Hello there my friends on HF !

It was a long time ago I had a topic here, but now I'm happy to start a fresh one , of another animal of course. May be you remember the frog in 1/16, the dogs in 1/35 ?

I am building a small 1/35 scale diorama depicting an old brick gate.
To be clear, it's this one :



I will decorate this with a home sculpted "concrete" lion on the gate (middle section).

This was the rough structure, a real beauty !



My reference pictures :



The lion's head in progress :



Cheers ! Guy.

Really nicely blended head. Great job.

really like what you have done so far - great to see
Ian

Nice work so far Guy although i think the tip of the nose to the bottom of the chin needs to be a lot bigger as it looks too thin at the moment, it needs to have a more square look to it for a lion.
i will follow along with interest mate.

Steve

Very nice work Guy. Can we see it nrxt to a 1/35 figure to gauge the size?

Excellent work sofar Guy. For sure you have some talent in sculpting.
I agree with Steve it needs some more chin.

Cheers,
Marcel.

Nice. If you are attempting a direct copy of the photos then I'd agree about the chin, however having seen a bunch of decorative lions, they tend to be fairly stylistic. Yours looks very 'art nouve' presently with a very nice 1930's feeling. Regardless, you have a knack for sculpting...keep up the good work
Cheers,
Charles

Scott, thank you ! I'm glad you like it for it was a long time ago I sculpted something like this.

Ian, thank you. I think about this work the whole day long, even when I am occupied with other things, and look forward to continue.

Steve, thank you, you are right about the chin, it still needs more proportion, more caracter too. The small beard is coming up soon, as well are the manes.

Pat, next update my friend.

Marcel, about the chin, it still has to be finished, but as the milliput is very soft and the effort easily damaged, I had to wait to let it harden before the next phase of the sculpting.
The manes will make this lion also more "male". Thank you !

Charles, thank you, I like art nouveau, that must be the explanation !
You made a point, this is only a decorative lion and they appear in all sorts of styles.
Nevertheless I'll try to make it as realistic as possible.

Cheers !

Guy have you tried speed hardening your work under a 60 watt table lamp, this way you dont have delays in sculpting, just pop the work about 10cm away under the lamp for about 8 minutes and it will be fully hardened and ready to work on the next part.
Hope this helps you mate and its good to see you back at the sculpting again.

Steve

Wow Steve, now that is a tip ! Thank you very much my friend.

Meanwhile I have made some progress on the manes, chin beard, front-paws etc...
Tomorrow I'll try to finish these and move on to the back, the feet, tail...







Sorry Pat, I try to find an adult (figure) tomorrow so you can compare the sizes.

G.

Hey, nice work Guy! Looks like a tricky sculpt but you have done a great job.

I think he needs a thicker and more curly / wavy mane. It looks a bit like dreadlocks at the moment.

Keep on going!

Chas

Chas my friend, it's a Jamaican lion man !
I see what I can do about the dread locks look, but I've about 10 photos of lion statues in a map for reference and they all look different : curly manes, short manes, long manes, Beatles manes, Elvis Presley style...

Oh it's really good, you know Guy you are particularly good at modelling buildings, but honestly your real (and unique it is too) strong point is animal sculpting, I am amazed

The lion came out wonderfully! The flow and realizm is great.

Inspirational.

Guy, what a transformation from a lump of Milliput into Aslan himself! Love the details, man.
Great stuff
Brad

I totally agree with JB on that, nice progress guy and glad the speed hardening is usefull to you, it was passed on to me by Markus Eckman.

Steve

Thank you guys, without your opinions it would be a lot more difficult to battle on.

I have a long way to go. Today I have started sculpting the claws of the front-paws.

I hope you like it so far :





I do not want to make a real lion, it has got to be a concrete one, showing a bit of artistic touch, drama, heroism...

But guys, I redescovered my Milliput and I enjoy it so much !!!

Cheers ! G.

i like it mate, as you say you are not aiming for realism which is excatly right, it should be an artistic representation and this fits the bill very well.
Very nice touch to have the claws hanging over the edge of the slab it rests on, those pillars are going to look fantastic within the diorama.

well done mate,

Steve

Thank you Steve.

I made some progress on the lion's manes, muscles, expression, tail...

Nothing's finished, still a way to go, but I have some pics :









Cheers ! Another update probably tomorrow.

Awesome sculpting you have done there!!!
Thanks for sharing!

Pablo, thank you !

I think I'm almost there now.



One update to go.

G.

Hi Guy,

excellent work !!!

Cheers,
Markus

Thank you Markus !

Hey Guy
You've captured a great stylised cat here mate. I love the offset front paws; he seems ready to move!
Good stuff
Brad

Thank you Brad ! I start to believe it was worth the effort making it my friend.

WELL DONE!!