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Sudsinabucket
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Hey everyone 
Welcome to a short dedicated blog to my first major hand sculpting project! I have started to cover this in my current painting blog but I wanted it's own dedicated blog for easier finding.
As many of you know, I started the hobby about 2 years ago, and I've enjoyed every moment of this adventure. One of the greatest joys i have with the hobby is building, and in particular kitbashing. I love just looking at bits and just seeing how they could go together, having an idea and going onto the Gamesworkshop site and pulling up sprue photos to see what kits have what. Something about making my own creations and just bringing them to life is just something special, I really want to get better with 3D design as an ultimate hobby goal to that end. Another thing I have been wanting to do is get more into hand sculpting and milliput/greenstuff work, it blows me away what people can do with putty. I've started doing more with greenstuff recently, most notably with my Lumineth & Hathorians. I have done a lot of fur work, but nothing that required wire and building heavier sections.
With exploring more into the sculpting side of the hobby I've begun to tackle something I have wanted to do for awhile, sculpting a Sauropod unit for my Seraphon. Now, as most of you know I'm already building a Thunder Lizard ( Can check it out here: https://www.lustria-online.com/threads/thunder-lizard-model-project-by-suds.24212/page-2 or my painting blog), however for this project I wanted to steer away from calling this creature a Thunder Lizard outright, I have a couple of reasons for this:
1. Thunder Lizards are huge, Some say the size of Mountains, others say larger; no one actually knows. What we do know is that they were or are among the biggest monsters in Warhammer Fantasy, so large that they are said to be akin to a natural disaster and that just by walking the wake of destruction behind them is miles long. The sheer size lorewise of a Thunder Lizard makes it, at least at my current level of sculpting experience is beyond intimidating. The size also puts a predetermined picture into peoples minds, if it isn't larger than a Stegadon than it must not be a Thunder Lizard.... ignoring that it needs to fit on the table if i plan to play one day,
2. I like to think of the term/name Thunder Lizard as an umbrella term for many different species of behemoth Sauropod like creatures. What we know of as a Traditional Thunder Lizard I like to think of as the largest species, native to Lustria, and also the rarest. I however like to think there are sub species of Thunder Lizard elsewhere, my only evidence for this is the fact that the Thunder Lizard is also found on the Dragon Isles according to official lore. With Thunder Lizards living on the Dragon Isles they must have been a smaller species, a more specialized species for the Island, otherwise they either simply would not fit or would eat everything and starve the whole eco system out. For this reason I believe officially (but really just my own homebrew obviously) there are more than just one species of Thunder Lizard, just as there are multiple species of Stegadon, Gamesworkshop simply hasn't delved deep into the lore.
3. I simply think it is fun to think up new species, the Warhammer world would be a boring and dead universe if the only creatures that existed were what was officially written in. Its our job as the fan base to fill in the middle and really bring out the life of the universe, even if it will never be official canon.
With that said, lets delve into what I've been getting into with my new Sauropod model.
First things first, the species name, I am calling it a Unirontosaurian, an original name suggested by a friend I really liked and tweaked slightly (his original name was Unirontosaurus). The name if broken down loosely means One (uni) - Moving (onto) - Lizard (saurian), which is kind of funny to me for some reason lol.
I picture Unirontosaurian to be large, larger than the big four (Troglodon, Stegadon, Carnosaur & Bastiladon). and more comparable to a Dread Saurian size; I like to think of Allosaurus and Diplodocus for the size comparisons. Not so huge that its the size of a mountain, but large enough an enemy army is going to fear an army that has one within its ranks.
More homebrew for it to come, but for the sculpting...
For the base of the model I am using the Stegadon body, for the type of creature i want to make it works pretty perfectly, a bastiladon or carnosaur body would work also but I like the scales on the Stegadon for what i have envisioned in my head. with that said, for the sculpt I started with the tail, and this is where I made my first mistake: I didn't use any wiring for it. Really my first first mistake was not setting up the wiring for the milliput in all the areas i'd need it (tail, neck, legs). I used some spare carno/trog spine bits to help shape the tail (I' also end up doing this for the neck), and for the diplodcus tail whipe feel i used a keeper of secrets tail to give that slender tail tip look.
