Author Archives: Doctor Zeus

I constructed a light box to shoot videos with decent lighting. I also replaced the faded wine colored shirt with a purple one to better match the portrait. Overall I prefer the contrast the purple shirt creates with the other colors. Anyway, this video provides a better look at the figure.

Here’s just a couple pics with the purple shirt:

Apologies about the poor light exposure. I’m making it a priority to build a light box with which to shoot videos. (Make sure to choose the 4K setting!)

Had a bright sunny day, so I was able to get some better photos of the head sculpt. Also took some with Immy and Minsc with his two-handed sword equipped. Also some more poses with bow and Wand of Magic Missiles.

The painted head sculpt is amazing! Kudos to painter Mark Simpson who slayed it once again. The pics he sent don’t do justice to it. But he assured me that in-hand it looks great. And it absolutely does.

This was also my first time seeing the print of the sculpt as well. Props to Just OneSixth Scale for doing an excellent job with the STL file and print.

I’m so happy about this! It is so gratifying to see this beloved character from my favorite game brought to life in 3D like this! And to see her standing next to Minsc, haha. It’s a bit surrealistic honestly. Feels a bit uncanny.

One unexpected bonus is that Imoen actually looks downright badass. Which is fitting, right? She’s got a cute, chirpy voice. But let’s not forget, she’s a killing machine. Not for nothing, she’s a Bhaalspawn. She’s a member of one of the most legendary adventuring bands in the history of the Forgotten Realms. When I see her standing side by side with Minsc it’s clear that these adventurers are not someone you’d want to mix it up with.

When playing the game I play her as pure Thief. At every opportunity I stealth her and send her in to backstab enemy spellcasters with the Dagger of Venom.

For this build Imoen has the following gear: Boots of Stealth, Shadow Armor, Dagger of Venom, Wand of Magic Missiles, Kiel’s Buckler, Eagle Bow, Amulet of Protection, Ring of Energy, Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise, and the Cloak of Non-Detection.

Photography was a bit challenging for this shoot. The ambient light from the window really affects the light exposures inside my “dark box.” The weather outside today was dark and rainy, so a bit too dim. I’m sure I’ll get some better pics once I get a nice sunny day to do a shoot on.

The only thing remaining for the gear is I had another white shirt for her lying around that I dyed purple to match the portrait. I still need to weather it, to dirty it up. And then go through the hassle of removing all the gear to try it on. But I think I’m probably going to prefer the purple shirt to the wine colored one. We’ll see.

Anyway, without further ado, here are some photos from the shoot today.

Painter Mark Simpson said it looks quite good in-hand, I’ll see for myself shortly since he said last night he’s shipping it out ASAP so presumably that means today.

From Mark’s photos the skin on the sculpt looks a bit ruddier and more road-worn than the game’s portrait. It seems to lack the softness and ‘glow’ that the portrait has. Maybe in-hand not as much, it sounds like according to Mark. But anyway if so, I suppose that actually adds some verisimilitude given that most of the time your party is camping outdoors in the wilderness along the Sword Coast.

Another thing along those lines worth noting is that, like the protagonist, Imoen is a Bhaalspawn. A daughter of the Lord of Murder. And since as I use her throughout BG1 as a pure Thief (I don’t dual class her to Mage), I have her stealth and send her in to backstab enemy mages all the time with the Dagger of Venom. So she’s pretty badass in a fight in her own right. She’s a killer out there on the field of battle.

In hindsight I would have preferred that the creator of the STL, Just OneSixth Scale, had given just a touch more arch to the left eyebrow. That arched eyebrow gives Imoen her “sass.” But evidently my eye just didn’t pick it up.

The sculpt’s hair is accurate to the portrait. But when rendered in 3D it comes across as a bit like ‘helmet-head’ hair. Perhaps I should have asked the STL designer to modify the hair to have it fall more naturally at the sides. But at the time I figured we’ll stick to the source material and see what it looks like as true to the portrait as we can get it.

In all honesty I’m not feeling wowed by what I’m seeing from photos. But then again this project has never been attempted as far as I know. As Mark pointed out it’s tricky for artists to work strictly from a one 2D portrait as the sole source material. I’m hopeful that in-hand, and attached to the body I’ve assembled, and carefully photographed, etc., it will be a success overall.

Anyway, without further ado, here it is:

For reference sake, and since it’s been forever since I posted, here’s a look at the body I’ve put together for Imoen (using a Wonder Woman knock-off head sculpt as placeholder):

Equipment update:

• Got her a new hooded cloak from the Hell’s Messenger TBLeague line, which is a closer match to the item description drawing for the Cloak of Non-detection in the inventory screen.
• Upgraded her bow (to represent the Eagle Bow).
• Bought a quiver that hangs on her thigh from a belt. Is thing a thing? Like was it ever done in olden times? Anyway its how Imoen rolls for this setup I guess.
• Found a 1/12 scale shield that works great as a buckler. Diameter is 5 cm which translates to 12 1/2 inches in 1:1 scale.

Oh, and I forgot to highlight that I got her some jewelry, presumably enchanted: an amulet and a ring.

The ring could be a Ring of Protection +1? Or the Ring of Energy aka the Victor? I reckon whatever one likes for their own head canon! I’ll think of it as ROP +1.

The amulet… again per head canon… I guess I’d probably have her using the Shield Amulet.

Anyway

The shield I generally like to use for Imoen is a buckler. And the one I like best is Kiel’s Buckler, which raises her Dexterity by +1 to an amazing score of 19.

But when I went looking for 1/6 medieval buckler shields, I found none!

So I looked for 1/12 scale shields instead, and found this:

The shield is 5.7 cm which translates to 14 inches diameter in 1:1 scale. That’s actually a fairly standard size for a buckler, or at least it was in real world medieval Europe. So I think it should work pretty well. It’s supposed to arrive next weekend.

