A Tail of Four Fomorians

My basic building block is groups of four 40x40 bases for most infantry. So this is my first little milestone, four Fomorians/Fimir.

That's one prototype, three with cast heads but individually sculpted tails.

I had some ups & downs with my first two-part mold, trying to cast a couple of basic tail designs that I could use for future figures.

First, I mixed up far too much silicone. So the first half of the mold (top) is way too thick, and I still had enough left to pour a single "cup" mold of one of the preferred heads. (Which is an OK thing, I guess because those molds deteriorated quickly -- though I've probably got more than enough heads at this point.)

Next, my first casting (left) didn't work so well. I knew I should have created some vents, but for whatever reason, I decided I preferred the trial & error method of learning. So, I removed the failed castings and then cut some vents (right.) Below is the second cast -- success! (Though not without an air bubble or two.)

So after this whole process -- a few one-piece block molds, and my first two-piece, plus building an initial unit of four figures, where do things stand?

1. A Fomorian/Fimir army is GO. I still need to work out things like what to do for everything besides the armored warriors/Fianna Fimm. But I can see that it's within reach. I will start with roughly a "division" -- about four units of four figures, plus a general, and one or two critters. So with the figures above plus the bog demon, I'm about 25% into that first goal.

2. Casting is GO. I'm still working on refining technique, checking out further materials and tools, and getting better castings. But I've got over the big hump of starting out and achieving a degree of success. I have the equipment for a pressure pot, but nowhere to use the air compressor. I've seen a manual bike pump used before, so I think I will try that. I hope that the pressure pot will produce better molds & castings. I think my next step will be to try molding & casting a full figure or two. That will give me some further practice in all aspects -- sculpting, molding, and casting.



Oooh, and just a week away from (hopefully) getting to play a few games! It has been years since I've played anything, and just as longs since I've seen a lot of my old friends, so I'm really looking forward to this!

Get Your Smooth On

New silicone arrived. I'm going to try my first two part mold in the next few days, maybe a small one for those two tails I posted.

I like how the packaging urgently implores you, "MAKE IT NOW!"

I've also been thinking I should just go ahead and do something to finish this really old & incomplete sculpt. It started off as a one-off, but then I cut it up and reworked it to make it castable. (The arms are separate and just held on with poster-tack in the photo.) But I sort of lost track of what I waned to do with this, and don't have quite the enthusiasm for it anymore. So maybe just a couple of open hands gesturing, except... I'm not sure how well that will work when the plane of the arms/sleeves and plane of the hands are fixed 90 degrees from each other. But, on the other hand, that will make this a good learning experience for mold making, I suppose. But on the other, other hand, I'm not certain what I would do with more than one of him, so maybe I shouldn't waste the silicone on a figure I don't have a use for at the moment. Especially when there are other (unsculpted, as of yet) things I do have a use for.

Casting, Dirty Needles, and the State of the Attic

I finally got a bit of time to do some more casting, and cranked out some more Fomorian heads. I was aided by a small but important equipment upgrade...
 

16 gauge industrial needles. I also found some cheap syringes, but I think next time I will get at least 5cc, if not larger. Made a big difference. Previously I had been using sharp 21 gauge medical needles with 3cc syringes that I had left over from architecture school (used to use them for dispensing PVA glue on delicate parts of models. These 16 gauge needles have the advantage of being dull tipped, so I won't accidentally poke into the mold. The resin flows so much better, and far easier to clean (and thus, get more use out of each needle.)

My attic is a mess, but I managed to stake out some space for a dedicated (for the moment) casting table. I was previously doing it on my (as yet, unused for games) gaming table, which was flirting with disaster.

Casting to the left, and beyond that is my sculpting & painting desk. Gaming table in the right corner. I've started setting up for that Pleasant Surprises skirmish. But now I'm stuck on the idea that I need to put together some more terrain. :roll: The big mess under the gaming table is mostly casting and terrain supplies.

