I decided to try my hand at sculpting a few years ago; I had always had an interest in miniatures and started painting them about fifteen years ago

I first tried my hand at miniature sculpting, using local putty that is used for household repairs as South Africa does not have a supplier for any of the putties that are available world wide. Except for the one or two games stores that stock miniatures, and sell the pathetically small strips of kneedatite putty (greenstuff) at prices that make it cheaper to import large tubes.

South Africa is not a sculptor friendly country, so importing your supplies is a must.

My advice for any south African that wants to do some miniature sculpting is to buy a few tubes of greenstuff and make your own tools, the putty will last for a long time if you freeze it and you should be able to make at least twelve miniatures per tube, depending on size of sculpture (28 mm).

My Sculptures

I do sculptures for both collectors and companies and for my own interest.

Most of my sculptures are 28mm to 100mm in size.

Most of my sculptures are made from my own artwork, but I do get a lot of my inspiration from other artists and art forms.

Hints for those who want to start sculpting.

• Spend some time studying anatomy, this will help you with just about every aspect of sculpting.
• If something doesn’t look right then start over.
• Don’t rush a sculpture, it takes me two or three weeks to do one sculpt. I may be slow or just hard to please. I treat each piece of detail and section as a separate sculpture.
• Spend the time to get it exactly as you want it.
• If you don’t think you are improving with every attempt, work slower or grab a cheaper piece of putty to practice on and create a large version of what you are battling with. It is usually easier to figure out how to do something when it is bigger than a few millimeters in size.
• Understand the limits of the putty
• Read as many sculpting articles as you can find, the web if fill with them, but remember that the only way that you are going to learn how to sculpt is to actually sculpt.
• Ask for criticism, at least that way you will know what needs to improve. And you may realize that some sculptures should never see the light of day. If you want an honest opinion about your sculpt don’t ask your mother.
• It’s not that hard.