Caine2 Repose
Studio pose for Caine2
Fresh on the heels of my Madrak1 repose, I came across another caster I’ve wanted to play, but disliked the pose. First off, he appears to be shooting all around himself in a circle, this seems to line up perfectly with Caine1’s feat and not Caine2, Next, why does he have to be shooting in two different directions simultaneously? It almost seems more like he’s just randomly spraying some bullets around and hoping for the best.
I want a cool, calm, collectedCaine that seems totally in control of the situation as long as he’s got his magelocks and some rune bullets. Next we factor in my limited but growing set of sculpting skills. First thing is to lose the two different directions. He’s going to shoot in the direction he’s looking. (Crazy I know.) So what to do with his left arm? There’s the Lynch pose, with it bent at the elbow, magelock pointed up. There’s the Ryan pose with both pointed in the same direction. Luckily the arms come as separate pieces so I got to try different poses until I found one that felt calm, cool and ready to kill.
The epic base? That’s out. My Caine1 is on a wooden floor, which I like to imagine is the floor of a barroom, where Caine1 spends most of his time. Caine2 I wanted out on the battlefield. I’ve been thinking a lot about trencher lately. Combining the two I thought about him with a foot up resting on the edge of a trench firing into an oncoming enemy. Suddenly it was all coming together. So let’s get started.
Pinned and ready for sculpting
The two arms and right leg are already separate, but tho make the pose I wanted the left leg needed to be longer and be in a slightly different location. I used the jewelers saw to remove the left leg as close to the body as possible and then filed both cuts smooth. I then drilled pinning holes in each limb and matching attachment location. Then I tried different length pins and bends until I got the pose I wanted.
So the pinning has determined my sculpting needs: A left shin, a right knee and two shoulders. I can totally do that, probably…well I can try at least.
Left shoulder, add some wrinkles for cloth
Right shoulder, more compressed wrinkles
Lets start by looking at the shoulders. You could bulk it up and cure it then put a layer over it like I did with Madrak1, but there’s really not enough here to worry about all that. I just applied some grey stuff and used the sculpting tool and clay shapers to give it a wrinkled appearance, like it’s part of his jacket showing between the armor for his arms and his shoulders. As a gunmage you probably want a lot of room in the shoulders so it doesn’t hinder your movement.
Extend the thigh armor plate
For the left leg we need to extend that thigh armor plate to cover our gap, as there’s already a knee attached to the separate leg piece. Be sure to fill in the rest of the knee gap if any first. Then add some extra grey stuff and smooth it out like the thigh armor plate. Using your sculpting tool carefully press in a line to form the edge of the armor plate to match up with the existing one. Let this cure before doing the next leg or like me you’ll end up putting your thumb in it and having to redo it.
Screw head showing on the shin
For the other leg add enough grey stuff to get the basic leg shape, kind of like bulking it up. Rather than cure it first, I decided to go ahead and make the shin armor plate as well, but leave the back bulked up. I used my sculpting tool to form a good ridge on each side to line up with the existing armor plate on the foot we cut off. I then used my sculpting tool to again carefully press in a line on each side to make the edge of the armor. For the screw head I used a blunted syringe needle to make a circle (maybe a 16 gauge? forgot to write it down, just choose something to match the other leg), then my knife to press in the slot for the screw.
Armor straps across the calf
Let that cure before attempting the calf. Looking at the other leg there should be three leather straps holding the armor to his shin. We have one after cutting the leg off, so we’ll sculpt two. Roll out a long thin piece of grey stuff and gently flatten it to desired thickness using the sculpting tool. Cut off the edges as necessary to give it sharp edges, and cut to length (guesstimate). Attach one end of the strap the edge of the shin armor plate and smooth it around the calf to the other edge, cutting off any excess. Repeat for the second strap. Then with your clay shaper gently indent the center of the strap to give it a feel of a well-worn leather strap. At the very top along coat I decided his pants should show a bit, so I did a similar procedure to add some thickness up there.
Defending the trenches, one rune bullet at a time.
Let that cure and then pin him to the base. This trench base if from Dwarven Forge. The last thing I needed to do was trim the longer metal tube that connects to his elbow as it was much too long for this pose.
This is exactly the feel I was going for. He’s just defending an entire trench-works with his pistols, one shot at a time. NOT running down the field shooting in both directions because he’s gotten surrounded.
Cool, calm, collected Caine2
What’s up with the drill hole in the end of his magelock? Well I’ve got a crazy idea with those little gun explosions he came with, but I’m not sure if I’ll like it until I see it painted, so it may end up being nothing at all.