TMNT Croc

**Aseyngel** · August 3rd, 2007, 04:11 PM

3rd sculpt. Having played the roleplaying game (Timetravelling-) TMNT for a number of years, I felt a great need to sculp a character played by my brother. Not sure whether he is a croc or an alligator; I used pictures of both during the construction. By the way, in accordance with TMNT naming-rules for a group of characters, his name is Emmen T. Haler.
Having done a lot of timetravelling, his equipment (and base) is taken from three large empires: The roman Gladius (sword), the WWII German Maschinengewehr 42 (light machinegun) and the slap of sand-stone-base with a relief of the Egyptian Crocodile-god SOBEK.
He is 5" tall, scale 1:10 - body made from Supersculpey/Sculpey firm 50/50. Accessories done in Sculpey firm.
I intend to air-brush/paint him, and will post another thread when that is done.
After all - I guess the tail should have been slightly shorter.

Notes to pictures:
The first picture (2nd really) is a sketch to decide what the skeleton should be like. I used the red lines to construct the aluminum-skeleton.
Having added some (pink) flesh - the snout (is that the proper name?) turned out to be to long.
The hands was made on a basis of thin wire, baked, and mounted on the arms (well - wouldnt look god elsewhere, would they?

)
First pair of feet turned out to be too small.
The skin (after a lot of experimentation) is done with a flattened tooth-pick, and a lot of alcohol. All attempts to simulate real gator/croc skin turned out wierd....(for which I of course blame the Sculpey

)
The strips of sculpey on the backpack will be stickers with frases like "I

Mississippi", "Berlin Zoo" etc.
The lesson learned on both weapons is: Next time remember to freeze the Sculpey before use for better results......(as someone more experienced wrote here earlier on).
For the base and his head, I used a small rock to get some nice textures. It looks good to me, but only drybrushing will show if that is a total catastrophe.

**mohack** · August 3rd, 2007, 04:14 PM

Grovin man!

I really like the whole piece. Nice feel overall.

Big thumbs!

**fukifino** · August 3rd, 2007, 04:22 PM

This is a really nice sculpt! Having done a small pool with a similar pattern to your croc skin, I don't envy you the time it must have taken to texture that! I really dig the elongated gas mask, too.

**troyboy** · August 3rd, 2007, 04:27 PM

Hah! I love it! Anthropomorphic-themed sculpts have always been one of my favorite subject
matters and you've done an awesome job here. Great accessories he's carrying and overall
there's just a lot of fun stuff to look at. Nice work.

**acornboy** · August 3rd, 2007, 08:23 PM

Really nice Croc! I think you did a really good job getting a realistic, yet cartoony blend for his detailing. Congrats on a sculpt well done!

-Sam

**zenichi** · August 3rd, 2007, 08:41 PM

really enjoy your wip pics!! fun sculpt and only your 3rd!!!
the chicken sticking out of the backpack gave me a real buzz!!
thanks fukifino for pointing out another fun element- the gas mask!!!

question:- when u mentioned toothpicks (flattened?) and alcohol?? the tooth-pick is to scrap off grove lines to form the texture? and the alcohol is to "smoothen" the textures??....
and thanks for reiterating the freeze tips!

**Aseyngel** · August 4th, 2007, 02:39 AM

Thanks for all the comments! You're all to kind.

Fukifino: Yes - You are right concerning the skin. I will definitely do something smooth skin-wise in the future!

Thanks for noticing the chicken. It is a special ordre from my brother.

Troyboy: My brother asked for a sombrero as well - You should be able to tell why! (The rest of you: Re-read your Calvin & Hobbes).

Zenichi: You can see the toothpick in the base-picture just below the stone. One end is filed flat (sandpaper), and pressed in the clay in a hooneycomb-pattern (uneven). Afterwards I rubbed the skin with an old stiff brush (small circles) and some 93% alcohol, just to round the edges a bit. Looking at the texture, you can actually see the width of the toothpick and the 5-6 sided figures it makes.

**jOBe** · August 8th, 2007, 10:25 AM

Great work, I really like the Body.
One crit - the head lacks, compared to the rest of the sculpt, lots of detail and love.
There seems to be no texture at the upper part of the head, and especially the eyes could need some more love to really bring the sculpt to life.

**Aseyngel** · August 8th, 2007, 03:20 PM

jOBe: I agree with you - especially around the eyes.

Not an excuse, but an explanation: I fell totally in love with the first rough head on picture no. 4. Since then I had panic-attacks just thinking about changing it. I guess that is a beginners problem.

My alligator(?)-head picture (below) did show a lower degree of skin-texture but a more subtle paint-scheme on the head than on the body. My intention is to copy that with paint (same goes for the eyes) - and as you can see clearer on the second picture below, (he has just been primed for painting today), I have tried to work some texture into the head with a stone - in order to get some "rough skin over bone".

Of course this might turn out to be a total mistake.

Any suggestions out there?

**Leon Roé** · August 9th, 2007, 08:08 PM

This makes me Happy

**zweiDee** · August 12th, 2007, 05:10 PM

very nice job, great character design and wonderfull details

**Frohickey** · December 19th, 2007, 09:24 AM

Great stuff! I can see a two-figure machine gun team like this; one carrying the MG 42 and the other laden down with ammo boxes and belts.

**Aseyngel** · December 20th, 2007, 05:32 AM

Thanks - now you have given me a time-problem - because that is very tempting to do....
I have decided that my next Croc-project will be a character in full Roman armour - that is: Armour used after the Varus-disaster. I believe the green skin and the red tunica would look good together ;-)

**Miasmamann** · December 20th, 2007, 06:12 AM

I realy like it over all, but i have some criticque to the anatomy (if i am allowed to). One thing that strikes my eye is, that the croc stands out of balance. It would cant over backwards. (I say it because you could maybe do it better with the next croc). There would be two ways to change it. First way would be to lay the tail on the ground to hold up the croc. Or you have to go away a little bit from original croc-anatomy ande make the legs more humanoid (then they would also better fit to the arms, but that is a question of taste i think). I myself would prefer the second way.

**Aseyngel** · December 21st, 2007, 01:24 PM

Oh no, Miasmamann - You got me there! you are perfectly right. I noticed the "fall backwards"-problem some time ago - but it is of course difficult to fix when all that remains is the paint. I have given this problem some thought - and my current solution is probably to go for your first solution - tail on the ground - in order to keep his legs "croc-like". I really like the short angular legs. Thanks for the good comments. I thought it would be easy to steal the anathomy of the croc - and just put him on his hind-legs - lessons learned ;-)

**aka_sova** · December 25th, 2007, 04:42 PM

hmm...machine gun and a sword?

I think they dont combine with each other

**Aseyngel** · December 26th, 2007, 09:10 AM

Aka Sova - you are probably right - and that is a crying shame! As an old fan of the Warhammer 40K universe - I believe the gun and the sword should belong together, - for visual reasons. Swords (and axes) looks much better on large muscular warriors than guns......
The Danish army dropped the bayonet a few years ago - based on the philosophy that the chance of two foes meeting each other on the battlefield with empty rifles is close to zero. Sad....but probably true!