Painting Rocket Raccoon’s Last Stand

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Convention season is upon us again and so is the most exciting and busiest time for a miniature painter. Apologies for not posting more regularly lately. I’m in a race against time to see how many figures can be completed before Origins and Gencon. So any spare second I have I’ve been painting. But I will try to post weekly at least. There probably won’t be any board game miniature posts until after GenCon but I’m excited to show off what I’ve been working on instead. First off is Rockets Revenge from Knight Models.

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This picture has trouble conveying how tiny these miniatures are. At 34mm Rocket is barely as large as my finger making him one of the most challenging miniatures I’ve painted.

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The base was made using a cheap Gaurdians of the Galaxy toy and sawing the wings off. Then using the plastic bits left over to create the engine. The rocks come from the bark of a very cool breed of pine tree that grows here and makes excellent looking stones. The base has also been burnt to create the scorch marks and bullet  holes.

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Originally I had wanted to have Rocket stand on top of the ship rubble. But Knight Miniatures uses an extremely soft metal that bends and breaks easily. Trying to remove Rocket from his base damaged him so improvisation was needed. Even though at the time it seemed devastating, it’s a good lesson to learn. Whenever possible I will now try to work the base into the piece as a whole. Or at least cut off the base first before spending hours painting.

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A Dremel helped in scouring the plastic toy creating a damaged look. Just make sure you wear protective glasses.

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Then just some tiny details to fill out the scene like this skull and a tiny alien pod crushed under the wing.

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As Knight Model’s new Marvel Miniature Game takes off I’m excited to what creativity others bring. And as new heros are constantly released there should be many more exciting things down the road for us all.

To check out the Marvel Miniatures game click here

Miniature Maker: Mproyec

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Today we’re going to look at one of the “newer kids on the block”, in the miniature world. Founded in 2014 by a group of Spanish artists led by Raúl García Latorre. This group of sculptures aim to push the miniature world into its own respected art form. By providing the highest quality of miniature for painting they work to bring the hobby out of the gaming industry and into a broader artistic audience. One of the ways they do this is to  cast a limited number of each miniature and then retire the mold permanently before it begins to show wear.

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This technique of casting results in  two things. First, that every miniature that you order will be of the highest quality possible.

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Second, that most of the miniatures that you see here are unavailable. This second part can be a bit of a let down when you visit the site and see how many amazing pieces there are that you’ll never paint.

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But this studio hasn’t been slacking, and new miniatures are added often and available for preorder to guarantee you get one. The constant change of stock is actually refreshing once you get use to it. And it’s kind of cool to know that there aren’t hundreds of miniatures exactly like yours out there in the world.

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These miniatures run from around 30£-60£ depending on the size of the figure. Some of these minis are very small so it’s a bit on the expensive side. In each box you get the limited run high quality mini, a signed certificate of its number in the run, a thick card stock of concept art used for that miniature, and sometimes extra bits to customize your mini. All this helps to justify the price and often they provide an additional discount if your willing to purchase multiple minis at once.

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So go ahead and check out this cool mini company. The argument that miniature painting is a creative and vibrant art form has been gaining momentum the last few years. As that movement grows I think we will see more companies like Mproyec popping up and trying to push the boundaries of miniature sculpting even further. Until then Mproyec will stand as a great example of what can be created by sculptures that love the hobby as much as the people they sculpt for.

 

Click here to check out Mproyec’s newest minis

 

Miniature Maker: Forged Monkey

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Its Monday again so let’s cheer up and try to forget with a look at another amazing Miniature Maker! Today we are taking a look at one of the best busts in the business.

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Forged Monkey was founded in 2011 by Raffaele Picca. Although he did sculpt some full figures, Raffaele quickly established himself as a creator of some of the best miniature busts in the hobby. After giving everyone a slight heart attack by closing in 2015 Forged Monkey has recently reopened as part of the Fernando Ruiz Miniatures line and the company continues to create the original and fantastic busts they are known for.

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Miniature busts fall into pretty standard categories. You’ve got some orcs, soldiers, steam punk girls, elves, and tough looking humans. But strangely the animal kingdom has been left largely untouched. So it’s great to see a company doing such high quality work on this subject.

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When looking at these miniatures you can see how important expressions are to Raffaele. The facial expressions are continued through the position of the shoulders and angle of the head. Giving these busts a strong emotion even before painting. Helping the painter to tell the story they want to regardless of their skill level.

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You can see from these two busts how movement in the piece changes with the emotion.

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At this point I’m sure you can tell that I think highly of this company. But there is a downside to all this awesomeness…the price. Your probably not going to pay less than 25£ for a very small very detailed bust, and some of them can go much higher. For some people that’s too much and it’s completely understandable, but let me tell you what you get for your money.

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You’ll get an extremely detailed and beautiful bust…

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…and you’ll get some awesome pieces for it that you can use to customize your figure…

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… and then you’ll get even more stuff and you’ll begin to panic from the amount of choices and extra pieces…

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…and you’ll end up working on something else to give you an excuse to keep thinking about what you want to do…

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…or trying to resist buying another copy so you can do multiple versions…

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Forged Monkey will always leave you with little gift bits left over for your investment.

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Forged Monkey miniatures are expensive and can be frustrating to find due to their tendency to sell out quickly. But I would still suggest taking a serious look at purchasing one. These miniatures keep inspiring me to push my painting skills and that’s important to have when your stuck in the un-fun grind that can be practicing. New pieces have been coming out regularly so check the links below to see what you can add to your table.

To see and purchase older pieces by Forged Monkey click here

To see and purchase newer releases by Forged Monkey click here