Da Green Giant !

 

Hello everyone! No this article is not an add for your favourite sweetcorn brand, just a little sculpting project I've had fun with in the past few weeks.

Some of you might know that I am a miniatures designer working exclusively on the computer. But I wanted to do a bit of physical sculpting for a change, not having been playing with putty this way for nearly 9 years!

So I decided to redesign a model I made for work as part of the Death Guard range, but to give myself a bit of a challenge, I decided to make him about half the size. The scale is not a technical issue working digitally (still some important design considerations apply...) but by hand it is another story!

I decided to go for a bit of a Chibi style, which suits reduced-scale models nicely, but also would look quite cool on that specific Plague Marine since I approached it in a very graphic way. But enough words, let's have a look at some pics!

As you can see, the model is drastically smaller than its 40k scale inspiration, but I tried to retain as many design features as possible.

Saying that, I did not want to be welded to the original, this is why I took some liberty with the pose, and changed/rationalised some of the details to fit the scale.
I could have made a carbon copy, but it would have been more labourious. After all, this is just a fun hobby project ;)

I decided to make everything with green stuff, for pure nostalgia: I remember being super excited as a teenager seeing pictures of "greens" in White Dwarf. I think there is something quite magical about green stuff sculptures. The pose plays that nostalgia card as well, referencing models from the 90's.

Oddly enough it is miles better than the last models I sculpted by hand, which shows that even if I have been working digitally ever since, the same part of the brain and design/shaping muscles are used.

These are my tools of choice. I actually use the metal one 99% of the time, the rubber brush is only when I need a softer/more gentle touch.

And here are all the step by step photos I took with my phone. They are not as good as the final shots, but it is always good fun to see the process (not that I have been particularly methodical, but it shows the stages I have been through):

Thanks for reading! I hope you like this little dude, he was really fun to sculpt!

I might sculpt something else in a similar style again. Maybe another resculpt of my own model... just have to find what!

Oh, and finally: I am sure it goes without saying, but this model is not for sale ;)

Cheers!