When I show people what I do I often get alot of “how” responses. Although this is by no means a tutorial on sculpting miniatures, it gives a basic outline of the process of sculpting a miniature from scratch, start to finish. We will be using this 30mm Barbarian as our example:
Step one:
I cut some wire. 0.23 gauge steel wire is what I use. Most professionals don’t use such a strong wire, but I prefer to spend more time posing my frame in frustration, knowing it’s not budging at all later, than bending it in place quickly with a chance to break something off or move it from where it started. The bent piece is 7 inches and the small one is about 1-2 inches. I twist them together to make the frame, then I put some procreate sculptors putty on it to hold it in place.
Step two:
After I have my wire frame (aka armature) I pose it to the way I want it and I stick it in a cork. The cork provides a way to hold the figure with a tight grip without dropping it or damaging something while suclpting. After I mount it, I place a thin layer of putty around the frames arms, legs and head, to give it a “primer” if you will of putty. If you do not do this the putty will be cut by the wire armature as you sculpt on it leaving very unpleasant shapes and a frustrating time as well.
Step three:
After I get it set where I want it, I place some procreate sculptors putty on the frame. I use various tools, some bought and some which I’ve made myself, to start sculpting the figure. First I sculpted the left leg and let it cure. I did the same with the right, then the torso, and then the head. Working in sections between cure (hardening) time is key to keeping your figure from getting messed up in the sculpting process.
Step four:
After I continue working in sections and finish the figure, I pull it out of the cork and finish it up. Then I end up with something like this:
If you’d like to know more, feel free to contact me.
Micah Nichols Miniatures 