We started with a wooden unpainted Thomas train that we bought for a few dollars at a local toy store. He already has several of these and they’re nice additions to his train set since he’s been able to paint them himself.

For this train my son wanted one that looked like a Thomas engine so we worked on the painting together. He wanted it to be blue and said that the train would be named ‘Clown’. You can’t see it in the photo but we wrote the trains name on the bottom in white paint — just like all the other Thomas trains. I was very pleased that my son was able to sound out all the letters to spell Clown.

The face was made from Polymer Clay (I used Sculpey for this model) and styled after the other Thomas trains. Since this is a square shaped train he has a square face rather than the more common rounded faces on the steam engines like Thomas, James and Percy. My son decided that since the train was called Clown he needed a round nose and a big smiling mouth.

Once the sculpture was finished it was baked in the oven for 20 minutes to set it. Sculpey retains a slightly “soft” texture once dried which is perfect for children’s toys. Once cool we painted the face a familiar Thomas train grey, then added details for the eyes and eyebrows.

We used regular white glue to attach the face to the end of the train, and I gave it a quick coat of varnish to help stop the paint from wearing off. This is a toy after all, and will likely see a lot of active play. I expect that tomorrow morning it will be busy chugging down the track on the Island of Sodor.

The newest figure, the Phantom Stranger, uses a paperclip armature like the earth elemental figure but is about half the height. It’s also a much more detailed figure. Working on this mini I learned a few new techniques that anyone interested in making smaller miniatures out of polymer clay might find helpful.

I used a small push-pin to work in some extra detail such as distressing the edge of his hood and bottom of his cape. I also used the pin to cut out a skull shape from a flattened circle of sculpey and then gently placed that inside the opening of the hood. Similarly, I created the belt, buckle, tops of the boots, sword and scabbard as separate “flat” pieces that I cut out and carefully added to the figure. This allowed me to get more detail than I think I would have if I were trying to carve the fimo on the model.

Some very fine detail like fingers or the edge of the sword where it joins the hand were done by carving a line onto the miniature with the pin.

Something else I discovered after finishing this minis is that you can fire your clay multiple times! One the biggest challenges was the armature pulling free of the soften clay as I worked with it. This was really limiting in how much I could handle the minis and how much detail I could add. For my next model I’ve made a thin coating of polymer clay on the posed armature and will add a second layer on top of that. This will let me apply some pressure while sculpting without worrying about the “bones” breaking through the model’s skin.

I’ve also found some better tools to work with. Instead of just using my hands and a push-pin I now have some plastic modeling tools (shown) as well as some metal dentist’s tools. I’ve also read that if you keep your hands a bit wet you can avoid leaving fingerprints on the model when you touch it. The pin will also be retired in favor of a scalpel for doing very fine work.

When I was younger almost all the comics I read were Marvel, but for whatever reason I find myself much more interested in the DC based heroes now. There’s something about having minis for all the characters from the Superfriends that I think is really awesome. Last night I found out they have a G’nort figure. That’s one I’m going to *have* to track down.

Sculpting Tools

We’re going to make a basic fantasy monster, so we won’t need the more advanced miniature sculpting tools – we’re going to use a regular X-acto Knife and our hands to do our sculpting. We’ll also need some regular paperclips to make our wire armature with. You might also find it useful to have a pair of small crafting pliars. To finish our miniature we’ll use some paints, flock, and sealer.

Which Monster to Sculpt?

The illustrations of old school RPG monsters are fun, so we’ll find something in the old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual to sculpt. For our first miniature sculpting project we’re going to pick a relatively easy creature – an Earth Elemental. The roughly shaped, rock-like appearance of this monster makes it well suited to being sculpted in polymer clay! It’s also much easier to make larger creatures than small ones, and even if you end up with a larger-than-expected figure, it won’t look too out of place if you’re using it in a game alongside 25mm or 28mm figures.

