Clowning Around With Flubbin

Clowning Around With Flubbin

July 16, 2020

Today, I will show you how I did a diabolical conversion for one of my Riot Quest models and created Flubbywise the Clown. Flubbywise floats…and your goblin will float, too.

That’s what the big red balloon is for!

The first thing I had to do was remove her aviator cap. I did this by hacking at it with hobby clippers then using different shaped files to clean it up further.

Then began the fun part: Sculpting. All the sculpting was done with brown putty. I started by sculpting out her iconic ruffle clown collar. I laid down a sausage of putty and used Vaseline on my tools to keep the putty from sticking. Next, I flattened out the sausage and used a scalpel to sculpt the folds and then a needle to poke into the front plane. I also lightly glued a brass pin into her stomach and held her in a hobby knife handle to make it easier to sculpt. It’s a handy trick for sculpting and painting these types of models.

Next, I blocked out the main masses for the hair and let them dry. This will give the detail layer something to stick to and will help it maintain its form better when you are sculpting in the details.

I then added another thin layer to the hair mass and sculpted in the details with different metal spatulas and needles. I added far more deep lines where the hair would have shadow; this is something sculptors have been doing forever. Where it attaches to the head normally has a lot of grooves and detail, and anywhere the light would hit will be a bit smoother. It helps create the illusion of form at such a small scale; it also saves time from having to sculpt every hair.

After this, it was time to paint. I used a technique with white and black primer called zenithal priming to move it farther along, and then I did lining and picked out more shadows and highlights. Finally, after the big red balloon, it was time for murder and horror and clowny antics! Beep beep!