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Brian Mennenoh
21 articles

Death Dealer III Custom Sculpture

June 15, 2024 · in Figures · · 19 · 135

This is a commissioned piece from a friend who is a retired Navy SARC. It's been a while since I used ZBrush and I was never very good with it when I messed around with it a few years ago. After we started talking about this project I was able to do the WWII German boots for him from my previous post, that was a good practice project and gave me the confidence to tackle this. The last 2 images show the printed pieces as they came out, they haven't even been fully cured. The rest of the images show the progress of the digital sculpting. The original painting from Frazetta has also been included although I enhanced the image a bit to allow me to see some of the details. The original sculpt from Frazetta is actually quite a bit different than the painting. I was attempting to stay more in line with the painting although I did need to use the sculpture for the back of the Dealer as well as a few other details. After the sculpting the next big challenge for me was figuring out how to create the keys to allow the thing to be printed. Once all the parts are finished, the statue will stand over a foot tall. The piece is available on my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BritheBuilder

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27 additional images. Click to enlarge.


19 responses

  1. That is really amazing, Brian (@brithebuilder). I am envious of the capabilities of these programs that allow you do create things like this. It would seem that the things you could create are almost limitless.

    • @gblair - Thanks George! The only limit is imagination and the amount of time you want to dedicate to learning the software and creating the stuff. This was about 3 weeks of sculpting... part of that was learning to navigate the software more effectively though.

  2. That is super cool my friend. Just excellent work all the way around. The sculpting and texture mapping is very impressive.

  3. Brian, I'm old school and seeing the figure's helmut dates me. I knew it was a Molley Hatchet instantly.
    When you write about sculpting are you referring to using software or using plastine? To create a 3D sculpture? Followed by scanning an object and then modifying the parts? Looks fantastic. You've opened Pandora's box on the possibities that can be created. I've watched aero space programs that now print rocket engine parts, homes can be printed as well as crude car bodies.

    • @stephen-w-towle - Hey Stephen, it is all created in ZBrush (software specifically for digital sculpting). It only becomes a physical object at the final stage when 3D printed. Frank Frazetta did do a Molly Hatchet album cover... I thought it was the version of Death Dealer that was mounted on horseback though...

  4. This is impressive design work, Brian @brithebuilder
    You are right, usually the limitation is the designer himself but looking at this result, this is not valid for you.

    • @johnb - Thanks John. I appreciate it. There is definitely a lot of trial and error along the way. I do think that 30 years of experience doing 3D modeling and animation helped me learn ZBrush pretty quickly though. LOL It is a very non-standard tool.

  5. Absolutely superb result, Brian! Ditto from me on what all above Gents said.
    Well done!

  6. Amazing results, Brian, I’ve no idea what it’s about but it is very impressive.

    • @chinesegeorge - This is based on a painting done by Frank Frazetta, Frazetta is famous for the images of Conan he painted for the covers of the Conan novels by Robert E. Howard. Frazetta is considered one of the godfathers of fantasy art as it was his images that basically transformed how the world envisioned Conan. He was a truly amazing painter and artist. There were several different Death Dealers in the series. Eventually I will be doing a couple more. I'm also going to be creating a chess set based on Frazetta's works. That's going to be a big project.

  7. Brilliant work, Brian. Truly impressive.

  8. AMAZING! Very nice Brian!

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