Statuary Gardens (Figurines)

[IncoherentEssay]

And we are back, just one hour short of thread necromancy threshold .

So, first things first, Motoori Kosuzu:

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Slightly off model, omitting the text on the apron and the ribbons on the pockets. Other changes are only one side of frills on the apron's shoulder straps, simpler shoelaces and shorter sleeves*. Other oddities are most likely mistakes .

Imaizumi Kagerou:

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O:"Satori-sama, Satori-sama! Can i burn the surface world to ashes?"
S:"No. Absolutely not."

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O:"Actually, no it's not okay." Cue Subterranean Animism.

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A gremlin. Gremlins are goblinoids (orcs, hobgoblins, goblins, etc.) that have been 'promoted' into fey by more powerful fey, generally because they (intentionally or not) impressed one with their skills or because the noble needed a disposable pawn.
Goblins generally do their utmost to avoid such promotions. Being plucked out of your comfy small pond and tossed into a shark tank is generally undesirable, no matter the perks.

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And finally some work-in-progress things:

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*i went by the reference sheets on the linked page, which made the longer sleeves look like some odd add-ons, so i left them out. Later as i was looking for painting references i discovered that they were just extra large sleeves. Derp.

[Domochevsky]

Hm, yeah... this stuff is good, but faces are a notable weakpoint in your modeling, still. You need to focus more on those.

[IncoherentEssay]

Yep. Unfortunately this set also suffers from it. I tried to make something similar to the Eirin-Law figurine's face but it didn't work out. So i think i'll offer modelling wax character portraits to force myself to practice*. Those "I'll draw your character" threads always balloon out of hand, so there should be some demand even if not all that much .
However it'll have to wait a bit, as i'm currently working on Lycunadari's Challenge Prize (and would like to work on Zjoot's and Neorice's challenge prizes but have not heard back from them in a while).

And onwards to the figurines, Utsuho Reiuji:

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Omitted: markings and antennae on the control rod, decorative patterns on shirt collar. Altered sock length to allow for a more elaborate concrete boot. Besides the face, i think this went rather well though it does have balance issues due to the mass of the cape & wings.
I originally intended for the pose to be leaning back more to differentiate from the pose of the Aya figurine a while back, but the weight of the wings made it unfeasible.

Wakasagihime:

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(Besides the face) the arms & hands are the weak point here. I was going for this but they ended up floaty and unconnected. I think i should have made them separately and glued them on after painting, since the apron-y shoulderstraps would hide the seam prefectly.
The main body and the base went rather well.

Toyosatomimi no Miko:

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Besides the face (why drop a combo ?) the pose is a bit stiff and the neck somewhat too long. The jewelry and shoes were a bit of a pain to make but worth it. The sword was kept separate until the painting was done (the symbols would have been a pain otherwise).
It wasn't quite as difficult as i expected it to be, just complex (if that makes sense, basically a lot of fiddly detail but none are individually hairpullingly hard).

Kogasa Tatara, done mimicking the style of Mizuki Hitoshi**:

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It is at least somewhat similar, though it would be more accurate with taller eyes, lighter colours and ears that didn't get buried in the hair .

There are some things that cannot be pun-Nyad. This is not one of them:

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I made this on a whim after liking how the sculpt for the Kogasa turned out. This one was painted first, otherwise i might have used the same style of eyes for this.

Sekibanki:

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Continuing from Kagerou of previous set. I did have the start of a Wakasagihime bust, but it was basically rubbish so i'll make a new one from scratch at some point.

*I have a vague recollection of either doing so once already or merely saying i would do so. Or maybe i've just considered and dismissed the idea a few times too many and made a mess of my memory. One of those .
**Safebooru link because pixiv (the primary source) is basically un-navigatable for users without accounts (at least as far as i know). Danbooru would have translations but is unlinkable due to other, NSFW, content on the site (i didn't even notice when they dropped the ads, when did that happen ?.

Edit: some WiP extra content:

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[IncoherentEssay]

[Deerclops Roar]*

* "Top of the morning to you, old bean. Say, that is quite the quaint collection of outdoorsy knick-knacks you've assembled over there. It would by truly regrettable if some manner of misfortune were to befall them."

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Sometimes inspiration hits. Occasionally it crits, and then you have to reschedule things a bit to accomodate it's demands .

Also an Izzet mage that was originally part of the last update but i didn't quite finish painting it on time:

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And a bit of WiP scenery, which might lead into a travel montage set:


The main hiccup with these is the small scale. Adding characters at this scale will be a bit of a pain. Any future works in this direction will be a bit larger.

[IncoherentEssay]

This batch started out as generic face practice and were 'assigned' & crafted identities once i had something resembling results.

Generic elf:

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Made mostly to test out hair tech i came up with for modelling wax. Worked out fine, so i have some further test for longer hair underway.

I saw a hat like this and wanted to try making one:

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Didn't turn out quite as intented and sits a bit high on the head.

Some touhou, aiming for something similar to the Kogasa i made previously.
Inubashiri Momiji:

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I quite like how the hair turned out, but the eyes are a bit sunken.

