A theme of fur

I am thinking that I must mention fur in every post in this blog. This one therefore will be no different. I have once again being sculpting and yes once again it is fur. Looking at my lists and the quickly approaching Irish tournament scene I have decided that six Chaos Knights are equal in points to twenty Chaos Warriors. Hence I pulled the knights out of storage and began to put cloaks on them. I am really annoyed with the ones I have done on the mounted marauders. Looking at them now I see that I have made them way to small! If the marauders were standing the cloaks would only reach to the back of their knees. With the knights I may have over compensated. The cloaks here would really drag on the ground if the knight was walking.

They look pretty impressive in my opinion at least. With the over sized cloaks on them they really are much more bulky. I am also able to sculpt better on the larger surface and the fur has much more of a direction. When sculpting large cloaks it can really begin to look boring if you don't add layers to the fur. On a smaller area you don't have to worry as much as people looking won't pay the same attention. With the knights this cloak is easily the largest surface on them so it needs something. Once painted I am hoping it looks decent.

This is an excellent photograph that illustrates exactly what you are trying to sculpt when you do fur. There is not a hope in hell that I could sculpt each hair. I don't think it would be worthwhile and look good anyway. What is needed is an impression of the fur. Here you can see that the fur is capable of movement and has a direction. You can also see that there is in some places a feeling of depth while in others is pretty flat and uniform. If you look at a picture of long hair you will also notice that it forms long tufts. The combination of these is what I attempt to achieve when I sculpt. There are quite a few others that are equally valid but for me that is the easiest.

I still haven't finished the marauder horses. I haven't had the patience to sit down and build the highluights on the skin. Its pretty easy to become demotivated about a task. I will get to them one of the evenings this week though. Then onto the riders who I am also not looking forward to... oh well just one of those painting chores we all have to get through. Reading the Dresden Files (two books more since last I posted) has given me the idea that running Hunter: The Vigil would be good. So far I haven't put pen to paper as it would eat a lot of my time. Hopefully I can continue to resist!

Some extra shots: