of all three of my completed Victorians together.

Sculpting Update

Still working on my 15's. This past couple of weeks my hands dried out and started to peel turning into lizard hands as my lovely photographer put it. Kinda slowed me down since it was like sculpting with leather gloves on. Tough doing detail work and really hard handling the putty. They are mostly better now so hopefully I can finish off some of the guys that are almost done. I've got ideas for a whole bunch more. Also thinking about picking up some 15's from Black Hat or Blue Moon. Both of which look like they would fit in pretty well. I'd like my guys to match what is already out there.

Here is the gentleman completed. Not completely happy with his face or hands. The size makes the fine work like that pretty difficult. Not sure if I need to change my technique or even my tools for working on them or just more practice. Hopefully the last!

Forced Perspective

I thought I would illustrate what I meant a couple of posts ago when I was talking about forced perspective. Just playing around with what I have on my work desk I wanted to show the adaptability of a model like the Privateer Press warjacks. Since they don't really have any clear clues to what size they are they are scale neutral. ( At least from the front. On the back there are gauges and the fire box door to give the scale away a bit more.)



So what does that mean? Well if you put him next to a 28mm figure then he looks like a big robot.

Dr. Oculus and his trusty autonomous companion?

But if you put him next to a 15mm figure then he looks like a 50' tall giant robot or mecha. Far more impressive!

A detective and his steam driven mechanical war machine!

If you add in terrain scaled correctly it works even better. Hopefully I can show some pictures of that in the future.