How To Sculpt Armatures - How to Sculpt Miniatures Episode 6

When sculpting miniatures from scratch, the best way to bulk them up is by using armatures. What's an armature, though? Here's an intro.
Screaming back from the void, here's a quick one. My priority here was to try to get out a video as quickly as I could, so not as much editing as previous, but hopefully you still find it helpful!
I also mention how thankful I am to all of you who have subscribed to this channel. YOU are the ones who encouraged me to get off my butt and get this new video out. THANK YOU!

[@x32gx]

I've been looking for a long time for really high end tutorials that explain how to implement really tiny realistic details and FINLAY! I found your channel. PLEEEASE make more videos. Don't ever stop! You got a student here! heh :) I usually sculpt in Sculpey FIRM but so far everything you have taught is applicable there as well. One thing I am struggling with is sharp edges and smooth surfaces. I am not asking for a tutorial on a full WarHammer 40K mechanical armour type model but any tip on hard edges and surfaces, symmetrical modelling would be like a gift from the Gods of sculpting. Any way your videos are amazing. Keep em coming can't wait for the next one!! And thank you for your time and effort :)

[@ModernSynthesist]

Man. I'm sorry I missed this. I'm glad you distinguished in your request from full mechanical, that you're just looking for smooth surfaces and sharp edges. It's not EASY, but it's definitely doable, and I have some hacks. Thank you for the helpful suggestion!

[@jamesford7937]

This is really great tutorial. Even just watching what your doing is amazing and gives me the courage to actually try. Make videos of just you sculpting, inspire!

[@jjcouch5]

I care! I just found you because of Eric’s Hobby Workshop…your sculpting is amazing! I’ve learned so much…please keep posting vids!

[@ModernSynthesist]

Thanks for the lovely words, and I'm glad you made it over! And more videos are on the way!

[@Mr2Syderguy]

know I am way tardy to this party. I just found your youtube channel and have really felt you do a great job explaining. you mention you want to see what we want to learn to sculpt. I am building an Iybraesil Eldar Army, due to this I need a lot of female torsos. of which Mr James only gives you 2 in a specific box set he makes. Per the craftworld lore that James and his workshop made up for them, They are matriarchal and have a super high percentage of female babies. some Sculpting Episodes I would love to watch, how to sculpt robes (AKA making warlocks and farseers), converting male to female torsos and lastly how to make Psychic looking effects for your models. These would be amazing to see you do as you seem to be skilled and a pretty good teacher. Thanks for the content you make, just won over another sub.

[@ModernSynthesist]

And now I get to apologize for being tardy to reply to your comment! Sorry! Your suggestions are really great, so thank you for that. As for sculpting robes, it's not as clear a video as these tutorials, but Hydra and I touched on this a bit in our first Great German Sculpt Off: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6i6g3Rvfrt6l6M

[@Good_boy518]

Your work will pay off man.. Dedication, love, and the desire to share your knowledge goes a long way. I am now seriously going to start a sculpting project, because of your influence. I also agree that true satisfaction comes from working with your hands, having control over your model instead of the lazy way of paying bucks to companies that want your money.

[@ModernSynthesist]

GLAD TO HEAR IT! And good sculpting to you!

[@Syspheria]

Man, this is soo cool. Really look forward to see more of your stuff. Keep going with this amazing work 👍

[@ModernSynthesist]

Thanks man!

[@trapdoorogre5909]

Yay. New content. You're an inspiration as usual. I should get my butt in the chair and sculpt again.

[@ModernSynthesist]

You definitely should!

[@IshanDeston]

For what it is worth, I am so happy to have found your channel. I am so tired of nurgle and spacemarines. As nid and tzeentch player I am loving your videos. As long as you keep sculpting nice and non nurgle demon stuff, I'll be here to watch. This sculpt in this video will get a copy in my Horrors, I was really looking all over for inspiration for non-boring horrors. I am totally going to use that mouth technique and the tentacles here look great. Also loving to watch your dominatrix build.

[@ModernSynthesist]

Amazing! Thank you for commenting, and I'm glad my stuff is a balm against marine boredom. But I do owe someone a video on sculpting Nurgle stuff, sooo...

[@IshanDeston]

@@ModernSynthesist Yeah... Nurgle is everywhere these days... 20202 is the year of Nurgle after all...