Suwako Moriya:

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This one turned out the best of these three. No major issues that i can think of (which is not to say that it can't have any, i have been known to miss the obvious ).

Wakasagihime:

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Eyes feel a bit off, possibly the painting.

Humanized Voice of Resurgence:

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The colours are perhaps a bit too greenish and not enough yellow in shade (i was aiming somewhere inbetween the two) but i think this one turned out the best of the bunch overall.

[Glass Mouse]

The curls and frills of the Blue-haired one are looking really great. Very natural and dynamic - good job with those!

[IncoherentEssay]

Thanks . Bit of a pity that it happened after i made the full figurine of the character, but the unsatisfactory hair on the full one did play a part in trying out a new technique.
The other thing that influenced it was testing wider sheet-like strands for hair after they worked well in modelling wax sketches for Lycunadari's Challenge prize.
Their primary use would be in making long hair without wire or durability issues:

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Though these look a bit artificial and lifeless, mostly due the unnatural wedge shape the hair tends to get into when built this way (from the sides of the head to meet in the back). I'll have to test a reverse order.
In any case, it's vastly easier to paint as is due to not relying on the body for support and might allow me to keep the head separate from the body for painting, making it even easier ( not to mention more thorough, there's always that one spot at the back of head that is impossible to reach in the older form yet it can still show from some angles).



I also made a couple of other heads in the same general template (including a very plain one for reference purposes):

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And fixed the old Ms. Fortune figurine with a new head (one of the few cases where it's even fluff-appropriate ):

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I also repainted it, so that the new head doesn't stand out like a sore thumb (i only have one pre-mixed skin shade and mixing is never an exact science, so if i paint some of the skin on a charcter i need to at least drybrush the rest of it to keep it reasonably even).

The above are actually a bit over a week old, i held the update back a bit so that i could focus on prizecrafting without worrying about assembling an update at the same time. I'm fairly certain that i'll have one of the prizes ready to show off before the thread's expiration date rolls around, so they no longer need to be held back 'just-in-case'.


Finally, a WiP of the larger scale "next step" in the travel montage scenery project:

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It picked some discoloration from the surface it was drying on. Fun fact: there is no wire in this, it's all Fimo. That is why the interior looks like an alien hive, all those support structures are necessary to prevent the rest of it from warping when newer parts are drying (air-drying clay tends shrink a bit in the process, especially if spread over an area).
The concept is a mountain pass watchtower, so the current supports aren't even the final level (but close). The challenge is in making full use of all the surface left by the change in elevation throughout the piece.
We'll see how it goes.

One final note: something like this is a bit over the limit for what i would be willing to make for a 18 week Challenge prize . Something more in line with the previous montage-scenery pieces would be fine though.

[IncoherentEssay]

First up, Lycunadari's 18 week Challenge Prize:

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Hir character Lucyn D'Aria, an androgynous/genderless elf (similar to Vaarsuvius/Inkyrius). Reference images used: [1] [2].
On the technical side, the figurine & base (which i've posted unpainted previously) were built & painted separately (with the mushrooms picked for painting and then glued back), then glued & varnished as a single piece.
The grass spilling over the base edge and the rocks is used to 'mark' the ground as grass without making each individual blade, as that would be horribly fragile.

Other things:

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and some WiP of the travel montage project:

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and of another thing:

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Finally, an update on this:

So i think i'll offer modelling wax character portraits to force myself to practice*. Those "I'll draw your character" threads always balloon out of hand, so there should be some demand even if not all that much.

I have a bunch of unused polearms and similar doodles from the time that i didn't have modelling wax available. Originally i thought that i'd eventually use them as part of other figurines but it's kind of obvious at this point that i won't find use for them as they are. So i'm repurposing/recycling them for busts, and since that adds up to 30 or so i'm upgrading this "I'll sculpt your character" to the full clay & paint deal. The 30 'slots' will be split between GitP & Touhou.fi based on demand, so while it may take a while before i have the time (between Challenge Prizes & other obligations) to make all of them, now is the time to start calling dibs .

Edit: and taking a moment to clarify a few things, since this'll be what i link to for info on this:
-i keep the finished figurine, sending them to people scattered all over the world at my own expense is just not going to happen, sorry.
-if demand exceeds supply, there'll either be a /person limit and/or some requests will be completed in modelling wax. We'll see once/if it happens .

[Domochevsky]

Mhm, liking the elf scene. Quite nice composition and colors. (but the face seems oddly "rough" material-wise, as opposed to the rest of him/her.)

(Calling dibs, you say... well, that should be easy in my case. How do you feel about modeling a GenCrawl adventuring party? )

[IncoherentEssay]

Mhm, liking the elf scene. Quite nice composition and colors. (but the face seems oddly "rough" material-wise, as opposed to the rest of him/her.)

A bit rough, yes. It *is* the second one i've made(/first i've completed*) in this general size&style category, so if that is the one notable flaw i'd say it went fairly well then . I can't take credit for the choice of colours though, that was Lycunadari's.

