I told you this is a process, an ugly one at that

As you can see, my first attempt at armatures was educational. That said they are bad, why? First of the scale, while it almost impossible to tell, the proportion are for the most part ok, the black marks, marks are also too wide and therefore variable, indicate the foot, hip joints, while the bottom of the loop and top of GS glob is the shoulder, simply put thought they are too big, about 35mm. The wire is not stiff enough as well as being aluminum, which I have read is bad to use for the vulcanization process. The putty was real old, when I was working the GS. I was wondering why the GS was feeling stiff and old, when I just bought a new box. I started to worry, that I have lost what little feel, I had for the GS, after a relatively long modeling hiatus, it was from my old stock. Finally, I also made a very common Newbie mistake, even thought I tired to mix a small batch, I was compelled to try to use it all, and I made more armatures, each worse the last, should not rush the process, its as important as any other step. I read in a FAQ that you should have a relative large project to use what left over you have, so they do not go to waste.

Also, I have a number of reference site and material to review and I will be trying once again.

God this will be Ugly

For years, I have been on this self styled crusade to get new licensed Traveller miniatures available, or really any complete Sci-fi miniatures, but recently I have decided a change in strategy is in order.

Time to make my own, Sci-Fi figures, from scratch, and god this will be ugly. I have painted and done quite a few conversion using GW and WOTC models as a base, over the years, but now it's time to go independent. I expect to fail, quite a bit, and that’s ok really, only a lack of relative progress will give me pause. Do I have thick skin, a little, but this is when I remember what my favorite professor said “Criticism: has a Greek root meaning to make better thought discussion, don’t take it personally, learn from it.” With this in mind, I commit myself to learning how to sculpt.

First step is design. An alien or non human seem to be the logical first, I doubt I will try a human for a while. Aliens also give some leeway in size and proportion, things I’m very concerned with. First shall be a Lupuserectis, or a standing wolf, a kind of a space werewolf, and you can’t license that. I will generally keep the proportions human, as for biology, I think some creative evolution is in order. I think this will be fun, like a sculpting ‘Spore” game.


Next up armature with pictures:

Piracy: why it hurts us all.

I’m sure miniature piracy has been address here a few times, but some how it seems that most people think it doesn’t affect them as long as they don’t do it. I can understand that, a little, but from my perspective it’s hurting us all, in some ways. Here’s how, right now there are people on Ebay selling pirated miniatures we know them, they are not hard to spot. Sure, they are selling items that are old and out of print, and maybe the copyright is a little nebulous, but the more they sell the less incentive there is for a company to put out a new product.

For example, I’m a Traveller, Star Wars and general Sci-fi gamer, and I want new high quality Sci-Fi figures, but the pirated figures are only hurting the rightful owners of the license, especially Traveller, and preventing newer and even better figures from being produced. Ebay is fine, I use it, and I hope, miniatures makers pay attention and use it a marketing tool, after all the computer gaming industry does, if secondary sales on Ebay are high enough they re-release the game or produce a nostalgic version of it.

So what can we do? Let our voice be heard, write, and let the gaming industry and the license holders know we want the golden age of miniatures to come back, we have to demand and support it. There was a time when Traveller had some thirty blisters and box sets from various companies. Currently we are forced to scrounge and choose lines and companies for bit as pieces, when the bits should be the spice in our miniatures collection not the entire bulk of it. We are all, so use to making do, that when someone raises the clarion call for what we could have, or even should have, the general response is you can use these miniatures here and others there. If we want our cake we should asked for it, pay for it and leave the crumbs for those who don’t know better.