Throwback Thursday – The Wachmeister Trys Sculpting

This post was originally published on June 11, 2019 on the HMGS site.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post I am currently working on a Viking war band for Saga. I am using Crusader Miniatures. Due to how I organized my force I ended up with three extra hearth guard and two extra Bondi. Initially I had planned on simply painting one of the Bondi as is and adding him to the three hearth guard to form a complete four-man unit. Upon looking at my spare Bondi inspiration struck and I decided to try my hand at sculpting a chain mail coat for one of them. My sculpting has been limited to minor repairs, some minor brick work (see my doughnut shop in another blog post) and some bed rolls and pouches done years ago. Still, what’s the harm in trying? I rolled out some green stuff and covered the figure where I wanted the armor. I then used a pointed dissecting tool to create an approximation of chainmail links. Up close it looked more like a puffy coat then chain mail but from a distance it is passable. Once I painted him up and mixed him in a unit he was even harder to locate, even when trying. From 3 feet he fits in even more! I learned a few things from this project. The chain mail looks better in areas that I applied the green stuff thicker but in those areas the miniature looks a lot puffier. It might not be possible to add decent looking chain mail to an already sculpted figure without trimming down the original figure first. I had my first lesson in sculpting pouches and bedrolls from Warlord Games very own Wojtek at Historicons Hobby University a few years back. Sculptors Tom Mason and Bobby Jackson will be attending Historicon as Hobby University instructors this year and I’m hoping to take a few of their classes and pick their brains about my chain mail experiment. I batch painted 17 shields as I have one more Bondi who, with a better chain mail coat, could replace his lumpier brother! While I am not 100% thrilled with my attempt I am happy with how it came out. There is certainly room for improvement but every skill starts with a first step. Once again I encourage you all to push out of your comfort zone and try something new!