DurMan's Hobby Blog

Let it Gnome...

2012-01-05T12:21:00.002-05:00

Just a little something I made for my mother as a Christmas present.

Swingin' a chain, swingin' a chain...

2011-08-06T17:33:00.003-04:00

Hey look! His monocle has a chain! Whee!

Good things come to those who... procrastinate...

2011-07-07T02:59:00.003-04:00

Since I've been terribly slow working on the little guy, and since I don't see my ambition to finish him raising in the near future, here is the next Sack Boy I'm working on.

As you can see, this one is a touch smaller.

I'm likely going to put this little guy on hold for a short while, as I want to make a sculpture of the character from Journey, which should present me with some interesting challenges.

Also I have a more artistic piece in mind that I need to get cracking on. I have until mid August to finish it.

The Power of Sack Boy

2011-06-24T14:28:00.007-04:00

Funny, isn't it, what one little Sack Boy can do?

Reginald P. Sackerton

2011-06-22T15:24:00.005-04:00

Here's a quick step-by-step of the creation of my sackboy sculpture.

Here's my SackBoy, Reginald P. Sackerton. I love this pose, so I used it for my sculpt.

I started with a simple wire skeleton to build on, starting with the feet, legs, spine, and head.

I then added a wire for the arms. I worked with a PS3 controller to make sure my scale was accurate. Turns out that SackBoy is officially 8cm tall, and that's what I ended up with by just going by eye.

Added some meat to his bones. Legs are in place as well as most of the torso. I also filled in the ring of wire for his head with a disk of material to build on.

Here everything for the base SackBoy is in place, fingers and all. Yes, I went so far as to add all 5 of his little fingers on each hand. I also added the tongue and the sleeves for the coat.

Adding the hat. I made a frame of wire for the crown and stuck it to his head and bulked it in with Spackle. I then added wires as guidelines for the shape of the brim.

Covered the Spackle with clay and added a ring of wire around the brim as a guide.

Skipped a few steps between pictures here, in case you didn't notice. Added the bulk of the coat, the scarf, the teeth, all the hair, the monocle, the decorations, and a partridge in a pear tree. This last bit is tough to see, but trust me, it's there. Honest.

Added the base coat of black spray paint, added white for the teeth and clock face, and painted his face. At this point you can also see the chain I added to the monocle as detail, but it kept falling off so I removed it. Once I find a suitable one, I plan to add a little REAL chain and stick it on there.

Did you know that you can rotate your Sack Thing by hovering the Sticker Tool over it until the camera zooms in and pressing R1 and L1? I didn't. After learning that trick I realized just how wrong I had sculpted the hair (Madison Hair from the Heavy Rain pack) so I re-sculpted it.

After that I finished the paint job. I started with the hair, using a dark desaturated brown as a base and adding white for the highlights. I then did the coat, using very thin paint in several layers to get the pattern to look right.

Next I did the pants, hat, and scarf, again using many layers of thin paint. The feather I did last of all, but it's only really visible in this pic =_=;

Right after I did the hat, I added the sticker on top, which is the "Wheel Sketch" sticker and the only sticker on this guy.

Afterwards came the rest of the decorations. Tiny roman numerals are tricky, but all you need is a good brush, some thin paint, and a very steady hand.

And of course, because I knew I would, I left out a couple tiny details before I did my nice pretty photoshoot. Here's what I missed before: The "LBP" and little crest on the clock.

And that's that! If you have any questions about this little dude, feel free to ask!

Oh, and Reginald will now be a regular on the video podcast I co-host: PodCast, which is, of course LBP related!

MATERIALS USED

Lots of people have been asking what I used to make this guy, so I thought I'd just list it off here!

Wire Skeleton: Fibre Craft Painted Wire I got from the hobby section of Wal*Mart
Body, details, and most everything else: Aves Apoxie Sculpt I got from Amazon
Hat Crown Filler: DAP Fast 'N Final Lightweight Spackling I got at Meijer
Paint: Various colors of FolkArt and Apple Barrel acrylics I got from Wal*Mart and Hobby Lobby. The black spray paint was the cheapest can of matte black I could find.
Brushes: A few cheap brushes for the bulk of the work, but for the fine details I used a Winsor & Newton Series 7 size 0 Miniature painting brush. This is the best paintbrush I have ever used. I bought it from Dick Blick's website

Archipelago

2010-04-25T20:48:00.001-04:00

The Archipelago has been displayed and put to rest. I feel that school has kinda burned me out, so once summer vacation gets here, I may take a rest from the art stuff for a while.

