I've sculpted exactly one miniature. I didn't know what I was doing and definitely had the wrong tools but I'm still proud of what came out at the end. Some day I'll try another.
I started sculpting miniatures about a year and a half ago. I’ve finished 5 so far. Almost everything I know I learned from your UA-cam videos plus a few random tidbits from following Trish Carden. My sculpts aren’t amazing but they are slowly getting better and I really enjoy making them and painting. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience - it’s so incredibly helpful and inspiring!
Trish is amazing. The first minis I truly fell in love with were the Marauder miniatures by her and Ali. I'm glad these videos have helped you. Keep it up!
Hey Tom, Thank you for this video and for continuing the Mini Sculpting Super Show. I have to say, I can understand how you have achieved so much over the years and I think it is because of your attitude. Your words of encouragement have really helped me progress over the years, believe it or not, especially since the majority of time I have for sculpting now is very minor. Even doing a little something everyday has made a difference. Anyhow, that being said, I have now been sculpting for just under 9 years. I have done around 75-80 commissions and had a few small kickstarters, but I haven't done any commission work this year because of other responsibilities. I did manage to get a piece in a local contest for traditional miniature sculpting, so I was happy about that. Thanks again for keeping things going and sharing your experience with all of us! Isaac
It's so good to hear from you Isaac! Thank you for sharing those kind words. I'm so glad to know that what I do helps others. That's also a great count for sculpting minis. Can't wait to see what you'll do in 2024!
👴 Started sculpting about 20 years ago and tried some minis, but never finished anything. I had some problems with hands/claws and heads. So I concentradted more on kitbashes and conversions. After a longer hobby break I started sculpting minis again this year and sculpted 13 minis and also started molding and casting my minis.
Hey Tom! congratulations on your 20 years! My 20 year professional sculpting anniversary will be coming up next year. I haven't kept track of the number as well as you have, but I imagine it's several hundreds also. Looking forward to seeing what you'll be doing next.
I'm too old to be able to find an old person emoji. Nonetheless I have been sculpting figures for 64 years. I started with plasticine making comic superheroes, hardening them with Testors Plastic cement and painting them with Testors enamal. Average size of the finished prodoct was around 3" , about the same as the old green army men. I lost a lot of detail with that technique but they were sturdy enough to have play battles against the aforementioned army men. After retiring 10 years ago I got back into sculpting miniatures using polymer clay and Avis-sculpt. I probably have 300 2-3" figures now, again mostly comic-derived characters. Getting smaller figures is hard so I was glad to see your guides.
That's impressive! Also I had no idea you could harden plasticine. That was a fun material to use but I was always terrified of destroying the original so only ever used it for "sketching" ideas.
Thanks Tom. I have been watching your show for the past few years and have learned so much. I can not thank you enough for your amazing content. You are an amazing artist and human being 🙏🏼
I started sculpting miniatures about nine years ago when I sculpted four figures for some models that I was building, primarily with Fimo and softener and greenstuff then had to give it up until I was able to get back into model building a couple of months back. Slowly getting back to thinking about sculpting miniatures again.
i actually just finished painting my metal Torchbearer, and it's one of my favourite minis. super dynamic. great work Tom, a real treat to see how it got made.
That's so cool! And quite timely. When I was looking through old pictures I found some process shots of the studio painted model. It really is a cool model. I wish I saw it out in the wild more.
👴 I was actually inspired by your videos to sculpt my first miniature back in 2016. I entered a painting competition and couldn't find a mini that fit my vision. I have only sculpted a handful of miniatures but I still use what I learned from your videos to kitbash existing models before i paint. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Congrats on scoring 20 years!
That's the best reason to start sculpting in my opinion. My genesis was similar. I wanted to make a unique dwarf general. Never actually sculpted one to my liking :D
👴I have only been sculpting for a couple of years and have learned a lot from your videos. in fact, you're the only sculptor that I have been following. I have done about 23 or more sculpts of humans (some you have seen) and some figures from the world of cryptozoology from around the world, which gives you a lot of things to use in gaming, now come up with states for them can be hard but still great ideas. I just can't see how shows like "Grimm" and "Supernatural" could run out of ideas for more episodes.
I'm a miniature painter by trade, but I've always been interested in how to sculpt minis. Thank you for this video. I've subscribed to your channel, and will go back to watch some more!
