01 February 2016

Fomorian Heads - Round 1

I was impatient to see what how the cast heads look, so I quickly cleaned up and painted one of each head, separately mounted on a bit of wire.



On closer examination, they aren't as cleanly cast as they initially looked. I am doing all of this without a vacuum chamber or pressure pot (for now) so there seem to be some very minor bubbles in both the molds and a few of the castings. Given that this is my first time, and that they are so few and so small, I'm not at all disappointed. I only needed to do a quick bit of cleanup.

Painting them up also revealed some weak spots in the sculpting, which is helpful as I plan on doing more and this will help me recognize where to improve. I doubt I will cast more than a few of heads A & B. Head E looks a bit off -- I think the nasal holes were a bit mismolded or miscast, so I'm going to take a look at whether that needs a small repair before more casting. I'm pretty happy with C, D & F.

Should I share these heads?

When I first started, ac couple of people asked if castings would be available. I've been thinking about that. This is really just a personal project, and the quality of both sculpting and casting is still just an amateur/hobby level, at best -- and I'm still working out the bugs of casting for the first time, too! Besides, it's a niche interest within one corner of a niche hobby. But I'm considering doing a one time evening cast-a-thon, set aside what I need, and then making the remainder available for a small price (to help cover materials, postage, and maybe put a bit towards the phase...) or for trades.

I do plan on sculpting and casting a few more heads. And I'm working on some tails, and eventually I may try some cast feet as replacements for the specific figures I'm using in my project.

What do you think? Any interest? I'd like to get a feel for this before casting a bunch of extra heads. Should I wait until I get some tails cast too? (And feet?)



3 comments:

  1. Well, they look great to me. I do not know that I would be interested, but I suspect that others who are would want a "kit" to build a fomorian, so feet, tail and head, they supply the orc (or other miniature to be converted.

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  2. THEY LOOK GREAT! I love the different expressions that you've given them. You really captured one of my favourite elements of 1980's/Oldhammer monsters: they always seem a little sad to me. (This is a digression, but Zhu wrote a great post recently about Fighting Fantasy Orcs, and how they often have this downtrodden look).
    Anyway, I'd be very much interested in getting heads, tails and anything else you cast.

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  3. Thanks. I think the plan will be to cast up a small number of extra heads (and tails, and possibly feet when they're ready) for trade/sale.

    I hadn't thought about it specifically, but I really liked a lot of those sad old orcs & other critters! And I do like the idea of the Fimir/Fomorians as a bit of a "loser race," fallen far from power, forgotten by their former patrons, skulking in the mists just trying to get by with whatever they can, by whatever means they can.

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