Before that, of course, I have another piece to send up to the Gallery Project in Ann Arbor. I made good progress on it the other day, so I now only have a bit more modeling and painting to do before it's street ready.

Other than the art stuff, I have a couple plans for the summer. I plan to force myself into doing a diet and exercise routine, which will be too much as it is. And while dieting, why not make food? I'm also researching mushroom cultivation and hydroponics so I can start up a drug syndicate. Or maybe I'll just grow some oyster mushrooms and some tomatoes.

I'll keep you posted. Maybe.

Michigan Small Colleges Art Exhibit

2010-03-01T00:16:00.000-05:00

Emily made it into a shiny big art show. She also earned me $50! Way to go, girl!

No pictures! Wait... No text!

2010-02-23T08:25:00.000-05:00

Archapelago Update

2009-11-30T00:11:00.000-05:00

I finally finished painting the little dude who is going to hang out on top of my islands. He has a hoe.

That is all.

Major Update, reporting for duty!

2009-10-21T22:17:00.000-04:00

So a few months ago I finished this little guy, but never got around to talking about him. Actually, I finished him, then didn't post any pictures in hopes of surprising my D&D group. This is a Mind Flayer, and they are meeeeeean.

The proces for making him was roughy the same as it was for all of the other minis I have made, so scroll down to the Evil Fred entry if you want to see the how-to.

As a part of my Archipelago project which you may be aware of, I am making a little house for some of my little guys. Here it is as it currently sits. I am putting a roof on it so I can add shingles later on. You can also see the spot that will eventually hold the door. I also intend to put some windows on the outside.

That's all for now, folks!

Please Hold

2009-09-15T13:06:00.001-04:00

The school year is getting quickly back into full swing, so I have considerably less time to work on my hobby-type stuff. I am the Vice President of the Gamers Council, the newly founded gaming club on campus. That takes up a chunk of my time, as does all of my readings and projects for class. Quite honestly it's all a real pain.

Anyhoo, once I head home I plan to put the matte coat on my Thrulgül miniature and get a picture of that up. Apart from that all I have to report is that I got some shiny new Winsor & Newton Series 7 Miniature brushes, which are specially made for use with minis. I'm excited to give them a try!

Wax Casting

2009-07-31T12:19:00.000-04:00

I've been messing with casting stuff out of wax so that I can later cast stuff in metal. This was the first attempt that even came close to working. As you may or may not be able to see, it lost lots and lots of detail. This is a problem that I'll have to figure out how to fix. I think that perhaps sloshing the wax around inside would help a bit. Perhaps if I use a stick of some kind to prod the wax around the mold...

Anyway, we'll see how it works out.

IT'S A NEW TRACK RECORD!

2009-06-18T02:18:00.000-04:00

One day in the making, this mini is DONE.

I still have to paint her, of course, but that's not a big deal. If it's decent out tomorrow I may just spray paint her and the minis I got at that thing at Defiance. It'd be awesome if I finished her over the weekend.

D&D Minis

2009-06-17T13:16:00.000-04:00

D&D uses a Battle Grid for combat, and on that grid an inch represents five feet. Because of this, keeping minis in scale makes them significantly smaller than any I've made before. The figure you see here is currently 3/4" tall, making it somewhat shorter than I was intending. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. In retrospect, I'm going to ajust the arms to make the end product taller. What we see here would end up being about 4 scale feet tall. That's just too short! My original goal was to get this mini to 5'5" scale feet. I'm gonna try to manage.

Welcome to Zoluto

2009-06-03T00:15:00.000-04:00

I've recently started a Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 campaign for some of my friends. Here we see the world in which all of this take place. They started in the city of Tyrramere which is near the center of the map, and are now in the small village of Marna.

This is actually version 2.0 of this map. The original was drawn in 2007, and a few weeks ago I went through and changed a few names while adding a lot more.

This time I'm going to keep a detailed record of the world and its residents. By keeping this record, if the players return to a city, they can meet the same people that they met before. The places and events will also be recorded for future games.

