Do It Yourself Flayman: Major Sculpting
Step 13Mix grey stuff and apply to the plastic sprue base of your struts. Shape into a rectangular block, score lines in it to simulate brick- or stonework and then attack it with hobby knife, sculpting tool and ball point pencil to give the bricks/stones cracks and indentations.
This is more time consuming than you would expect. Faster results can be achieved by applying just a few indentations or ignore texture all together.
When the rectangular block has dried, apply grey stuff mounds at the front and rear centre of it and shape these into a single-piece, simple
step crenellation like those found on
ancient Mesopotamian walls. This mimics the shape of a ziggurat and further ties the flayman into the Chaos Dwarf aesthetic:
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Step 14Mix green stuff. Apply thin soles for the feet, and thicker putty for the hands. Make sure to fasten the hands' green stuff properly, because their fingers will stick out from the struts. Sculpt ragged, simple feet.
Most of the flayman sculpting requires little skill, it's just a matter of getting a rough equivalent of the human body, tear it a bit with knife and needle, and sculpt wrinkles. Wrinkles in the skin not only simulate those on a living human, but are also there to simulate the saggy nature of the stretched skin.
The hands are a bit tricky, because the fingers stick out, but they're basically just sculpted like flat, empty gloves. Use picture references, gloves or your real hands and try to imitate them.
A tutorial for sculpting closed hands might give you a clue for how to make the thumb.
Note: Flayman sculpting is forgiving, because the skin is supposed
to have been brutally removed from a living, struggling creature. It's no wonder if it looks ragged and odd in places.
Step 15Apply a thin layer of green stuff over the front of the plasticard gingerbread man. This could be either a layer covering all of the plasticard, or thin strips of green stuff with bare plasticard in between. Both works.
Smooth the greenstuff out so that you get a seamless transition between plasticard and modelling putty.
Look on pictures of the (human) body for reference if you're unsure how to proceed next, because now you'll make the flayman proper!
A tutorial for sculpting the face can prove handy, though remember your flayman will be much flatter and stretched out. This is the main theme for the whole body sculpting.
Sculpting the body beneath the face is easy. Try to mimic some of the features in the human body, such as the breast muscles, the stomach musculature and the kneecaps, and otherwise just give it wrinkles all over until you're satisfied with the look. Add some extra wrinkles around the tied ankles and wrists. Give the skin some scattered indents with a needle to represent wear and tear.
Note: Add beards/scales/fur/warts depending on what you want for your flayman. You might as well sculpt the skin flap that hangs down on the backside of the head now. This could be covered by hair, but if only skin, then add a line of needle indentations following the top thread, simulating stitching that keeps the flayman's head up.
Step 16Repeat step 16 on the backside when the front is dry. However, you'll be fine with an even thinner and more sparse amount of green stuff on the backside, becasue this is less important than the front. The trick for the back is to mirror the front's texture to some degree. What's a ridge on the front, will be a valley on the back and vice versa. Just mirror main features like big wrinkles, the face, the throat and the torso's defining lines.
Step 17Apply green stuff to to some chosen spots on the edges of the flayman to simulate wavy and bent skin patches on the edge of the skin.
Especially skin on the upper side of the arms will tend to be completely bent down, whilst most of the other areas will have just have patches that flutters a bit in the wind.
Smooth these patches into the main body, adding a few wrinkles and needle indentations where necessary. Use a hobby knife for some sharper fraying on the edges. Add ears nailed up to the struts if you feel like it, and the flayman proper is finished!
You can also salvage heads from miniatures to use on your flayman, string up the skin thoroughly and make it baggy to simulate a rotund creature flayed flat, as seen here in
Abecedar's Golden Hat XXIII Battle Standard Bearer entry:
Do It Yourself Flayman: Finishing TouchesStep 18Sculpt a skull on a stick. Start by applying a ball of green stuff to a needle, pinhead or paperclip. Shape into an oval shape and mark the jaw by pressing in the green stuff under the cheekbones (1) with your sculpting tool. Create a skull out of this by making sockets, nose cavity, marking the jaw and refining the overall shape into a cranium (2). Use reference pictures or mimic skulls on other models. Using sculpting tool and hobby knife, score teeth into the skull and any scratchings you want to adorn it (3).
This skull was given the Harry Potter treatment on the forehead, though lightning scarred crania predates said book series. It was also given some more knife marks on the backside, since Fuggit Khan (the receiver of the flayman) is a known Hobgoblin fan.
Step 19Before:
Now for additional decorations! These could be anything you fancy. You could plunder your bitz box for trophies and spikes, or you could sculpt something of your own. A cut-off tounge was added, hanging from the string. To be in no doubt as to who commited this vile act of savagery, a couple of knives were sculpted (one around a paper clip), tucked under the string or plunged between two bricks. Adding to the impression of Greenskin, backstabbing villains, a stylized stone totem/effigy/statuette Chaos Dwarf figure was sculpted around a piece of plastic sprue beside the brick base, with a ragged piece of Hobgoblin headgear adorning it. Such desecration will surely result in bloody punishment when the Chaos Dwarfs find out!
As can be seen on the flayed Elf further down in the tutorial, another thing to do is to add a stone with inscriptions, perhaps boasting of the Chaos Dwarfs' victory, cursing their enemies and threatening any slave or foreigner who would dare rise up against their cruel might.
After:
The backside of the struts received a couple of lightning symbols and knots for the string.
And now onto the runes adorning the bulls' horn struts! Steeped in sorcerous and potent mysticism, they serve as warning, boast, dedication to Hashut and curses to summon foul Daemons upon anyone foolish enough to defile this grotesque in any manner. The runes shown above and below were copied in green stuff from reference pictures of 4th edition artwork and Forgeworld's campaign book
Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos. Fuggit Khan's Human flayman above were given Tamurkhan runes for Hobgoblins/assassins, slave, domination and death. MadHatter's flayed elf was instead given runes from the 4th edition's Prophet staff, with one Tamurkhan rune of dominion/ownership to round it out. Mix and match however you like, this is for Chaos after all!
A tip for rune sculpting is to start with a thin layer of green stuff, which you then shape and "cut out" excess bits to get the desired shape.
These, and Dark Tounge symbols could all be used, as well as made-up runes of your own. For your convenience we have included pictures of various Chaos runes. Beware, lest the unholy and obscene meaning of these mysterious scripts will claim your sanity and soul:
Not to forget the Dwarfen ancestry of the Dawi Zharr, here are some Khazalid pictograms:
Last, but not least, is the Rune of Hashut:
And there you have it! Making a flayman can prove a challenge, but it is a fun and varied challenge. Based on this tutorial you can discard or add things however you like. Ignoring the brick platform will cut down the work hours, raiding your bitz box could also help. The possibilities are endless, and as your first flayman sees the light of day, the call of Hashut, the Father of Darkness, beckons you to further victories and fell deeds of bloodshed and horror. Whether you opt for flanking the whole road to Zharr-Naggrund with the flayed hides of your enemies (perhaps 2D parodies of your friends' army generals?) or remain content with but a single grotesque, know that one thing is always assured: The terror visited upon your enemies at the sight of your flayman.
