Making 10mm Miniatures

Making 10mm Miniatures

The Daxio Way

(Which may well not be the best way.)

To begin with I feel I must include some sort of disclaimer. I would hate for anyone to think that I believe myself to be anything other than a jobbing sculptor. I made these as a bit of fun and because all I do in gaming is on a shoe string. I will try to keep all my instructions/suggestions as concise as possible, although I will ramble at other times.

This is how I start to create the basic frame.

I cut about 30 mm of garden wire and using a set of pliers I bend it into a loop and nip the end.  I nip the wire approximately 5 mm from the end as you can see here.

I then cut off the excess wire, measuring to about 11 mm.

Next I mould a small amount of GS round the torso and let it dry.

 I then make a hole with a set of compasses into a piece of cheap floor tile (you could use anything you have to hand.) I glue one leg into the tile with super glue.

Then as you can see in the second picture I secure it by creating the feet.

Remember to leave a good while for the GS to set between each stage (couple of hours really.)  Tip: be patient!

Next I work on the legs, forming the basic shape. I cut a very small blob and wrap it round the wire then push it into shape.

For the Unity Guard models I was making in the pictures I added skirts and then the head. The skirt was a thin sausage of GS wrapped round then blended and pushed. The head was just a blob pushed onto the torso and pushed down so the wire almost comes through.

I really can’t help with the heads, I just made it up as I went along, mine aren’t good, I know, and really the only thing that helped was looking at images on the net and trying my best to copy the approximate shape.

But remember they’re 10 mm figures, faces are just not really gonna happen with any great detail. Get over that and remember they’re for you to play with, not sell on the market in Tatooine or your local Death Star!  

Next came the guns, which I made out of card board: cereal box card mainly, adding some GS details after I had glued them in place.

You may have noticed that I have also defaced the Queens image and wasted our glorious (cough, cough) tender. Pennies are relatively heavy and easy to hold, washers work well too.

I then added a few details like pockets on the trousers and arms.

Arms are just a thin sausage moulded on at the shoulder than wrapped round and into place on the gun. Leave them to dry and then go back and add more GS to flesh them out. They don’t look too great but when painted no one, but you, will probably notice (Tip: don’t mention them to anyone)

Next I added the shoulder pads: again a small blob of GS does the trick and push it into the desired shape.

I also added a very small blob of GS to the chest area just to hint at some body.

The back of the model is where we turn to next.

One blob was added to create the backpack and then it’s up to you, little extra bits and bobs at this stage can really make the miniature come to life.

Now I never make one miniature at a time, I work on at least 10 at a time, often nearer to 20. This is because it is almost impossible to cut off a small enough piece of GS to work with only one model. I hate waste, but it does mean you have to work at speed and have to have everything at your finger tips to avoid delays. I always managed it but then my children are all grown, the dog knows when to keep out of the way and Mrs Daxio is very, very lovely :-)

Here are my first 5 attempts at Unity Guard, they did alter a bit model to model, I forgot quite a few pockets.

The biggest tips I can give are a) keep having a go; b) “push” the GS about c) use tools you feel comfortable with d) use a good light source

Here are the tools I use every time.

And here they are all painted up and based with sand. I hope this gives anyone who fancies having a go the confidence to start, because when you think about it the biggest cost is your time :-)

Cheers, Daxio