Boots boots boots

The indieGoGo campaign has ended. It did not raise enough funds so there's no money. It did raise 681$ which is a lot. I am very pleased and encouraged. I know when I come forward with something awesome there are people who will get behind it. I've learned a lot and I'm looking forward to implementing it.

Moving forward with our planetFallers.
More boot action. One guy has two of them and the other two have one each.

 

Starting on the right boot.

recap: I'm working on a force of 1:56 planetFallers, a sci-fi drop troop. I'm trying to make 3 at a time in assembly line fashion.

I've added basic anatomy to all the figures. Now I'm starting with the boots. I really want to take the work to "the next level" so I'm taking extra long to do the top layer. I've completed one right boot and I'll continue with the next two guys, alternating to the left and so on.

I took some comparison photographs with the 1:52 planetFaller and a heroic 28mm figure which has been obscured. The difference seems exceptionally dramatic. It seems that my 1:52 planetFaller is a little extra large. Though I work closely with a proportional print out at scale there is a fair amount of eyeballing and size variation that occurs. By my calculations he would be, with his boots and helmet on 1.97 meters tall or about ~1.85 to ~1.95. A bit tall but not a giant. Take note that the incomplete figure will "grow" some with the head and helmet sculpted on.

1:56 is the new black

Howdy folks,
I would have updated earlier but my internet was temporarily down. I had to read an old book by candle light and eat canned foods until it was restored.

After some measuring and comparing I determined that my new scale is 1:56. Seemingly tiny space men range between 1:54 and 1:60 for the purpose of the famous 28mm or heroic 28mm or ~32mm scale. At 1:56 my guys are sure to fit in with the cool kids. Though there doesn't seem to be such a big jump between the scale factors they do add up and the difference is significant.

In the photos you can see I started on 3 new guys. They are all planetFallers in 1:56 scale. I sprinkled in some sketches.

I'm also looking to find out what the heavy infantry look like. I'm trying out several hard suit designs. It's a little difficult to find a good balance between function and appearance. What are your thoughts on the matter? Should support weapons be carried by robots perhaps, combat drones? Hmmm... maybe anthropoidic robots.

That's it for now.

Making a difficult call

planetFaller complete

There he is, standing in a slotted base.

Looks pretty cool.

Our indieGoGo campaign is almost at an amazing 700$ !!! With a week to go you never know what might happen. Keep in mind, though, that if the campaign doesn't reach 5,000$ all the contributions will be refunded.

Scale Shift

Now for the hard part. 1:52 is a great scale. The miniature has a lot of presence and the details are discernible at arms length without dialing in your focus. The problem is that along side popular 28mm size miniatures it looks too oversized. After taking some measurements with GW miniatures I've got lying around I determined that in order to fit in with other popular manufacturers miniatures the scale of my figures needs to be between 1:54 and 1:60. I'm going to do some tests with drawn or printed silhouettes to figure out what the exact scale should be.

This means I'm going to start over! That's the good part. It means I can re-consider the designs and do over parts that I wasn't pleased with before. For the planetFaller I'm considering a fully closed helmet and a slimmer weapon.

Looking ahead

The experience I've gained so far with the sculpture and the crowd funding campaign helped me formulate a sort of germ of a plan for the future. I want to make a  set of a squad of planetFallers, an exFor troop and scenery. It means there will be a considerable amount of work before I can come forward with anything but I believe it's vital for the "offering" to be well rounded, or complete before it can be marketed to the public. The setting I've come up with is a derelict outpost taken over by hostile exFor. Ideas for the setting, characters, exFor, title and everything else are as always very welcome.

I can't promise that it will get manufactured or that I will finish the project. Life can get in the way sometimes, you may know. But I've got a project to work on and a reasonable expectation of how it can be achieved so you can follow along and see what happens.

Familiar news:

Weasel wins by a land slide! More on him later.

The backpack can be placed up side down!

1:52 planetFaller is nearing completion.

Recap: almost completed this 1:52 (large 28mm/34mm) science fiction soldier. I'm working with Green Stuff. The trooper is a planetary orbital cavalry type who I've name planetFallers. I'm fixing to make an entire units worth of these guys. Hopefully this will be a line of miniatures that I will offer to the public.

If you want to help along, please take a look at my indieGoGo campaign aiming to found a new miniatures studio and consider contributing or spreading the message:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/igra-miniatures-studio-the-quickening

Anyhow, this last update I've added the right shoulder plate and lowered the carrying handle by something like half a millimeter. Now the area around it looks a little mushy, I'll shave and sand it flat (I hope). The assault handle broke off- if I decide I want to keep them I'll add reinforcement to the next one.

I also update the backpack and added a knife in a sheath.

Check out the weathering on the pad.

The backpack is now asymmetric 

Some nicer pics of my Flames of war guys that I recently finished. 2x PAK-40 + command and an American command team.

Mister Green Sleeves

Recap: sculpting a sci fi trooper in the scale of one to fifty two which can be considered a large 28mm but it's more like 30/34mm. The medium is Green Stuff or PSI's Kneadatite Yellow Blue. The trooper type is named "planetFaller" being a planetary orbital cavalry or a drop troop.

The left arm sleeve is added and the right hand shoulder pad. Some body work on the gun; needs improvement as the detail is not sharp enough.

As a respite I finished these Flames of War units: 2 PAK40's, A German field gun command and an American paratrooper command. I'll take better photos later.

planetFaller shaping up

I decided that magnetized weapon and hands is a cool idea but might complicate things without due cause. I'm not much into too many and complicated stats for weapons so I'll keep things simple for now.
I'll keep the left wrist un-attached and that way it'll be easier to break up for casting. I think it came out pretty good. I enjoy the proportions of it. .