About a week ago I ordered some sprues of WA goblins, halflings, and giant spiders. I got so excited about miniatures between then and now that I've since bought several boxes that I can't wait to arrive - but today my sprues arrived.
I have experience working on plastic models, but I've never worked on miniatures before today. So I thought it'd be a good idea to track all of my progress in a single thread.
The first thing that surprised me is the smallness of the 28mm size. I knew how big these would actually be, I'd seen them next to hands and other things, but the "miniature"-ness of them doesn't hit you until you look at them on the sprue. This happened when I built my Nobell Gundam last week, too. The scale was smaller than I remember it being. Maybe something with my eyes.
But, not discouraged, I started my work. I tore into the halflings sprue, inspired by the Robin Hood-type head, and made an archer. I'm still getting a hang of the coordination that it takes to sort of dry-fit the limbs and such together to figure out how you want them. I think once I get some mounting putty that'll come much easier. More overwhelming was what felt like the infinite potential looking at that halfing sprue. Who could I make up with this? What angle should they be holding their accessories? What do I add on? I snipped off a quiver for my proud archer, and fussed over how to get the arms exactly right to make it look like he was drawing back an arrow. It took me trying two bow-holding arms and both arrow-nocking arms to get it right. And from that and a few dabs of Tamiya plastic cement came the fruits of my labor:
This is the very first miniature I ever made. It felt different from making a Gunpla. Fewer parts, much easier to construct, all things considered, but I felt really accomplished, like I had, in my own way, created a small little life, with its own personality and intent communicated by the limitations of the limbs given to them. While I was marvelling at my creation, my partner came out and checked on me. Here's my artist's rendition of what happened:
I continued on after this, to make another archer. With the other bow arm I had taken off of the sprue, it was much harder to make it look like it was nocked, so I decided to make the bow look a little more relaxed, and the arrow hand like the arrow was just being drawn. Then I made a mistake...in trying to adjust the arms I broke the little arrow off of the drawing arm.
I didn't let this discourage me, though. I just snipped off the rest of the arrow and the little bit of fletching visible in the hand, put a tiny dab of plastic cement to soften where I did the cuts, and it looked sort of like they were raising their arm to grab an arrow from their quiver. Perhaps the first archer was the experienced hand, and this one was younger, more cautious, still developing their eagle eye. In experiencing a crafting fear, I overcame it! Once again I felt accomplished. Couldn't really get a good photo of the second guy, but you'll see him in some photos later on.
Oh, and don't worry about the arrow. The little bits that were cut off went into my "future sprue goo" container:
I was very happy with the third halfling I made. I decided I wanted to make something more armored, with the bucket helm. I decided I wanted a halberdier, perhaps there to spot for the archers and help protect the crew in case they enter close combat with an enemy. They turned out really well! I was worried about setting up the other arm that it looked like it was properly holding the halberd, but it wasn't that hard. Here's some pictures of the crew, where you'll be able to see the second archer as well.
At this point I decided I needed to build someone with whom the halflings can square off, so I made a goblin. This time was an exercise in kitbashing: I really wanted to have a goblin with one of the halflings' really long pikes, just because I thought it'd be funny to have a little goblin guy with a huge weapon. This didn't work out as well as I thought it would. For one, all of the goblin arms are sleeveless, so I had to pick a body that looked like it could logically have a single sleeve (why only one? It's fantasy, I guess). Second, the halfling arms are actually shorter than the goblin arms by a significant margin. I was able to make it look somewhat passable by using the halfling arm wrapped around the spear tightly. But this could have gone better. I also inadvertently nipped a little bit of one of the goblin's ears, but I can fix that with a little dab of putty, or keep it that way as it builds character.
Here's the halflings and the goblin facing off!
I'm still waiting for materials to be able to start my paint jobs, so I'm going to spend that time making more minis. Most importantly, I want to make some spider riders. I'm going to need another sprue of goblins to make a second spider rider, though - I may just order a box, to be honest. They're really fun and expressive. I also like the halflings more than I thought I was going to. It'll be fun to do some experimentation, and maybe I'll grab a sprue here and there to do some experimentation. A thought: Since I converted halfling bits into a goblin, maybe I could get some Frostgrave Goblin Wolf Riders and turn them into halflings mounted upon wolves, to face off against the spider riders?
I am absolutely smitten by this hobby. At this point I'm just making minis for minis' sake - eventually I will probably get into making some armies/groups/etc. But if anyone has any advice or anything, please feel free to drop it here. I will keep this topic updated as I keep building. And I hope that all of your builds are fulfilling, too!