Wire Armature

The armature is like the skeleton of your miniature and will help it hold it’s shape. Using your hands, or some small crafting pliars, bend a paperclip into a rough body and legs. It doesn’t need to be too precise since the polymer clay will cover it all up, and we’re making a fairly chunky figure. If you were working on a smaller, more detailed figure, you would want to make sure to spend more time on this step so that all your proportions were right. We only need the legs and body for now.

Sculpting with Polymer Clay

Once you’ve finished the first half of your armature, start adding your polymer clay. Both Sculpey and Fimo need a little bit of work to soften them up so that you can work with them, so kneed the clay in your hands until it’s ready to work with. Next add small pieces of clay bit-by-bit to your armature until you have the rough torso and legs in place. Don’t try adding too much clay at once – it’s easier to build up your figure in layers. You can use your fingers to smooth the bits of clay together.

The next step is to build the second half of your armature with another paperclip. This will be the skeleton for the arms, shoulders, and head of your model. For the earth elemental and it’s massive fists, you may want to include some extra support for the hands. Try and think about the pose you’d like your figure to have. For our earth elemental we want one fist raised, ready to smash down on some happless adventurer.

Since our polymer clay is quite soft we can push the second armature down into the torso of our model and then continue to add small pieces of clay to build up our figure. You may find it easier to leave off the feet and head while you are working on the early stages of your miniature so that you can use the wire to hold your mini without squishing any of your sculpting work. We’re still focused on the basic shape of the figure so we’re still working more with our hands than the X-acto knife.

For our Earth Elemental we want a very heavy figure, so we’ll add a fair amount of mass to our initial polymer clay figure. Once things start to look more or less as we’d like you can use the rounded end of the X-acto knife as well as the blade and the pointed tip to start sculpting in some more detail. The detail of the muscles, eyes and mouth were all modeled using the X-acto knife. (If you haven’t done much sculpture of figure drawing, a book on anatomy for illustrators is a great investment to help with your modeling!)

The miniature still looks very smooth and not “Elemental” enough, so we’re going to add a rocky texture to finish him off. We’ll do this by pressing small beads of clay into the figure. This creates the apperance of rocky hide.

Basing your Miniature

If you want to create a base for your miniature, you can use an old plastic pill bottle to roll the polymer clay flat and then use the open top like a cookie-cutter to cut out a circular shape.

Baking your Miniature

Finally, it’s time to bake our polymer clay in the oven. Make sure you follow the directions on whatever brand of clay (sculpey, fimo, etc) you’re using and make sure you don’t overbake your miniature! It’s better to take it out, check it, and put it back in the oven if it needs more cooking time.

Once finished curing in the oven, the polymer clay will be hardened and hold it’s shape. It’s now time to paint our new minature.

Painting Your Polymer Clay D&D Mini

I used some cheap craft paints, but I think the next time I’ll invest in some higher quality model paints as the craft paints didn’t go on as thick and smoothly as I would have liked. I also wasn’t as happy with the darkness of the brown that I mixed up.

Flocking and Sealing Your Miniature

Once the figure is painted, you can add some flocking to the base. I used some Games Workshop flock and it did a really nice job. I’ve also heard good things about the Scenic Woodlands flock as well. Since it’s an Earth Elemental you might want to sprinkle some flock onto the wet paint of the head and shoulders of your minature to give him a from-the-earth look.

The next step is a couple of light coats of a clear matte sealant. While I wasn’t thrilled with my choice of paints, I think the Armory sealer I used worked very well!

Your New Earth Elemental Miniature

At last, our new polymer clay Dungeons and Dragons miniature is finished. Here is our new mini, ready for a wargame, RPG, or diorama!

This was a pretty basic scuplting project for our first D&D miniature. Once you get used to the way the clay works (I find Sculpey is a bit stickier than Fimo, which I like) you can move onto other monster modeling projects. I’m going to invest in some new paints, and make another miniature very soon.