High Elf hero

Click thumbnail
to see full image

After getting my hands on GW's own putty (the so-called "green stuff") I thought I'd give it a try and make a model from scratch with it. I'd already made machines with putty (Steam Tank, Ork Dreadnought, etc) but an ordinary infrantryman is much more of a challenge, since an elf always looks like an elf, there is not much room for error. Since it is smaller scale, you have to be more careful as well.

All the parts of the basic body were made separately, then to be put together and have details and clothing added. Seeing as I don't have any flashy "wireframe" like true sculptors, I just used some plastic bits lying around as a framework. The body is actually the second one I designed (the first one was more detailed and had armour), but I accidentally dropped it on the floor and - believe it or not - never managed to find it. Says something about how well cleaned my painting area is I guess.

As you all can see, the hands, weapons and head were not built by me. I figured that since I have a gazillion old weapons lying around, I might as well use it - it's not like my own efforts would have come out better. The flat finish of the weapons also seemed difficult to achieve without extensive polishing. This had the added bonus that I got the hands 'for free'. Since Michael Perry (or was it Alan?) himself said that hands were the hardest parts to sculpt I figured I'd better not bother. Making a head with facial characteristics also seemed way out of my league, so in the end I just nabbed an old Phoenix Guard head (I have tons of the old buggers lying around) and added hair to it. I've always wanted to do hair (like they do in every other conversion tutorial) but never gotten around to it, so I figured this was a good a time as any. I'm actually quite pleased with it, and I'm looking forward to seeing it painted.

And here's the end result - not a pretty sight by any standards, but it's still enjoyable to play with your very own miniature.