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on sculpting professionally with a team. 👴🏻 I’ve only been sculpting for the last 4 years, and I’ve finished 14 miniatures in that time. I’d love to do it professionally someday and get to devote more of my time towards it.
👴Been sculpting on and off for about 20 years, conversions of stock minis to start with for the first few years. I quite enjoy doing 1/6th portraits, did take me a while to get the proportions correct, so I sculpted a 1/6th skull as anatomically correct as I could, I think that took four or five attempts till I got it right. I then used that to make a simplified skull armature. Your early Super Show videos were helpful with 28/30mm minis. I use GS, Magic Sculpt(UK), ProCreate and some Milliput along with Geomfix now and then, but my favourite medium by far is Beesputty 4X Firm
👴I started sculpting last year around this time, got inspired with the idea of christmas tree globe decorations. I wanted to give them as gifts for 2 of my friends to hang in their tree, one was a head of jar jar binks, the other was a head of ryuji sakamoto, both favorite characters friends had. I did them in a chibi style/ more globe like. Was a total noob, but I learned a lot sculpting them, tried multiple tools and materials, enjoyed fimo the most, even experimented with magnets and accessories which was super fun. Unfortunately, I did not finish them in time for christmas. I did finish sculpting them soon after, but then painting them was a whole new challenge, that and one life event made me go in hiatus for up until now. But I'm back now and I got to finish painting one of them and it turned out better than expected, after some failed attempts ofc, the other one I'm like 1/5 done. Next up I may try my hand at a miniature, maybe inspired from a DnD game I played in. Your tutorials and videos are truly a blessing, keep up the good work!
FIMO Professional or Beesputty are both great. If you use FIMO you'll need to have a base of greenstuff. But if you do it right, you can put Beesputty straight on the armature wire. I have videos on both materials you can check out if you haven't already. Good luck!
I've sculpted 2 miniatures so far - actually 3, if I count the squig I made out of a marble, some greenstuff, and toothpick ends back when I was 13. Thanks for your videos, they are a great resource! By the way, what are those tubs you're keeping your putty in in the intro? I just put my greenstuff into a tub like that and right away it's stuck hard to the bottom!
Thanks for sharing Daniel. I'd l've to see that squig you made out of a marble! The tubs are stackable bead containers. They screw together for a nice seal and you can stack as many as you like. I used to have 5 when I would use Procreate as well as Greenstuff. But since I don't do much putty sculpting anymore, I went down to three. Two for the greenstuff elements and one for my petroleum jelly.
I've played with putty a little over the years, but never created any full minis. I started with digital sculpting at the beginning of 2020. I think I've probably completed 1 full mini. Still learning anatomy...
👴I'm old (46) not sculpted anything but always converted models and want to get into it just got to kick my but into gear. Fingers crossed I can sort something. As an off shoot question... If thats ok... How would you sculpt lightning for a 30mm figure? Currently I'm working with thin wire but not sure if I can sculpt it better another way. Your 3d sculpting what do you use (tablet/vr headset etc...)
Don't say you're old! I'm almost 43 so right behind you :D I actually have sculpted lightning for an unreleased figure before. I did exactly what you're doing. Create a wire armature and spread a thin layer of putty on it. Once that is done, you can build up more putty to help give the lightning better shape. I like used a mix with Aves Apoxie Sculpt so the material can be filed down easier. I'd also recommend exaggerating the lighting a little bit so it isn't too thin (but that's more important if you're going to cast it). The key is to make sure it has an angular look. All sculpting is 3d ;) For digital sculpting I use a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 16". I prefer sculpting with a pen display, but it's totally doable to sculpt with tablet as a cheaper option. If you're looking at trying it out, the Wacom One is a great intro pen display.
@@TomMasonSculptor I supose but I am over the 45 threashold your under it... for now hehe I'm not going to be casting them its a pet project I'm making sort of undear and there skeletons are lightning (think WoW Revenants if you know them). Will give the apoxie a go I need to get a whole batch of different types to see what I like with sculpting and go from there. 3d sculpting would be awesome if I can get my head around it and hace some projects that I can try something for. I have a digital pen and board (the cheap small one but not fully used it yet). Also got your sculpting guide too so will be refuring to that when I get started :)
I actually don't use super sculpey to sculpt my minis (though I have used it for larger sculptures). I use FIMO Professional polyclay for the majority of my mini sculpting.
Yes, please do! HAHAH. It's hard to believe that sweater was created in the past year. I walked into a TJ Max and it was screaming from the racks "COME BUY ME". With my whole goblin, gnome, and toad them I just had to get it.
👨🦳painting, bashing and a few (milliput) sculpts in 80s. Back to it last year and mostly playing with digital. Thanks for sharing your story, and process(es). Agree that 20 seems to be an underwhelming number for some reason. Perhaps the lack of popular term is the cause? Score is largely archaic when used for time, and is normally it is used with a integer in front eg: three score years… However, in the UK (where I came from originally) it is common slang for twenty quid (pounds). ‘Lend us a score mate?’ ‘Nah, you already owe me a pony, yah tight wad’.
I've sculpted exactly one miniature. I didn't know what I was doing and definitely had the wrong tools but I'm still proud of what came out at the end. Some day I'll try another.
Thanks for sharing.
I started sculpting miniatures about a year and a half ago. I’ve finished 5 so far. Almost everything I know I learned from your UA-cam videos plus a few random tidbits from following Trish Carden. My sculpts aren’t amazing but they are slowly getting better and I really enjoy making them and painting. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience - it’s so incredibly helpful and inspiring!
Trish is amazing. The first minis I truly fell in love with were the Marauder miniatures by her and Ali.
I'm glad these videos have helped you. Keep it up!
Congratulations on 20 years Tom! Here is to 20 more!
Thank you!
Hey Tom,
Thank you for this video and for continuing the Mini Sculpting Super Show. I have to say, I can understand how you have achieved so much over the years and I think it is because of your attitude. Your words of encouragement have really helped me progress over the years, believe it or not, especially since the majority of time I have for sculpting now is very minor. Even doing a little something everyday has made a difference.
Anyhow, that being said, I have now been sculpting for just under 9 years. I have done around 75-80 commissions and had a few small kickstarters, but I haven't done any commission work this year because of other responsibilities. I did manage to get a piece in a local contest for traditional miniature sculpting, so I was happy about that.
Thanks again for keeping things going and sharing your experience with all of us!
Isaac
It's so good to hear from you Isaac! Thank you for sharing those kind words. I'm so glad to know that what I do helps others. That's also a great count for sculpting minis. Can't wait to see what you'll do in 2024!
👴👵 Some damn fine 20 years, mate! Doing stellar work!
Thanks! I appreciate that.
You're the best, Tom. You sparked my interest in mini sculpting and I have actually completed a handful of them now. Even a few that I'm happy with!
That's great! Keep at it. It's a nice feeling when your happy with more sculpts than you aren't.
👴 Started sculpting about 20 years ago and tried some minis, but never finished anything. I had some problems with hands/claws and heads. So I concentradted more on kitbashes and conversions. After a longer hobby break I started sculpting minis again this year and sculpted 13 minis and also started molding and casting my minis.
WOW, that's incredible!!!
Hey Tom! congratulations on your 20 years!
My 20 year professional sculpting anniversary will be coming up next year. I haven't kept track of the number as well as you have, but I imagine it's several hundreds also. Looking forward to seeing what you'll be doing next.
Yes! We started doing minis at about the same time. I wouldn't be surprised if your count was double mine.
I'm too old to be able to find an old person emoji. Nonetheless I have been sculpting figures for 64 years. I started with plasticine making comic superheroes, hardening them with Testors Plastic cement and painting them with Testors enamal. Average size of the finished prodoct was around 3" , about the same as the old green army men. I lost a lot of detail with that technique but they were sturdy enough to have play battles against the aforementioned army men.
After retiring 10 years ago I got back into sculpting miniatures using polymer clay and Avis-sculpt. I probably have 300 2-3" figures now, again mostly comic-derived characters. Getting smaller figures is hard so I was glad to see your guides.
That's impressive! Also I had no idea you could harden plasticine. That was a fun material to use but I was always terrified of destroying the original so only ever used it for "sketching" ideas.
just amazing as always. Congratulations
Thank you very much!
