Green Shields and other stuff
Last time, I left you all with the promise of green stuff modelling and I hope this blog will not disappoint. It took me some time to get back to you all, because green stuff needs time to cure and I went to my hometown’s own metal festival.
The pack of Viking berserkers I got from Foundy Miniatures included 3 units that required shields; however, there were only 2 shields in the pack. So I had to come up with a way to create an extra shield. Checking the internet I found tons of ways to make missing bits, from cutting them out from cardboard or plastic to using old coins. The one that caught my fancy was making a press mould from green stuff. I picked this technique not only because it looked easy to do, but more because I wanted to get the feel of the material before I started sculpting with green stuff.
Before starting with the project, I checked on youtube for some tutorial videos (I like to do that with every crafting/building project, because I learn quicker when I see it actually happening). This clip I found was very useful, even though bits are missing. One thing I learned when making the mould is to use oil (or anything that prevents blobs of green stuff sticking together). What I did is: take a blob of green stuff, oil up the shield, press down gently and evenly so that the shield leaves a nice print in the green stuff. Leave it to cure and then carefully remove the shield, which left me this rather nice mould.
I oiled up the mould and pressed in some green stuff (again gently and evenly, I used the end of a marker for this, oiled up of course to prevent sticky situations). With the green stuff I had left I created some bits and bobs like the tip of a banner pole and a head on a spike (which came out quite okay, but I’m not really pleased with it).
After painting the new berserker the shield is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. I will probably use my mould some more when I expand my army. Even though Viking warbands did not wear uniforms, they might have used the same symbols on their shields. So a recurring pattern might even be a nice touch.
Next time you will probably see some units appear from my new box of toys. Jasper was kind enough to do some shopping for me when he visited the Partizan show last weekend; so for the coming time I am up to my neck in Plastic Hirdmen by Gripping Beast.
Disclaimer:
I want to stress that you should only use this technique for personal use. The selling of moulds and their products would be illegal due to copyright infringement.