And which bracers or gauntlets do I generally give Imoen? Well, unless I have Kivan or Coran in the party… or my Player Character uses a bow… it’s going to be the Bracers of Archery. The bracers improve her THACO for shooting arrows, i.e., her chance of hitting the target successfully, by +2.

The Bracers of Archery have a rather plain appearance in the item description:

However, as mentioned other party members may put the Bracers of Archery to better use overall. And because I do routinely send Imoen in to backstab enemy spellcasters—which means that at times she will be forced to engage in melee combat with enemy tanks—I might also give her a pair of Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise:

Those gauntlets improve her THACO with the dagger by +1. They also add +2 to the damage from a successful strike. And they are quite a bit more ornate in appearance than the Bracers of Archery.

In any case, when I went looking on eBay for 1/6 female medieval bracers I only found a couple pairs of them. And at least in terms of appearance, one pair did catch my eye.

Now, the shield and the bracers do share a similar color scheme. Or at least both use the colors of gold and copper. And the design aesthetic is kind of similar as well.

And I noticed that in Imoen’s portrait she’s wearing a necklace that has gold and copper colors.

Anyway, searching on eBay, in terms of the appearance of the items I doubt that I’m going to find close matches to Kiel’s Buckler and the Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise. So I’m content that at least I have some equipment for her that picks up on that gold/copper color scheme in her portrait.

Actually come to think of it, why not also give an enchanted ring and a magical necklace? But that’s for another post!

Oh, and as you’ve probably noticed those bracers shown above I have already equipped her with. I think they’re a great accent to the rest of her clothing, armor, and other gear. I think the shield will do the same. We’ll find out shortly.

Once the party gathers enough coin, I’ll typically first equip Imoen with a Shortbow +1 from Thunderhammer Smithy. And then in Chapter 5 after completing Marek’s quest in the city of Baldur’s Gate she gets the “Protector of the Dryads, the Eagle Bow” which is a Shortbow +2.

But until just recently it’s been a challenge even finding a shortbow of any sort on eBay. A couple months ago when I was first looking to assemble gear for Imoen at that time the best I could find was “1/6 Scale Medieval Bow, Arrows, Quiver – Fantasy.”

Which is fairly decent I guess. But unfortunately after I applied a thin layer of Vallejo weathering paint wash to the pleather quiver it cracked in several places. And I also cut off the fabric shoulder strap which obviously has a modern day aesthetic, painting the white snipped off part brown. For the quiver shoulder strap I used a nice leather one that Gustavo Ponce Bautista had made for Minsc, but that I ended up not using for Minsc because I ended up using something else.

I used Vallejo weathering powder on the quiver and bow. The paint job on the simulated wood for the bow in its stock condition looked too shiny—more obviously like plastic. The weathering powder definitely helped it look more naturally like wood.

Anyway the quiver looks downright roached now, lol.

It’s not absolutely terrible. And it’ll do for a good while, I reckon. I think of this bow as the Shortbow +1 available at Thunderhammer. Which toward the end of the game will have seen plenty of road miles.

And today as I write this I’m seeing a fair number of pretty decent options for the Eagle Bow on eBay. I’ll probably apply minimal weathering to it if any, since it’s a high end enchanted bow.

So I expect to be updating this shortbow before long to give her something fancier looking. Some choices I came across just this morning:

I’m leaning toward the combo of the bow plus three arrows and the separate quiver at the bottom of the above selection. Just wish that the quiver was a bit fancier, though.

This has been the most challenging piece of gear to customize for the project so far.

There are some in-game images of the “Worn Whispers” aka “Boots of Stealth” that give the wearer a boost to stealthy classes’ Hide in Shadows and Move Silently ability scores.

So what to do with all this, i.e., how to best represent these boots?

Well, first from eBay I purchased a pair of generic medieval female leather boots which happened to be brown, “Medieval Knight Boots Shoes 1/6 Model Accessory fit 1/6 Action Figure Model Doll”:

And I painted the leather black using Angelus leather paint. I applied two coats.

I also purchased from Hobby Lobby some “faux fur” with which to line the inner tops of the boots (that fold over) and some purple thread to simulate the laces.

And I trimmed the fur down to scale and glued it on to the inner top of the boot. Again, this was done in order to suggest that they are fur lined. But the main reason for adding the fur was to give the tops of the boots more bulk and “presence.” I was trying to represent the prominent folded “cuffs” of the boots at the top to better match the in-game graphics.

When I pushed the Phicen feet down into the boots the seams in the heel actually started to split. Probably due to paint drying on them. And the soul at the heel on one of the boots started to detach. I was able to use some black sewing thread to stitch the heels up. And I glued the sole back in place. It all worked out fine.

Next I added tiny “metal studs” made of chromed plastic in an assortment of several sizes and shapes that Gustavo Ponce Bautista kindly added to my order of the Shadow Armor.

And I used teeny tiny pinhead sized specs of blu tack to secure the studs to the boots. This turned out to be a very wise decision versus using craft glue. The blu tack is very forgiving. It allowed me to move the placements of the studs around to eventually achieve the geometrical design I wanted, evenly spaced. Had I attempted it with glue I would made so many mistakes that I would have ruined the boots.

Then I added the Vallejo black weathering powder, which dulled the leather to make it look more worn. Thankfully, the very slight amounts of visible blu tack that still poked from the sides of the studs, after doing my best to push it under the studs, was rendered invisible by the black powder. It all worked out perfectly.

I’m toying with the idea of attempting to use craft paint to try to simulating color streaks in the faux fur. But I’ll probably leave well enough alone!