March Miniature Challenge

[Rocketpropelledgames]

Not sure what character vermina might resemble, but remember to qualify for the theme, each miniature must me modeled to look like a existing chatacter. A reference photo must also be shown of the character that your miniature represents, and it should be obvious that the mini is of that character.

[cmorse]

As I said I have nothing to paint that would qualify for the theme. I just figured I'd do the closest I have to the feel of the theme, no expectation of getting theme points.

[Rocketpropelledgames]

That's fine , just wanted to make sure, just don't want anyone to be upset. Most miniatures will need heavy modification with parts from other miniatures and green stuff to look like the characters. Fudging a little here and there is ok but final piece should be a splitting image of the character at hand.

[Argentee]

Heh. I'm not trying for spitting image. With Harvest Moon characters it's just not going to be possible unless I sculpt from scratch. I'm going to shoot for being the same character but with human proportions instead of eyes that take up 1/3 of the face.

[Baugi]

Okay - Cashwiley, Fanguad, Cmorse, and anyone else that hasn't posted yet but is feeling as though this contest is a little too restrictive for them - We need to talk. I understand that a lack of familiarity with the characters might make something like this a little bit daunting, but this is actually FAR EASIER a task than (for example) the Superhero contest.

 

Think about the original representation of many of the characters that we're talking about. Many of them would have been originally presented as 8bit, 16bit, or 32bit sprites. There's NOT a lot of room for detail in a Final Fantasy VI sprite, or a Shining Force 2 sprite, or similar. This actually creates an incredible amount of opportunity to interpret these characters as we imagine they might look in more realistic resolution.

 

Let me provide a few examples. Check out some of the sprites for Chrono Trigger (a favourite). http://spriters-resource.com/snes/chronotrigger/index.html

 

Let's look at what is ACTUALLY represented by these sprites.

 

Magus: Pale, long hair, cape, pointy ears. Do an alternate paint job on a caped dark elf, and you're set.

Ayla: Cave-girl with fur bikini. Reaper alone has 3 or 4 minis that would suit this.

Lucca: Female engineer wearing glasses or goggles

 

Or let's have a look at Final Fantasy VI: http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasy6/Party/

 

These ones are EASY!

Cyan: Dark-armored knight with no helmet (not pictured - usually uses a 2h sword). There are a HOJILLION minis that would suit this!

Terra: Teal hair, red and purple armor, has the ability to transform and turns white

Locke: Pretty standard thief in blues and blacks

Shadow: Pretty standard ninja. He's got a Rottweiler, just in case that's something you'd want to include.

 

Final Fantasy IV makes it even easier!! http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasy4/Party/

Tellah: Standard white-hair, white-beard, purple robed wizard

FuSoYa: Standard wizard, bigger beard.

Dark Knight Cecil: Dark armor, horned helmet.

Paladin Cecil: Scroll down from dark knight. Little trickier.

Yang: Basically LTPK Monk, just with different weapons.

Rosa: Standard female caster in light-coloured robes

Rydia (as an adult - scroll down on her page): Standard female caster, green robes, green hair.

 

 

The point I'm making here is that it's totally understandable if you don't want to participate because you don't like the idea of the contest. However, if your reason for not wanting to participate is that you don't have/can't find a mini that will work, that REALLY shouldn't be a problem! These games pre-date the sort of graphics that would make this legitimately restrictive! Got an armored knight? Helmeted knight? Female wizard? Choose the right colours, and you can totally make this work! Have a look at some of the databases I've posted, and maybe look for a wikipedia article to "get to know" the character that interests you.

 

I hope this has been helpful!

Edited March 4, 2013 by Baugi

[pocketcthulhu]

Very well said. I'm going to be halfway between the mockup art and the original character for my Kain mini.

I had almost entirely forgot he had a cape type thing im trying to figure out if I want to incorporate that or not into my mini.

[fanguad]

Okay - Cashwiley, Fanguad, Cmorse, and anyone else that hasn't posted yet but is feeling as though this contest is a little too restrictive for them.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I think you misinterpreted my comment. I said the contest's theme is limiting - but that's the whole point. I've heard it said that limitations inspire more creativity than complete freedom. At the same time, not everyone is familiar with RPGs (or superheroes, or whatever the next theme is). Just because you can pick some random character you've never heard of before doesn't necessarily make it a desirable option when the contest also allows open entries.

