And onward...

Will try to put up some interesting articles in the next few days but wanted to say 100 followers! Woohoo.

Also, the day before yesterday I set a new record for page views in a day and not only broke my previous record, but doubled it. And I broke the old record by a fair margin yesterday as well. Mainly because I've now had 1000 page views for the Citadel Finecast review.

So, going great at the moment. What's next. Well, I have a few ideas for posts but it has been pointed out that I did my top three sculptor posts a while back but haven't done the same or painters. That's admittedly a tougher gig given that there are many more astounding painters out there than sculptors so it might not be a focused top three but I think a general 'top painters' series mightbe in order...

So, who'll be first up? Hmm...

Citadel Finecast...

Finecast! Seems to be the buzzword just at the moment. Games Workshop's replacement material for metal and it's been a source of much conjecture over the past few weeks. High expectations. Assumptions. Doomsaying. Revolutions. Information and misinformation. Well, yesterday it hit stores and finally we can take a look for ourselves and form opinions. There are reviews of the new figures popping up everywhere and I'm going to shamelessly jump on that bandwagon. I took a trip to GW Truro yesterday and grabbed a couple of figures to have a play with.

I'm imagining most of you will know what all this is about but here's a quick explanation anyway. GW have decided to stop producing their figures in metal and have switched to a new resin product. Not going to go into much about the technical changes regarding the production of this new material as I'm operating on a lack of knowledge and there'd be a lot of assuming going on. Instead I'll simply approach this as an end product as that's all that really matters.

Well, I purchased a Wood Elf Lord with Great Weapon and a Vampire Counts Varghulf.

First up, the Wood Elf. There were three on the rack and, as I always do, I inspected all of them to pick the nicest casting. All three were fine and I grabbed one. Now, here's where my review will differ from most out there. I'm seeing loads of pictures of the sprues. They can be pretty scruffy and horrible looking things it seems with sprues that seem to be messy and warped and a fair amount of flash with lots of cut in sprueing. I really don't think the sprues should be what we're looking at. It'd be nice if they looked more attractive but, in the end, I don't think it's especially relevant. Instead, I have sat with nothing more than a pair of clippers, a modelling knife and superglue and seen how they look after a cleanup and assembly. The resin flash is very different to metal flash in general. It pulls away cleanly, usually with just a finger so don't panic too much bout it. Looks much worse than it is. In the case of the Wood Elf I actually spent around twenty minutes cleaning up but that's me being obsessive. I could have had the figure in close to this shape in five minutes. So, how does it look? Well, pic time.





I'm very happy with the result. The material is quite bizarre as a resin. I've used a few over the years and nothing like this. First up it's flexible. Very handy for fine parts. Unlike most resins it isn't going to easily snap and that's important given GW figures are meant to be gamed with. It's very soft to cut and clean up and really you're best off with a sharp modelling knife rather than files. The material cuts very cleanly and doesn't tear which is very useful. All in, cleaning was a pleasant process compared to the usual swearing at metal, plus the non-reflective nature of the resin means it's easier to see mouldlines and, hopefully, you're less likely to discover ones you missed after undercoating...

As for the quality of the figure itself, I'm also very happy. I had a metal version of this figure and this new version has a slightly more dimensional quality as resin doesn't typically shrink in the same way as metal. Lines are clean and sharp. It's also very easy to glue as the resin really grabs the superglue. Not sure I could break the superglue joint where the sword is glued on if I tried...

So, that's the Wood Elf. I'd say it's pretty much a success and exactly what I hoped for. Now, onto my other purchase.

The Varghulf was something of a worry. I'd heard rumbling and seen pics of quite a number of miscasts and the Varghulf was a boxed set so I couldn't see the sprues ahead of purchase. Upon opening the box things looked okay. Possibly not quite the level of casting quality of the Wood Elf but nothing to really worry about. One of the outer sprues was massively warped but the wing component on it was perfectly okay. I spent about half an hour cleaning the figure up and gluing it together. Like the Wood Elf this was me being pretty meticulous and I think I could have got it in good shape and assembled inside ten minutes. And here are the pics...





As you can see, it's in pretty good shape. I'm certainly pleased with it. No major areas of miscast and the parts fitted well. Absolutely no need for pinning on this one. Little bit mucky around one of his back feet but nothing a few swipes of my modelling knife didn't fix. Noticed a couple of rough areas on the pics where I could clean up a little more but that's pretty much how it is with most minis. Happy with my Varghulf? Yep, very much so.

So, a good experience all in. Now, to wider thoughts. At the basic level I'm happy with these minis and I think the switch is a great plan, the material chosen is excellent and practical and I'm hoping it'll be a bright future with Finecast. Unfortunately, as yet, it's not all wine and roses (not sure why I say that. I don't drink wine and I'm not especially into flowers).

