Pulp!

Well another month has flown past without many posts here from me - I could apologise again, but the apologies and promises of articles are probably sounding a little hollow by now! It has been an exceptionally busy month though, as well as moving house and office (still in progress...), we have also been working very hard on the new Studio McVey miniatures line. There is going to be preview of that in the second Mantic Journal, and I'll be sharing some news and pictures here in the next few days.

Anyway - I've just added this months Limited Edition resin release to the Studio Store. Inspired by 1950's pulp movies like Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still, and with more than a nod to Metropolis, we are proud to bring you - Beauty and the Bot!

I have to say I absolutely love this one - and just couldn't be happier with how it came out. Both Christophe Madura and Yannick were right on the money with the concept and sculpt. It's exactly how I imagined the scene to be, the barely conscious Greta, being carried down the steps of the palace by the mighty Zyndor!

I'll add more pictures of the miniature here in the next couple of days (honestly!) and definitely the concept art - which is absolutely beautiful. Look out for the announcement on the new miniatures range too!

Thanks

mike

Gone!

That's it - Ar-Fienel is completely sold out from the Studio Store. The only place you're going to get one now is from coolminiornot - I sent them a small re-stock last week and I don't think they will have received them yet. Should be today or tomorrow though.

After they are gone she will be officially sold out!

As I said in the previous post - we're sad to see her disappear from the range, but happy she's been so popular.

Cheers!

mike

Going, going... Nearly gone.

Well I have just sent out the 700th Ar-Fienel (and have a few more orders for her left to fill), so that officially means we have less than 50 castings left before the entire run of 750 will be gone. We always keep numbers 1-10 (for the sculptor, studio painting copies, and a rainy day), but we won't be selling what's left of those any time soon.

She's been phenomenally successful considering she was only released in late April - passing the high water mark set by Kara Black (who is not too far behind in sales...) about a month ago. It'll be sad to loose her from the range, but we're delighted to have our first sell-out miniature.

So this is just a warning - if you want an Ar-Fienel, you'd better move quite quickly, as I don't expect the current stock to last too long.

cheers!

mike

Y'Sidyra

I've just updated the main website and store with the latest release in our Limited Edition resin range. Y'Sidyra is a seven-piece resin kit, and I think it's our most exciting and dynamic release so far. I particularly love the movement of the miniature - he looks both active and balanced at the same time - quite a difficult thing to pull off in a sculpt.

This is Yannick's forth sculpt for us - and I think they just keep getting better and better. The base is a work or art in it's own right!

Ali's painted version is extremely striking - and the Japanese inspired colour scheme really suits the sculpt. She took plenty of pictures of this one while she was painting it, so we'll have no excuse for lack of tutorials this time. Hopefully we'll have the first early next week. The painted version is on Coolminiornot - please show it some love!

Pictures of the resin and concept art will follow soon.

cheers!

mike

GenCon

This week sees GenCon 2010 kicking off in Indianapolis,USA. Unfortunately Studio McVey won't be attending this year's show in person, but we'll be there in spirit. Coolminiornot will be the exclusive stockist of the Studio McVey Limited Edition miniature range, and should have all of them available at their booth. They will also have a few of the Studio painted miniatures in their display cabinets. Check out their booth - #826 in the back of the Exhibitor's hall.

If you've never been before - GenCon is quite an amazing event. Four days of non-stop gaming (literally, there's always something on, day or night). Hopefully we'll be able to have our own booth in the coming years - but for the moment, make sure you stop by the Coolminiornot booth and have a look at our miniatures.

cheers!

mike

Board art

It's been quite a while since we published any how-to articles on the blog - so this is really long overdue. We always have the best of intentions every time we put a new miniature out, and discuss all sorts of different things we could publish tutorials on. When we try and find the time to put them together, it's a different story.

This is just a quick run through on how Ali achieved the graphic pattern on Lisbeth's sky-board.

I'm going to leave the text to a minimum as the pictures are fairly self-explanatory. The key to this technique is the use of masking tape to create the design - in this case we used Tamyia masking tape as it's really smooth and finely textured, perfect for precise work. You can gently stick it to clean plastic card to cut it, and it peels away and re-sticks several times without leaving a trace. Try and use a brand new scalpel blade to ensure the cuts are as neat as possible. As with all of this sort of freehand work, a great deal is in the preparation - if you plan and sketch the design before you start, it will be far easier.

You can apply the colour to the exposed areas with either a brush or a sponge - both will give different effects. Try not to over-work it though or the paint can bleed under the edges of the tape and spoil the design.

The first pictures (1-6) show the basic weathered paint being built up on the board. This is achieved with thin, patchy washes - deeper at first, and building up the highlights over the top. You really don't need to be too neat with this - the desired effect is a battered, well-used board.

Pictures 6a-10 show the tape being cut, applied and the first colour added. Pictures 8-16 show the second application of tape, and the next colour. The last two pictures (17 and 18) show the edges being worked on a little and some definition added to the board itself.

There are plenty of different applications for this sort of masking work - it's great for vehicles and large smooth surfaces.

We're going to do another quick tutorial for the back side of the board to show the lighting on the hover engines.

cheers!

mike

Lisbeth concept art

Just thought I would share the original concept art for Lisbeth. This one went through quite a few different incarnations before we settled on a slightly darker, more serious look. The drawing is by Christophe Madura.

Just a quick update on shipping orders - we have been exceptionally busy so things are running a little behind (no change there then...) - the good news is we shipped a lot of orders yesterday and more will go out today. After that we'll be close to up to date.

We are also planning to do some how-to articles about Lisbeth - in fact Ali is working on the first at the moment so I hope to have that up here early next week. We always plan to do more painting content for the blog - but the busier things get, the harder it is to find the time. Hopefully we'll find a way to do more in the future - we always considered it an important part of Studio McVey.

In slightly more cryptic news, we are finally just about to start pushing putty on a new Studio McVey range. I won't say any more than that at present, but I hope they will see the light of day by October...

cheers!

mike