Bombshell Miniatures - Wu Ling Shu

Hi everyone!

Haven't been painting a lot really, but since this is a commission I made time for her.  Haven't done anything fancy with the pictures though... anyhow it was fun painting, especially nice painting a good sculpt like this one.

A two pieces miniature from Bombshell Miniatures.  Good thing about her is that she got a really good face and the proportion was done right.  Bad thing is that the clothing isn't too right: the cloak on the back didn't really work, and the bandages on the hand is a bit odd.  but none the less the face is really outstanding.

She is really easy to paint, one regret is that I could have gone for a much higher contrast with my first coat with air brush: the contrast on the face isn't too obvious.  The rest is fine though.

Cannon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Cannon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

See how the belt is outside of cloths? I can't figure how this would appear in real life...

Cannon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Cannon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Compare to a miniature from Tales of War, they are roughly the same scale.  but I guess because of the style the guy followed he looks a bit bigger than her.  Nonetheless they make a really good couple.

Cannon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Assembly, Tales of War Kenjiro WIP

Hi everyone

Let's look at the current stage photo before listening to me talking about the tough stages that I went through.

So what happened is that when I put his arms to his body there are huge gaps between them.  The left arm is easy cause it really is just a gap, but for the right arm there's an entire bit missing: I ended up sculpted his elbow with green stuff, look a bit odd but I don't think people would have suspected it.  The second photo is a monochrome shot because I wanted to see if the sculpt is smooth enough.

Base-coating, Tales of War Kenjiro WIP

Finally got my mood around to continue painting the guy. Done the eyes with GW Black wash as it was so tiny. Need to put in a little bit of white for a sharper gaze though, else the close up will look bad. The muscle tone now actually looks very flat as I had only done it with one color now, good that the air-brush base paint helped with bringing out the contrast.

The best feature is perhaps his ... pants? very nice effect done by air brush. Butter pictures later.

Tales of War Kenjiro

Hi everyone, it's time to start a new project.  This is my second commission job, the second of the five paint jobs I promised to do for him.  This time around it's Kenjiro from Tales of War, it's very fortunate that I got to paint him cause I have always wanted to buy and paint him some days.  And yes, here's my cute little assistant Yotsuba-san!

He is a three pieces miniature where the body is molded in one piece and the arms come separate.  It's a good cast with very clever placement of the mold lines so cleaning it was easy.  The folds at the bottom made mounting it on the holder a bit difficult as I had to finish base coating it first, otherwise it would be to hard to use the air-brush on them when it's on the holder.

His pose, a waiting stance, was why I held off buying him for so long.  As far as I could remember he has been around since I started painting.  I can't figure out what he is waiting for and seems making a base that give the sense of a windy environment seems hard.  Good thing is that the guy didn't need me to make a base for him and I just have to set him on a cork.

One lesson I learned form the past is the met tab that comes with the miniature is very important for mounting it on a holder, and it's a lot easier than using a pin.  Especially for miniature like this one where the feet are small and thin.

I cut out two small slots on the cork so the mini can slot onto the cork. But before I put any white glue on it I'd have to prime and base coat the folds underneath first.

PS: These days I am dealing with some personal issues hence I haven't updated this blog as often as I had, and haven't done much painting either... Hope things will get better for me soon.

"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.

Man cave make over, before - "practice what you preach"

As someone who make a living by getting people to do things properly and orderly, my painting room is a shameful display of my personality.  As the saying goes "practice what you preach", I'd re-think how I could make the best out of the space.  Let's start with a virtual tour of my man-cave (slash painting room slash study).  Here's the entrance, the sliding door to the left is my domestic helper's room.  Although the room is only big enough for one bed, the room got the same sized window as I do.  Hong Kong normal folks standard my Helper got a pretty good room.

This is the bird's eye view of the room.  The circular table is my design.  The original idea is to give all my hobbies or work equal emphasis and so circle should be the best design.  But as it turns out the drawer below the left section leave little leg room for me, plus the space under the table got filled with boxes and stuff now...

this is the main painting area.  I used to use those clear acrylic tray to put all my paints but these days they are just used  for tools.  I guess I can do something about that too coz my right arm kept on hitting them.  the little bag hanging on the wall is my head mount magnifier.

Looking to the left of the table is my usual air-brushing area.  It's not a fixed one because I still don't use the air brush very often.  The box on the table is the shield and back drop when I am doing air brushing, I need to do something about that too coz if I do priming with spray can it get VERY dusty all over the palce.

That is the display case, my design as well.  It is actually wooden wall with a space indented.  The work isn't too fine with overly thick glass but it will have to do.  the lower shelf is for all the mini that I am working on.

So looking up these are the two top shelf above the desk.  There are a lot of room for use here.  The wooden tray got all the spray cans up there to keep them away from the little one.  The white box and the blue box are my ... collection of miniatures... yea boxes full of them.

Down under the table is the home to my aim brush, I guess it can do with a better home especially when I am planning to use two air brushes at the same time...

That's the new wooden shelf behind me, home to my camera and other various stuff.  I guess they could use some tidying up too.

Lastly the wall with my kid's drawing.  I plan to stick a huge backing plastic sheet there so I can use bluetag to stick whatever I want on it. but because Hong Kong is very humid the paper tend to get soggy very quickly so I might just want to keep it clean.

Dark Sword Elven Princess mini diorama

This set was done a while back, it was the first finished piece since I got the air brush, but before I learned more about using it.  So here I haven't done much air-brushing except for  putting in shadows around the edges and behind the pillars.  I guess the mini would loo a lot more dramatic if I do a better job with the dress.

Darksword miniatures are very good at getting the proportion of the human body right, except they all got very thick legs.  When it comes to legs I guess other brands do it a lot better, like McVey or Meow.  The best part when paint her is her bosoms, they look real and very easy to paint.   I haven't spent enough time on the mini dragon and the book stand though.

If I were to name this piece I'd call it 'Distraction'.  The fun part of making diorama is trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together and how the rest of the scene complement it.  I had a lot of fun making this.