[@ModernSynthesist]

@@IshanDeston LOL! You mean in sculpting videos? Because just as organic stuff is easier to sculpt because not as many sharp edges or perfect symmetry, nurgle is about the easiest to sculpt as the daemons are meant to look rough and melty 😂

[@IshanDeston]

@@ModernSynthesist Not just in sculpting videos :p but yeah.. loads and loads of nurgle. The thing is.. i get the argument for Nurgle and organic things, but there is barely any Tzeentch stuff out there. You know, the God of mutation. And with a unit that is literally called "Horrors". I've always been more of Tzeentch guy, but when the Thousand Sons got a codex last edition i decided to finally start a Chaos Warband. I am not a fan of the Thousand Son helmets so i started to look into learning to sculpt and while i was at it, i figured "why not look at some custom horror models because the GW ones don't really look like horror". They just look goofy. So i figured there had to be tons of people sculpting actual horrors. 10000 eyes, and tentacles and spiders... silent scream faces plastered over the bodies of some crotesque monstrosity, looking like there are souls trapped right under their skin... some Eldritch Horror type stuff. But everyone just does Nurgle.. no Khorne, no Slaanesh.. no Tzeentch.. its all just Nurgle. So yeah.. it feels like Chaos is just Nurgle these days. And i don't understand it, because you'd think people would be all over sculpting horror demons. Similarily, its staggering how few people seem to do Tyranids. I mean, given how stupid the Red Terror looks, i thought "hey there must be someone out there that did a Ravener with a Cobra coil, to make it look like its a much larger beast" (Red Terror being just a Ravener and all that). But no, nothing like that either. Not even Biovore Conversion (although i found a nice one of a Hive Guard kit converted into a Biovore). Or, Reddit.. i know you don't do Reddit, but there are so many people in the Tyranid subreddit that are like "I do like the Genestealer model for the Cult, but it doesn't really fit into my army" and there are actually few conversions on the internet that doesn't try to turn them into a Xenomorph. You'd think there is more of it... but it since the lockdown started i finally had the time to invest looking for it, and all that (which is how i found your channel)... and its all just Nurgle, Space Marines and the occassional Imperial Guard.

[@ModernSynthesist]

@@IshanDeston want horrific horrors? Just cut their eyes off and turn their faces upside down.

[@jasonthomas2908]

Hello. Nice video. I recently made tentacles by using cheap thermoplastic. It's very easy to bulk out some wire using this stuff.

[@ModernSynthesist]

Great tip! Brother Pink is a HUGE fan of thermoplast

[@thatothersanecustodian8034]

Finally, my prayers have been heard

[@sierraMaddin]

thanks to you my tyranid kill team got some extra spines

[@ModernSynthesist]

Yes! Glad to hear it

[@andrewrevenon1398]

This is exactly what I needed. Someone who talked about the real shit. Thank you. Thank you...

[@ModernSynthesist]

YES! Happy to help, Andrew!

[@thekraden04]

I would love to see some Tyranid terrain. I especially love the atmosphere processors you previously made. Also, I subscribed mid-video and directly afterwards you brought up the whole subscriber pressure thing, lol.

[@ModernSynthesist]

AAAAHHH! MORE SUBSCRIBER PRESSURE! Glad to hear from you, and I'm about to finish work on the video for tyranid armour plates, which will be useful for scenery. But, yes, could try a larger vid dedicated just to scenery 🤔 Only issue is that those processors were pretty complicated, and they're a pretty niche thing to teach people to sculpt...

[@thekraden04]

@@ModernSynthesist it doesn't have to specifically be the atmosphere processors. I'd be curious to see what else you'd make.

[@ModernSynthesist]

@@thekraden04 WILCO ♥

[@igordekiparis]

Thank you very much for your tips! Hope to see more.

[@KaleismaStudios]

Thank you so much for your videos! You are definitely inspiring a complete beginner that has tools and more, lot's of ideas, but no knowledge on how to start. Your videos (and so far only seen up to this episode (6), are so encouraging, simple looking (yep am jealous!) lol, but you've shown great detail so that makes my tiny ideas for my Orks become realistic-kind-of. Still gotta start hahaha. I LOVE the stitches on skin - never new that it was achievable! So huge thank you from Aussie

[@ModernSynthesist]

Yay! Glad you're finding them useful! I swear they'll be even better once you start on the actual sculpting!

