Building a giant

As if I didn't have enough on my plate already, I've gotten side tracked and am now making a 28mm scale giant (possibly two). This came about when in last thursdays gaming session we had a giant brought on the table and this started a train of thought in my head. What would a real giant look like? Naturally, my friend Oleg already had a rational concept (he's cool like that) so I used that as my starting point. A humanoid giant would have to be built like elephant in order to stand up without actually breaking his own legs under the weight of his body. Like an elephant, or one of those super dinosaurs they've been finding in South America in recent years, his legs would have to be solid pillars. His body would also have to be huge in order to power his own locomotion, and as a humanoid (assuming giants are primates) he'd no doubt have long powerful arms.

Working from this point, I designed a giant. I came to a few aesthetic conclusions that contradicted Oleg's original concept. First, I made the giant really tall. Oleg's concept has giants standing at a maximum of circa 4 metre's, or 'twice the height of a human being'. To me, thats not 'giant enough', so I doubled it again, after all we are dealing with a mythical beast. My original concept was thus 8 metres tall (See below image). Second, Oleg argued that giants would most likely resemble gorilla's. I agreed with this up to the a point. If a giant looks like a giant gorilla, then you've lost the 'giant' and just replaced it with a very big ape, thus, I've kept such human features as a humanoid face, over all body shape and large external genitalia (Gorilla's are not well endowed). However I've elongated the arms and shorted the legs considerably giving him a certain 'gorilla stance'.

I've also given him stuppy fingers so they don't seem too unlike his elephant like feet and also because I wanted to avoid hands which were 'too human'. The sketch below is not accurate in this regard as it was drawn before I started playing about with modelling putty but you can see the current arm and hand to the left. The female image is some what more accurate as it was drawn after I'd settled on the final concept. I have not decided yet if I'll also make a female giant though I'd like to.

I began the model using FIMO. I did this with my triffid models (as yet unpainted) also as it cuts down on the cost. With the giant, I decided to make an 'under body' with legs already attached, that fit the general concept, but this proved pretty difficult. In the end I had to make the torso seperately, then two buttocks/upper legs and two lower legs with knees and feet. The end result is better than I'd expected, but has a serious problem in that the buttocks reach down to the giants knee's due to my inexperience. Luckily FIMO can be carved, even when it is hardened and the giant will eventually wear a kilt or what ever it is giants wear in order to conceal this flaw in my sculpting.

The giant 'under body' also toppled over in the oven when it was being hardened so his 'toes' curled up and now he doesn't stand very well. This is not to great a problem as the finished model will be leaning slightly forwards as if taking a step anyway so he will be attached to a base that supports him. Currently the giant stands at 11 cm so it is actually 25% shorter than my concept drawing. I made this decision based on how the 'under body' looked beside a human sized figure. Now the giant stands three times as tall as a human but its bulk makes it appear much more imposing than I had imagined. I also made a seperate 'under head' in Fimo and attached it with a dollop of greenstuff.

I've begun adding body details now in greenstuff and this is where the hard part starts. I'm not a good sculptor (Mette is) and greenstuff has its own secrets (like how to smooth it out). I know to use water to prevent it from sticking to the sculpting tool, but thats about the extent of my knowledge. From there on in its all guess work.

I've made two 'skeletal arms' from some plastic melted to the right angle and I'll build up the arms seperately in greenstuff I shall add them last I think, once the body and head are finished. I'll post more images if this project leads any where.