Models

[Unfortunately I do not have any in-progress photos of these models.]

Mharos/Yule Cat model. Made of Citadel/Kneadetite Green Stuff, a two-part putty that forms into slowly hardening plastic. It is built over an armature covered in tinfoil, then covered in green stuff, and detailed/smoothed with a scalpel that I have become much more capable with. Green stuff itself is mildly unpleasant to work with after Chavant clay and Super Sculpey. It is sticky, requiring frequent lubrication with water, and does not bond extremely well to itself, leaving noticeable ridges I had to try and plane down with my scalpel. With the tools I had at my disposal though, I am extremely pleased with how this model turned out.

 

Initial sketches for the end model. It felt necessary to make the creature able to stand up of its own accord, so the stronger tail was used instead of trying to make it balance its weight on the fairly spindly legs.

Flesh-toned Super Sculpey of a Celestial Stag. The detailing of it was extremely tedious, but very rewarding as it brought the whole model together. One of the legs and one antler frequently snapped, requiring patching up and re-baking in the oven to harden the sculpey. For my first go with the material I am pleased with the turn out but it was extremely aggravating to re-bake after small changes and then have to wait for it to cool down enough to be used again.

The two different materials have increased my knowledge of modelling. I think I will be much more capable with Chavant clay now as it is not as loose as these materials when they are malleable, and it holds its weight a lot better. Green stuff is a fun, if annoying, material. I really like the effect that painting can give to it as a final model, too, so that might be something I return to in the future. Super Sculpey, perhaps. Maybe not for everything, but anything that specifically requires being hard in a certain pose would definitely benefit from sculpey. Chavant's capability to be altered at any point is definitely most useful for reference models though, allowing for different poses and with less of a shiny texture so that lighting might be more accurate in the piece.