i would love to sculpt but dont know where to start

Try reading "Modeling Waffen SS Figures" by Calvin Tan. I think it's a great place to start.

Google search "Modeling Waffen SS Figures Calvin Tan" and choose the first link.

Calvin also has some of his work on-line.
http://zyclyon.blogspot.com/2007/10/yeah-right.html
http://community.webshots.com/user/zyclyon4

You may also want to poke around and/or post something on planetfigure.com. There are plenty of knowledgeable and talented folks who specialize in figures there.

I hope this helps.

David

Well it looks like I'm going to disagree with all the above poster has said...

IMO as great as Calvin's book is the sculpting chapter is light. This is due only to the format that Osprey require their authors to work in. Also, as a subsciber to Calvin's bolg I can tell you that he does not explain his process in a step by step format.

You don't need to leave the Kitmaker Network to learn how to sculpt.

Have either of you explored Historicus Forma or it's sculpting forum yet? The HF sculpting forum is led by Markus Eckman whom owns a miniatures company and has done various commissions and commercial pieces. Markus has also done various SBS on the site, some being feature articles others being forum threads.

Believe it or not we also have talented people on HF. There are plenty of other sculptors, regular posters, on HF that are more than willing to help you.

Rudi

Thanks guys i was going to ask on hf but i thought i would give here a try first:)

Hi Rudy,
I wasn't suggesting there aren't talented people on this site. I was suggesting going to the other site in addition to this site as another place to gather information. My apologies for offending you or anyone else on this site :-(.

I hadn't visited the Historicus Forma site before. It looks nice.

I admit Calvin's book doesn't go into great depth. Can you recommend other books which would apply to 54mm figures and go into more depth? The internet is great for many things but there are some times where it's nice to get away from looking at a screen and read something on paper. Doing a general search for sculpting seems to result in many books on sculpting in wood, clay, and granite.

David

David and Jimmy there are some publications that are purely for figure sculpting and cover a variety of scales including 54mm.
The only one i can recommend due to the fact i own a copy and can confirm it is very usefull for anyone starting out into sculpting is `Conversion and Scratchbuilding of Model Figures`by Andrea Press...ISBN 34-934404-4-2
It is designed for begginers through to advanced and has easy to follow steps with good illustrations.It will start you off from figure conversions to actually sculpting a full figure.

Hope this helps.

Steve

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the tip br />
Various web sites seem to list it by it's full title which is "CONVERSION AND SCRATCH BUILDING : An In-Depth Course of the Different Techniques to Convert and to Model Figures." Dang, how verbose can that be? It reminds me of a title you would find on a thesis. The isbn starts with an 8. It's listed as 8493440442.

The US web sites I've checked so far are out of stock so it's going to take some digging to find one.

Thanks,
David

Yeh david from what ive heard it is hard to find,the English version anyway,if you get the chance grab one while you can.

Steve