[@KaleismaStudios]

@@ModernSynthesist Thank you so much. I'm currently waiting for the delivery of the Apoxie Sculpt tubs and the tools. Just received my Marsden Jars, so tomorrow I get to split the columns of yellow and blue and put them into their own jars. YAY. Though I do have a question: With your awesome experience, whatwould be the best medium to make horns and tiny teeth (Ork army) from? A: Green Stuff + Apoxie, or, B - Miliput (only), or, C - Miliput + Greenstuff, or, D - Apoxie only, or, E - Resin, or F - something else (if so, what would this be?) My apologies if this is already covered in a tutorial that I've not yet seen

[@ModernSynthesist]

@@KaleismaStudios Great question! I've actually got a video I started but haven't finished yet about doing horns. My answer is actually option F: to cut/carve/whittle them from plasticard / sheet styrene! This is because it's tough to get a sharp point on putty when you're sculpting it. If I hard to do it with putty, I would gr the rough shape in Apoxie Sculpt, then whittle/carve it to the sharper point.

[@KaleismaStudios]

@@ModernSynthesist Sorry for my late response. Thank you so so much. Really appreciate it. I finally have the Apoxie sculpt (only small tubs to start with), and some thin plasticard! woohoo ... ok .. so I'm just waiting for some litle bits to come in (then to reorganize my mess of packages haha) then I can get started. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. 💜

[@ArtOfDuane]

I want to get into sculpting and stumbled across this video and it has a lot of great tips I'll have to try!

[@ModernSynthesist]

YES! Please do! I promise it's a lot less hard when you approach it with these tips in mind. Start small with adding or modifying a part of a model you otherwise like, and always wait for your work to harden fully before adding something else to the same model!

[@Mohaniker]

Great video, really enjoying this series, look forward to more!

[@craftingtroll]

Rewatching this vid since it's so useful for what I'm currently working on! Hope you make some more super helpful/inspirational vids in the near future, since I will be working on my current project for the coming month/months. It's a Stompa sized Freeboota Warboss. Your channel got wanting to do more sculpting work! :D

[@ModernSynthesist]

How'd the project go?

[@alfberger3150]

Would love to see some nurgle stuff! There's a lot of videos on it on youtube, but most of them are pretty shitty, hahah, love your sculpting tho!! Great video!

[@ModernSynthesist]

Dammit. This idea has been rattling around in my brain for a while. I guess it's destined to be my next one.

[@craftingtroll]

Lots of great tips in this one. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more vids. I would love to see some ork head sculpts or something like that if you're up for it? Love the old metal second edition orks because they had so much character. Going to try my hand at some more sculpting in the future. Also, ''it rubs the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again''. :D

[@ModernSynthesist]

LOL! That is literally how Hydra taught me to use lotion. SO MUCH HOSE! Ugh. Ork heads, eh? No small feet there. Sculpting faces is right up there with sculpting power armour in terms of difficulty, but I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@afivey]

Commenting for engagement because I cannot raid the damn attic right now. I know there's at least plastercine up there but the people I live with will go berzerk if I do. Subbed!

[@ModernSynthesist]

HA! Saw your comment on twitter. HAPPY SCULPTING!

[@Robot-Star]

i just discovered this channel and let me tell you, you've inspired me to get into sculpting! I just ordered some tools and greenstuff last night! as for suggestions... maybe some nasty flesh stuff? I'm planning on kitbashing up some flayed ones at some point and it looks fun

[@ModernSynthesist]

Amazing! I'm. So happy that you found me, and that this stuff has already inspired you. Lean into that!

[@Sevfin]

Faces & Hair is what I would like to see - most difficult! Mind you, I work in 1:18 scale but Im always looking to step up my sculpting game. Also to note: Im a water pleb - watching you use Nivea gives me the heebie jeebies. Sadly - i've only just discovered your channel and I take a lot of breaks from sculpting/painting myself. Hopefully you come out with some content for us soon!

[@ModernSynthesist]

Literally just recorded three more videos last night with a special guest sculptor! Sadly hair and faces were not among them as he is of a more monstrous bent (and we're on vacation in France with limited kit and no models what need hair or faces). We're both terrified of faces, so that might have to wait a bit... Hopefully the other stuff here has been helpful for you, and DEFINITELY ditch the water for the Nivea. It's part water based, AK you don't need to wash your sculpts after.

[@Sevfin]

@@ModernSynthesist Uhh....no washing?...sooo nivea just fades away? water IS a pain in the ass sometimes..especially when i'm doing any sort of fine line/detail work in armor/re-breathers because if it dries out I end up 'pulling' the green stuff with my tool..and if I add too much water I can't see anything because of the drip..I'll give it a shot! Looking forward to the new content!

