Aradia Medusa

 Adding to my collection of Medusa's this time is from Aradia Miniatures. This was part of the Dante Inferno collection.  The figure is approximately 75mm and comes in 8 or 9 parts of well done gray resin.

My love/hate relationship with Aradia miniatures strikes again with this kit. It's obvious (to me - maybe not) that these kits are 3D modeled on computer, printed and then cast.  Being that they are 3D designed, the tolerances are very tight. The Main problem comes as there are no instructions as to assembly order. You only have a drawn diagram on the box.  You start building and then 2/3s the way thru you find out that the assembled sub assemblies don't fit together.

My mistake came somewhere between gluing the soldier to his base and putting Medusa's wings on her body. The folding up wing wouldn't fit with the way the spear was sitting. I had to bend the soldiers sear ( a copper tube) and justified it with it got bent during the fight. Yeah that's it...

Evidently, I'm guessing that I needed to put her wings on, and then glued her tail which wrapped around his back, THEN glue the whole thing to the base, rather than one figure at a time.

With all the building done this once again called out to be to make some OSL in the form of some fire from below. I think it came out slightly better than my last try.  Thanks for looking. 

 

Celestial Messenger Finale

 Not having a firm idea of what I wanted to do on this one, there was a lot of back and forth. So this one I more gave up on than finished it. 

I'm still not happy with the way my OSL comes across. Oh well keep practicing. 

I don't know why camera is all over the place with the colors. The demon is more of a purple red ...

Thanks for looking.

Celestial Messenger

 This is another beauty of a 75mm kit from Aradia Miniatures. 

From the website.

Gave the figure a zenithal priming.

Started the base coating -

Added a little more detailing -

Check back for the finale. Thanks for looking.

Here Comes Santa

 I remember buying this kit last Fall, and then it promptly got lost in my stash pile. I found it again, and thought before I lose it once more, I'd just build it. 

The 54mm kit is from Aradia Miniatures, and is casted very well. 

First thing to do is clean the parts off the pour tabs, and then start painting. 

Taking a break from the painting I decided to put Santa in a snowy scene. I was going to do a roof scene, but I already did one of those with my Krampus miniature a year or two ago.  so I cut some pieces of foam, and went to work sanding it smooth.

 After the base was painted, I added the figure and I was done. But I did learn an important lesson. With these kits that are seemingly designed on a computer and then printed, the tolerances are extremely small. The kit gives no instructions, but it MUST be assembled in a certain order.  This time I should have added the reindeer's reins *before* I sat Santa in the seat. Once Santa was glued in place there was no way to slip the reins past his belly.  The second oops was I should have put the stick and presents on his should *before* I put his hat on. I thought I could slip the stick over the shoulder and under the hat - - no way.  

So, from now on I'm going to dry fit the entire kit together *before* I start gluing anything. 

I couldn't figure out what the droopy thing was hanging out of the bag. Turns out to be a sock with coal in it.  LOL

 

Paolo E Francesca: I Finally Met My Match

Work continued  to the final steps. The shroud swirls around the two figures, and each figure is attached to it at one point. But they they are attached to each other in 3 spots. 
My feeling is that because this is designed digitally,  tolerances are pretty tight and if things aren't superglued just right, parts won't fit. 
What I did was I glue her to her shroud, and then my plan was to glue him to her, and it was just a matter of gluing the two pieces of the shroud together and the part where he meets the shroud should just fall in place.  Arrrgghh it doesn't- 

I get my Aves out and fill the gap, blending both ends of the shroud together - 
 

Beautiful, but then I notice that I can look in, and see where his butt is supposed to meet the shroud, it's not even close! That won't do, so I gently try to persuade his butt to meet the shroud. SNAP - SNAP-SNAP.  All the connection between him and her broke. ARRRGGGHHH again! 

BP is going up and once again I was about to fling it against the wall.  So it's gets put in a box and I walk away. Maybe I'll revisit it again, maybe I won't...   

Aradia 1 - Me - 0
Check back when I'll be doing something else. 

Aradia's Paolo E Francesca

This is another mini from Aradia's Dante's Inferno Kickstarter. I just noticed on the packaging, that this was a Kickstarter exclusive. Hmm

In the Divine Comedy:

Dante and Virgil meet Francesca and her adulterous lover Paolo in the second circle of hell, reserved for the lustful. Here, the couple are trapped in an eternal whirlwind, doomed to be forever swept through the air just as they allowed themselves to be swept away by their passions. Dante calls out to the lovers, who are compelled to briefly pause before him, and he speaks with Francesca. She obliquely states a few of the details of her life and her death, and Dante, apparently familiar with her story, correctly identifies her by name. He asks her what led to her and Paolo's damnation, and Francesca's story strikes such a chord within Dante that he faints out of pity. 

It looks like this painting may have been the inspiration for the sculpt - 

The parts are very well done in a gray resin - 

Most of the kit appears to be their shroud. Paolo is a full piece sans horns (don't know why he has horns) Francesca is another piece. One of her arms is separate grasping a horn, the other, also separate,  is grabbing the hilt of a sword. Another piece is a very thin (re: too thin) sword. There is also a small rock base to balance the figures on the shroud.
There are no instructions so I mostly followed the illustration on the box. I started by priming the kit in a hull red. Then glued Francesca to her feet/shroud, and base coated her a flesh color. Paolo looks to be a purple in the pic, so that's the way I went - 

Then I started refining both figures before calling it a day. Thanks for looking.

The gap in his stomach is apparently where she fits in.

Probably the tiniest eyes I've ever done. They're green to go with the auburn hair. ;)

Aradia's Poseidon

This model has been sitting on my desk for a while now about 99% done. Lets have a look. The first thing that's noticed is the base that's on the website is quite a bit different than what you get. I don't know (and didn't think to ask) if it was a mistake on Aradia's part or what. Anyway Posideon just sits on this little ledge of coral. No matter I can model a base. The parts are shown below. On the website you had a choice of either a human type face or a sort of fish mask (arrow). I liked the mask, but in person IMO I felt it made him look like he had a tiny head - 

 

The reference pic

 I started out by doing a light flesh color over the upper body - 

 My next idea was the long locks of gray hair, but then why should he look like an old guy. So I have him youthful dark hair. ;) 

This is the problem for me when a model sits. You think you've taken pics that you didn't. But basically the skin was done in a Flesh, and washed with Citadels Reikland Fleshshade. Then the fish part was done in a blue, highlighted with a turquoise with some pearlizing craft paint for the wet look sparkle. 

The base is simply Sculpt -a-Mould  over some foam "boulders. Spray with a tan and then the same turquoise with the pearl.  Finally I wanted some sort of backdrop for him. I went looking for some pieces of fan coral at the pet stores. But no good. I guess real coral decorations are taboo now. I found some artificial stuff that looked good in the pics and real life from a distance. But it's kind of cheesy look close up. I sprayed that with white primer and then some blue mixed with the pearl. 
Done. Thanks for looking.

 

Charon Vignette Finale

As I was putting this together, I realized that I mad a major goof. The demon(#1) who has his arm thrust forward, was glued in place a little too forward. This made the second demon also too far forward, making the lost soul too far forward. 

I noticed this when the other side of Demon #1 did not meet up with the water. How could I have missed that?? The only thing to do besides trying to pull him off and chance breaking him, was to get out the Aves, and create a wave extension. This is what I did.  I think I did a decent job of masking the goof.  
After that I got some of Vallejo's Realistic Water, mixed it with some of V's Green Slime and filled in the water up against the bodies.  Thanks for looking.