Sculptures Archive - Fantastic modelers

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Princess Leia figurine

3D sculpture

First, I used a 3D human body creator software to sculpt the body of the princess Leia figurine : Daz Studio. This very useful soft (free at first) is designed to create a simplified model which can be easily modified in Zbrush. Oh, great but what is Zbrush ? A new tooth brush brand ? No, be reassured, my friend I won’t let you blind. Zbrush is THE 3D sculpting software. Designed for organic sculpting at first, it is now used for almost anything you may need in 3D sculpting and illustration.

I had to be very subtle to find the so elegant pose of the beauty. the head of the princess is available on the net but only the Leia slave version. In addition, I had to remake the hair and give a dolly and younger touch to the princess and draw her a flickering smile.

I know.
Han Solo

Lost (in space) body

Walking arround naked is good but wearing a little shirt may be usefull to hunt stormtroopers.

Things to do in the correct order :

Finding a 3D file of Solo’s gun
Sculpting the shirt and setting up realstic folds
Making the belt, accessories and the holster
Adding a pendant with the rebel emblem
Adding a stand looking like a Millenium Falcon’s container

From virtual to real

The best part when you make a 3D sculpt model is when the impalpable 3D model in your computer becomes a tangible thing in your fingers. We must realize that this tech revolution is just extraordinary. I’ll be considering the process, the DLP tech I use in more details later on.

In sum, the fig is sliced in a lot of 50 µm slices. Then, they are printed one after the other in a resin tray until the fig is done.

Assembly of the Princess Leia figurine

Une fois sortie du bac de résine, nettoyée de ses supports, il faut assembler chaque pièce de la figurine de la Princesse Leïa. Comme on le ferait avec une maquette traditionnelle. Pour cette statue tirée à de nombreux exemplaires, chaque partie fut confié à un mouleur pour en effectuer des tirages résines.

Every princess Leia figurine part must be assembled once they are out of the resin bath. As we could do it with a traditional model. Many copies of the statue have to be made so I used the services of a caster.

figurine de la princesse Leia, version Dexter — Princess Leia figurine, Dexter version

Paintjob and likeness

At last, the last step and not the easiest one : painting the princess. Although the body and the accessories were not very tricky, the face required focused attention to enlife this pretty one, childish and adult at the same time.

This figurine of the princess Leia is still for sale, do not hesitate to contact me

Posted on 21 November 2020 by philigore in

William Corvinus, lycan

Born from a collaboration with a group of swiss collectors a few years ago, I managed to realize this 1:3 bust of the lycan William Corvinus from the movie “Underworld evolution“. This artwork was an interesting challenge since the bust had to be covered with “real” hair and not a sculpted hair on the surface.

For the first time I was trying a new sculpt matter, the “Chavant medium plastiline” used in the scupting professionnal circles.

Rough sculpting

Before starting the bust, I made a rough (sort of a sketch if you want) of the sculpting, at a smaller scale to determine the final pose.

After validation, I started the sculpt job using plastiline Chavant. After 3 dozen hours of work, the beast was finished.

Then I separated the sculpt in several pieces : ears, teeth and the rest of the bust.

“Rotational casting”, free bodubuilding

The mold was made with silicon using a plaster layer to hold the stuff together. The resin is cast using the “rotational casting” technique. If you click on the link, you can see the technique is pretty physical. There are machines to do that mais they have to be built or bought and I had too few to make, so I went with my barehands.

After I took 10 cm more on each arm, the casts were ready. Then, : cleaning, brushing, drying and all I had to do more was putting the parts together.

In order to conceal the joins (even the smallest ones), I worked with Milliput putty. Once this is done, I throwed a primer layer to “read” the casts better : it usually reveals the smallest flaws.

Second to last step : the paint job. Willima Covinus the lycan is not an easy one to paint. His milky greyish skin is sprinckled with tiny veins and age spots. I spent many hours to paint the 7 copies, the first being the most difficult and long to paint.

The hairy beast

Here we are now to the final step, the hair. After I gave up using my own (I’m pretty close to the wookies in this matter), I decided to use a wool crepe usually used to realize postiche mustaches and beards. The technique is simpler than you think. I begin by to glue the hair in the base in successive layers so that the upper layer hides the lower layers joins. The most difficult part is to hide the hair directly jointed to the skin. I spent almost half an hour for each bust making the hair.