Mini Island Prototype: In Progress

2009-05-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

To those who DON'T know, part of my senior show will be a large multi-piece display of miniature islands suspended from the ceiling. I'm currently working on a prototype what is allowing my to determine potential problems and also work out the kinks in my techniques. I'm using a combination of foam, hardboard, chicken wire, and paper mache. I plan on finishing this one completely before I show it off. You've seen The New Yankee Workshop, right? Always complete the prototype before the show starts! Afterwards, I'll have various step by steps and work in progress images of the later models.

Just you wait and see. It's gonna be great.

Self Portrait: Hot off the Press

2009-04-29T21:31:00.000-04:00

Here is a piece of work that I "finished" some weeks ago. I believe it turned out well as I have been recognized by people who have seen this mini.

Originally I was gonna paint this guy, but it turns out that I didn't have time and my professors thought I should leave it unpainted. Over the summer I plan to make a mold of this and cast several replicas. I can then leave the original unpainted and do whatever I want with the duplicates.

More to come later, I'm sure.

Figure Studies

2009-04-26T14:12:00.001-04:00

As part of my Figure Studies critique, I needed to finish up the ceramic bust I made in class. As you can see, it's 1:1 scale, as it can wear my hat and shades. Next to it you can see a mini bust I'm working on as well!this way you can kinda see the scale I'm working in.

it's mostly terra cotta, but the white bits are epoxy putty. The reason it looks like he has a beard is because his face kinda, well fell off. I used the putty to clean up the seam and also as my adhesive. I also added an eyebrow for good measure.

Starting next weekend I'll be working on my Senior Show, and thus I'll be setting up a little miniatures workshop at home. I hope to have a mess of armatures within a few days of getting home.

Papercrafts for Show

2009-04-06T10:47:00.000-04:00

One thing that I have been somewhat interested in for a while now are papercrafts, which are paper model kits which you print off and assemble.

Here you can see two that I have made completely from scratch. In the past I have extracted models and textures form WoW and run them through various programs to get them in this form, but in this case I built them in SketchUp and textured them either within that program or in Photoshop. They are by no means the most complicated or advanced papercrafts out there, but they are, as stated, actually origional!

Stay tuned, I have one or two other projects in the "Almost ready for Primetime" stage.

Emily Mini DONE

2009-03-23T10:26:00.001-04:00

And voila, she is done!

I think I might add some static grass to her base, but other than that she's finished. as expected, the face was the hardest part, but then everything behind her back and under all that hair was a real trick as well.

The ground turned out well. It looks like very good earth... Or maybe delicious chocolate....

Emily Mini Pre-Paint

2009-03-22T10:45:00.000-04:00

Emily is now fully sculpted and is now awaiting paint. The blue block she's standing on is the foam her armature was stuck into to give me a better hold on her while in progress.

Now she has a very splendid and worth-while hill to stand on complete with sand. When the whole thing is painted up and whatnot, you can expect another picture.

On to bigger (but not necessarily better) sculpting projects. Details forthcoming.

Emily Mini WIP

2009-03-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

I'm currently working on a couple more mini projects. Pictured is my Emily mini as she stands now. I still need to file down her dress a bit, as there are lumps and seams here and there that need to go. Also, some places are a bit thick, making her look thicker than she should be. After I decide the dress is done, I'll finish up her facial features and give her arms, which are currently not even in their final placement. I'll finish her off with hair and paint, and I'll have my most detailed mini to date done!

Sitting beside her over there is an armature of me in a significantly larger scale. I'm kinda putting that off till I'm done with this one though.

Pretty soon I'll be making miniature heads as a part of my figure studies class. I'll get plenty of practice then!

More on this later.

Evil Fred [Step-By-Step]

2009-03-06T11:26:00.001-05:00

Just as I promised, here is the slide show of my Evil Fred mini's construction. I sculpted him over the matter of about a week, but certain details were done MUCH later than the original. Let's get started!

Now it all began with a wire armature which I made from Florist's wire. I attached this to a spare 20mm plastic base I had leftover from my various Games Workshop minis. This base, like many others, was slotted, so I filled in the slot with some spare epoxy putty. speaking of which, the entire mini is made from Apoxie Sculpt, a brand of epoxy putty. Not only does it work very well, but it smells DELICIOUS. As you can see, I gave him a basic body structure and shoes on Day 1.

