Model Making - 28mm Sculpting and thumb-cutting

A moments hesitation passed and I placed the order. I was going to learn to sculpt. Again...

Well my first attempt 3 years ago wasn't the greatest effort. I must admit it had been a lot of fun. Drinking mead with my girlfriend and using nothing but my hands and a set of plastic tools less precise than if I'd sculpted detail with my nose.

So the Buddhist monk I was sculpting ended up looking like an ugly version of myself. That couldn't put me off right?

3 years later it's take 2 but now I have experience. I've watched all the Youtube clips I could stomach and had a long chat with an old friend about the sculpture he's working on.

My mind began racing with ideas. Wouldn't X be cool. I could do X.

My first idea was a spaceship. A one man fighter craft. I'd never seen it done before. All the ships I'd seen were huge lumbering craft like in 40k or tiny intricate things that didn't capture the epic scale very well. I wanted a realistic fighter for a 28mm environment. 

So I got sketching -- I knew what I wanted -- sleek, sophisticated, sexy -- but enough about what I wanted I needed to make a spaceship.

Just right but how on earth was I going to make it? I had the clay and tools but no experience. I decided to try a 28mm warrior first.

So at the armature stage it was all going perfect. And my pudgy staff holder was a fair first attempt at a man-shape (no innuendos please). One sliced up ankle (repaired with a touch of greenstuff), a belt that sits way too low, a neckline, tabard, fingers...ish, a helmet (or Cleopatra wig) and a pointy spear tip.

Ok it's got a lot of room for improvement but hey a good first effort.

I don't know what possessed me next but I thought a smaller model would be fun to make. So a little demon it was!

A lot of fun to make and no extra hassle of clothing (who needs clothes any way?)

So it was time for the ship. With my basic grasp of the medium I went at it and actually surprised myself with the result.

This one I'm actually a little proud of. I had to saw the clay at the rear and underneath of ship then slotted the tail fin and rudder straight into the gap. I plan to cover the gaps up and create a layer of greenstuff over areas which I will add details to, but otherwise a good start to my sculpting.  Plenty of clay left. Now I just need some spare time!