Finishing stage to obtain unique copies of the lycan : blood in the maw, moisty hair…

After a few months, the lycans were finished and went to their owners, glad…

Posted on 5 June 2018 by philigore in

The walking dead

I made this artwork for a few collectors. They wanted to get a range of 1:6 dioramas from the Walking Dead TV series showing cult characters and/or scenes. Second work of this range named “the walkers”, I offered them the chilhood topic with three important zombified characters in the show :

the little girl Rick shoots in the first season, the “Teddy Girl”
Sophia, the lost Carol’s daughter in season 2
Penny, the Governor’s daughter in season 3

A mouthwatering diorama

Six dioramas and a single Teddy girl will be made. The project was to make a removable base in three parts. Each one of them featured an element of the scenery where the “walker”… is walking :

a road with an old newspaper, a canister and an Atlanta sign for the teddy girl
an earthy, grassy and straw ground next to a smashed zombie head for Sophia
a carpet with a guts bucket and a family picture for Penny

beuaarrghh… Rrfghht rrrrhââ
Penny

The likeness

The main difficulty was to make the diorama with not too much gore. The childhood innocence had to be seen under the undead. A huge challenge because every little girl had to look exactly like the series character. That’s what we call “the likeness” in sculpting.

Each character has been made independently with supersulpey in several parts to facilitate the moulding made by my friend Cinémodèles créations.

Small flower, huge painting time

Once the copies received, I removed the grease coat, assembled them and then sprayed a primer coat beofre really painting them. Several paint pots were made for each color to maintain a unity between every copy of the character.

The paint job was very long because of the small flowers of the Teddy’s pyjama and the rainbow on Sophia T-shirt.

Your garden is your friend

Once the paint job done, I had to make the three parts oval base. Solution ? Jigsaw and router (definitely NOT a Petersteven nick name in weird backrooms).

The teddy girl’s asphalt base is amde from grey sandpaper, perfect for this scale. A few drybrushed tire marks, an aerograph burst through a stencil for the ground markings, an old cannister and a crumpled newspaper and that’s it.
The earthy ground in front of Hershel’s barn is made from real earth sprinckled directly on the glued base.
Penny’s base is made from the print of an old carpet image found ont he net.

The decor elements are not attached so everyone can display his diorama as he wants.

walking dead trois jeunes filles walkers

Posted on 29 January 2018 by philigore in

Master Yoda

Making a master Yoda figurine was not really a challenge to me. Big fan of the character, I’ve made many of them, some work well, some don’t. Bizzarely, the oldest were also the ugliest… passage of time, I guess…

This model was a gift to a friend’s brother, also a big Star Wars fan.

Master Yoda, an emblematic character

No big trouble, except the clothes I intended to make with real fabric. First step, as always, the sculpt of the body elements, face, hands, feet made of supersculpey ploymer clay. Other body parts are hidden by the clothes, no need for super-detail. Yoda is an iconic well known character. No “easy-going monster principle” : hiding mistakes under pimples, open wounds and so on wasn’t conceivable. The likeness was essential.

As usual, I search my pictures database from episode 5 and 6 and I make screenshots. I document a lot to catch the character soul, to become filled with. Even if I know the little green guy well, things can always be improved. And there is a lack of feet references, mostly unseen in the movies.

During my research, I’ve discovered that the Tussauds museum of London is opening a Star Wars section featuring among many things our master Yoda in his environment. I seize the opportunity for gathering new pictures of the sculpture which is absolutly perfect. After a few hours of work, I “have” him.

Swamp green

Before assembling the sculpted parts, they must be painted. But master Yoda’s color is not only “swamp green”, it’s a subtle mix which needs a subtle work otherwise the sculpt could look like an awful flashy extraterrestrial. Fortunatly, I own a “Yoda skin” painting I made a couple of years ago and kept safe just in case… Cool, I won’t spend hours to search the right tint… For the record, it’s a light olive green mixed with a bit of yellow. Go on with this… I’ll add a few darker age spots -“That face you make, look I so old to your eyes ?”

The body, the clothes and the base

And that’s it, everything’s ready for the last step, the parts assembling. The hidden body is made of wood, polystyren and iron wires to give the arms flexibility. Clothes are made of two types of fabric. A brown one for the body and a beige one for the “kimono”. Bye the way, this one is a little bit thick for this scale and is wrongly folded. That’s life… The base is simply a wooden plate on which a muddy soil is sculpted and enliven with crushed dead leaves I found in my garden.

Cat’s hair and resin eyes

That’s not over yet, a 800 years old creature without white hair is not really credible. Kitty, kitty cat… Yes, I used to have a free hair provider, our Angora Mimie cat. She unfortunatly left us in the meantime. Her thin thick hair was perfect for figuring Yoda’s hair.

Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is.
Master Yoda

Since her disapearance, I use folded wool but I miss her purrings when I cut her hair. Far less enjoyable. In order to retrieve master Yoda’s eyes full of life due to translucidity and not only painting, I made a recessed sculpted iris. A simple resin drop was enough to figure a nice full of life eye

And that’s how our old master Yoda reached another galaxy until I make more of them…

Posted on 12 January 2018 by philigore in