I hate to do this...

I watched part of the Miniature Mentor video on photography by Felix Wedgwood and decided to change a few settings to see what happened. I used my painting light and the background is an ugly colour but I think the improvements are dramatic. If you feel inclined let me know if you think the quality of the photo is a significant improvement over the previous.

And finally - Ray...

That's it - no more picture taking of either of these two miniatures... Time to move on.

However feel free to vote for both on CMoN - Ray and Jess.

Hasslefree Jess

Decided that I'd better take some half decent photos of the two miniatures I just finished - half decent may actually be optimistic but I do what I can with what I have... I'm happy enough with my camera but I may need to buy a dedicated macro lens and some of the other paraphernalia one needs to photograph these little bastards satisfactorily.

I'm pretty happy with elements of both miniatures but having a good look at the large images before they were resized definitely showed up a few issues that I'll have to try to address. Anyhow - done and time to move on, next up - Volk the Bastard...

I did say two minitures but the photos of Ray turned out a bit rubbish so I'll have another go after work tomorrow...

Volk the Bastard

I purchased a resin master casting of Volk the Bastard from Hasslefree a few weeks back and I finally got around to having a proper look at it after finishing up with the last two miniatures. I don't have any problem with Hasslefrees' metal castings - they're usually as good as metal castings get but my preference is for working with resin so I was happy to pay the extra.

The not-Slaine sculpt is up to Kev's usual standard and the resin cast is pretty terrific with only a very slight mold-line on the separate arm, running down the middle of the bicep. You could very nearly dispense with cleaning the miniature before painting and get away with it.

I may run with a face painting tutorial using this miniature - not so much a "how to" as a "how I do"...

 

I also pre-ordered Pulp Girl and Phantom ace from Statuesque Miniature's Pulp Alley line. They arrived earlier this week and I was so impressed with them, they're relatively simple sculpts but beautifully designed and the metal casts are nearly flawless. I'm really looking forward to painting both of these in the (hopefully) not too distant future. 

Hasslefree Jess and Ray

I just thought I'd post a quick image of Jess and Ray based up. I definitely need to sort my photography setup but it's late and I can't be bothered figuring anything out right now. The photo isn't too bad but I'll endeavour to take some better shots this week.

I guess this has become a bit of a milestone for me - the first miniatures I've finished since mid 2012. Yay for me...