From the tail I went to work on the neck portion, using a bastiladon head for my omivourous sauropod. Here i had learned part of my mistake and used some wire for the neck, the neck was still a pain to do however. Part of the reason for my troubles was simply not knowing that getting milliput wet like i do greenstuff was not a good idea, it kept getting weak and crumbling. so after resting the head on the cork to keep the neck break in place it eventually set. I however at the time didn't realize how much the resting of the head had altered the positioning of the neck, putting it more upright and making part of the neck awkward. Looks like she's bellowing out a call, which I'm pretty ok with to be honest. Overall the neck looked good to me (hindsight should have smoothed it out more and checked out the necks positioning better before settling) but for sure had its pain in the ass moments.
Llearning from my mistakes i put some wire into the plastic to help with sculpting the legs and better support, shown here with blue tac.
From there I began adding some bits, I started thinking about what kind of natural defenses this species would have since earth shattering size wasn't on the table. Naturally her tail whip came to mind, and her horn for offensive weapons (as well as defensive), but what about on her? I decided that having two hind spikes on her legs would be good, guard her legs and side. Ontop of that adding a few spikes to her shoulders/neck for if something tries to bite there (of course her scales might break a few teeth/claws). I also thought having the crest to defend right behind the head would be a good natural option withought being too outrageous. Next was some shiny ornaments and such since all Seraphon/Lizardmen beasts of war have it, so I added two icons on her tail (milliput rope/chain connected), a tail ring towards the end with something hanging from it, and the large stegadon jeweled crest. I am still undecided if i will add anything else in the shiny department, thought i have 1 idea for the neck i may pursue but i don't want to over do it.
Next on the list, which I've already begun working on is some sanding, filling with greenstuff and some greenstuff scale work to make the transition from the scaley top to the fleshy bottom a bit more natural. I am also considering magnetizing her feet so that she can be placed on both a 120mm oval as a stegadon but also on a 170mm oval for a custom warscroll/ruleset. I wanted to show her next to my Stegadon for size comparison
My homebrew lore has stated for awhile that my Temple Host has learned to harness large behemoths of the mortal realms, and from a time before even the Age of Myth... it is time that such creatures begin to fill the ranks of my Temple Host's Cohorts.
Welcome to a short dedicated blog to my first major hand sculpting project! I have started to cover this in my current painting blog but I wanted it's own dedicated blog for easier finding.As many of you know, I started the hobby about 2 years ago, and I've enjoyed every moment of this adventure. One of the greatest joys i have with the hobby is building, and in particular kitbashing. I love just looking at bits and just seeing how they could go together, having an idea and going onto the Gamesworkshop site and pulling up sprue photos to see what kits have what. Something about making my own creations and just bringing them to life is just something special, I really want to get better with 3D design as an ultimate hobby goal to that end. Another thing I have been wanting to do is get more into hand sculpting and milliput/greenstuff work, it blows me away what people can do with putty. I've started doing more with greenstuff recently, most notably with my Lumineth & Hathorians. I have done a lot of fur work, but nothing that required wire and building heavier sections.
With exploring more into the sculpting side of the hobby I've begun to tackle something I have wanted to do for awhile, sculpting a Sauropod unit for my Seraphon. Now, as most of you know I'm already building a Thunder Lizard ( Can check it out here: https://www.lustria-online.com/threads/thunder-lizard-model-project-by-suds.24212/page-2 or my painting blog), however for this project I wanted to steer away from calling this creature a Thunder Lizard outright, I have a couple of reasons for this:
1. Thunder Lizards are huge, Some say the size of Mountains, others say larger; no one actually knows. What we do know is that they were or are among the biggest monsters in Warhammer Fantasy, so large that they are said to be akin to a natural disaster and that just by walking the wake of destruction behind them is miles long. The sheer size lorewise of a Thunder Lizard makes it, at least at my current level of sculpting experience is beyond intimidating. The size also puts a predetermined picture into peoples minds, if it isn't larger than a Stegadon than it must not be a Thunder Lizard.... ignoring that it needs to fit on the table if i plan to play one day,
2. I like to think of the term/name Thunder Lizard as an umbrella term for many different species of behemoth Sauropod like creatures. What we know of as a Traditional Thunder Lizard I like to think of as the largest species, native to Lustria, and also the rarest. I however like to think there are sub species of Thunder Lizard elsewhere, my only evidence for this is the fact that the Thunder Lizard is also found on the Dragon Isles according to official lore. With Thunder Lizards living on the Dragon Isles they must have been a smaller species, a more specialized species for the Island, otherwise they either simply would not fit or would eat everything and starve the whole eco system out. For this reason I believe officially (but really just my own homebrew obviously) there are more than just one species of Thunder Lizard, just as there are multiple species of Stegadon, Gamesworkshop simply hasn't delved deep into the lore.
