Miniatures

WIP Wednesday

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Spring is here and with it comes the season of conventions and competitions! As you read this miniature painters and sculptors are scrambling to finish pieces for the Iron Painter competition hosted by Wyrd minis. The Iron Painter is a crazy difficult competition where you are given a theme and have two weeks to come up with a miniature piece that explores it. Then your miniature goes head to head against another in a round of voting. Because your doing a new piece every two weeks with no way to guess the theme, it produces a mountain of  interesting pieces to browse through. It’s too late to enter now but I’ll leave a link to the forum below to the gallery of competing pieces to look through. I believe this weeks theme was “pink”.

I am also preparing for summer competitions, albeit at a much slower pace. I’m hoping to get 4 or 5 miniatures ready for judging by August.

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Rocket is very close to being done. He has that great cartoon look I was aiming for but he’s just a tad to bright for his base. I’ll probably use some technical pigment to dirty him up and bring the piece together.

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The base is about half way there but needs to be toned way down. I’ve placed primary colors to map out what I want the ship to look like. It’s a crashed ship so there will be a good amount of dirt and scratches showing in the end.

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Ive also started on a new bust from FER miniatures. By priming him black first I can use a white primer to help me see how light would hit the miniature from a certain angle. There’s a lot of open skin on the piece so it should help me practice my skin tone and blending. As well as some unusual lighting effects.

Hopefully Rocket will be wrapped by next week and I’ll be able to post a Step by Step (with more pictures of each stage) Until then look out for another Miniature Maker showcase coming soon. And to all you competing this summer remember to have fun and good luck!

 

Check out the Iron Painter 2016 competition

 

Miniature Maker Showcase: Nuts Planet

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Miniature Maker is a new segment that I’ve been mulling over for some time now. Like many miniature painters I started out working on game pieces. These pieces were cheap, easy to find, and assemble. Providing a perfect place to start off in the hobby. As I explored the hobby my interests shifted from game pieces to painting more difficult and detailed “cabinet” or  “display” miniatures. Cabinet painting is a small slice of the community (especially in America) but can be deeply fulfilling to a painter. Unfortunately it can be a struggle to find the companies that make these minis. Miniature Maker will focus on showcasing one of these specialized miniature companies at a time. Showing off what they have to offer and their unique styles. So hopefully you can spend less time searching and more time painting.

NUTS PLANET

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Nuts Planet is a miniature company out of Korea. It has been exploding since its conception in 2013 and now has a massive selection of miniatures. They sculpt a wide range of minis from full diorama sets to busts. The coolest series they have is probably their Game of Thrones busts. These busts are a little on the expensive side but are by far the best Game of Thrones minis on the market.

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They also have a great selection of  historical pieces. These pieces often take a character, such as the Roman Soldier, and create a refreshing new twist on the piece.

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The selection of women sculpts they create is also somewhat diverse. And while many of them are wearing what appears to be armored bikinis.

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They do do have some women that are dressed a bit more realistic, which is refreshing to see. Although they don’t seem to have many different nationalities. The hobby has slowly been changing this for the better so hopefully we will start seeing more beautiful pieces of women from all sorts of backgrounds.

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My favorite series from this company is called Trigger. It features a wide variety of people surviving in what appears to be an apocalyptic world. These figures all come with their own little detailed bases that include walls and sometimes cars. It’s a great set if you want to make an amazing art piece but don’t want to spend time creating a custom base.

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They’re still releasing miniatures for this series and I can not wait to see what else they have up their sleeves.

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To sum up Nuts Planet is a great resource for miniatures if your into painting just about anything. They are on the expensive side of the spectrum but it’s one of those situations where you really are getting what you pay for. These sculptures have been hitting it out of the park for years. And lately their pieces have been exploring more diverse subject matter. Which is not only a great thing to support but is refreshing and challenging to paint. So check out Nuts Planet in the link below and let us know about your favorite pieces!

Check out the Nuts Planet website here

 

We are trying to put together a collection of great miniature sculptures and sellers to create a resource for the hobby community. If you know about a small group making great miniatures please leave a comment with their name and website so we can add them to the list.

WIP Wednesday

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Happy Wednesday on this Friday morning! Apologies for the radio silence last week. I was on holiday and decided to put down all technology and just enjoy family time. This week have some exciting new stuff to show you and some progress shots of what’s on the table.

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Rocket’s face is really coming along. The details on the mini are so small that I’ve had to try and guess where some features might be.
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He’s almost done in the back but I need to tone down the brightness on his arm. I’ll probably do a slightly darker glaze since I only want it shaded a touch.
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The next step will be to finish the fur and spray a Matte spray to protect it. Then I’ll go to work on the clothing. I always work from the inside out and I like to finish one part of the module before going to the next layer.

This is Rocket Racoon from Knight Miniatures. Because of his size he’s been tough to paint. But slow and steady wins the race and he’s starting to show some really cool potential. I’ve also been taking progress shots so that in future articles you can really see the whole process.

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This is a wonderful piece that just came in. It’s from My Way Miniatures and should make for an awesome Ninja Turtles diorama. It’s not as expensive as you would think and you can check it out at mywayminiatures.com

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This is a bust called Tribe Chief Marrow and I love it! It’s from Forge Monkey sold by FER miniatures and it’s just covered in insane details. It’s a little more expensive but worth it for the quality. You can see more at ferminiatures.com

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This final piece I grabbed from a hobby store and it had no packaging so I’m not sure who made it. It’s wonderful though and I was able to get two of them to try out separate color schemes. If you know what miniature this is give a shout out in the comments. I’d love to see what other work this person has done. Im not sure I’ve ever done a piece with so many different details.

Thats it for this week hopefully I’ll get settled back in and have some new stuff to show you for next Wed. Until then happy painting!