"The Rescue" - Reaper LE Sci-fi Sophie diorama

Hi everyone,  after working on this for a month I had completed it up to a stage where my current skill level couldn't improve it any further, plus I wanted to bite through the rest of my pile of miniature and I want to start working on another commission job, here're my Sci-fi Sophie completion shots.

The most important element of this diorama is of course Sophie.  But with the sculpt you can see that she is looking down, that was why I need to spend so much time working on the rest of the set up: to give her something to look at.

This is an overview shot of the set up.  I could have done a lot more air- brushing with the structure, giving it more dramatic lighting effect, but because this is my first serious larger diorama I was again rushing towards the end a little bit, so I haven't.  Likewise the weathering could have been done a lot better.  I would take a better shot of her later, the wing is just slotted onto the column by two brass pin so I still have a chance to change her pose if I wanted to.

The scene below took me a lot of work.  Painting infinity miniature is always enjoyable as they offer appropriate details and very sharp outlines and recesses.  Had some fun making the severed arm and adding the loose wires in, will take more close up shots later.

Back story:

"The base was abandoned due to the land slide.  A ferret made a home among the cracks of the boulders. Sophie led two drones to check up on the base to see if it is possible to clear the boulders out.  The first drone landed on the yellow flowers and slipped, broke the hip joint and its arm upon impact on the ledges. The ferret, which was alerted by the commotion, came out and saw the severed arm.  With its natural habit of picking up loose items it took the arm by the loose wires and drag it to its lair.  Just then the second drone landed next to the fallen drone.  The drone didn't notice the ferret at first.  When it finally did, it got into battle stance, just then Sophie arrived, descending upon the scene, amused."

Here's a close up on the 'air-borne' Sophie.  The most fun I had with her is perhaps when I paint her suit.  It was only air-brushed with shadow and highlight, plus a thin blue base paint.  Because I got the contrast right this time I don't really have to paint on the blue highlights.  Same thing goes with the armor plates, which is in the same colors as the remotes.

Thank you for reading :)

Go back on the WIP adventure featuring Yotsuba-san!:
http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/search/label/sci-fi%20sophie

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Forum links
This entry is replicated on the following popular miniature related forum:

WAMP Forumhttp://www.wampforum.com/VB4/showthread.php?t=16347

Reaper message boardhttp://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/52491-the-rescue-reaper-limited-edition-sci-fi-sophie-diorama/

CMON Forumhttp://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?55296-quot-The-Rescue-quot-Reaper-LE-Sci-fi-Sophie-diorama

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In case you don't know who Sophie is, she is the mascot of the Reaper Miniatures.  Reaper is one of the biggest manufacturer of 30mm miniatures, mainly fantasy themed and they also have a comprehensive ranges for modern days and sci-fi adventure setting.  The following is something about this very special miniature (quoted from Miniature Giants)

Reaper Con 'SciFi' Sophie 2007 (Limited Edition, Discontinued), 

Reaper Con figures, like this one, were only available during the week of ReaperCon, in this case May 17-20, 2007, and were not made available to distributors. Furthermore, after the week of the show, the mold is retired and no additional figures are cast. This 25mm scale figure was featured on the cover of Reaper's Casketworks catalog #22 and displays a clever combination of SciFi and classic fantasy.

severed arm put in place - Reaper LE Sci-fi Sophie diorama WIP

took me a lot of fiddling to get the arm in the right place. I made the mistake of not planning for this at the start and I cut off the pin that used to hold it when I was painting it, damn.  Anyhow the brass pin is actually still visible when looked from the side, but I guess I'd cover it up with a small grind of sand.  The area around the Ferret need some attend as well.  But overall, I think it looks very convincing.

Ferret painted - Reaper LE Sci-fi Sophie diorama WIP

It isn't much of a progress but to keep this blog alive, here's a less entertaining update of the diorama.  Here on, I can finally start on the star of the diorama, Sohpie.

Painting Nasmat remotes - Reaper LE Sci-fi Sophie diorama WIP

Hi everyone I am back! Such a short break is it?  Well this time around it's finally brush to miniature (instead of pen to paper) with my diorama!  We can finally moved on from the base to the miniatures!

The ferret hasn't been painted yet but the remotes are pretty much done! We'd need to put on the final highlights depending on the over all looks of the set up, but for now they are pretty much ready.  Took a lot shorter than I thought.

So, this is how we started, we spray painted the primer on and used dark and light paint air brushing to get the shadows and lighting right.  Although they actually look better with just the dark and light air-brushing, I believe some day I would be just as good with the lighting effect... I'd just have to understand color and paint mixing better...

Learning from my mistake, this time the 'light' paint isn't purely white but actually it's a light purple.  That is because painting whitish color is hard for me as I tend to over paint it.  So with this air-brushed light pink it could bring out the whitish highlight color easier.