(Calling dibs, you say... well, that should be easy in my case. How do you feel about modeling a GenCrawl adventuring party? )

Sure. Here's a modelling wax 'stylecheck' draft:

Accurate/recognisable or in need of adjustments?

Now, since the materials i am repurposing for this project are already prepared to a degree** your options consist of busts armed and/or bodied to varying degrees. Generic examples ensue:

([A] -> [D]) [A] obviously portrays more of the character but [D] does allow for a larger scale and thus more detail (the total height is already set from the preparation).
I'm guessing A for all, with the gun & hammer included? You wouldn't happen to have links to nice & clear reference pictures by any chance ?

*the unpainted bard with the top hat & keytar-lute-thingy i posted previously is stuck in limbo until i hear back from Zjoot.
**it's like my desk is covered in clay lollipops:

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[Domochevsky]

Hm... I see this will pose little challenge to you.
(Style seems as accurate as I can think of making it. Not much glow or backlighting to be done with RL figures.)

As for reference images... well "nice & clear" might be stretching it. Lemme search. >_>

[Lycunadari]

Now that it arrived here, I just wanted to pop in and say that the figurine looks even better than in the pictures! It is really awesome!

[IncoherentEssay]

Always nice to know my work is appreciated. Thanks .

So, the end-of-year burst-of-productivity did not go as planned, but i still have some new stuff to show:

Nya-kuren:

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Sakuya:

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Tenshi:

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Patchouli:

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GrammarNazrin:

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[IncoherentEssay]

I have a fairly sizeable update in the works, but with the Necrothreshold looming and some of the key pieces still in the process of being painted i've decided to post some of the stuff that is ready.

Phyrexian Mountains Maptile:

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This is probably the oldest piece if we go by when i started making it, it was originally going to be a fairly ordinary pine-forested mountain tile. I'm a fan of MtG land art (and fantasy landscapes in general) but my medium isn't exactly ideal for such works. Still, i'd say it turned out pretty good and may become a series thing, especially if there's a game that could make use of hexmap tiles. Nothing like practical applications to motivate & give direction.

Simic talisman:

The initial design involved runed tiles and/or elaborate wave patterns at the edge. But sometimes less is more as the stone-rimmed pond feels more natural, runes would've made it too busy. It's gloss varnished, which makes it a bit hard to get a good picture of it, but really makes the painting 'pop' irl. Works wonders with the gradient.

Spoilers for the upcoming stuff:

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Features stuff from three separate pieces. I have one more for the update that doesn't have previewable parts (single-piece figurine with a plain base).
I'll spoil this much: no more mtg-related pieces (this time ).

Lastly, GenGame busts are underway but won't make it for this update.

[Domochevsky]

Fancy that. The pistol in the sneak peek looks like the Enforcer from... Unreal? Branching out into other tournaments?

[IncoherentEssay]

Afraid not, it's a Tediore handgun. Goes with the class mod on this:
"PROBLEM, HYPERION?!?"

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Alternative title "All the Grenades!" And pre-assembly:

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First serious multipart figurine (dabbling in capecoats doesn't really count :P). Worked out mostly fine: the pose is a bit stiff, back is not quite hunched enough
and i had to redesing the harness a bit to get good seamless sockets for the arms. Grenades are also somewhat low-quality (unsymmetrical) though it's not that visible.

As for the bowls in the spoiler? Well, i did present the character-request-recycle program to touhou.fi and Sukuna Shinmyomaru was requested, so here:

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And here's what's up with the second, smaller bowl:

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Based on this. A nice little technical challenge, making the 3D manouver gear happen.
It also served as a multipart test: the head & neck were made and painted separately from the rest. You can see a black seam where they are connected to the rest.
Far more natural-looking than the previous head-neck seams.

And finally, a dwarf monk:

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I made this before i started on Krieg & Sukuna. It served as practice for musculature/feet, respectively. Somewhat inspired by Gouken.

And that's it for now.

[Prime32]

You've moved on to 1:1 scale, eh?

[IncoherentEssay]

When feasible, yes. Unfortunately the weather decided not to cooperate this winter so the 1:1 Cirno & Letty have to wait .


Pendantry:

The 'eye of the sun' is the first one that set this set in motion, but i think the green turned out best.

Genadin:

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The coloring is tough to 'translate' for a figurine. It's painted mostly black with a some silver for the armor & hammerhead, yellow for the hair (drybrushed afterwards with a lighter shade), brown for the gloves and grey for the face mixed in to differentiate between them.
Didn't work that well, hair looks greenish and the rest don't really stand out from one another. Going to try something different with the rest (once they are ready to paint).

And some modelling wax works to flesh out the update.
cyclops:

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elf:

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The 'you don't say'-esque expression is accidental.

Suit yourself:

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Stone troll:


Hobgobwin:

[IncoherentEssay]

Challenge rating: just a suggestion.


Unfortunately i have no finished clay figurines and the weather is terrible for modelling wax so this'll have to be "Work-in-progress - The Update":

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