MamaGeek

They are very cute, nicely painted!

Oh, very nice work there, Trodax and dargrin. I love both of yours!

Well, this one was not a difficult conversion. It really was rather simple, but I think that is the beauty of it. Just by sculpting a beard, I turned Reapers Brother Louis into Saint Patrick: A more complicated conversion involved a whole bunch of figures for a diorama: Final diorama:

It's a crossbow that she's holding behind her back.

Oh, man, that is so hard. I probably have about a dozen that I'd consider competition quality. Hmmm, let's see. My favorites... I think these are two that I wouldn't want to change at all. I really like them just as they are. All the rest, even ones that have won more awards than these, I can see things about that I would do better if I had the time and skill. But not these two. This one I still have in my personal collection. This one I gave to my Dad as a gift.

I have to confess I am totally baffled as to how this ended up back at the top of Show Off. I posted her back in April of 2013. Well, maybe Reaper newcomers can glean some inspiration from my humble efforts. And thanks again for all the (new) compliments.

I'm so glad you like it!

Awesome!

Hmmm...I just mess around with the colors until they look right. With this piece, when you saw something you didn't like, why did you stop? Keep layering on colors until it looks good again. You don't know how many bad layers are underneath anything finished, especially in my gallery!

Thank you, all, and God Bless!

All done! I finally dragged myself away from Minecraft long enough to finish up. Finished Visitation thread in Show-Off.

This one is not a Reaper piece, but one of Reaper's excellent sculptors is responsible for these miniatures, the very talented Andy Pieper. These are the original greens, at the 54mm scale (chicken included). I made the wall out of Milliput and the plant leaves out of paper and wire. The scaled-down images dull the color something fierce, so please view full-size. Work in Progress Painting thread is here. Andy's Sculpting WIP thread is here. Thank you to Derek Schubert for his help with Elizabeth's face, and for meeting with me for an hour in person to talk minis this past September. Thank you to Andy Pieper for a beautiful sculpt. Thank you to Our Lady for the inspiration for this project, my Mother, on whom our Lord has indeed looked with great favor. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever. (Lk 1:46-55)

Awesome! I love the Don't Touch my Tools sign. It's perfect!

Don't feel bad. I haven't picked up a paintbrush in weeks, and my only excuse is that I've been playing Minecraft too much. :-) I hope you feel better, Andy!

That is so awesome! Is it just me, or dies that trisected fish look like he's smiling?

Looking good! And just about any DSLR will do the trick. You just have to take the time to learn how to use it.

Here are the better photos. The face still needs work. I'm using my daughter as a model for the facial expression. I could use myself for Elizabeth, since I'm pushing middle age, and the lines are starting to show , but for the 14-year-old Mary, I needed a younger model. It's not right yet, and of course the blends are still rough, but it's getting closer. Please click to view full-size.

Well, the apron is textured in the sculpt, but I found that a thin dark wash into the grooves just made it look dirty, so I freehanded the brightest highlight on with a #000 brush in a crosshatch pattern. I just took some better photos, but my son is using my computer for Minecraft, so you will all have to wait until later to see them.

A couple quick shots of Mary taken with the iPad: I'll try to get better photos with my DSLR later. I am struggling again with her facial expression.

Very, very cool. And you should name the crocodile Lyle, even if you're the only one who knows it. The mammals are all very expressive, which is a great achievement, though the cats look more curious than "stalking" to me.

I finally got Mary back from the model shop. She has been molded and cast. I don't have the cast copies yet, but I got the original Mary back today. She got a little scratched up in the process. It's nothing serious that a little wet Milliput can't fix, but it convinced me not to mold and cast Elizabeth, since she's already painted and I don't want that kind of damage to a finished mini.

I started painting the base. Derek suggested a sort of OSL effect behind Elizabeth's head on the wall, both to draw attention to the figure, and to simulate a Saintly halo.

Very beautiful work, one of your best, I think. Can we get a closeup shot of the face?

I like those creepy eyes!

Can you make a video showing how you build this stuff?