Thanks Tom. I have been watching your show for the past few years and have learned so much. I can not thank you enough for your amazing content. You are an amazing artist and human being 🙏🏼
Wow, thank you for the kind words.
I started sculpting miniatures about nine years ago when I sculpted four figures for some models that I was building, primarily with Fimo and softener and greenstuff then had to give it up until I was able to get back into model building a couple of months back. Slowly getting back to thinking about sculpting miniatures again.
Awesome! Welcome back.
i actually just finished painting my metal Torchbearer, and it's one of my favourite minis. super dynamic. great work Tom, a real treat to see how it got made.
That's so cool! And quite timely. When I was looking through old pictures I found some process shots of the studio painted model. It really is a cool model. I wish I saw it out in the wild more.
👴 I was actually inspired by your videos to sculpt my first miniature back in 2016.
I entered a painting competition and couldn't find a mini that fit my vision. I have only sculpted a handful of miniatures but I still use what I learned from your videos to kitbash existing models before i paint.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Congrats on scoring 20 years!
That's the best reason to start sculpting in my opinion. My genesis was similar. I wanted to make a unique dwarf general. Never actually sculpted one to my liking :D
👴I have only been sculpting for a couple of years and have learned a lot from your videos. in fact, you're the only sculptor that I have been following.
I have done about 23 or more sculpts of humans (some you have seen) and some figures from the world of cryptozoology from around the world, which gives you a lot of things to use in gaming, now come up with states for them can be hard but still great ideas.
I just can't see how shows like "Grimm" and "Supernatural" could run out of ideas for more episodes.
Very cool Doug. Keep building up that sculpt count. You're right, there are always more ideas!
I'm a miniature painter by trade, but I've always been interested in how to sculpt minis. Thank you for this video. I've subscribed to your channel, and will go back to watch some more!
Awesome, thank you!
@@TomMasonSculptor You're welcome!
Beautiful work!
Thank you so much 😀
🧓I have never sculpted a miniature, but this makes me want to start!
Give it a try!
Such an inspirational video, Tom. Thank you for sharing your sculpting journey!
My pleasure!
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on sculpting professionally with a team. 👴🏻
I’ve only been sculpting for the last 4 years, and I’ve finished 14 miniatures in that time. I’d love to do it professionally someday and get to devote more of my time towards it.
That is awesome! Keep it up!
👴Been sculpting on and off for about 20 years, conversions of stock minis to start with for the first few years. I quite enjoy doing 1/6th portraits, did take me a while to get the proportions correct, so I sculpted a 1/6th skull as anatomically correct as I could, I think that took four or five attempts till I got it right. I then used that to make a simplified skull armature. Your early Super Show videos were helpful with 28/30mm minis. I use GS, Magic Sculpt(UK), ProCreate and some Milliput along with Geomfix now and then, but my favourite medium by far is Beesputty 4X Firm
That's great. Thanks for sharing!
Soon, I'll tip my toes into sculpting. I'll start with conversions, and then try to build minis from scratch.
Awesome! That's a great way to start and get used to the materials.
👴I started sculpting last year around this time, got inspired with the idea of christmas tree globe decorations. I wanted to give them as gifts for 2 of my friends to hang in their tree, one was a head of jar jar binks, the other was a head of ryuji sakamoto, both favorite characters friends had. I did them in a chibi style/ more globe like. Was a total noob, but I learned a lot sculpting them, tried multiple tools and materials, enjoyed fimo the most, even experimented with magnets and accessories which was super fun.
Unfortunately, I did not finish them in time for christmas. I did finish sculpting them soon after, but then painting them was a whole new challenge, that and one life event made me go in hiatus for up until now.
But I'm back now and I got to finish painting one of them and it turned out better than expected, after some failed attempts ofc, the other one I'm like 1/5 done.
Next up I may try my hand at a miniature, maybe inspired from a DnD game I played in. Your tutorials and videos are truly a blessing, keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for sharing!
beautiful work Tom! what clay do you use or recommend to sculpt with for a beginner?
FIMO Professional or Beesputty are both great. If you use FIMO you'll need to have a base of greenstuff. But if you do it right, you can put Beesputty straight on the armature wire. I have videos on both materials you can check out if you haven't already.
Good luck!
