Sculpey

Oh, so poor was I...

When I was a student I especially had very little money to spend on miniatures, yet desperate was I to join in on the games being run at the local hobby store.

There was only one thing to do. Make my own.

Hmmm - easier said than done. I had never modelled anything so small before and really had no idea how to go about it.

A few toothpicks, pins and some old dentists tools later I got to work on what I could afford. A block of Sculpey from the craft store.

It's almost shameful to post this, but what the heck. It's for posterity. I can afford some posterity, can't I?

Swamp Trolls

I built up the Sculpey just barely over these weird plastic featureless monster models someone threw out and then carefully baked them, cooled them and painted them. A terrible job, but trolls were neither available or affordable for me at the time, so these would do.

Much to my surprise, many of the people loved them, goofy and as fragile as they were and they sure saw their fair share of tabletop battles, (and still do).

The Giant 

You gotta be kidding me! I can't afford the GW giant! Shit, I can't even afford him now!

Enter the Sculpey giant. Based on a plastic football trophy, I moulded this guy, club, base and all. That's right. I didn't even have a plastic base. The ale barrel he carries is where the trophy was carrying a football.

Once again, to my surprise, when I busted this guy out years later at a 4 way orc and goblin vs skaven battle, everyone was amazed that I had made him myself. He is getting quite old now and the Sculpey is finally beginning to crack around his feet.

The Ogre

I based this guy around a plastic pink Power Ranger and used the dentist tool on him for a chainmaille effect.

Armed with a metallic painted, skewer mounted hammer of earplug, this is one ogre you don't wanna cross.

Occasionally, he would wear a metal painted upside-down suction cap stolen from one of those stupid "Baby-on-Board" signs hung from the back wind-shield of a car to give him a slightly Oriental look.

Father Nurgle

No, I couldn't afford the Nurgle metals either. This Nurgle Great Unclean One I slopped together right out of Sculpey and nothing else. Armed only with a paperclip and a plastic base, created an atrocity.
He used to look.... uh... better too. Years of being uncared for, banged around and covered in dust has left this guy neglected. Mebbe I'll give him some new paint and a bit of a fix-up.

Edit: A bit of a repaint, greenstuff horns and some wings with a bit of red clear too ooze him up a bit.

Beast of Nurgle

The metal Beast of Nurgle was a little weird, but I liked it. Sculpey to the rescue to sloppily recreate this slimey horror.

The Melties

Yeah, you guessed it - I couldn't even afford dwarves. This is before the age o' plastic mind you.

The thing about Sculpey is that you have to bake it. It isn't air hardening like greenstuff. The thing about baking is that it is random. Stuff begins to melt in seconds. Thus - The melties.

Anyway - along comes the plastic skeletons box some time later and all of a sudden I have good weapons for these guys that make them suck just a little less.

Strangely, and I really don't get this...but when I cautiously brought these guys to the battlefield to fill out my meagre army, they were welcomed with praise by the other players. Now, obviously they aren't terribly good, but maybe because I gave them what small life I could, somewhere, some people noticed. A little spark of life from me to them. Well, they sure fought as hard as any metal dwarf, I'll give them that!