Sculpting a Primarch (WIP)

[bedaho]

I've held off posting this anywhere because it's a surprise for my brother, but since he isn't a guard player, I'm hoping it's safe here. This is my WIP version of Lion El'jonson, primarch of the Dark Angels. It's going to be a mix of my own ideas and features I've seen on other peoples' models. Most inspiration comes from the Ronin version. It's still somewhat rough and has some fingerprints and other issues to smooth over (by the way, it might look like I'm giving him a mustache, but that's just because faces are a pain to get right... ). In addition, I'll be making a helmet that can be swapped for the head and two pairs of arms, one standing, one in battle. With all that out of the way, pics:

[BG. Foster]

Have you sculpted it all from scratch or do you have a set of existing legs and torso under there? Would have liked to have seen more of a step by step.

[bedaho]

Yeah, sorry, I didn't think to take many pics before today. It started as a basic frame from sprue that I cut up and glued togeter, but beyond giving me a basic skeleton to work from, it's all been sculpted by me. The cape and tabard were made with a technique I saw on From the Warp, and they along with the head are magnetized for ease of painting.

[treadiculous]

I like what you're doing here... as a rule of thumb, when I work with green stuff I make at least two of each item so I have a pratice copy to play with, this also leaves me with spare bits which I can then carve into as well... I really find by doing things a few times it really helps me improve.

I really like your cape / cloak.. I'm working on turning 6 eldar fire dragons into rangers with green stuff cloaks and I'm using a similar method...

Have you got clay shaping tools?... I get my green stuff and tools from heresy minuatures (mainly because you get a metre of greenstuff for the same price GW will sell you 20 cm)... heresy sell a nice little bundle of rubber tipper clay shaping tools which really help.

I also find that using a lot of water while shaping will allow you to really gently work an area until its incredibly smooth and give you the opportunity to get a really nice rounded shape.. yu probably know this alread since you stated this is WIP and you intend to smooth over fingerprnts etc.

Fces are a nightmare!.. so far I haven't bothered and look for existing models with heads I like, I applaud you bravery and confidence.

I attended a workshop on using green stuff and the guy running it basically used the internet to find good anatomical pictures of skeletons, nerve structure, muscles and then skin... he would build his figures up from skeleton to fully fleshed in this series of steps, needless to say they looked amazing and gave him the ability to do some amazing nurgle bloated intenstines and other exposed internal gubbins.. but to do so much work to then get cover it with the next layer of green stuff might be a bit excessive for most people!

I will be very interested to see how this develops, well done!