I've sculpted 2 miniatures so far - actually 3, if I count the squig I made out of a marble, some greenstuff, and toothpick ends back when I was 13. Thanks for your videos, they are a great resource!
By the way, what are those tubs you're keeping your putty in in the intro? I just put my greenstuff into a tub like that and right away it's stuck hard to the bottom!
Thanks for sharing Daniel. I'd l've to see that squig you made out of a marble!
The tubs are stackable bead containers. They screw together for a nice seal and you can stack as many as you like. I used to have 5 when I would use Procreate as well as Greenstuff. But since I don't do much putty sculpting anymore, I went down to three. Two for the greenstuff elements and one for my petroleum jelly.
@@TomMasonSculptor Thanks! I'll grab a few of those containers. Sadly the squig is lost to the sands of time!
I've played with putty a little over the years, but never created any full minis. I started with digital sculpting at the beginning of 2020. I think I've probably completed 1 full mini. Still learning anatomy...
That's great. Keep it up!
How are you liking digital?
👴I'm old (46) not sculpted anything but always converted models and want to get into it just got to kick my but into gear. Fingers crossed I can sort something.
As an off shoot question... If thats ok... How would you sculpt lightning for a 30mm figure? Currently I'm working with thin wire but not sure if I can sculpt it better another way.
Your 3d sculpting what do you use (tablet/vr headset etc...)
Don't say you're old! I'm almost 43 so right behind you :D
I actually have sculpted lightning for an unreleased figure before. I did exactly what you're doing. Create a wire armature and spread a thin layer of putty on it. Once that is done, you can build up more putty to help give the lightning better shape. I like used a mix with Aves Apoxie Sculpt so the material can be filed down easier. I'd also recommend exaggerating the lighting a little bit so it isn't too thin (but that's more important if you're going to cast it). The key is to make sure it has an angular look.
All sculpting is 3d ;)
For digital sculpting I use a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 16". I prefer sculpting with a pen display, but it's totally doable to sculpt with tablet as a cheaper option. If you're looking at trying it out, the Wacom One is a great intro pen display.
@@TomMasonSculptor I supose but I am over the 45 threashold your under it... for now hehe
I'm not going to be casting them its a pet project I'm making sort of undear and there skeletons are lightning (think WoW Revenants if you know them).
Will give the apoxie a go I need to get a whole batch of different types to see what I like with sculpting and go from there.
3d sculpting would be awesome if I can get my head around it and hace some projects that I can try something for. I have a digital pen and board (the cheap small one but not fully used it yet).
Also got your sculpting guide too so will be refuring to that when I get started :)
I've been sculpting miniatures for about 3 years, and your job is amazing. One doubt, you're using super sculpey?
I actually don't use super sculpey to sculpt my minis (though I have used it for larger sculptures). I use FIMO Professional polyclay for the majority of my mini sculpting.
@@TomMasonSculptor Thank you so much buddy
Yes, sculpting miniatures.....but can we instead talk about that awesome vintage mushroom sweeter?
Yes, please do! HAHAH.
It's hard to believe that sweater was created in the past year. I walked into a TJ Max and it was screaming from the racks "COME BUY ME". With my whole goblin, gnome, and toad them I just had to get it.
Ive been sculpting digitally for at least 13 years, but only recently I have started doing miniatures👴
Very cool!
4 score and 7 years ago!
It's been journey!
i started sculpting because i didn't have enough a lot of money but a lot of free time to sculpt...
Thanks for sharing!
🧓👴👵
HAHA
@@TomMasonSculptor you told us to comment with old person emoji if we're over 30 right 😂
@@snager80 oh that's right! I must be having a senior moment.Thanks for remembering.
@@TomMasonSculptor don't worry sempai, i have boomer brain myself
👨🦳painting, bashing and a few (milliput) sculpts in 80s. Back to it last year and mostly playing with digital. Thanks for sharing your story, and process(es). Agree that 20 seems to be an underwhelming number for some reason. Perhaps the lack of popular term is the cause? Score is largely archaic when used for time, and is normally it is used with a integer in front eg: three score years… However, in the UK (where I came from originally) it is common slang for twenty quid (pounds). ‘Lend us a score mate?’ ‘Nah, you already owe me a pony, yah tight wad’.
Hahah, thank you for the lesson in local terminology. It's so interesting all the different colloquialisms around the world.