Wow where has time gone? Seems like it has been forever since I have had time on the blog to write something.. and honestly.. it has been!
Holidays were a great way to recovery some much needed energy, and I am coming back to the painting table with renewed energies! And when I say renewed energies I mean there are a ton of projects ( as always ) on the go.. some you will see over the coming weeks, and some you will have to wait a bit longer. As they are both epic, but will require a lot more time to get accomplished.
But holidays are over, and the blog needs some attending to.. the dust around here is starting to gather up! So let's brush those out with a review shall we? And a pretty cool recent piece to cross the desk, and actually be announced while I was on holidays!
So BrokenToad is normally known for his Pigments, brushes, and brush soap. However it seems he has been working behind the scenes to get together with a pretty famous artist (Giorgos) to make him his first miniature bust!
I have picked up his brushes previously, and they are pretty good quality. I say pretty good instead of excellent as the only critique I could make on them is that they are really light. So feels like I am not even holding a brush, which is great for longer painting sessions, but also changes up my way to paint. I have what some might call a heavy hand with regards to painting :)
The bust itself is great though. Check out first of all the box that it comes in! Like damn... a custom made wooden box, with the stencil of the concept art em-blazed on the front of it.
Inside you can see that there is even a cool little card telling a small story of the piece, and showing the cast number of the piece. Seems I was a bit off the mark on ordering my copy, but still quite close to the first adopters here.
A pretty cool concept artwork done here as well on the card insert. Gives some interesting thoughts on the color scheme and how to play with the tooth after the painting is all done. Lots of gore and blood available to be played on this :)
All the parts are split up and inside their own baggies. All resting on a bed of straw.
The main torso is pretty cool. Lots of little details here as would be expected from a Giorgos sculpt. It is quite close to the artwork that was provided to him as well to make this piece.
Not quite sure of the back section. This is going to be quite a little challenge for this as it deviates from the smooth sections of the rest of the sculpt. Might be interesting to paint it like internal organs? Or ribcage? Dunno..
Rest of the parts.. there are some pieces to clean up, and remove some of the excess resin mold inserts.
The big tooth! And I mean big! If this were to scale, then this little fairy is quite small overall, which makes him a bit more scarier in my opinion! Bit of work needed to be cleaned up as you can see in the photo, but nothing major thankfully.
Test assembly of the piece here. I can see this to be a bit difficult to paint up if I assemble it with the tooth in place, but it needs the hands in place also. Mmmm.. difficult as there are some gaps on those tiny arms that need to be fixed to make it better.
My only other concern is that the little stand that it comes with and the arms like they are, makes it a bit difficult also to line up properly. Though I came up with a solution for that when I got around to assembling it over the weekend.
So in the end I went with the arms and wings assembled before priming it up. It will be a bit interesting to get the tooth in, but it can be sneaked in if worked on a bit. Might require a bit of muscle to make it happen, but it will get there in the end!
But the biggest thing I switched out was the socket. I pulled one of the resin copies from MDP models to use instead. It allows the hands to hang a bit better, and gives me a bit more space to pool up the dripping blood that will be used at the end :) Also allows me to angle it a bit to give it a bit more dynamic look to it :) I hope that comes across in it at least... maybe?
So my motivation for this piece is threefold at the moment:
- Provide assistance to local artist ( BrokenToad ) who are doing great work, and producing great pieces of work.
- The 'Eavier Metal group is having a painting competition until end of July, so motivation to get it painted quickly. Which is always helping me get things done ( deadlines ).
- BrokenToad himself has a super contest to go with the models as well! 500GBP prize for the top prize with regards to the painting of the piece. Quite the motivation for that and it is on until end of September!
Considering that it is only 100 copies being sold ( yay for limited edition! ) there is a decent chance that I can make an impact. But I know some of the others that have picked it up, so the competition for it will be quite tough. Though end decision is up to Kris Toad to decide on, so.. creativity and style will come into play here as well.
In the end.. it is also a kick ass cool model, and now to continue to look at color scheme and styles in which to paint this one up. Anyone else picked it up, and hoping to get it painted for any of the competitions coming up????