Anvil Industry WIP's and new product...

[Anvils Hammer]

.. so you can diss my sculpting without even having to leave the forum..



New product for molding over the weekend and release early next week-



Fur cloaks, spartan shield and warglaive.

The gun on top of the glaive is actually a separate component, to be mounted on this weapon, any other weapon, or a miniatures wrist/forearm.

Joel

[blind pig]

Thanks for sharing!

Don't think of it as dissing your sculpting, but as constructive criticism. It is how we learn and what this and other forums are all about.

What do you sculpt the cloak in, it looks like two different sculpting mediums?
Is the glaive (sp?) the finished product, as it looks good! Buggered if I know how you could sculpt stuff so round and thin if that is the sculpt and not the resin final product.

I'm jealous of cleaver people who can sculpt.

[mangozac]

OK have you got your thick skin on?........




..... I kid

Well the Spartan shield certainly looks very spartan. As in bare (did you like that pun?). That may be the effect you're going for (so that people can add their own decorations), but I reckon it would get a better response if it had some fancy detailing around the rim.

The glaive looks good, but I'd like to see some grooves or detail in the blade. Something like a swirly embellishment carved into it would look great.

The cur cloaks look great - are the two colours the two different grades of Milliput?

[Anvils Hammer]

Haha I know, constructive criticism is what Im here for!

The cloak fabric is made from 50/50 GS/milliput, then filed and dremeled into submission. The fur was then sculpted on top with super sculpey.

For some reason, I am totally unable to sculpt fur using regular putties, it always looks totally rubbish, but with super sculpey not only can I sculpt realisistic looking fur, but also sculpt it really fast with out much thought.. so er.. use super sculpey for fur! I think its because the sculpey is a lot softer, so its easy to push it round without distorting surrounding "strands" of fur.

The "haft" of the glaive isnt sculpted, its made from a single peice of perspex rod, machined with a file on my pillar drill. So really.. I cheated... :p

The glaive and shield are resin, from the master mold. Just gotta sculpt the hands on the glaives now!

I thought long and hard about adding more detail to the sheild and glaive, and decided not to.

The classic greek hoplite sheild is flat with no potrusions.. it would perhaps have looked better with rivits all round, but at the same time would no longer be the sheild im trying to make..

see here-

https://questgreekmythology.wikispaces. ... med+Forces

The glaive would look better more decorative, but any decoration I add is as likly to cause some people to dislike them.. hence keep it simple.

I plan to make a set of highly ornate weapons in the future. Blinged up versions of all the basic weapons.

Joel

[mangozac]

[Anvils Hammer]

Bah! I dislike making a master, molding it, then remaking it.. but so it is somtimes, better now than after Ive made the production molds!

Ive relathed the sheild, I wasnt happy with the original part and Ive figured out why- it was too thick, made it look clunky.

Because I had a resin version, Ive now been able to machine it again to make it smoother, slightly smaller diameter and the rim is now half the thickness.

Im also going to add the rivets, because they will vastly improve the look of the thing and historical accuracy is only so important when the shield is designed for a steam lord!

Im happy with the gun and glaive as they are, just need to sculpt 5x hand round the haft, which im not looking forward to!

AH

[mangozac]

I'm glad to hear. Look forward to pics of the finished products!

[Anvils Hammer]

woop!

As requested, the naked resin. 14 components!







Just gotta get these painted, get the plates and production molds made, and I can release them and get on with the next project!


The legs look a little small to me, but thats because the spartan pads are pretty damn "heroic"!

AH

[factor40]

Those look nice!

[mangozac]

I'm really glad you added the rivets to the shield - they really finished it off. I've been recently telling the guys on the Specialist Games forum that the difference between a good BFG scratchbuild and a bad one is that extra level of detailing; but really that extends to whatever type of mini or part you're making!

I really like that head design. With the aim of giving the best feedback I'll be brutally honest here (yeah like I'm ever not!). You know your sculpting skills are actually quite good; where you run afoul is your proportioning. It's not too bad with the guy on the right, but the one on the lefts legs are far too small. And the feet on both are too small.

I'd like to see a few more technical details added too. Stuff to make them obviously sci-fi, rather than historical/fantasy. The backpack is a good step towards it, but again I urge you to try adding another pass of details. Piping/cables, vents, access panels (check out scribing templates for that), etc.

One final thing: if you're going to post these bare resin pictures it's even more important to have the lighting levels correct. I assume you're photoshopping/GIMPing them? Make sure you're really familiar with the levels tool (including using it manually) and use it on every picture:

I hope I don't offend with any of my comments. I'm just trying to help out

[paulson games]

I think the shields came out great.

The proportions seem a bit off, the legs are a bit stubby and it that makes the arms look overly long.
Typically human arms will come down to the waist level, and then the legs are about 50% of a person's overall height. (If a person is 6ft tall then their legs + hips are going to be about 3ft long.)

Measuring the picuture the model with the forward pointing lance is 2.5 inches tall on my monitor, the legs are a touch short at 1.24 inches, they need about another quater inch in height. (actual measurements will probably be differant as I'm only measuring the computer pic not the actual model) The stubby look is furthered by the fact there's no real visable waist on the model and the torso is very wide and barrel chested.

You can probably lengthen the legs a touch by cutting the shins and thighs and adding a spacer with styrene. Their overall width appears fine and with a touch more length added they'd be great. By adding a spacer you can lengthen them without having to do whole new legs, just add the extra material and then green stuff over the gaps.

Due to the angles I can't really measure the armsto chek their proportions but my gut instinct is that the arms look slightly too long and would come down to about mid thigh if they were held straight at the side. (giving them overly long "ape arms") If that's the case then you can remove a small cross section of the fore arm and upper arm.

The upper arm and lower arm will each ideally be about 40% of the arms total length, (the hand making up about about the remaining 20%)

I think the sculpting on these is definately much improved and I think with some minor tweaks you have a home run.

[Anvils Hammer]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

You are right the proportions are a bit off.

Its actually the torsos which are a bit tall, rather than the legs being a bit short.

Measuring the model, the mini is 33mm to the top of the helmet, while floor-waist is about 16/17mm

So they are a little short, but not far off.

The arms with hand come down to just above the knee, my fist comes down to my mid thigh. Personally I think the arms need to be a fraction bigger than "normal" (and the fist a proper heroic size) otherwise the shoulder pads would look even more oversized than usual!

Afterall, these are not "normal" men, but steamlords, some serious enhancement has gone into these warriors! The barrel chest is due to their ability to bench press 2000lb for 50 reps.

I dont plan to modify these arm/leg sets for the time being as Im happy enough with the scaling.

However I am making several new arm sets and a "medieval" leg range. I will be sure to take better care of the proportions for those parts!

Likewise, I will be working more "tech" into the newer stuff, These figures are deliberatly a bit fantasy, as romans/spartans should be.

Thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated.

Joel

[Anvils Hammer]

NEW PRODUCTS- now available-

Fur Cloaks

Fur Pelts

Bayonet Gun- for adding to my Warglaive as shown, or any other pole weapon, these can also be wrist mounted.

Spartan Shield

War Glaive

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Hope you guys like the new stuff,

Brutal constructive criticism expected!

Cheers,

Joel Pitt

Anvil Industry Ltd.

[Anvils Hammer]

Woop!

New products released-


Anvil Gaming Bases

Joel

[mangozac]

Joel these are really nice! Are they all your own sculpts? The "DARK FORGE" liquid hybrid made me laugh - you should put up a page explaining further the TEXTURE GRIP™.