From looking around at many blisters yesterday, the quality of casting I saw varied pretty dramatically. I was lucky that the two figures I wanted were both in good shape though I saw a few that weren't. I'm quite glad I didn't want an Avatar as the one on the shelf were not looking good at all and had all the hallmarks of being cast in a mould way past it's useful service life. The resin had apparently been eating at the surface of the mould rubber (resin tends to do this) and there was rubber mould material buried in the casting. Not a good thing.

On the other hand I saw some figures looking utterly remarkable. The Commissar Yarrick's were lovely. Probably the best example was a Black Orc Warboss (the normal one, not Grimgor) who was next to absolute perfection. It's a figure that I'd never really liked at all but I was almost tempted to buy as he looked so lovely in his clamshell. Definitely a figure that made me sit upand take notice.

I saw an unboxed Azhag the Slaughterer on his Wyvern. Not so perfect as the Black Orc but I remember thinking that this was a huge and complicated model and I remarked that if I'd bought it that I'd have been very pleased with the casting quality.

All-in, the majority of the figures were 'good'. Not remarkable and utterly wonderful but of a quality that would clean up to the required level with a little time and a modelling knife. Considering the boasts of this material I'd like to see a slightly higher average quality but the best casting were certainly everything I could have wanted from the new material.

Something really needs to be done with the worse ones. It's okay to say that they will be replaced but there are blatantly a noticeable number of castings getting out there that really shouldn't have made their way into public hands. I don't know the situation but my opinion (and we all know what opinions are worth) is that the casters are working too quickly and the moulds are being run past the point where they should be replaced. This needs to be dealt with. It's good that GW are quick to replace the bad ones but it's surely a better plan to make sure that they don't need to (yes, there will always be bad casts that need replacing but this needs to be minimised). And should you get a bad casting that is beyond your ability to fix up then absolutely it should be replaced with a better one.

Looking from the outside in I generally feel that this grand plan of pulling metal from stores and releasing over a hundred new products worldwide on one day was massively over-ambitious. As far as I can see, yesterday was the largest product release by GW of all time and by quite a margin. I was doing some conservative sums on how many blisters and boxes have been cast over the past few months for this release and, no matter how you estimate, it's a staggering amount of casting. Perhaps unsurprising that there are issues with some of the product. But then my natural mindset on something like this isn't to push so much out at once but to phase things in. Perhaps pilot Finecast with new releases for a few months, coupled with a few popular kits from past armies to allow people to get the new stuff and for the company to build slowly, hopefully avoiding any major problems. I quite understand the lure of getting metal out of the stores all at once but it might not have been the practical solution. All in, I have to feel that producing less product with less miscasts is the way to go. Better to produce a thousand minis that are all good than to produce eleven hundred where a hundred of them are problems that need to be replaced. Otherwise it's more work for the same result (and yes I'm perfectly aware that's a gross oversimplification, but the point holds).

In summing up I have to ask myself the big question. Is Finecast the future and a good thing? You know what, I'm siding with a hopeful yes. In theory this new material is precisely what I'm looking for in my figures and I think is practical for the wider market (be careful of looking back at the metals with rose tinted glasses. I haven't been happy with GW's metal output in some time). So, it's over to GW. You've dropped something utterly huge into the middle of the hobby and, for better or worse, it's shockwave is being felt far and wide. What happens next is in their hands.

And, cutting through all this, back to basics... I have a lovely Wood Elf and Varghulf upstairs on my painting desk. That's a positive and I'd very much like to end this review on a positive as that's what I'm feeling. Is the future bright? I certainly hope so.

Spyglass Miniatures...

I hadn't really planned this blog to be a shameless promotional engine for my work, more a place for me to mutter incoherently about whatever minis stuff I like but occasionally these things cross over so I hope you'll forgive me announcing that I've set up a new website for Spyglass Miniatures. Initially the main idea was to have a place to sell my new 28mm Monk and the other bits I'm currently working on and I really think Eolith, the other brand name I've used, is more associated with 54mm.

But, I can hopefully saunter over to a relevant side of things as I've painted my new monk and he was an interesting process that harks back to previous blog posts. Yay for vague relevance. It's my excuse and I'm sticking to it...

Here he is by the way.



Painting him was a curious process. I had one resin casting of him so I kind of had to get him right not having any useful stuff about the house for stripping resin. He was to be painted with my recent wash techniques and I tried a slightly different approach as I'm still developing the best way to make the technique work. Went with white undercoat this time and I ended up with a rather grainier basecoat that didn't take the wash so well. Wasn't awful but lacked the quality I'd been pushing for. So I ended up repainting a few bits. In the end I was never going to get the result I wanted inside the normal way I work with the basecoat double wash technique so I had to improvise...

And here we get to a new painting tip.