I am following a color scheme that I found on line, instead of using the box art.  I am planning to use the same blue-red-khaki color scheme on Sophie... when I finally get to paint her this week..

I had applied a very focused and careful wash to the recesses of the ferret, and all its features got a lot more apparent.  Again, well done Reaper for such a fine tiny metal miniature.  (yes, metal, not BONES ;) )

The fun part, I guess, is to place them on to the base. I learned the hard way that all these elements are suppose to be pinned, not just glued, to the base.  So what I did is I drilled a bigger hole, put green stuff in the hole, and press the pin to the green stuff, with a bit of glue to its feet.

And of course, the whole point of the base is to let the Remote lock gaze with the Ferret.  so I had to check several times that their gaze met.

Notice how I haven't took a close up shot of them? that is because I haven't really completed painting them so I am saving the close up shots for later :)

bye for now :)

Reaper LE Sci-fi Sophie diorama - the 4th character

 If you recall, there was only one drone on the ground, looking at the ferret.  But his body language is saying that he is disctracted by the ferret, so that means he was suppose to be looking at something before the ferret pops up from his lair... hence I give made that 'something.
By the way, the drones are actually Nasmat remotes from Infinity Miniatures

The story goes: the fallen drone landed on the rock slide at the site, but he slipped! He fallen to the the hard ground of the launch pad, the raised part of the base broke his right hip joint and its right arm.  The ferret came out, saw the broken arm laying around, he went over to pulled it off and carried it to its lair.
The drone send off distress signal and the other drone landed, observing its fallen friend.  Suddenly the arm fall off from the ferret's grip and attracted the attention of the drone, all the while Sohpie came descending down from above....

I had to cut off its right leg at the joint or else he doesn't look like he is in distress.  I then put a pin (short portion of a paper clip) to connect the leg to the body.  As I imagine there should be wires running between the limbs and the body, I glued some very thin wires to the arm and the joint, hopefully they would look convincing enough.

oh by the way, my little assistant took a break so she didn't make an appearance this time.

Reaper LE Sci-fi Sophie diorama setup

Here you'd need a bit of imagination reading this, and try to 'photoshop' my finger out of the picture....

There are a few main objectives here.  First off there has to be three main elements to the diorama: the nature, the sci-fi base and the Sophie. Each of them as to have about equal portion of the base.  So for the first mock up, i did the following.

As it turns out, it seems that there won't be enough space for the sci-fi element to occupy, plus the base area would look pretty odd if it is all sand and ground.

The other objective is that Sophie got a very nice and detailed back side, and her face is looking downward.  So if she is 'flying' or suspended too low people can't see that clearly enough.  So after a lot of clipping and snapping I pretty much divided the launch pad into two half and set everything in place, like so.

[[see the latest progress of this diorama here:
http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/search/label/sci-fi%20sophie]]

Reaper Limited Edition Sci-fi Sophie diorama - the miniatures

This will be my biggest diorama yet, I am posting this on a few different forums hoping to get more inputs from all the great miniature painters out there.

First let's take a look at the miniature in the unpainted Reaper Sophie

so a beauty

and a short description of her:

Reaper Con 'SciFi' Sophie '07 (Limited Edition, Discontinued), 1504

Reaper Con figures, like this one, were only available during the week of ReaperCon, in this case May 17-20, 2007, and were not made available to distributors. Furthermore, after the week of the show, the mold is retired and no additional figures are cast. We have a very limited supply of these beautiful, rare pieces. This 25mm scale figure was featured on the cover of Reaper's Casketworks catalog #22 and displays a clever combination of SciFi and classic fantasy.

So, to make this a bit more appealing, I used a Japanese anime character [name] to spice up the imagery before things got more interested.
Say 'Hi Yotsubato'

Hi everyone

Here's the Sophie I will be working on this time.  She comes with a scenic base, she looks as though she is standing on a pile of construction material and looking downwards.  So similar to what we did for KS Sohpie's setting, we try to think of something for her to look down at.

I had separated her from the base with a carving knife.  Now you can see her face, very pretty, the area near her left arm will be tricky though.  I always felt that her gun is a bit short but when I put the wings back on her she looks just fine.

Next we have this little ferret, also from Reaper.  That is the reason why Sophie is looking down.  But now the problem is, what is the ferret looking at? It's too hard to change the direction of the head so...

So to match Sophie's sci-fi outfit I got this 'remote' form Infinity Miniatures (Nasmat remotes).  This little guy would be what the ferret is looking at.  I believe in telling a story with every picture so with this diorama I want to make the story complete by matching all of the character's 'expression'

[[She is done: http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/11/the-rescue-reaper-le-sci-fi-sophie.html]]