I’ve been in love with this illustration of a World of Warcraft Archer Troll for awhile now. It was created by a company I used to work in the same building as, and they did this piece for Upper Deck. Just a great piece, all around.
I wish I knew how to take better pics with my homemade lightbox, but you get the hint. This piece is 11″ high, and I had to make it in 25 different pieces, which was a lot of resin and silicone, to say the least. I reached a milestone with this piece. When I went to paint it, I realized after priming and painting how unfinished the piece is, in terms of a polishing and sanding, etc. Paint can hide some sculpting shortcuts, but not all of them.
This was sculpted with Zen Wax from Gary Overman. The piece below is the first test paint job I did. I used my iwata hp-c plus airbrush on most of him, but the armor was mostly hand-painted, due to the raised scrollwork. Speaking of the scrollwork, I created it by first scratching in the design I wanted, and then I literally dripped wax on it. I then took a rounded wax tip and tapped it all over the armor to get that hammered metal look.
My painting skills need some help, and paint can highlight toolmarks where you don’t want one, so I may just cast up another copy and really go to town on it with some sandpaper.
Even though you can’t see it, his shoulder spikes, bicep armor and shield are all removable. I’ll take pics of it soon, as well as all the pieces it took to make this.
The base I did in resin, then shook out some Woodlands Scenic Snow over the top, and even though you might not see in these pics, I made fake ice and icicles with Vallejo Water Effects (check out this site which compares some fake water products). I stuck some Woodland shrubbery in there too, before I shook the snow, to make it look a bit more realistic. I may still go back and and put some snow on the Troll, but haven’t decided yet.
Oh, and the raptor pet behind him?? Working on it, but I need to finish up some other work first.
Hope you like him, I had a blast working on him.
Fri, Jan 15, 2010
Featured