"Do You Sculpt Your Own Custom Figures for Your Games?" Topic

Very occasionally, I convert a figure or two. But not enough to change my answer from "No…".

I am saying ‘no' I have done a little in the past my arthritic hands would not manage it now. I don't think I have done enough (and good enough) in the past to claim ‘not anymore'

x42

I have one I designed on Heroforge for a very specific purpose, but generally speaking, no.

I do occasional head swaps, but I don't consider that "sculpting".

Mostly I convert existing figures, but occasionally I'll do a whole figure from scratch.

If I live long enough to retire, I plan to sculpt 3D models of fantasy ships, based on 2D drawings from a fantasy RPG company. I want to run fantasy ship battles, loosely based on 2e AD&D BattleSystem fantasy mass battles rules.

I believe I can sculpt believable designs out of Sculpey baking clay, then make open-face RTV Silicone molds from those to cast multiples of each type. The size of the finished models is the real's question: there are city-sized Dwarven 'ships', down to dugout canoes for Goblins, along with tiny rafts. Not sure, yet, if I need to model the tiny boats, at all.

I did the Prince August Molds, Melting Ladle with Model Metal, 20+ years ago, so I know how to cast. A friend showed me his bootleg re-casts of GW figures, using RTV Silicone, back in the late 90's, so I know how to make molds -- especially after watching several YouTube videos on how to do it. This would all be for personal gaming, not a commercial venture.

Heck, if someone makes STL files based on the drawings made by this company, I'll just order resin prints and game on! LOL!

I have made some Hot Glue sculpts, with varying degrees of success. My favorite is gouts of flame from the mouths of Hell Hounds: Hot Glue applied to thin plastic sandwich bags, painted appropriately, and Hot Glued into the figure's mouth.

I used the same technique to make frosty breath blasts for Winter Wolves who spew ultra-cold blasts from their maws. For these, I painted the Hot Glue white, but they otherwise are identical to the flame gouts from the Hell Hounds.

I also made a 24 Hit Die Fire Elemental (most common are only 8 HD, so this is the biggest normally possible in the game); 8-16 HD models are common enough, but I've never found a 24 HD model, so I made one (from left to right: 24 HD, 16 HD*, 8 HD*, and some 28mm Humans, for perspective, where the *'ed models are commercial).

The gouts of flame, and the Fire Elemental, were made by applying Hot Glue to plastic sandwich bag material: the Hot Glue hardens sufficiently to hold it in place, and they can be shaped when molten -- just be careful not to burn yourself! Hot Glue is an easy medium to sculpt with -- search YouTube for videos on sculpting with Hot Glue.

It's fun to play around, and even with lackluster skills, you can still make models that are, "Good enough to game with," IMO. LOL! Cheers!

I need a "pick seven" or "all of the above" in this one.

Same same on head swaps, weapon swaps, and even kit bashing figures. Recently, did a Zulu figures from the bit box with parts from three different figures.

I wish I had the skills to sculpt a figure from scratch, or even do a complex conversion.