THE CLUBHOUSE

ARGHHH!!!!! THESE ARE ALL SO FREAKIN' BRILLIANT!!!!!

God, I am the biggest fanboy of all your stuff MM! Without fail, I am enamoured with literally
everything you create! I was smiling ear-to-ear as I scrolled down the page, just saying over
and over again;

"Brilliant."

"Brilliant."

"ARG! BRILLIANT!!"

I can only imagine how excited the cartoonists were to see their creations come to life like this.
Your work is just flawless. I've gotta ask you though; what material are you working in, and how
do you get it so damned smooth?!! I swear, it's uncanny how pristine these things are! If someone
didn't tell me otherwise, I would have sworn they were 3D prints from the computer.

And the paintjobs?!! Don't even get me started on the paintjobs! Talk about guilding the lily!

Anyway, thanks for posting these dude, you really made my day!

troyboy wrote:I've gotta ask you though; what material are you working in, and how
do you get it so damned smooth?!! I swear, it's uncanny how pristine these things are! If someone
didn't tell me otherwise, I would have sworn they were 3D prints from the computer.

And the paintjobs?!! Don't even get me started on the paintjobs! Talk about guilding the lily!

Anyway, thanks for posting these dude, you really made my day!

hey troy, what can i say - your praise made MY day. no, really. much appreciated. thanks.
regarding materials: i start out with 'chavant autostyle light' for the more blocky stuff
and a mixture of some of gary's willow waxes (like 360, ice and ether) for the smaller
more detailed parts. like so:


once all the proportions and poses are spot on and the artist is happy with the transformation to 3D
in every aspect we make waste molds and cast the figures in a mineral-filled resin that doesn't shrink
as much as the usual run of the mill resin and that sands really well. and then it's my old credo over and
over again: sand, fill, primer, sand some more, primer some more, keep sanding and sand some more.
then primer one last time and make the master mold of what has by then become virtually 'smooth as
a baby's bum':


it's a curse though, sometimes. i love the feel and look of toys/statues that are pefectly smooth
especially when it comes to cartoon characters like these but it means you spend a few 'happy days'
with nothing but wet-sanding and primering. it can bore the isht out of you. still, the end result is
worth all the extra effort.you know, some of the so called designer toys look great
at arms length but don't stand close scrutiny and i hate that. so, i at least want to do all i can on my side
to make the sculpts i/we deliver as perfect(ly smooth) as possible.

my hero when it comes to absolute über-smoothness: Takashi Murakami. that guy (or rather the platoon
of people that do all the hard work for him) is the bees knees when it comes to surfaces...

THOSE ARE FREAKING AMAZING! THAT SMOOOOOOTHNESS..... ARGH! Makes me want to bite into them (like a perfect white chocolate bar). This just shows the astonishing extent of your skills and talent my friend. Love em....specially the little squirrels.

Tom

TOMS123 wrote:...Makes me want to bite into them (like a perfect white chocolate bar)...

hah! now there's an idea! thank you kindly, Tom. maybe it's got to do with the fact that me and my fellow
CEO's also make chocolate mock-ups for a living. the modus operandi certainly is very similar....

Thanks for the walk-through MM! That definitely explains a lot, although it doesn't
decrease my feelings of awe and admiration one bit! The results you get are nothing
short of spectacular and, unfortunately for me, I just don't think I'll ever have that level
of patience to get any of my work quite this polished.

I hope your employer realizes what an asset he's got on his hands. It takes a real
dedication to perfection to get this kind of end product. Post more when you've got 'em,
and try and dig out a little time to work on some of your own stuff! Always love seeing that.

troyboy wrote:ARGHHH!!!!! THESE ARE ALL SO FREAKIN' BRILLIANT!!!!!

God, I am the biggest fanboy of all your stuff MM! Without fail, I am enamoured with literally
everything you create! I was smiling ear-to-ear as I scrolled down the page, just saying over
and over again;

"Brilliant."

"Brilliant."

"ARG! BRILLIANT!!"

I can only imagine how excited the cartoonists were to see their creations come to life like this.
Your work is just flawless. I've gotta ask you though; what material are you working in, and how
do you get it so damned smooth?!! I swear, it's uncanny how pristine these things are! If someone
didn't tell me otherwise, I would have sworn they were 3D prints from the computer.

And the paintjobs?!! Don't even get me started on the paintjobs! Talk about guilding the lily!

Anyway, thanks for posting these dude, you really made my day!

Just about to say the exact same thing Troy, you took the words right out of my mouth.I gotta move over to wax the cracks in sculpey are killing me.

tysiony wrote:....I gotta move over to wax the cracks in sculpey are killing me.

hey thanks, tysiony!
and yes, that's exactly what i think when i look at some of the stuff that i started in sculpey and never got around to finish. it's all cracked... like, everywhere... and i can't just smooth it over because the sculpey's gone all brittle and crumbley like. i find it hard to say anything negative about sculpey but this drying out thing definitely is one of SS's cons. i'm thinking about making wastemolds and transfering the dried out SS pieces to wax. if i find the time and money (for silicone...).
wax is brilliant in that respect. i have a sculpt that i started in 2008 and i didn't go very far with it. i dug it out a couple weeks ago to have a look and to put some more wax on it and the only difference to 2008 in handling was the smell. the wax pen had burned some of the dust the piece had collected... a quick rinse took care of that, though.

finally!
i just finished painting this set of characters from the NICHTLUSTIG universe.
now it's on to the next set...

Unique, stylised, and extremely impressive.

"Death and his poodle" got my immediate vote (LMAO) - and then I saw the Lemming Family & the "Dino through the looking glass" additions and thought even MORE cool!

They say every picture tells a story - but maybe every sculpt inspires imagination.

Wonderful work as always.

.

That finished piece is brilliant. Wonderful work, mm!

thanks a lot, guys!
Heavy Metal Spike: i'll take the compliment for the sculpting but the characters did not spring from my imagination.
again, they're the creations of Joscha Sauer / NICHTLUSTIG.
there's a few of his cartoons in english http://notfunnycartoons.com/toondb/100720.html
judging from the drawings they're rather old. his drawing style is a little more on the round side these days.
like so: http://static.nichtlustig.de/toondb/120306.html only these are in german lingo.

i can laugh out loud at most of his stuff so it's actually FUN to work on the sculpts because there's always
stories connected to them...

Wow, those are clean sculpts and paint apps!