"Do the Do" - Sword Brethren - Sculpting Hair

Don't waste a good hair day.

 

Hello friends of the Caesura, welcome to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!

My goodness! Unlike last year, where we stayed laser-focused on Reichbusters and Blackstone Fortress, this year I've returned to my more natural ENFP state of being - fliting from one exciting thing to the next! Already this year, we've seen my first experience of a mini painting workshop, my first attempts at painting in 1:1 scale; we've had Nurgle, we've had my return to Black Templars...and MORE!

Today we return again to Black Templars, but not as you know them. I'm going to show you one of my first efforts at sculpting hair on a model!

I love almost all of the new Black Templars releases and indeed, their hairdos. I even like the squirely bowl-cuts on the Neophytes which have garnered many dissenters (my wife included). However, there is one head that I am not a fan of; it's the Baldy 'Stache. I get what they were going for - the guy on the cover of the plep...sorry, standard version of the Black Templars Codex Supplement.

But in my opinion, rather than the craggy ruggedness of a Space Marine, they ended up closer to the soup-strainered visage of spaceman Commander Chris Hadfield (a legend to be sure!) 

All of this is just to provide some background as to why I felt compelled to sculpt hair in 32mm scale. So, let's look at our starting point:

I didn't exactly know what I wanted to do, but I knew he wanted head-hair and more facial hair. Having been graced with great facial hair genes myself, I had some inspiration to draw on. 

The Black Templars draw inspiration from crusading knights of olde, so I wanted to reflect this in his hairdo.

I started by filling in his facial hair with some friendly mutton chops; connecting them to his moustache, and trying to make them look accurate in terms of where they come out of the mechanical stuff on the left side of his face. 

To physically sculpt the green stuff, I just used an old dental tool to poke and prod some texture into a little sliver of green stuff. 

Next, it was on to his head hair!

The picture above is probably my favorite of this set! He looks like he's at a demolition derby with a baseball cap cocked back on his head and his scraggly mutton chops out in full glory. 

I was trying to emulate a knightly look with his tussled hair parted in the middle (achieved by simply pressing the length of my sculpting tool down the centre of his head) then gently creating texture on either side for his hair. 

My biggest take-home messages after completing this guy are:

- I didn't know what the hell I was doing, I just went for it - and you should too! Don't get immobilized by worrying you won't be able to do it, or that you'll ruin your model. Green stuff is incredibly forgiving and is even easier to remove / amend than paint.

- Use less green stuff than you think you'll need. It's easier to add more (which has the added benefit of creating layering. 

- Keep your fingers and sculpting tool wet so the green stuff doesn't stick to you.

- Remember the scale you are working in - don't fret over trying to sculpt individual hairs, the overall texture is the important thing

I am really excited to sculpt more hair on my miniatures. I have a grizzled Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant on my desk in need of a trim...

Reading: The Swarm - Frank Schätzing

Listening: Halo - Amorphis

Next Week:

Painted faces...