Was kit-bashing my entry for
Magacon earlier and realize that I need something to be aflame to achieve a certain effect that I'm lookin for...
After a few painful attempt, finally I get a hang on how to sculpt fire, it's not perfect at the moment, but I think this will do...
While I at it, I figure I could take a few photo and do a simple tutorial of some sort for folks who want to take a glimpse on how it was be done... it was actually easier than I thought, and I guess I'm not the sharpest hobby knife in the drawer, so everyone should be able to do it with some patient and trial and error =)
Without further ado:
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Sculpting Fire on 40k miniature using green stuff step-by-step (sort of, kind of...)
What do you need :
1.) Green stuff
2.) A big glass of water
3.) Your always faithful hobby knife
4.) Your fingers =) (seriously...)
Step 1:
Roll a small ball of green stuff
Step 2:
Important: remember to always moisture your finger with water (or water based lube, or lotion),
as a wise man once said : The Green Stuff stick to dry surface.. using this attribute, you can make it stick to the place that you want it to be (and not going off with your tool/fingers while you are sculpting/shaping them...)
Step 3:
Press the green stuff into cone shape (err... flamer template shape..), actually you can go pretty crazy and go for any shape you like, but I find that this shape works for me... and make sure you press it thin enough (but not paper thin...)
Step 4:
Curl the side edge a little (you can also try to "roll" it gently), you might take a few attempt to get this right at first, but once you get used of it, it's a no-brainer =)
Step 5:
Now, gently "wipe" it on the minis where you want it to be...
Step 6:
Moisture your hobby knife, you will need it to "pull" the flame in right shape
Step 7:
Gently "push" the side curl of flame into a bent shape, make sure you don't over did it, also, if the "tip" of your flame is not shape enough, you can try and use you finger with hobby knife to "sharpen" it, the outcome should be (could be) something like below:
Step 8:
Repeat the steps above, and if you screw up a few flame, no big deal, just scrap it off with hobby knife and try it again, just be patient =) I post one more set of "flame rolling" below for your reference =)
Last step :
The final outcome after a few roll -> place -> push -> pull
Ooookey... this doesn't looks too awesome, the "rock" (cork) above is actually blocking my movement when shaping (sculpting..?) the flame and it is the best I could do for the moment (while multitasking on taking picture for this tut...), But I've got better luck on the other two earlier piece when there is nothing blocking me ;-p You could refer below:
** You could also purposely keep your tool dry when every flame is set in place, so when you try to pull/push the green stuff to the right shape, some small pieces will stick on the tool and make it easier to do your bidding, plus, you are able to cut/chip a small portion off to produce a more natural/random/jagged lookin flame
** If you are workin on something smiliar as my icon thingy (the one above backpack), you could always stick a few piece of flame under the portion that you need it to "stand", to support it so it won't collapse.
A few personal tips while working with green stuff :
Don't worry about the green stuff getting dry, from my experience, it took about 3-4 hours to be cure (harden), could last longer if you keep them wet... if you are still worry about it, just make sure you keep em wet occasionally. And oh, remember, you don't need to mix a huge portion for small scale sculpting/modelling such as this, I cut off around 5mm piece and it still have quite alot left after I done with the base.
Have fun, folks =)
