Micro Art Studio Wolsung #33 Phoenix -- Leg Alterations

[Jordan Peacock]

Among several bouts of re-purposing old Mage Knight minis, re-basing generic critters with IKRPG-friendly bases, and general kit-bashing over my extended holiday weekend (yay!), I attempted to make use of a Micro Art Studio "Wolsung" mini (#33 -- Phoenix) as a Nyss hero.

 

I'm a fan of Micro Art Studio resin bases, but this is the first I've gotten from their miniatures line.  My feelings are mixed.  Assembly was surprisingly smooth for a multi-part figure: The parts consisted of the main body, a piece with the weapon and hands/fore-arms, and a ponytail.  

The ponytail segment, once I trimmed some flash, plugged into a socket onto the back of the figure's head and fit so well that it held by pressure alone even before I re-applied with glue.  The weapon/hand piece wasn't quite so perfect, requiring glue and a bit of careful fitting, but it was still such a solid connection that no pinning was required.  I rarely ever have such an easy time assembling a mini (I seem destined to get some glue on my fingers or an injury from the pinning drill), and if this is representative, I'm duly impressed by the engineering at Micro Art Studios.

Detail level is nice and to the point: no fancy-schmancy filigrees or elaborate bits to wow me with the sculpt alone, but there is enough going on with the steampunk mechanical arm and the scowling features for me to work with.

The problem was with the proportions: From certain angles, it's not so noticeable, but from others it's inescapable that the body has big buff manly proportions to the upper torso, but short halfling or dwarven proportions to the legs.  The two just don't go together well.  I'm hoping this isn't a common feature of Wolsung minis, and that it's just an unfortunate side-effect of the artist's attempt to make a super-dramatic "leaping with sword held high!" pose, with the sash suspending the figure.

My first plan was to try to trim off the legs at the knees, pin, use wire to extend both upper and lower leg sections, then putty to gap-fill, and make some clumsy attempts at sculpting baggy cloth folds to hide the seams.  The trouble is that this is a fairly hard and relatively brittle pewter mix, and one of the feet snapped off before I could make more than a little headway into the first leg.

 

In an attempt to salvage things, I took one of the unassembled torsos from a pack of Nyss hunters, and some Instant Mold to get an impression off the legs.  I then applied some putty and pressed the half-mold onto the lower portion of the Wolsung mini in hopes of extending the apparent length of the upper legs (stopping at the knees) -- and even adding a little more Nyss-specific armor detail while I'm at it.

It's by no means perfect, but so far, so good.  The real challenge is going to be to try to sculpt the lower portions of the legs -- which I'm going to try to do bent back underneath the upper legs.  I can salvage the FEET at least, but for this sort of detail work I'll have to break out the green stuff (as Apoxie Sculpt is just too "crumby" to work well with such fine detailing of such small and delicate features as figure limbs without some considerable structural support).

 

The style of the Nyss hunter outfit at least offers me a way out on some of this: All of the Nyss Hunter models have a back drape that pretty much covers the backs of the legs.  I could possibly add such a drape to the long sash/support already on the figure, and thus obscure whatever ugliness goes on in my attempt to transform the mangled legs.

More later as I tackle it some more.