 

I'm saving up cash for ReaperCon, so I'm not interested in buying new minis that resemble characters I like. I'm also not interested in painting a miniature I already own I could turn into some character I have no emotional connection to. Maybe I'll come up with a good match, but we'll see. In the meantime, I'm glad that RPG also open entries so that more people can participate.

[Baugi]

That reminds me of something actually PC...

 

The other thing to be aware of, is that particularly in some of these squaresoft games, there isn't even a unified vision of the character WITHIN THE GAME! The guy I'm doing for example, looks totally different on the overworld map, in combat, and on the character status screen. His concept art has him with a hat, or goggles, or both. His beard is either red, or blue, or black, or white, depending on what you're looking at. He sometimes has a wrench, sometimes a hammer, and sometimes a magnifying glass.

 

 

So what's canon? What counts? I think that's probably up to the painter. Will my Cid have a beard? Yes, though apparently there are at least 3 acceptable colours! Will he have goggles? Yes. Will his main colours be blue and orange? Yes. Beyond that, though, I think there's room for interpretation, though any fan of the games should, in the end, be able to look at my mini and say "Hey! Cid!". Most of these characters are like this!

[Baugi]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I think you misinterpreted my comment.

It seems I may have done! Fair enough!

[pocketcthulhu]

That reminds me of something actually PC...

 

The other thing to be aware of, is that particularly in some of these squaresoft games, there isn't even a unified vision of the character WITHIN THE GAME! The guy I'm doing for example, looks totally different on the overworld map, in combat, and on the character status screen. His concept art has him with a hat, or goggles, or both. His beard is either red, or blue, or black, or white, depending on what you're looking at. He sometimes has a wrench, sometimes a hammer, and sometimes a magnifying glass.

 

 

So what's canon? What counts? I think that's probably up to the painter. Will my Cid have a beard? Yes, though apparently there are at least 3 acceptable colours! Will he have goggles? Yes. Will his main colours be blue and orange? Yes. Beyond that, though, I think there's room for interpretation, though any fan of the games should, in the end, be able to look at my mini and say "Hey! Cid!". Most of these characters are like this!

Cid is the worst of any ff character Imo, Soooo many different variations of him through the games. Imo Just pick the one that you like the best and do that.

[fanguad]

Soooo many different variations of him through the games. Imo Just pick the one that you like the best and do that.

 

With the possible exception of the first few, a character named Cid appears in all Final Fantasy games. Usually he's associated with technology or airships, but not always. So, anyone doing Cid would need to specify which Cid they were talking about. I personally favor the FF7 version.

[cmorse]

Yeah, it's not that I think a proper figure would be that hard to find its that I don't currently own any and don't want to buy any minis at the moment. Even after looking through those sprites and digging through the d&d game boxes again there were no particularly good matches. I do have a third option in that I have a friend with piles of ~2" prepainted JRPG minis but its hard to say if she'd ever part with even a single one to be maimed with repainting at my hands.

 

And I got started right after I decided anyway :)

 

 

The alterations and priming were done last month, no paint was applied until today.

[Rocketpropelledgames]

By splitting image I just meant that the likeness between the painted miniature and the chosen character should be obvious. There is always room for interpretation and creative adjustment, all that we ask is that you do your best and most importantly have fun.

[TGP]

An idea for anyone else (I'll stick with Dirk) but start with:

 

 

+

Hat number four, top row:

 

+

 

Plus a sword swapped in to replace that wrench

 

=

 

Some character** called Steiner:

 

 

**Sorry, I have no XP with Final Fantasy.

 

[Amalor Myrnnyx]

Ok, This one, I'm actually going to be able to do. In fact, I'm going to work on my entry this week, after I finish my Exchange piece.

I'm going to paint Freyja, the Blue Valkyrie from Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.

What mini am I going to base her on? The original Reaper Gauntlet mini. Why mod when there's an original to work with?

Edited March 5, 2013 by Amalor Myrnnyx