HOW TO MAKE AFROS FOR MINIATURE MODELS





This is a tutorial on how to make afros for miniatures from wargames such as Warhammer
and any other miniatures that are of the same size.


NOTE: This is not the final or near final version of this tutorial I will add more as my skills progress.




All measurements are metric, if you live in America use the other side of your ruler.

Also this guide goes with the picture guide I also posted here (link is in the description)
The pictures are numbered and correspond with the steps. Also they show which part was touched by glue(yellow) and which wasn't(red)

MATERIALS: (figure 0)
1. Modeling knife/box cutter/sharp thing
2. Super Glue
3. Cutting board or somewhere you can cut things without damaging anything.
4. Lots of foam. Foam should not be more than 1cm thick
5. Ruler/measuring thing
6. Models that you will be putting the afro on.
Also you will probably get some Superglue on your fingers so you may wear gloves
(note that I have never tried using gloves and don't know if the glue might ruin them)





Step 1 Preparing the foam


(figure 1a) take the foam and cut two squares of about 1.5 to 2cm with one square being slightly larger (figure 1b)
(once you get more advanced you can try using 3 layers with each square being larger than the first)
Remember kids ALWAYS CUT AWAY FROM YOURSELF

Step 2 First piece

Take the smaller square and put VERY small drops of glue on each corner. (figure 2a)

Then connect the corners to make a small ball (note you will need to do some squeezing and handling)

Step 3 Making the afro

Put the small ball on top of the large square so that the small ball's side that wasn't touched by the glue is pointing away from the square. (3a)
Then put small blobs of glue on the large square's corners
and put the corners together so the large square completely covers the ball (3b)
You should end up with a large ball. The side where the sides came together should be very uneven and may have some ridges.
Glue the ridges together with trace amounts of Super glue to make the surface straighter.(3C)

Step 4 fixing the afro
Glue and foam don't go together perfectly so the afro will have a degree of roughness where contact was made
First you should cut off any edges that stick out too much (be very careful not to ruin the afro even more)
Also you can use a file to further smoothen the surface.

Step 5 putting on the afro.

You can glue the afro on either after (mostly for miniatures you painted before learning how to make afros) or before you prime the model. It doesn't make much of a difference unless you aren't using black primer.
You should make the glue stricken side face the back of the model and the untouched side be visible from the front of the model.

Also make sure to not get glue on too much of the afro.


Your model should now be ready for priming/and or painting after which it will add some extra character to your army/collection!