On Pins & Needles

Carla's finally assembled! While she'll need some gap-filling before I prime & paint her, one of the difficult parts is over. Since I haven't worked on a miniature of this scale before, I haven't needed to use the pinning technique during assembly. However, since I'm oh-so-high-tech, I decided to use staples as pins (try not to judge me here). I would have liked to use my Privateer Press pin rods, but they seem to have been misplaced in the move/flood repairs. In any case, I was going to assemble Carla come-hell-or-high-water (Ack. Too soon!). Without further ado, here she is all put together and mostly-matching her flawless box image:

The miniature assembly process is both stressful and calming to me. Filing and cleaning the miniatures is a mindless process for me and I can take my time while listening to music on my noise-cancelling headphones. Drilling small sections of a miniature is straight-forward too: identify where they need to match up, drill carefully, insert correct length of pin rod. However, the actual gluing process makes me want to pull my hair out (and I like my hair). 

I used two sizes of pins-- one for her sturdier bits (neck/head, legs) and a smaller one for the more delicate pieces (arms & hands). I was extra-careful to drill accurately and very slowly and I enjoyed that part! Once the pieces were all drilled, I matched up the sections and used the Loctite super glue to carefully bind it all together. Here are a few pictures of different stages in the process:

Checking the depth of the drill hole:

Once everything matches up, it's time to pin, glue, and sing to yourself while you wait so you don't freak out and second-guess yourself. Or maybe that's me. Yep, just me.

I  had to be extra-careful when drilling more delicate and detailed pieces like the wrists & hands:

We'll play with green stuff next to get those gaps smoothed and filled. Despite having a tiny meltdown and shouting at myself after having to attach/clean/reattach one of her arms three times to make sure her hands lined up, I'd call that a success! When I jump right in and try new techniques, I expect to make a few mistakes (even though the perfectionist in me hates it). However, I'm no longer afraid of pinning like I was before I assembled this miniature and I'm quite happy about that. On to the next stage!

Carla McCarthy 75mm

This week, I made time for Carla McCarthy. My friend Ludo has been extremely patient as I navigated through personal stuff over the last few months. I admit, this Scale 75 miniatures has intimidated me for a long time. Carla's from Scale 75's "Steam Wars" line of figures. I absolutely love the character and personality in these models-- and the quality of detail? WOW!

While normally one would think a bigger miniature would be preferable to paint over a smaller 28mm miniature, the details in the larger models are just as small and there are much more of them! I think one really needs to know their stuff in order to paint a truly impressive 75mm model. Since there's more surface to paint, the expectation is that you'll do more with it-- flat color with a few highlights here & there just won't cut it. I want to do this figure justice and I'm thinking of ways to add colorful interest to her (and blending. LOTS of blending). I'm definitely inspired by the studio model and will need to do some more research on Steampunk costuming for some more ideas before I get started painting. However, first thing's first and I need to unbox, clean, and assemble her gloriousness!

Here's where I started-- all the pieces were laid out nicely in the box and I carefully clipped, filed and cleaned each bit before starting assembly. However, I learned a valuable lesson after scrubbing bits before assembly. Always, always plug the garbage disposal drain before you scrub miniature bits with dish soap and a toothbrush. There was a panic search & rescue for Carla's torso and I was terrified that it had compromised the details in the sculpt. (In fact, I think I blacked out and stood there shouting "AHH!!!" down the drain for a few seconds before I calmed down enough to find a flashlight). I was very lucky-- no damage was done and that was a stupid mistake I shall not repeat in the future. So embarrassing.

The details on this miniature are incredible! I carefully dried and attached the leg pieces with my preferred Loctite super glue--it's not watery at all and provides superior control over where you place the glue and the design of the bottle helps ensure that you won't accidentally over-squeeze with the rubber side grips. I'll admit-- this is the part of the process that I enjoy the very least. I've screwed up in every imaginable way during the gluing process in the past. When it comes to assembling the miniature, I get nervous to the point where my hands get shaky ("Waiter! One glass of red wine, please!"). All I can think about is how many ways there are to mess up a miniature before you even get started painting-- unhelpful, but true! In past times, I've used too much/too little glue and under-filed/over-filed the pieces to the point where they don't fit properly. I've held the pieces together too tightly during the glue setting process and bent the metal and other times, I haven't held it together long enough, resulting in parts shifting and causing unnecessary gaps that can't be undone or completely fixed.

Needless to say, I'm getting better! I made sure to line up her stocking straps when glueing her bottom half together. I'll still need to do a bit of gap-filling in the end I'm sure, but making sure the important details line up is the first step towards super glue success!

Of course, in the end we had some casualties-- due to my constant clumsiness, I accidentally dropped my beloved paint water glass in the sink (what is it with me and dropping things in the sink!?). As I was washing it, it slipped from my hands in seemingly-slow motion to my utter horror and dismay. Luckily, it didn't shatter, and I'm still going to use it diligently. I've since renamed him "Chip". 

"Chip" now has much more character and I look forward to his constant companionship during the painting of Miss Carla McCarthy. Can't wait! 

July Speed Paint Challenge

This Speed Paint Challenge was more like "Panic Painting Challenge". I did get a head start on him last week, but after getting sucked into playing co-op Minecraft until midnight last night, I woke up at 6am this morning in order to complete him on time. (I probably need more discipline in my life). In any case, I finished in time and met my own expectations. While the Speed Painting Challenge time limit is 4 hours and the paints are limited to 7 colors + black and white, I wanted to challenge myself with a more ambitious timeline. I successfully clocked in at just under 3 hours and only used 6 colors + B&W. Huzzah! I chose the Reaper paints below for on "Scroll Guy" (aka "Darkrasp" from Reaper's Bones line):

  • Blue Liner (instead of Black): Robe, eyes
  • Linen White (instead of White): Scroll, bone scythe blade, eyes, jar highlight, chains
  • GREL Flesh: Skin highlights, jar
  • Tanned Shadow: Skin base, beard
  • Shadowed Stone: Scythe weapon handle, beard, jar, chains
  • Clouded Sea: Robe highlights, jar, eyes
  • Aged Bone: Scythe weapon handle, beard highlights
  • White Sand: Scroll 

In hindsight, I probably could have gone without White Sand on the scroll and mixed in a drop of aged bone for the shadows. However, I wanted it to stand out and the yellowed paper effect was my goal. I'm also very pleased that I was able to focus on the weapon rather than the cloak. I love painting fabric and I often fall into the trap of spending all my time on leather and fabric rather than weapons (see a previous Speed Paint Challenge). If I chose to spend more time on him, I'd focus on more interest and smooth blending in his robe and create a glowing rune effect on the scroll, but as it is with Speed Paint Challenges, you have to choose a focus that's important to you and just go with it! Ready for some work-in-progress photos? Oh yeah. 

WIP Photos after 1 hour:

At the 2 hour mark:

The last hour I spent on details: highlights on his weapon and chains, smooth blending on the mystery jar, his beard, and (crazy as I am) his eyes. I just have to paint the eyes! Even though his eyes are in shadow under normal lighting, I wanted to include these close-up pictures as well:

Without further ado, here's "Scroll Guy"! I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with too!