More test prints - Mythology

I've finally nailed my style and scale (I think) for this range, and possibly all future ranges.

Lots of trial and error but these things print out great at 28mm all the way up to 35mm. Even 25mm - I have some at that scale for use with the GW LOTR range.

Next up is the painting test and then I'll start working towards a plan for retail sometime this summer.

(I've sculpted a lot more stuff but these are the closest to production ready, and the larger wraith was a print test, it needs a few tweaks back in zbrush)

30mm Mythology prints - Skeletons

Quite happy with these things, there's a few tweaks here and there to be made but I'm into the swing of it.

More than anything it's learning how the 3d sculpt on screen will translate into a physical print. That, and settling in on a style.

30mm Mythology test prints

These are fairly rudimentary sculpts but they're only for test purposes at this stage. The main thing is they scale with my existing mythology sculpts and the basic anatomy looks good when printed.

Next steps will be to refine the sculpting and start branching out, with the basic size of the parts locked in as a standard. 

Hoping this is the end of the testing phase but I'll do a few more tests on getting dynamic posing right before I go mad.

The human is 30mm to the top of the head. I prefer the smaller fauns so will work on the range with that size in mind. 

10-20mm Hoplites - more test prints

I'm almost coming to the end of the scale testing stage, having landed on a style that looks good printed at 20mm, 15mm and 10mm.

I can't decide which scale I want to do... so making something that's multi use seems like the best idea.

20mm, perfect for Dragon Rampant perhaps. I have a soft spot for this size and think doing some classic fantasy armies like this will scratch an itch for Warhammer Fantasy Battle style gaming (miniature count wise especially - a block of 20 spearmen is more palatable at this size than at 30mm or whatever the warhammer size is now).

Every single mini there is slightly different... but you'd barely notice. Hopefully its subconscious. 

15mm. This is probably my go to for muti-based style gaming.

10mm, Warmaster. Doing 5 minis on a strip with interlinked/touching between the figures is of course the usual approach for 10mm. That's on the back burner, but printing individually isn't too much of a pain, and it really cuts down on production failures (a single broken spear tip on a strip of 5 ruins the entire print/cast). Straight from the horses mouth I recall hearing this from Rick Priestly... the designer of Warmaster mentioning this... in hindsight regretting they did 5 minis on a strip.)

The above shot shows the style evolution, the mini on the left was the fist with more of a realistic Hoplite. At smaller scales though they are slightly flimsy and lose their visual punch. The final version on the right is slightly more cartoonish than I generally prefer (as a sculptor I like the first one best) but the practicalities of production, painting and using them as gaming pieces trumps the 'artsy' sensibility.

Now that I've locked into the basic infantry I can't start on some more fantastical elements.

Little Hoplites (15-20mm)

This is proving to be quite a chore, digital sculpting is a breeze... but getting the sculpt just right for translating into a physical print is certainly a trick!

Heres' a load of test shots. The three on the green base are the latest versions, although those legs were slightly too thin... so they're being bulked out. 15mm toe to eye, so about 18mm to the top of the head.

I can't decide what scale I want to do this in, 10, 15 and 20mm are all of interest so I need to land on a style that will fit all of them.

(These are basic iphone pics)

First 3D sculpts and prints

 There's definitely a learning curve to this...

It involves sculpting something, printing it, going back to the sculpt and making tweaks, printing it... then going back to make more tweaks before printing again. And so on again...

These are very quick and messy sculpts just for practice. As we all know- it's not as simple as scaling a sculpt up or down, the entire style of the thing needs change - take the spears here as a prime example.

I'm a convert to digital now so 2022 should be extremely productive.

The Wheel weaves...

I was never a fan of the Wheel of Time books (I think I only got to book 4...) and even less of a fan of the new Amazon series.

That said, these conversions are based on a couple of the main characters. Mostly Frostgrave plastics from Northstar, with the guy on the left using Fireforge Mongol legs and torso. Most of the arms needed sculpting, along with a lot of details and touch ups.