So far my theory is not rocking the boat in the computer room and repeating mold layouts in the casting room. The way they handled the Siocast machine suggests CB is a bit stiff when it comes to R&D. Common practice in 3D is to model in spread pose (some prefer arms horizontal, like one of the forms of Vitruvian Man, called T-pose; others go with angled down 45-60deg, A-pose), then deform parts into final position. And CB has shown that they use T-pose, at least sometimes. Other companies use a method in which parts are done separate (or cut from base design), then glued (back) into pose and the transitions, or pose-dependant details like cloth wrinkles, fixed. 3D is way more experiment friendly than hand sculpting... but CB does not go much beyond the "copy-paste" or "mirror" parts. Troop type should influence the pose, I agree. We can hope... I guess he meant the "sneaking behind a desk" Zero.
I was going for the Orc cop from Bright, the Netflix movie with Joel Edgerton and Will Smith. Never watched it, but I liked the concept design, and looking at that Orc Moderator it basically screamed at me to reference it ;) As for the posing discussion: I'm not sure I entirely agree with you guys. Yes, there were some crazy dynamic poses back then, but I would wager there were just as many static poses. The same way, there are a lot of very creative and dynamic poses now too. Look at the Crushers, or William Wallace, or the Defiance Deltas, or the upcoming Wolfgang, etc. I guess they just went less crazy on the more basic line troops since then to give the more flavorful characters more room to shine. Who knows? Here at least is another incredibly beautiful sculpt which I was lucky to get my hands on: And here's the Chantara artwork I was working from: The box she's sitting on forced me to deviate from the colors of the artwork. I didn't want to stick to the dark blue and grey, since it would have made the whole mini too bland and dull. So I went for a stark contrast with red. Additionally, it meant I had to amp up the blue a bit more from the very muted blue-grey. The orange detail on the arm became her ponytail, since I wanted the focus to remain on her face and torso. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one and am quite happy with the result. I love the idea that she sneaks up on her enemies so quietly that she surprises them with a nonchalant pose exactly like this — like she's in a cheap movie :P
You know what, I was actually thinking of you when I painted her. I thought "finally I'm painting the kind of muted highlights archangel always does" XD Is that maybe why you like her? :P Thanks! Let me know when you finish yours ;) I finally finished the last of my quartet of heros. She was a pain in the butt, mostly because of my own last minute decision changes and some very finicky conversions while she was already halfway painted. In any case, here's "Gillian" Wallace: Kosmovengers, assemble: And this is the artwork she's based on: I only realized halfway through painting her that the best place for the yellow, blue, and pink were the three panels on the base. At that point, I had gone for olive, only to discover that it didn't work that well with the orange. Also, as you can see, she originally sported the heavy two hander of the Swiss Guard. However, not only was I not happy with how my paint job on the sword came out, but also I eventually just found it ridiculously big on her. So I swapped it for an old Revell sword I still had in my bits box. Now the only doubt that still plagues me is if the bright colors on the base take too much attention from the mini. What do you think?
I think the bright colours on the base complement the mini pretty nicely. I honestly like the ridiculously big sword for Gilian the smaller swords makes her look a little bit like a covert spec ops, but that's me being kinda obsessed with swords. In the end it's your mini and you have to be happy and as always great paintjob.
Nivanh Chanthara https://www.artstation.com/nivanhchanthara That's comforting to hear :) Well, if you like really big swords (well, blades to be precise), you can look forward to my next mini ;)
Another commission done: It's always interesting to go back to models you've already painted once and see how a different scheme works on them, both for the final look and the time it takes. Even the Moran was fun, although I skipped that model for my own Nomads. And Zondcats are somehow so rewarding to paint...
Also, something for myself again: Valerya Gromoz, Defiance version. I painted her up in the colors of the new sculpt: The thing I am most happy about with that mini is taking the advice of a painter friend and going over her face one more time after I thought I was done. He suggested to reduce the black around her eyes, which before looked kinda off. It changed her face from "meh" to "pretty good" imo. Here's the before & after (difference in picture quality comes from using two different cameras):
Volkolak Missile Launcher conversion for my Kosmoflot: For those interested: I used the lower body of the female Minuteman, the arms and shoulders of the Brawler HRL, and the backpack of a male Minuteman. The head is a print from Unit-9. As a reference for her I used another Nivanh Chanthara artwork:
It's been a while. I've painted some stuff, just haven't gotten around to taking proper pictures. I got a new light box and am still figuring out the correct settings. Until then, however, here are a few test shots of my recently finished Bearpode. If anyone with photography experience has some tips for me I'd greatly appreciate it :) Spoiler: More pictures
Alright, I managed to take some more pictures, this time with an actual camera. This means I can finally present the finished Team Polaris: Color scheme inspiration, as always, by Nivanh Chanthara:
Even though I have been posting only sporadically these last weeks, I have been very busy painting. So busy, in fact, that I didn't have time to take pictures. The reason was that I wanted to sell about half of my Nomads collection. To be more specific: My Corregidor. It's kinda sad, but I never actually played them, and as much as I like the minis, I never got into the fluff of Corregidor. If that plus the fact that I don't get to play often enough to consistently field them between my Tunguska, NCA, and now Kosmoflot hadn't sealed the deal, there was also a wedding coming up. Which meant I could really use some more cash. But to sell it, it needed to be a complete army. And I was still missing a few pieces. So I went out to find everything I needed to sell a competitive Corregidor army. What was missing? First, Zondbots: Spoiler: More Images Then, a third Zond (it's the one on the left). Luckily, my friend who I just painted four old-school Zonds for was gracious enough to leave me one of his to repaint: Spoiler: Backsides Let's see, what else? Right, more Alguaciles. This is actually another sad story: I had sold my three male Alguaciles to another friend. He said he didn't really need them, so I asked him if he could send them back, together with one of my old Tomcats and Hellcats I had also left him. He graciously did – only for the whole package (including a Bolt ML!) to get lost in the mail. Anyway, I had to find replacements, which I luckily did and converted into some SWC options: Spoiler: More angles That brought the number up to a healthy five: But I still wasn't done. There were still two key units missing: A McMurrough – since I wouldn't give my Duroc away. And a Gator proxy. But that's a story for another post.
It's a 3D-print. Actually, it's a combination of two different 3D prints. I unfortunately don't have the STLs myself anymore, since a friend printed them for me. I cut of the hammer, drilled a hole through the hand and put in the shaft on one side and the blade from the other.
