Hasslefree Adventurer

Ali just finished painting this Hasslefree miniature - and I'm sure you'll agree, it came out really well. That sort of under-lighting is so hard to pull off well. One thing that just doesn't come across from the pictures is the size of the miniature, Hasslefree minis are all quite petite - she's just 28mm to the top of her head.

She's currently working on the skin on the Raven Priest for our collaborative project, so expect a blog update on that before the end of the the week.

mike

Raven Priest assembly and painting - pt. 1

This is the first part of a collaborative project that Ali are going to do - we're going to assemble and paint the Raven Priest, and post each step here on the blog. While it's going to be specific to this miniature, the techniques can obviously be applied to any miniature.

The initial process is cleaning and assembly. The casting I used was just the first one I pulled out of the box - so it should be pretty typical of this miniature. The first thing to do it clean off any marks left from the casting process - on this miniature that mainly consists of the injection marks and vents, and I have marked those in red on photo 1. I just carefully cut them off with a sharp craft knife - the only place that you have to show a little care and attention is on the end of his hair - if you were too heavy handed there, it might be possible to loose the end of the curl.

Photo 2 shows where the only mould line I could find on the miniature runs - just down the left hand side of the feather cloak on the back. It was just a ghost of a line though (this picture was taken before I removed it...) - and is really easy to remove with the edge of a sharp blade.

We decided to add the birds/spell-effect to this miniature - it's really designed to be an optional piece, but I do think it really adds to the atmosphere. There's a fitting already there - a piece of resin that neatly fits into the mouth, but it is pretty thin and would certainly be a weak point on the miniature. To make it a little more sturdy, I decided to replace it with a small brass pin. Photo 3 shows the birds with the end of the piece cut away and replaced with a pin - I just cut it completely flat, making sure that there was enough surface area to drill in for the hole. Photo 4 shows how I have cut the pin down a little and trimmed away the harsh edges, so it fits the mouth better. Photo 6 shows the completed bird piece in place.

I also decided to pin the sword in place. There are two square locating lugs on the sword piece, so it fits neatly onto the arms, but I always add pins if I can - just to be sure of a strong join. I only replaced one of the lugs with a pin.

Photo 7 shows the miniature assembled and ready to undercoat. At this point the birds and sword are not glued in place - it's just easier to get access to some areas with a brush if you leave those parts off. That was one of the reasons I decided to add pins - it makes it far easier to assemble at the end. One thing that I haven't shown here is since I know it's going to go onto a scenic base - I removed the tab that fits into the base, and replaced it with a large pin. Then I lightly glued the miniature to a base for painting.

That's it for the first stage - next up, Ali is going to paint the skin

cheers

mike

Raven Priest concept art

I thought I would just write a quick blog post to cover some of the questions we have been asked since we launched the miniatures line - and take the opportunity to share the concept art for The Raven Priest - which is by Christophe Madura.

Several people have asked if there is going to be any theme to the Studio McVey miniatures line - and the simple answer is "no, not really". The only theme we are going to have is keeping the quality of everything we do as high as possible. Our aim when we started doing this, was to produce a line miniatures that we would really want to paint - and do it as well as possible. That's why we chose resin to produce them in - I was sick of seeing miniatures I liked the look of, then being really disappointed when I saw the castings. I have been working with metal miniatures for well over 20 years, and I know what happens to a sculpt in the production process - squeezing, shrinking, loss of detail and surface texture are all considered the norm for metal miniatures. When I compare a metal casting to the resins we have of the Raven Priest - well, there really is no comparison, they are as close to the original sculpt as it's possible to get...

There are drawbacks with resin of course - they are more fragile than metal miniatures, but we are primarily aiming these miniatures at collectors and painters. Good quality resin is also more expensive to produce (we pay around three times as much for a casting, than if it was in metal) - but the quality more than makes up for it.

We don't have a firm schedule for the expansion of the range - but we plan to be adding new miniatures on a pretty regular basis from now on. I'll be posting new concept art, and sneak peaks at future releases here - so keep checking back.

Ali and I also plan to write some articles about painting and modelling Studio McVey miniatures - in fact the first one will be up on the blog early next week. We are going to do a complete walk through of assembling and painting the Raven Priest - but with Ali and I talking it in turns to work on different aspects of the miniature.

cheers!

mike

Win this Mini (or Ali's, you choose)!

