The Hoplites shield

  I noticed that the detail stamped in the middle of the shield was off center. There's an ornamental forearm grip down the center and around the circumference there is some kind of hook that rope gets tied to. This was all off center, so when I tried attaching the braided rope it looked all messed up and out of proportion.  So I decided to make a cast of the details, then sand them off and realign them properly. I used Castin Craft's mold builder and some casting epoxy mixed with purple paint so I can see what I was doing (it dries clear on its own, hard to see detail on a clear piece).  The mold builder gets put on in thin layers (about 13 layers, depending on the size of the mold). The first two or three layers are what...

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More hellcat

 Well after a fairly decent disaster on the the Greek Hoplite with this hand and fingers, I decided to take a break from him and work some more on the Hellcat diorama.  I repainted the wall and added some moss and seeds and crap to the cracks and crevices. Finished painting the tree leaves and trunk, added some green moss to give it a bit of character. Added seeds and leaves to the grass and added more flowers and stuff.  I'm thinking the base is pretty much done, now to finish the tank and crew. ...

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Toes

 Well seems like I got a boost of motivation and this is what happened. I primed the toes I previously sculpted and they looked all flat and gnarled up, they looked horrible. So I really only had one option left: Make new toes! I cut off the old plastic and sculpted new ones from apoxie sculpt. Toe nails and all. They look rough now but I'll get them smoothed out before I paint. And besides, the feet are gonna be pretty dusty anyways, he just got out of battle! So maybe it won't look so bad.  The spear broke in half and I couldn't aline it properly so I cut the bladed ends off, drilled some holes so they can be glued to a brass rod I cut to the appropriate length and scuffed up with sandpaper to give it a wooden texture...

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