Ruin Commission w/ Hand Sculpted warpwolf/flag cape

  I finished it.  I've had this model... two months maybe.  Painting it took awhile, but with the holiday weekend I was able to burn through the cape pretty quickly.  That being said, the cape was easily one of the most frustrating things I've ever had the pleasure of working with.  I don't know if PP's stuff is better than Greenstuff or not.  I haven't actually greenstuffed an item this large before.  I need to now, but once PP's Greystuff hits about 45 minutes to an hour, it's pretty much stuck in place, but at the same token, will sag if you're trying to get it to support itself.

  I painted the warjack, pretty much sealed it and then began working the cape.  I did the flag part first, then ran the warpwolf on top with all the lessons I'd learned from the cape.  I initially rolled the cape too thin, so it was difficult to keep in place.  The wolf I may have gotten too thick, but it worked out.  I've got WIP pictures after the final product.  Let's hit the high point first, shall we?

 Note:  After posting all of these nice pics I realized I forgot to glue the medals back on after gluing the chain on from the cape.  This first picture, I went and got for the medals, but everything else, they're still missing.

  So the WIP.  I started with repositioning most of the model, getting a far more aggressive stance in place.  I modded the right hand to get a looser grip on the axe/mace so I could swing it out farther from the model like he was getting momentum going.  Then I airbrushed red, highlighted, moved to white, did all the metals, touched up minor details and one-off colors and moved onto the cape.

  I rolled out PP's greystuff, let it dry a little bit and then cut the holes into it, dragging fringes out with the tool and giving an edge.  I then let it dry for a total of 45 minutes.  This was too much time, and I really struggled to get good bends into the "fabric".  The issue though is that any less time and the sculpting material doesn't support itself.  What ended up working for me though was blue painters tape.  It sticks to the sculpt, but doesn't remove paint or change the texture.  So, using the tape, I supported the cape as I wanted, taping it to a box or whatever I need to get the angles and let it dry for the night.

  Then we moved onto the Wolf. I rolled out a basic outline, considerably thicker than the cape had been.  I used the tool (The GW standard Greenstuff tool) to drag out the edges for hairs and then drag all through the pelt for the fur itself.  At first it's pretty daunting, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly.  It's literally just dragging the tip through the clay, almost as it you're edging with a brush.

  Keep your tool wet.  Once it starts drying, it starts literally dragging material and tearing rather than just indenting so much.  The smooth motion is what you want for hte fur.

  I laid the wolf pelt over the cape and did the bluetape trick again.

  The chain you see I put in the cape by folding the narrow end of the cape over the chain and glueing it in place to secure the chain, then wrapping a small strap of material around the joint.  That got me to this point.

  Today, I finished a few minor details on Ruin, and then painted the cape.

  Altogether, this landed me this guy.

  I'm super pleased with how this has turned out, and I think it's probably my best work actually.  Between the sculpting skills, the airbrush, and the hand painted detail, I'm really excited to see how he turned out and I hope I've met the customer's expectations.  Leave any comments, critiques or outright insults and enjoy!