When it came to who was going to paint the Studio McVey version of the Raven Priest, Ali and I couldn't decide - we both really wanted to give it a go. So consequently, we have two painted studio versions. As we only really need one - we have decided to give the other away in a random draw!

This is how it's going to work - once the Limited Edition Raven Priest has sold out, we are are randomly going to draw a number between 1 and 750, and who ever holds that certificate will get to choose which miniature they want - mine or Ali's. The more certificates you hold the better the chance of winning.

Good luck!

mike

Studio McVey Miniatures!

We have been working on this for quite a while, and are finally ready to launch the Studio McVey miniatures line. The first miniature available is on the website now, just click on the 'Studio Store' link in the left hand menu on the main site, and that will take you to the sales gallery. The first miniature is The Raven Priest, sculpted by one of the very best in the industry - Jacques-Alexandre Gillois and we think it's pretty amazing... The detail and sharpness in the sculpting have to be seen to be believed.

We decided the best way to capture all the amazing detail was to produce in resin, and I have to say the miniatures our production vendor casts are the very best I have even seen - there is practically no difference from the original sculpt. We chose the highest quality resin they had, and each miniature is cast in a short run production mould to ensure the highest quality possible. The Raven Priest is fantastic to paint - I can honestly say that I have never painted a better casting - even metal master castings don't compare... We are only producing Studio McVey miniatures as strict limited editions - and including a signed and numbered certificate with each one.

Sorry, that's enough sales talk! Ali and I are really excited to be launching the Raven Priest, and it will hopefully be the first of many - we plan to be releasing new miniatures on a fairly regular basis from this point on (as long as they prove popular!), and every one will be of the same quality as the first.

The painted version above is Ali's, and I think she did a great job of capturing the character and drama of the sculpt. I have been working on one too (we have been having a little personal competition...), and will be showing it here in the next couple of days, along with some other bits and pieces, like the original concept art.

We hope you like the first miniature!

mike

Final Skaven Pictures

Here are the last pictures I took while building the Snitch Diorama.

The street surface was entirely sculpted from Fimo - which was a bit of an experiment as I had never used it before... I made a little press shape to make the cobbles and drain section - a piece of aluminium tube that I sharpened and shaped to give the oval shape I wanted. The shape of the flag stones were defined with a sharp sculpting tool - I found fimo pretty good for this sort of work - it doesn't have the surface tension that greenstuff has - so it's pretty easy to get sharp edges. The sewer hatch was salvaged from a Land Raider kit, with all the detail sanded flat and a couple of rivets added. I scratched and scraped the surface to give it a worn look.

The wall of the building was constructed from plasticard and balsa wood, with the window from from an old train-scale building.

The painting was fun - I wanted there to be a contrast between the colour palette of the street level and the sewer tunnel. I painted everything below street level in dark and dank colours - everything shaded down with brown and green tones with lots of stains and dark, damp patches on the walls. I also used a gloss varnish to add areas of wet shine to the walls. At street level I tried to keep everything a brighter and cleaner, so used less muddy colours for shading. I painted the shutters green to tie the two level together.

I always think there is a fine line to walk when painting dioramas - you need the scene itself to be interesting enough to give character - but not so bright as to clash with the miniatures who are on it.

Lots going on in the Studio right now, but more of that soon...

mike

Construction pictures

Just thought I would add some pictures I took while constructing the Snitch diorama. The basic frame was made from plasticard and square section plastic rod, and the sewer and access hole were constructed from pieces of ABS pipe I found in a local DIY store. They were all joined together with plastic solvent - you need the sort that works with ABS though. The hardest thing was joining the two tubes together - that required a little careful accuracy in the cutting and gluing, and even then there were some small gaps to fill.

I wanted the outside box itself to be as smooth as possible - so I filled and sanded all the joins, the aim was to make it look like a solid plinth.

I clad the inside of the pipes with brick textured plasticard - and cut out some of the bricks to make the surface look a little uneven and worn. The rungs were made from brass wire, and the platform he's standing on from plasticard and copper wire mesh.

I filled the whole box with plaster of paris - I wanted it to have some weight, and stability. The tricky bit with that was to ensure there were no holes in the construction...

I'll post some pictures of the street level, and the painted scene soon

mike