[@ModernSynthesist]

@@Sevfin yes! It is amazing. Though I do more sculpting than painting, so I rarely sculpt something one day and try to paint it the next. Usually my sculpting has a few days or weeks for the Nivea to evaporate. My buddy Hydra says so long as you're only using a thin film on your sculpting tool, not big white gobs, you shouldn't have any trouble with it leaving oil on the model.

[@Steff_kjns]

This channel was exactly what I was looking for. I'm looking forward to getting the green stuff in a couple of days and practice. Edit: i dont want to fucking sculpt space marines and this is literally exacccctly what I'm looking for

[@ModernSynthesist]

FANTASTIC! GLAD TO HEAR IT!

[@jawohl3547]

great, keep up buddy!

[@ModernSynthesist]

Thanks!

[@tompollack136]

You are fuckin awesome man!!! I can’t wait to get some Abe’s and solve my damn green stuff issues! Thank you!!!

[@ModernSynthesist]

Ha! Thanks! And it's "Aves", not "Abe's" :D

[@Nashorn95]

I have really been enjoying your video series so far. I’m curious about the lubricant. Does it leave the surface greasy or get worked into the green stuff and affect curing? Also, concerning bulking up your armature, would tape work? Being self adhesive, I’m thinking it would be more controllable and you could keep wrapping it and make it as thick as you want.

[@ModernSynthesist]

Howdy Chris! So glad you found this stuff useful :) If you use a water based lube like nivea, it just evaporates. No greasiness. No need to wash up. It might get absorbed, but I've never seen any downsides to that. Tape might work, but, depending on your tape, it might be tough to stick the putty to it after. It also isn't shape able in the same way that aluminium is.

[@RuneChaosMarine]

@13:30 i suppose one could use old green stuff for the layer process. no detail.

[@ModernSynthesist]

You certainly can! It's just a slightly more expensive material to use for bulking than the alternatives

[@benjeffries8744]

So refreshing to hear swearing and innuendos on a 'how to' video. I want to kit bash/ sculpt a Tyranid Biovore from a warrior. Any suggestions/tips?

[@ModernSynthesist]

That's a bit of a big, specific question for one video, but I'd suggest you check in with Flynn hammer. He's done A LOT of Biovore conversions using spare parts: instagram.com/flynnhammer?igshid=3q2ocdb4jr07

[@benjeffries8744]

@@ModernSynthesist Thank you

[@RuneChaosMarine]

@33:15 Q:what do you want me to sculp? A: so the first tyranid war ate up a group of chaos space marines named the DeathShadows, lead by a scorcerer. id love to know what you know about the deathshadows. id like to see you sculpt the scorcerer leader guy, i forget his name.

[@RuneChaosMarine]

make him like a genestealer spycer in terminator armor or somthing idk.

[@ModernSynthesist]

Woah! That sounds like a pretty cool challenge! I've always found it a bit boring that: A) Tyranids aren't supposed to interact with the Warp or be twisted by chsos B) The space marine geneseed is invulnerable to Genestealer or Tyranid mutation. I would LOVE to see some infested space marines, or Genestealer cultist marines, or a Tyranid Hive Fleet that had been twisted by chaos! I swear there was someone on the old Warpshadow board who had a fleet like that.

[@davinci3259]

What about petroleum jelly? I can get Nivea pretty easily but I already have petroleum jelly so wondering if it would be just as good or if the water content is too low?

[@ModernSynthesist]

I have never used it, so I can't really comment. I've heard that other people have used things like Vaseline. My only concern would be whether it leaves an oily film on the models that would need to be washed off once the putty dries. Nivea doesn't do that, which I like.

[@davinci3259]

@@ModernSynthesist I tried it and it does eventually just dry.

[@dianasimanovic9793]

Hi, i wanted just to ask if i need to fix my work somehow when i finished sculpting with green stuff?

[@ModernSynthesist]

As in do you need to bake them or seal them with anything? If you're using nivea as your lubricant, you shouldn't have to do anything with the model once you're done sculpting other than prime it and paint it. Though I don't use vaseline, if you're using that as lubricant while sculpting, you should wash your models before priming them. Otherwise, no, you don't have to do anything additional!

[@pastuh]

Can someone suggest clay for very small miniatures? I plan to create nail size creatures and later make mold. Thanks

[@ModernSynthesist]

Hrm. Greenstuff tends to be better for very small details, but I've never worked super tiny and wouldn't know what to suggest for tools at that scale!

[@pastuh]

hmm not expected such answer :X I will try beesputty..

[@azofshadowmore]

So what you are saying is two thin coats... er layers.

[@ModernSynthesist]

Dammit. Duncan wins again!