Next up, Fred got hands and pants, which to me a least are both VERY important. This is where the detail started coming in. You can see the seams in his pants! That was really quite a trick to do, as it required a lot of precise exact-o knife work. I did what I could to get folds and wrinkles in there to make it look realistic. End Day 2.

A stylish vest was next up on the list. It is complete with pockets, buttons, and a belt buckle. On this step, the buckle was by far the trickiest part. Not only is it tiny, but it's at right angles! Also, you can see that I didn't sculpt the pinstripes. Those were added later.

Day 4 was a productive one. Fred got a tie, a head, AND his trademark lab coat. The tail of his coat I sculpted to make it seem to be blowing in the wind. That was a little on the difficult side, but not so bad. Oh, his coat also has buttons. I left a crescent for his mouth so I could add his teeth the next day.

Next we have the most difficult part: Facial Features! Teeth, ears, nose, glasses, and eyebrows were all added. I went through one or two techniques before I figured out how to make his glasses look good. You'd be amazed at how many fiddly bits there are on a human face! There wasn't a single part of this step that WASN'T a trick to do! The ears were a real pain due to a cruel mistress called "symmetry," and the nose was just plain small! I digress...

This step was actually quite a while after the previous steps. I had sculpted Evil Fred's hair, but I didn't like the way it turned out. Months later (pictured) I fixed and finished it off. You can also see my Cave Troll before it was painted. The whitish bits are the ones I added.

Here is the finished product. By the by, I use Wal-Mart bought acrylic hobby paint. Many say that miniatures paints sold by Games Workshop and a few other companies are the best, but there isn't a true difference. These paints work great and they are a fraction of the cost.

I hoped you enjoyed this little guide. if you have any questions, I'll do what I can to answer!

Most Recent Projects

2009-03-03T16:33:00.000-05:00

As I have only recently returned from Japan, I haven't had a lot of time over the last several months to make stuff. Now that I'm back I can make up for lost time!

Here is my first attempt at miniature making (from scratch, that is), Evil Fred! Who better to make first? He is shown here some change, an orange, a Nintendo DS cartridge, my ring, and a paper crane. You can click for a larger view. I won't go into detail as to how he was made just yet. I'll post the step-by-step in a separate entry.

For some, this is old news. I sculpted this guy last year and painted him over the summer before I left. That is why I've done more stuff!

Here we have Evil Fred posing with my two newest projects: a Cave Troll from LotR and Dipp from Katamari Damacy.

The Cave Troll only has a little customization done to it. I bought the miniature on sale at Hobby Town USA and then immediately began thinking about how I would alter it. Since my LotR Minis force is all Isengard, I decided I would strap a few Uruk-hai shields to his arms as extra armor. Upon reflection, I think I should put some white handprints on him...

In any event, I put a black basecoat on him and promptly left for Japan. Upon my return I decided it was high time this guy got a paintjob. Breaking from Cave Troll standard (as seen in the movies), I decided that this troll was a cross breed made to survive in the sun (as Cave Trolls have a tendance to become giant rocks in sunlight). This is, I believe, mentioned in the books, so I shall contend it to be canon.

Dipp is made entirely from scratch, using a spare round base that I believe came with the Troll. I began with an epoxy putty head on a wire armeture. After applying his hips, I attached the model to the base. A few more gobs of epoxy putty and a little sanding later, and I had a finished model. I gave everything (save his pants) a black basecoat, then covered his shirt with white dots. Later I came in with the various colors to tinish off his blinking suit. All that remained to paint where his pants, antenna, and face (which was the only trick part due to his tiny eyes). Overall I am quite happy with the result.

That's all I have so far. I'm currently on Spring Break, so I hope to get at least one of my other projects done. Also look forward to the Evil Fred Step-by-Step I mentioned!

Y HALLO THAR

2009-02-23T10:44:00.001-05:00

Welcome, unsuspecting victims, to DurMan's Hobby Blog!

Here I will post pictures of the random stuff I make along with scarce commentary. This stuff could be anything from an art assignment I have for class, a miniature I bought then painted, or a model I built from scratch to a papercraft I put together, a thing I made from old pop cans, or a card game I designed! Most of the listed have already been made and I could post at any time. Stay on your toes!