I decided to re-highlight the figure. This is the normal way of working with these washes but I find it's a tough one to pull off as it can look harsh and I love the subtle effect of the washes. Still, the fig needed it. So, I tried something new. I ixed a highlight colour basically the same as the original basecoat and then I added wash to the paint to achieve several things. Firstly the wash tints the paint below it so the highlight colour is a tough one to judge. Mixing the wash and the paint makes it much easier to amtch and get a a matching tone. You need quite a lot of wash in the paint as the pigmentation is so low. But this has a side advantage. The washes have enough body that they don't ridiculously thin the paint and they also add to the transparency nicely so it makes for a great paint on highlight without chalkiness or stepping. This made life rather nice to be honest.

The Monk ended up taking the best part of two hours though a lot of that was wasted motion. He's probably an hour or so paintjob if I'd planned this from the start. Came out quite nicely anyway...

And rounding back to my announcement, you can find my new online store at...

Spyglass Miniatures

Undercuts and what the hell they are...

Been planning to do this one since the beginning but it required me to prepare some simple images so I got distracted by other shiny topics. Today I want to talk about that big miniatures buzzword: undercuts. This is apparently a rather mysterious phenomena that is not entirely understood. Generally people seem to be vaguely aware that metal and resin minis can typically have undercuts but plastic ones can't. This is broadly true due to the processes in which they are cast. The more accurate truth is that it's not the casting material but the material that the mould is made from that makes the difference. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is a big topic so lets keep to the basics. What the hell is an undercut. To explain this simply I need to take you through a vastly simplified explanation of moulding a component.



This rather unremarkable shape is our component. It's designed as a zero undercut component though this doesn't need to be clarified yet. The above image is actually a cross section of the component.



Now we see the component in a one part mould (shown in grey). Not a complicated thing to mould at all.



And here we see the component taken out of the mould. It can be slipped out easily and a casting could do the same.

Now then, we move onto the meat and potatoes of this explanation.



Here we have a new component cross section. Similar to the first except for the indents on either side of the lowest section. These indents into the sides of the component are called undercuts (yay).



And here, once again, we have the component in it's one piece mould. Many of you will know what's coming next...



Marked in red on this picture are the points where the mould material enters the undercuts. The bottommost section of the component is therefore locked into the mould and it can't be easily pulled out.

Now we get onto the difference between the mould materials.

Rubber - Metal and Resin miniatures are typically cast in rubber moulds which flex. In the above example you could free the component from the mould by flexing the rubber and pulling the component. Over time, depending on how deep the undercut is, this will put wear and tear on the mould so it's best to keep your undercuts on a sculpture quite shallow. But, all in you're okay. Your sculpture with undercuts can be cast okay.

Metal - Plastic Miniatures are typically cast into moulds made from steel and there's no way you can flex them at all. So, in the above example the component would literally be locked into the mould and the only way to remove it would damage the component . So, sculptures for plastic production can have no undercuts on them at all. Not even shallow ones. Not even a panel line.

So, that's the very dry and dull explanation of what undercuts are. It's the areas around the side of a miniature or component that go inward and would trap the mould. Limited undercuts are okay for metal or plastic miniatures but plastic figures can't have them.

And thus we come to how sculpting miniatures for plastic production is a whole other ballgame. It becomes a massive puzzle where you're trying to find a way to get all the detail you want on a figure without ever having a single undercut. The ways to do this are many and varied. Sometimes you go with multiparts to minimise the problem. Other times it's just about being bloody clever with how you design the component, perhaps designing it to lie in the mould at a strange angle or thinking your way around a visual design that hides the limitations.

I've been studying plastic miniature sprues for years. I have a bit of a mental disease where I'm constantly looking at plastic figures to understand just how they were achieved. It's incredibly clever stuff.

Well, I hope that made some sort of sense. It's a brutal subject to explain properly and I think I shall follow up with another post where I look at a few minis in different materials and point out exactly what I've been talking about in more practical examples.

And I deeply apologise if this suddenly felt like an extremely dull lecture at college...

It's madness I tells ya...

I was sculpting a face for part of yesterday and ended up spending around half an hour tweaking the eyes and eyelids of the model by the tiniest fractions of a millimetre. Hunched over my desk with my optivisor on. Alternating between a mounted pin and a blunted sculpel. Making teeny, tiny changes that no painter will ever actually notice.

I have come to a conclusion.

As mini sculptors I think we're all barking mad.

Tomorrow I'm going to be working on slightly changing the brow and the nose bridge on a different figure. Nobody is going to notice that either...

I'm really looking forward to my morning coffee. I'm glad the coffee emporium is in walking distance and open at half seven...

The other kind of Monk-ey business...

Obviously been wittering on about all manner of nonsense over the last few months. You'd be forgiven for forgetting that I sculpt stuff from time to time too. So, today I thought I'd share a recent sculpt. A while back I sculpted some zombies in a different style to the one I'm known for. More realistic, textured and gritty. After six of the living dead I thought I'd try something else in the same style and decided to sculpt a hammer-wielding Monk. He's been nearly finished for ages but needed a new head as the original was a bit big. But I finished him up over the Easter weekend and here he is...



Pretty pleased in general. He's 30mm tall (28 to the eyes). Should probably be out there somewhere beating the slime out of the unliving menace...