Sunday, November 16, 2014

Back to Base(ics), Grey Knights style


Since it was time to start basing some Grey Knight terminators, that meant it was also time to bake some Sculpey!

Whenever I bake a set of Sculpey pieces, I usually roll out other items that I am running short on, or experiment with something new.

Lately, I have been making more sizes of bricks and columns, as well as thinner than normal pieces of Sculpey.  I have found that this makes a nice substitute for plasticard.

Last but not least, a new method for cutting rivets!  I don't know if you can see them, but there are some very thin tubes of sculpey down towards the left.

I have grown tired of cutting polystyrene tubing, as the pieces pop off in all directions, and the static cling means that the pieces want to stick to you, or your knife!

The sculpey slices off very nicely, and has none of those nasty properties, thus allowing me to cut an infinite number of them in a very short period of time.


For this project, however, all I needed was my standard thickness sheets of sculpey.  You can see the cork, rocks and gravel all set up as well.


The construction of these bases is not terribly complex, as the real purpose is to set up the painting of those marble pieces!


To get a general idea of the kinds of designs I needed, I had the figures out to determine 'footprint' and center of gravity.


After setting down the cork, I put the sculpey sheets over the top.  Watch out for excessive unsupported overhangs, as those will be quite fragile.  That can be supported later on with oxide paste or even rocks and gravel with glue.


Here you see a few of the bases with the rocks and gravel in place.


Now all of the bases have the rocks and gravel in place.  I have also drawn out the basic designs so that I can carve them.

Using the basic white Sculpey is very important, as this is the only version soft enough to do this kind of carving.  The other styles are too hard or rubbery.


The tools.  We have some basic wood carving tools, as well as a scribe tool.  That device is designed to cut into plasticard and even some soft metals.  It's great for more detailed carving.


The set is almost ready for painting.  A few little details have been added, such as bits, Secret Weapon skulls, and even shell casings.


A little brush on primer unifies all the varied pieces, and gets them all ready for painting!!!


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