so many of you have been hounding me for this. well finally the spaceman delivers! i must say that this will probably be more like a "walk-through" rather than a "how-to", but you can get some idea what i do to sculpt my mechs from the ground up. if anybody has questions, by all means, feel free to ask.
1. here are all the sculpted parts. these have already been baked and a few choice parts have been detailed a little bit with my trusty Dremel. as far as how i arrived at this point, well, i just examine the mech and break it down into basic shapes. i try to determine how it will all fit back together and whether some parts should be sculpted separately or joined before baking. for example, the feet have the ankles already joined to them. i labeled them for you to see what all the parts will end up as.
. now i begin to detail and assemble the parts. sometimes i will carve or drill details in before i glue them together, sometimes i do it after i glue them in place ( usually this happens when i decide to add some detail on the spur of the moment ). i have also tried to include in the first picture a selection of tools that i use for cutting/ carving/ routing. the pencil comes in handy for drawing guidelines on before i go crazy with the power tool. the tip on the Exacto knife is broken on purpose- it makes a great scribing tool for armor panel lines. i used the cutting wheel to make the wider panel lines on the shoulders and the tips of the guns, used the router to remove extra material where the gun barrels will go, and used the grinding heads to create heat vents and armor bolts.
in the second pic, i have begun to add some plastic details, too. these are just cut from stock plastic modeling parts.
3. now the gunslinger is beginning to take shape. i've added more plastic bits, a few more lines, and begin to work on the legs. notice how i've sanded the knee caps. occasionally, parts don't come out as nice and smooth as i would like ( fingerprints are a problem ), so i sand them to get them as even and smooth as i can. i have also routed out holes to attach and pose the joints.
4. here is perhaps the hardest part- getting the legs to set right. in the first pic, i have not glued any part of the legs yet. first, i set them up in a decent pose to see how they will line up with the rest of the torso. once i am satisfied with a pose, i glue one entire leg in place first, then glue it to the hip. this guy was pretty easy because he didn't have toes. toes are kinda tricky. once one leg is securely fixed to the body, i start to assemble the second leg the same way. once that is done, then i can fix him to the base. you might also notice i decided to add a few more armor panels to the back. i like to call that "creative liberty".
5. i pretty much pose the arms the same way i pose the legs- one at a time. it is easier to do the arms last when the mech is fixed to the base. i have balance issues if i put the arms on before the legs.
now here is where my disappointment sets in. after finishing, i have realized what a colossal failure this mech is. it is way too tall and just too darn fat. i tried to fix the height issue by removing his "belt", but this is still way out of scale. i have decided not to waste any more time on him by painting him, but i can't bring myself to just throw away my deformed baby. he will sit on the shelf next to the giant pillager as a reminder that i don't always turn clay into gold.
i have now decided to take extra time and effort to get my scale correct. i noticed not once in here did i mention how i sized up the gunslinger with other mechs. this little project made me quite angry, but i decided to show you guys anyway because it is a good example of my basic assembly technique. my next project will be more successful. to get my scales correct from now on, i have picked the Thor as my benchmark mech. i will use him religiously from now on. in fact, my next project is awaiting assembly right now and i believe you will not be disappointed with this one. by the end of this week i will present to you my archangel.
hope you enjoyed this little how-to ( or how-not-to ).