hello anyone who is reading this! i am in need of some advice to help me make my brothers birthday cake. the birthday cake is going to be warhammer 40k themed and the cake itself is going to be shaped like scenery (rivers, waterfalls, trees, bases, etc) so it looks like realistic landscape however i am trying to replicate the warhammer figures.
if you haven't seen the figures before they are very small (around 1 and a half - 2 inches tall?) and i am having problems modelling them. i am trying to make them in advance with fondant but the fondant was too soft to model so i mixed some CMC into it. i also tried with modelling paste but both were too crumbly to use or got hard way too quickly. i tried with different amounts of CMC but all had the same kind of results. in the past i have used homemade modelling chocolate and found it perfect for smaller models but it is too expensive to buy for the amount of models i need to make and i have lately had problems with how the modelling chocolate ends up after mixing (my fault due to over mixing :/ ) so i can't really use that.
i really want these figures to be detailed and most of the details i can and later with food colouring but the detailed shape i really want to get perfect or else it would just be a very large landscape cake. i have managed to get some basic space marine models out (but that was only because they are really basic shaped. i have done models before but they were much larger so it was a lot easier to get the right shape.
i don't know if anyone out there has any tips i could use to make other more complex figures or if it is just generally impossible to do at such a small size. again any advice would be good as i have quite a bit of time left before his birthday
by the way i have tried using smaller amounts of fondant and a floral wire frame to make the basic shape of the figures but that didn't work either.
I've never heard of Warhammer 40,000 so I Googled it. From all the detail in the characters, I would guess you would have to be an artist specializing in miniatures to do them in a 1-1/2 to 2 inch size. If I were doing the cake, I would make fewer them 5" tall and as detailed as I cared to. I prefer modeling chocolate to anything else, but Saracino Modeling Paste if fantastic, too. I make my modeling chocolate with Wilton Candy Melts, so it is very reasonable, cost wise.
Hi there! I saw your question on modeling and got curious. I'm not familiar with Warhammer 40K so - like SandraSmiley - I googled them. Holy cow, they are very, very detailed. Not sure how to advise you on the modeling part, but wondered what I would do if I wanted to make a cake like that. How could the figurines be simplified. So I started thinking one-dimensional...like cutouts or flat figures...meh! Then I started searching silhouettes...simpler right?
I searched and Google provided lots of cute wedding toppers and birthday cake toppers in easily recognizable action hero silhouettes. THEN...I searched Warhammer 40K silhouettes and got tons of images. Some pretty amazing AND menacing at the same time, even without any detail. So - stick with me here - what about doing the cake background like you had planned but make the characters in silhouette. There are lots online you could print to the scale you want and cut out with sharp knife (exacto etc) It would be time consuming still, but seems a bit easier to pull off.
I'm going to try and attached an image showing some of the pics I found on Google to see it it helps explain what I'm thinking of.
Just a thought....
marzipan is a wonderful modelling medium -- takes color brilliant
-K8memphis, these characters are TINY, like 1-1/2 tall. For me it would be no way. I could not do them in any medium, not in that size.
yeah -- i didn't look them up either -- she just said the fondant sucked and the modelling choco sucks so i just offered an alternative
I've only made marzipan once and used it to cover a fruit cake......learning from my Brit friends. Never tried modeling with it, but I remember from way back, long before fondant and gum paste, that folks used to make little fruits and figures from marzipan.
they still do 
marzipan is irresistibly delicious -- it's never never a problem to blow a figure because you can eat it -- yes! the problem is having enough to finish the project from all the stuff you ate --
We really liked it on the fruit cake. One of the reasons I love modeling chocolate is the same, I just pop the little bits into my mouth. I hate clay, can't eat it and it doesn't smell yummy.
sandra, what clay? you mean real clay? oh yuck
Yes, like Sculpey or something. In college I made pots from clay that had to be fired and I really liked it, but I hate the air dry stuff. My friend fusses at me because I use a semi-permanent medium for sculpting, but I just hate clay, at least the one I tried.
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