Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 6

When we left off, I had shaped some styrene card to form the hanging portions of the champion's tabard. Time to finish sculpting it all...

 

I started by cutting up the bottom with a hobby knife to create a frayed, worn edge. Then, I super glued the front panel in place and used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to fill in the gaps and form tighter wrinkles going under the belt. I blended the putty out using the spatula end of my sculpting tool, and smoothed it over with a firm round clay shaper. Once the putty had cured, I used a fine sanding stick to smooth it out and make sure the transition will be (hopefully) invisible once the model is primed and painted.

 

The next part was the top of the tabard. I used the same batch of putty that I mixed for the lower portion, so it had firmed up a bit by the time I applied it to the torso. That made it a little easier to shape and control, but I needed to work quickly before it became too hard. I pressed the putty into a rough shape:

 

 

Then, I used my sculpting tool and clay shaper to form the wrinkles and folds at the belt line.

 

 

I made some impressions below the neck line, and then pulled the top down to bring it to a point. I deepened the folds at the shoulders, and trimmed the edges into the shape of tabard, taking care to make sure it lined up with the portion below the belt.

 

 

I let the front cure fully, and then used a similar process on the back, building the tabard around the backpack attachment point. As I was working on the front and back, I kept fitting the arms into position to make sure the putty was pressed down and wouldn't interfere with the arm attachment.

 

 

I smoothed and blended the two halves at the shoulder, and used a round-bladed hobby knife to carve out the inside and sharpen the edge of the neckline.

 

 

The final step was to attach the back part of the tabard and sculpt wrinkles at the top.

 

 

Artemis came with a pair of belt accessories. I cut these up to get a couple of grenades and a pouch on my champion's belt. I wanted to add a second pouch on the back to match the little model, but it would end up covered by the bottom of the backpack, and completely inaccessible, so I omitted it.

 

 

The left arm needed its bicep and shoulder attachment completely resculpted to accommodate the new pose.

 

 

I also smoothed over the breastplate and formed a collar. It will eventually be covered with the neck adornments, so I didn't bother adding any detail like panel lines or seams.

 

 

Here's the new shoulder attachment:

 

 

And the final pose– Big Magnus will be aiming his pistol, similar to little Magnus. The right arm will be holding the black sword. As I was photographing this, I realized that I'd forgotten to sculpt the pistol holster. But that turned out to be for the best, because I need to build the bolt pistol from scratch, and if I had sculpted the holster, it might not have been sized appropriately to look like it fit the pistol.

 

 

I'm in the home stretch! Only the head and accessories remain (and painting, of course).

'Til next time!