Greetings Terrans, and happy new nominal start of the next orbit of Earth around Sol. A couple of posts ago, I dropped a little hint about a secret project that I had been working on… I had to keep it secret because it was an attempt to sculpt a surprise figure from scratch for my gaming bro Ross. Now some of you may know Ross’ work – he has the classic chaos daemons blogspot, and has a particular affinity for Papa Nurgle. Ross and I game a lot, including the occasional game of AoS, where he uses his gorgeous OldHammer Daemon horde, but a lot of the new Nurgle releases are not really his cup of tea… not a dissimilar issue to the one I discussed in my last post regarding Nagash in fact! One such mini is the Spoilpox Scrivener:
Anyway, long story short, I thought I’d have a crack at sculpting one up for him for Christmas – quite an ambitious decision! I made an armature from paper clips, and started building up the mini in stages over several weeks. Just before Christmas, I ended up at this point:
I’ve obviously copied the basic pose of the GW mini as a nod to the original, but I’ve tried to get more of an old-school flavour going… it’s bloody hard work sculpting, particularly getting things smooth, but the old Plague Bearers were very lumpy and misshapen, so this worked in my favour. I hooked up with Ross just after Christmas, and handed the Scrivener over with some nervousness… I knew I had done my best, but it’s not exactly a masterpiece! I needn’t have worried though, my Brother-in-Lead was delighted, and bumped it to the top of his painting queue. A couple of days later, I got these sent to my phone:
I was so relieved to see that it had painted up well, and that Ross had got it looking so amazing! I don’t mind telling you, it’s a weird feeling to sculpt something up and then have someone paint it for you – it’s such real honour to have someone appreciate all the effort you’ve put in, and then put in the extra love themselves to finish the job! I would recommend it to anyone :-)
I will certainly be continuing my journey into sculpting – maybe not too much in the way of whole minis, but this certainly gives me the confidence to take on even more ambitious modifications and conversions… I’ll have plenty of opportunity – we’re back to the Orks now, and once the Skumbos are painted, I’ll be moving on to Power Armoured guards and all the characters! Wish me luck ;-)
Leadballoony - It's a lead thing 
Wow, great job Alex!
Cheers dude – I don’t think any pro sculptors need to fret just yet, but I am rediculously pleased :-)
No way! That’s an amazing sculpt! :O
Dammit, you nailed it!!
Thanks dude, it was certainly an interesting experiment! :-)
Wonderful sculpt- really improved on the ‘official’ mini imo.
Cheers,
Pete.
Cheers mate, I suppose it’s all personal opinion, but I do prefer the older asthetic to the new ‘fantasy HD’ look that GW went for with the scrivener
Well, to be honest, I could only dream of being able to sculpt like that! Brilliant!
Thanks mate – I felt the same before I started… you never know until you try :-)
That’s excellent, you’ve really captured the look of an Oldhammer Spoilpox. I’ve sculpted details before but taking on an entire model from an armature is bloody impressive. Quite fun to see the process going in the opposite direction too, usually we see modern reimaginings of old models, rather than Oldhammer reimaginings of modern models.
Thanks dude, it certainly was an experience – glad you like him :-)
So what would that be called? A de-boot rather than a re-boot?
Re-tro-boot!
Nice work!
Thanks C&M, it was a fun thing to do :-)
Great stuff Alex!
Cheers TIM :-)
Superb job !
Thanks mate
Wow! Bloody impressive mate.
Cheers Warbs :-)
Wow! You never cease to amaze me mate. The sculpt is absolutely brilliant and what a lovely gesture of you to make this for your pal. You’re a good bloody bloke mate and a talented one at that.
Aw shucks :-) Cheers dude
Wow, that is really great! I like how yours is much more restrained, although I do sort of miss the tuba mouth.
Also, discounting your labor, this figure is much cheaper than the official one. ;)
Haha, yeah – I reckon there’s about 12 hours gone into him during sculpting, so I’d be starving and homeless if it was my living :-)
You’re really getting the hang of this sculpting thing! Well done, I think it looks spot on, capturing both the Oldhammer aesthetics and the feel of the new model.
Thanks dude, them’s kind words :-)
And true too.
Great work on this one, mate – the green is incredibly reminiscent of Kev Adams’ originals!
Cheers dude – he’s a fair bit taller than the originals, but I actually had one in hand as a reference piece during the project so it’s pleasing to hear I got ‘the look’ right :-)
Makes sense, though – as he’s a herald rather than a regular Plaguebearer.
Impressive sculpt !
Thank Mark – it was a fun and instructive project! :-)
That’s a brilliant present! Lucky Ross. Very good on the sculpting front my friend, all this sculpting work on the Space Orks has really improved your skills. Keep on pushing those boundries mate. Looking forward to the next model you come up with.
Cheers dude, the project certainly is pushing me, and this really does represent a lot of practice coming together – I’m glad you like him :-)
Speaking of next models, how are those chainswords and other bits coming along? ;-)
I’ll have a chance to get some done next week. Major changes at work at the mo. We are moving location!! Exciting 😊
Awesome on both counts :-)
Very creative
Thanks :-) Tbh, I had a ton of reference material, so not a huge leap artistically, but certainly out of my comfort zone in terms of application!