3. I simply think it is fun to think up new species, the Warhammer world would be a boring and dead universe if the only creatures that existed were what was officially written in. Its our job as the fan base to fill in the middle and really bring out the life of the universe, even if it will never be official canon.
With that said, lets delve into what I've been getting into with my new Sauropod model.
First things first, the species name, I am calling it a Unirontosaurian, an original name suggested by a friend I really liked and tweaked slightly (his original name was Unirontosaurus). The name if broken down loosely means One (uni) - Moving (onto) - Lizard (saurian), which is kind of funny to me for some reason lol.
I picture Unirontosaurian to be large, larger than the big four (Troglodon, Stegadon, Carnosaur & Bastiladon). and more comparable to a Dread Saurian size; I like to think of Allosaurus and Diplodocus for the size comparisons. Not so huge that its the size of a mountain, but large enough an enemy army is going to fear an army that has one within its ranks.
More homebrew for it to come, but for the sculpting...
For the base of the model I am using the Stegadon body, for the type of creature i want to make it works pretty perfectly, a bastiladon or carnosaur body would work also but I like the scales on the Stegadon for what i have envisioned in my head. with that said, for the sculpt I started with the tail, and this is where I made my first mistake: I didn't use any wiring for it. Really my first first mistake was not setting up the wiring for the milliput in all the areas i'd need it (tail, neck, legs). I used some spare carno/trog spine bits to help shape the tail (I' also end up doing this for the neck), and for the diplodcus tail whipe feel i used a keeper of secrets tail to give that slender tail tip look.
From the tail I went to work on the neck portion, using a bastiladon head for my omivourous sauropod. Here i had learned part of my mistake and used some wire for the neck, the neck was still a pain to do however. Part of the reason for my troubles was simply not knowing that getting milliput wet like i do greenstuff was not a good idea, it kept getting weak and crumbling. so after resting the head on the cork to keep the neck break in place it eventually set. I however at the time didn't realize how much the resting of the head had altered the positioning of the neck, putting it more upright and making part of the neck awkward. Looks like she's bellowing out a call, which I'm pretty ok with to be honest. Overall the neck looked good to me (hindsight should have smoothed it out more and checked out the necks positioning better before settling) but for sure had its pain in the ass moments.
Llearning from my mistakes i put some wire into the plastic to help with sculpting the legs and better support, shown here with blue tac.
From there I began adding some bits, I started thinking about what kind of natural defenses this species would have since earth shattering size wasn't on the table. Naturally her tail whip came to mind, and her horn for offensive weapons (as well as defensive), but what about on her? I decided that having two hind spikes on her legs would be good, guard her legs and side. Ontop of that adding a few spikes to her shoulders/neck for if something tries to bite there (of course her scales might break a few teeth/claws). I also thought having the crest to defend right behind the head would be a good natural option withought being too outrageous. Next was some shiny ornaments and such since all Seraphon/Lizardmen beasts of war have it, so I added two icons on her tail (milliput rope/chain connected), a tail ring towards the end with something hanging from it, and the large stegadon jeweled crest. I am still undecided if i will add anything else in the shiny department, thought i have 1 idea for the neck i may pursue but i don't want to over do it.
Next on the list, which I've already begun working on is some sanding, filling with greenstuff and some greenstuff scale work to make the transition from the scaley top to the fleshy bottom a bit more natural. I am also considering magnetizing her feet so that she can be placed on both a 120mm oval as a stegadon but also on a 170mm oval for a custom warscroll/ruleset. I wanted to show her next to my Stegadon for size comparison
My homebrew lore has stated for awhile that my Temple Host has learned to harness large behemoths of the mortal realms, and from a time before even the Age of Myth... it is time that such creatures begin to fill the ranks of my Temple Host's Cohorts.
