Conan The Cimmerian - Fantasy Painting Style

joewolf · Jan 20, 2018

Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

INSPIRATION
I was exposed to Savage Sword of Conan comics at way too young of an age and have wanted a 1/6 Conan figure ever since. Though there are plenty of Arnold movie Conans out there, I was determined to create a fantasy-painting-style Conan figure to commemorate those amazing comics.

MY APPROACH

On a fantasy Conan figure, the muscles / physique are the whole point of the figure. They're not a supporting player, but the star of the show. A Phicen body will not do, it's too small, too realistically sized, too soft. I don't mind visible joints either as long as they are tightly fitted and keep the silhouette of the figure. I ended up spending oodles of time creating a massively muscular body by combining parts from several figures + sculpting what I couldn't find.
The headsculpt doesn't need to look like Marvel/Joe Jusko artwork but must achieve the same feel: Robust facial structure yet a little gaunt (ie, not that well fed). Not old, but not so young that it looks naive or soft. Serious and sullen-eyed but not evil-looking. Naturally, a glorious lion's mane of hair is needed, and only real hair will allow the range of motion needed.
Clothing must accomodate the body, not the other way around. Since most commercial clothing and gear wouldn't fit on the huge body, I ended up scratchbuilding much of it instead.

Anyways, I've worked on some form of this figure for over 5 years. It's gone through many iterations, originally being much more cartoony, but the current iteration was done in the last 2 years. In that time, I learned to sculpt and paint better and even do light 3D CAD work to solve customization issues. Those in turn have opened up the possibilities of customizing for me (teach a man to fish & all that). I hope that you like it.

(Sorry for the hodge podge pictures. I really need to setup a proper photo station & get a good SLR

joewolf · Jan 20, 2018

OMAKE/MAKING OF

RECIPE

Head - DCD Dr Manhattan - resculpt forehead, added real hair

Body - DCD Dr Manhattan chest & legs, ACE waist, Marvel Icons Wolverine shoulders & biceps
- Sculpted: Forearms, neck, traps, nipples
- Feet are 3d printed, ankles are the shoulders from a 6" wrasslin' figure (this creates marvel legends-style rocker ankles)
- Hands are from Enterbay NBA ballers. They're big but don't have gripping hands, so I drilled a hole into a fist and resculpted the fingers around it.

Kidney belt & bracelets - Scratchbuilt from clear box packaging, apoxie sculpt, wire

Swordbelt - Boromir, weathered

Loincloth - Made from white cotton, dyed, cut & weathered, with an elastic waistband

Sandals - Scratchbuilt

Necklace - HT Predator

Axe - Phicen, repainted to brown leather, added blood effects

Base - Sculpted from pottery clay

Rocks - Styrofoam

Decapitated head - He Man figure, sculpted on neck and eyelid, added hair, repainted

BODY WORK

DCD feet were too small, so I replaced with 3D printed feet (which were also much better sculpted). Added shoulders from a 1:12 WWE figure to create Marvel "rocker ankles". Sandal bottoms are the bottom of a 12" wrestler figure's boots:

Many variations on the kidney belt and loin cloth design were tried:

Demon head from original to v1. I felt the wide open eye was too cartoony, so I sculpted a more closed eyelid onto it eventually:

My first time sculpting stonework and first time using regular pottery(?) clay. It was actually quite fun, though regular clay shrinks a LOT when it's dry. On the plus side, it holds detail better than apoxie sculpt: