Longhorn Cattle

Hi all,

I started this herd of longhorns a few months ago, but I don't get around to working on them as frequently as I'd like, so they're not very near to finished.  Any advice you have will be much appreciated!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Miss Jane wrote:

Say, what was the wax like to work with? That sounds so interesting, and I'd be very interested to see some WIPs and photos.....

Here you go!  These are sculpted mostly out of wax, but I've started making the horns with sculpey so I can harden them in the oven and sand them to get a better texture.  This has worked alright so far, but the horns are an area where any advice will be really helpful!

Here's the first steer:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

His horns are a just a little too big, but they look much larger in these pictures than they do in person - probably because of my lack of photography skills.   

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here's the second:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here's the bull:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

He actually does have both ears, but the wax is really dark, so it's hard to tell.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've only just begun the first heifer and the third steer, but here they are.  There was a second picture of each of them, but my computer chopped off the top halves of them both.  I can add more later.

Cow:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Third Steer:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

There's a pretty big variety of shapes in longhorn horns, so I'm trying to reflect that in this herd.  The poses are much more exaggerated than what would be realistic, but that seemed like a good thing at this scale.  They were supposed to be 1/32 like my brown bear, but I made the first two a little too big - more like 1/30 - and decided not to change course for the others.

I'm really sorry about the pictures.  The wax is black, so I haven't really figured out how to photograph it very well.  I've brightened the pictures as much as I could to show the detail.

Bjarki

They are fantastic, fabulous, awesome  

They look like they are ALIVE !!! I LOVE them    

they are really great!
You haven't just created some animals of the same specie, but you made a coherent herd
I can't wait to see them finished

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!! Those are incredible. The steer bellowing looks like my grandpas bull when he touched his bronze nose ring to the electric fence!  
These are very nice, and I can't wait to see them when finished!

I hope to see them finished, they are stunning. Great job!

Wow, these are really, really good! The faces are really nice.

They remind me of the Breyer CollectiBulls!  

Very very good:-)

They are fabulous!!!!

Wow, amazing herd of longhorns! Very dynamic group of them!!! Congratulations!

Wow, these are excellent! Very realistic and handsome  

Thanks very much, everyone! I appreciate your kind words! I'll show more pictures when they're nearer to completion. Thanks again!

Quote :

The steer bellowing looks like my grandpas bull when he touched his bronze nose ring to the electric fence!

(I feel bad for laughing at this. I hope your grandpa's bull is okay.)

How I missed this topic?

This is an excellent herd I would love to watch them finished (Maybe I missed another topic? ) I would also love watching the same thing with Cape buffaloes or bisons.

By the way, you said you sanded them for a better texture, could you explain?

How great that you brought this topic up again

I hope Bjarki will show us if he did some progress

I hope so

Hi all! Thanks for your interest! I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I made some progress a while back, but then moved and got rather busy with a postgraduate degree, so forgot to update the pictures here. I will add some pictures soon.

In the meantime, Kikimalou, I'll try to explain the sanding. I tried sculpting these cattle out of wax, which I found really nice to work with - it holds shapes really well. But I was afraid I couldn't get a good smooth texture on the horns because of how sticky the wax is. Instead, I made the horns out of wire covered in sculpey. After baking the sculpey, I used sandpaper to make the horns smoother. If I remember correctly, I got the idea from seeing Elephas Maximus do this with the tusks on one of his elephants.

Anyway, thank you all so much for your comments! I'll get back to you with pictures soon!

Thank you for the explanations Bjarki. I stupidly thought you were using real sand to process

I can't wait to atch the new pics

The running action is fantastic, like a real stampede... and fascinating to see a wax modeller on hear. Congratulations!

Hi all,

Sorry not to have updated you on these cattle in a while.  About a year ago I moved to the UK and new I wouldn't have time to do any sculpting, so I decided to consider the cattle finished.  I took some pictures and planned to post them, but then came the move and the beginning of postgraduate studies, so I got busy and forgot.

Anyway, the final tally for the herd is four cows, three steers, and a bull.  I'm sorry - I don't have an especially complete collection of pictures of them in the work-in-progress stage, but but here's what I do have.

I'm sorry - the wax is black and I'm not especially good at photography, so these pictures may not be the highest quality.

Here's the third steer I sculpted.  (The first two are in more or less final form in the last post)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here's one of the cows:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And here's another cow:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And here are some shots of the three steers and a cow.  I think this might have been before I sculpted the others, but I can't quite remember:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I'll add a few more pictures below in just a moment.

Wax is very nice to work with, but as a relatively new sculptor, I didn't know of any way to harden it into a final product.  (Now I'm wondering if I could have cast them in plaster.)  I settled on the same course of action I took with my brown bear a few years ago and took the cattle to a bronze foundry.  Perhaps this post should really go in the 'non-toy animal replicas' now.  

Anyway, since I had moved away and since the cattle are relatively small (about 1/32), the foundry casts them between its big projects that it does for more experience sculptors.  So I they're not all done yet, but I have pictures of the first four.

Here are three cows:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And here is a steer:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That steer was the first one I sculpted.  After sculpting the others, I realized that I could probably improve the anatomy on this one, but decided not to so as to keep a record of my progress.  

Anyway, I hope that I will get pictures of the rest of the herd soon.  When I do, I'll post them here.  Again, thanks for reminding me about them!  I'm really pleased you like them!

@Djarki12, it is fantastic that you took your time to complet this thread!
Your figures look all great and I hope you keep sculpting and improving on them as well with everything in your life.

Wow, in bronze they look just perfect
I love this material and we see here 4 pieces of art :)
I`m happy that Kiki woke up this topic and like Roger, I also want to thank you, that you completed it :)

Thank you for the new pics and explanations Bjarki12

Your post is still in the right section, they are homemade models. A lot of homemade models here are pieces of art, in Bronze or resin or wood it doesn't matter, they are also pieces of heart. Your Longhorns are in this category. Congratulation and thank you so much for sharing

WOW !!!! Christophe puts it so right, they are both pieces of art and pieces of heart
Incredibly beautyful, - I am very, very , VERY beautyful

Thankyou for finding time to show pictures ! I wish you luck in your new country, and with your postgraduate studies

Thanks so much for all of your kind words! I'm really glad you like them! I hope to get some more pictures soon, and I'll post them here when I do.

Kikimalou wrote:

I would also love watching the same thing with Cape buffaloes or bisons.

I would love to see this, too! A few days before I saw this post revived, I was thinking it would be fun to make a bison heard. If I wind up getting the time again, I would love to try that someday.

SUSANNE wrote:

Thankyou for finding time to show pictures ! I wish you luck in your new country, and with your postgraduate studies

I'm embarrassed to say that my problem has really been poor time management and a bad memory more than not having enough time. But I'll work on that. And thanks so much!

I really appreciate all of the feedback from all of you! Thanks again!