Back to the casting of heads... I think I'm going to sell off a few sets of 10 heads for relatively cheap, and use the proceeds for some new silicone for molds. I used Smooth-On Ooomoo 30 for the heads, but would like to try Mold Star 15 next. Sales will come with the caveat that these are first time, amateur casts and have their fair share of bubbles -- and thus require work to get them into finished condition.

Fomorian Heads - Round 2

Thanks, I can use the positive vibe right now. Over the weekend I made a block mold for those four heads. The next evening I tried a bit of casting and... that didn't go so well. I hit a lot of trouble getting figures out of molds, and the older block mold of four heads tore pretty badly in several places trying to retrieve some of them. I also couldn't seem to keep the syringes clean, and had to use a new one for each set of castings. But I did manage to get three decent sets of the new heads.

I'm learning quite a bit of the subtleties of molding & casting so far -- from both successes and failures. I think that I am ready to move forward, in several ways. I am interested in trying out some of the other varieties of silicone for molds, and I also think that I'm ready to try a two-piece mold!

So here are the new heads....

Again, I like some, but not others. Some small differences in the way I sculpted these. Going to keep G & H, but will cast fewer of I & J. Just small details. Out of the 10 I sculpted, I think 5 or 6 turned out decent.

Haven't had time to work on tails any more. Nor have I purchased any of the orc figures -- which I need in-hand if I plan on sculpting separate feet that will match the existing figures. And I am now out of silicone. I might have to put the Fomorian Plan aside for a bit, until finances allow for those supplies. So I may go back to working on some other stuff for a while.

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?)

Moving A-head with the Fomorians

I made two more molds of Fomorian heads, one with a single head, the other with the better four of the batch that has been sculpted so far.

My initial resin pull the other day must have been beginner's luck, because tonight I had a lot more trouble -- especially with that mold. In fact, it got a bit torn up from trying to retrieve heads from the cavity. I was having problems with bubbles at the small joint between the head and the "funnel" into which I pour the resin. I got better at avoiding this, but what really made the difference on the last two pulls was using a syringe to fill the head with resin.

So here's tonight's haul:

That's 19 good heads, four more that have small bubbles at the back of the head (simple fix,) and five bad heads. Of the five, I could probably reconstruct the back of three heads, or they may become the start of converted variants with some sort of headgear/hood. The other two are unusable for anything.

I'm still working on sculpting some decent tails. But for the moment, I seem to be on the tail fail trail....

I should start thinking about getting my hands on some more Reaper orcs (I only had the one) so I can see if I can sculpt & cast replacement feet, or whether I will have to sculpt them on each individual figure.

Resin, Chaos, Fomorians, and Greeks

After many roadblocks, I finally managed to make a test mold and casting of one of the next round of Fomorian heads I've sculpted up (and there are more on the way.) I used one of the heads I didn't like, so if it all went bad I wouldn't be worried about the loss. (Original head, resin cast, and mold on right.)

As it turns out, things went better than I hoped. Both mold and resin cast were easy. And not a single bubble. Not bad considering that not only was it done without a pressure pot, but I also forgot to include a vent and had to poke the resin down into the head a bit! But I had planned on this being a learning experience, after all. Now on to a few more molds, more sculpting... and maybe I can eventually start cranking out bits for converting a swampload of Orcs-to-Fomorians!

I've recently finished a 120mm Greek hoplite for a friend. Just like my adventures in mold-making, this kit put me up against a pile of problems (including getting a decent photo.) But I'm finally done and hope to deliver it sometime soon. I haven't seen my old gaming friends in a very long time.

I've thrown my hat (or paintbrush) in with the Oldhammer Forum's chaos village project. I'm going to submit a converted two figure set, and have finished the first, Oswald, one of the the village children "orphaned" when his parents became chaos spawn.

Next on my table... more experiments with sculpting, mold making, and casting. The other half of the Oldhammer pair, some dwarf light artillery for the Marienburgers, some commissioned beastmen and fantasy medieval type humans, work on an overdue vinyl toy commission, and there's still a pile of undead waiting. I'm also starting (or trying) to really pull together ideas for solo & remote gaming. Could there be an actual game in the near future?!