Scratch built Viking Longship

I don't often get requests but my youngest son saw me working on some card Sail ships and asked me if I could make him a Viking Longship.
Here is the result, it took me about 3-4 hours and I used the same techniques as I've used to make the card War Artisan kits. The scale is unknown but the base is about 115mm long.

After I finished, I realised I had completely forgot the rudder but my son wasn't bothered. The sail was a downloaded file to which I added a Thor motif. The rest is painted card, a nylon coated jewellery wire and some coffee stirrers for masts.

First sculpting attempts

Not posted for a while (I've been gaming online a bit of late), I must admit the painting of rows and rows of French Line have become a bit of a chore. I decided that the perfect antidote to repetitive painting was to try my hand at a bit of sculpting using Green Stuff or Kneadatite, how hard can it be right?
It turns out that it is hard, very.
I spent a lot of time lurking on forums, checking out other peoples sculpts and/or tutorials before deciding to take the plunge. I bought all of the necessary materials off of evilbay which amounted to:

1. 12 inches of Green Stuff (or GS)
2. Set of 12 sculpting tools
3. 10 x 20mm corks
4. 28 guage copper wire for making armatures

All of those items weighed in at about £15, which I thought was quite reasonable. I wasn't sure if 12" of GS would be enough, as i happens it was plenty. I wasn't sure if 12 sculpting tools would be enough, it was in fact too many as I find I'm only actually using about 2 or 3 of them and my trusty scalpel. Ten corks are plenty as they can be reused and the spool of wire I have should last about 2 life times.
I found GS quite easy to work with apart from one major element. Despite the fact that it is well documented throughout the interwebs, I was surprised at just how sticky this stuff is. The advice about having wet fingers and tools is about the best you can get, second only to the one about waiting a while after mixing a fresh batch as it is at it's stickiest at this point. I created myself a figure scale using some freely available Andrew Loomis proportion illustrations here, here and here. Printed them on a sheet at various scales, very useful for making the armatures etc.
I rushed my first couple of sculpts, I tried to do too much, too soon (like a giddy schoolgirl). It also means there are no WIP shots just the finished article.

First attempt was a 28mm Knight (of no particular era). I chose a knight specifically as I could avoid sculpting fingers and face thanks to a closed Helm and mitted mail gloves. Shield, sword and scabbard are made from some plasticard scraps I had.

I'm legally obliged to say that the next sculpt is only loosely based on the wife as she has been constantly asking me if her arse is really that big (to all you men out there just starting out in a relationship with a woman, the answer should always be NO to that particular question).
This is therefore a 54mm sculpt of a 'generic' female figure, a first attempt at hands, hair and face and a massive learning experience.
I'm happy with the result of my first attempts and all painting has been put on hold so I can scratch my sculpting itch. I am currently working on a series of six 28mm superhero sculpts, I'm taking my time and will provide some WIP shots soon.

I've added my figure scale chart incase anyone finds it of use. Remember to print it at 100%.

Gone in 7 days

As stated in a previous post, I have in the past sold painted figures on ebay. I must point out that I don't consider myself to be a "Pro Painter" and I have no ambition to paint figures for a living. If I were to calculate an hourly rate based on how long it took me to complete these compared to how much they sold for I would be on about 25p an hour. However, the money raised selling these was used to buy additional materials and figures.

This first set is Airfix's 1/32 scale WW2 British Paratroopers.

All seven original poses and 5 unique conversions.

This next set is Esci/Italeri's 1/72 Barbarian Warriors, painted to represent an early German war band that might have typically fought against the Imperial armies of Rome.

Although I'm not a wargamer, I based these figures according to the DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) rule set in order to make them more attractive to wargame buyers on ebay.

As far as I can recall these were bought by a buyer in New Zealand.

I did buy a corresponding set of Roman Cavalry but never painted them, maybe one day?

These are the only sets of figures I have sold on ebay and I have no plans to sell any more, unless I need the money to pursue other projects. These are the actual photos I used to sell them on ebay.