Rumble in the Jungle

Just a quick post to show some pictures of Ali's latest creation. We've been talking about doing a Jungle-style base for Kara for ages - I originally intended to do that for the Kara I'm painting (and have been since she released) - but it was fairly obvious that wasn't going to happen any time soon!

I like her painting on this one even better than the original - the face in particular is just amazing.

Here's her cmon posting.

Up on eBay for those who are interested!

I have also just added a new product to the Store. I've had the Firebrand bases set ready to go for quite a while, but have only just got round to officially releasing it. Really nice detail and casting on these.

I did hope to release the new LE Kara this week, but we had a minor production hiccup, so she'll be on sale next week.

cheers!

mike

Triples

This weekend (21st and 22nd of May) is Triples, and as we actually live in Sheffield we thought it made good sense to go along as a trader. I've never been to Triples before, but have heard great things about it from lots of people. We'll be taking the full range on Studio McVey LE resins and the Sedition Wars ranges - we are also going to have some preview copies of the new LE miniature we hoped to have ready for Salute.

It's called Kara's Last Stand and is a conversion of the original miniature that spawned the entire Sedition Wars range. It shows Kara in the same fight as the first version, but looking even more bruised and battered. She's out of ammo for the heavy SMG and is down to knife and pistol to finish-off her unseen opponent.

As it's a conversion of the original, we thought it right to reduce the the Limited Edition run to 400, rather than the normal 750. She'll go on general release either next week, or early in June - depending on how production goes. We'll have a limited number of castings available at Triples, so if you're there and want one - come and see us early.

In other news, the second part of the blending video tutorial we put together is up - check it out.

Cheers!

mike

Blending tutorial video

Ali has been running a little project over on the Studio McVey forums for the past week - painting the same miniature as one of our members so she can demonstrate how we paint. It will mainly be illustrated with stage-by-stage photos, but we thought we would take the opportunity to do something we have been thinking about for quite a while now - shoot some video.

You can see the original thread here, and the video itself is embedded below.



This is an ongoing project for us - but we're reasonably pleased with the results. There are still quite a few technical problems to iron out - but we have some exciting plans for the future - stay tuned!

mike

The Blight Witch

We previewed this miniature ay Salute a couple of weeks ago, and she proved to be very popular - she is now on general release in the Studio Store!

As I mentioned in the previous post - this miniature is from an original concept by Shannon Tindle. As Shannon works as a character designer in the animation industry, we wanted to draw on some of the themes and design ideas that you might come across in that field. So drawing on some of the dramatic theatricality you might see in early Disney films, he came up with this. I'm going to be painting a version of this miniature myself and will be sharing a little painting diary here (and on the forums) in the coming weeks.

I think JAG has done an amazing job of capturing the slightly stylised nature of the concept while still retaining his realistic rendering - I'll be showing Shannon's concept art here shortly so you can judge for yourselves.

cheers!

mike

Salute 2011

This Saturday is Salute 2011 at the Excel Center in London. Last year was our first show as Studio McVey and we had a great time - Ali even managed to win best in show at the painting Competition with her Ar-Fienel. Things have been so busy lately that she hasn't had the chance to put another entry together, but we will have some new and exciting miniatures there for you to buy.

First up is the Blight Witch. This is going to release properly next week, but we are going to have castings to sell at the show. This is yet another great sculpt from Jacques-Alexandre Gillois, this time from a concept by Shannon Tindle. Shannon is one of the genius character designers who worked on Coraline (amongst other things), but he's a miniatures guy too, and it was a real pleasure to work with him on this one. I'm quite sure it won't be the last piece he'll do for Studio McVey. I'll be showing his beautiful concept here when the Blight Witch officially releases next week. JAG and Thomas David (who sculpted Vitharr and Sharro for us) will actually be in the booth right next to ours at Salute.

We will also have two new Limited Edition Resin miniatures from the Sedition Wars line. We have previewed Vokker here recently, but we will also have a Vanguard male trooper on sale. Both these miniatures will be available in strictly limited numbers though - the full LE resin runs will only be between 50 and 75 copies of each. After that they will only be available as metal castings.

Speaking of Sedition Wars - we will be releasing the metal castings of the first five Firebrand rebel miniatures at Salute, I'm not sure how many of each will will have though. Up until now, these have only been available as Limited Edition resins, but from now on they will be available as unlimited metal castings.

There is one final thing - but as I'm not 100% sure we'll have it ready in time, I'm going to keep it as a surprise. If we do have castings there - they will be in very limited quantity, so you'd better come and see us early just in case...!

So lots of new stuff! The really good news is that we will be running special Salute only prices - and almost everything in the Studio McVey ranges will be included.

We are also going to have Daral from ElodieMae with us - and will be selling his miniatures and bases on our stand.

We're at stand TG03 (right next to the painting comp stage) hope to see you there!

mike

Ar-Fiach Concept

Just a really quick post to show the original concept for Ar-Fiach - another really nice piece from Steve Tappin. Beautifully brought to life by Yannick Hennebo and available now in the Studio Store. Steve also concepted the first group of Firebrand miniatures - and they are currently away being mastered for metal - we hope to have the castings ready in the next couple of weeks - in time for Salute.

Salute is only a few weeks away and we're starting to get everything ready - we'll have all our miniatures on sale there, and hopefully a couple of new releases. One of those is being mastered for resin at the moment, and another just needs a few tweaks to be perfect. We're really looking forward to Salute again this year, so if your going to be there, please pop along and say hello.

I'm currently working hard on a project that won't see the light of day until later this year - but Ali and I are already pretty excited about it. Stay tuned for news on that (but don't hold your breath just yet...).

Cheers!

mike

Ar-Fiach

All the news seems to have been about the Sedition Wars range recently - so I thought we'd better put something out for the Limited Edition resin range!

Ar-Fiach is another in our irregular series of Faerie miniatures - so far we have Ar-Fienel (now all sold out) and Al-Vianna on one side, and Y'Sala and Y'Sydira on the other. Ar-Fiach tips things back into the light, but maybe not for too long...

The others are available in the Studio Store.

This one is another fantastic sculpt from Yannick, and based on a concept by Stephen Tappin (site under construction). It's a really beautifully detailed, evocative piece. I'll post the concept here soon, along with some more pictures of the resin casting.

In Sedition Wars news, I am expecting the first batch of Vokker resins soon, so we should be releasing the limited run of that soon - possibly even next week. Ali is hard at work painting it as I type, and it's looking really nice. The first batch of Firebrand miniatures are away being mastered in metal at the moment, and I hope to have those on sale in time for Salute next month - more news on that soon. I recently added the resin Vanguard base set to the Studio Store.

cheers!

mike