Author Archives: Doctor Zeus

I decided to commission “Just OneSixth Scale” (JOSS) located in the Netherlands to make the STL file and print the head sculpt for Imoen. As with Minsc, Mark Simpson will be the painter.

Just OneSixth Scale says they use high quality 8K resin and print in 8K. Some examples of their work:

So for me these examples inspire confidence that I’ll get a very high quality, finely detailed head sculpt with a high level of verisimilitude to the portrait.

JOSS was a little surprised to be working just from a 2D portrait, but challenge accepted, lol. I’d imagine that this takes an artist’s eye every bit as much as the software to render in 3D. It may well be the first time ever, anywhere, that Imoen’s portrait has ever been rendered in 3D.

I was tempted to use a custom portrait for Imoen that I particularly like from BG2. I often use this one, especially when playing a run for the whole saga.

But at the end of the day I decided to go with Imoen’s BG1 portrait. It was playing BG1 that made me fall in love with the game. This is face of the first character that in my imagination joined me on my epic journey through the Sword Coast.

I’m currently in contact with a few artists about creating the STL file and printing the head sculpt. Getting it narrowed down as such, and will decide who I’m using in a day or two.

Not sure yet about rooted hair versus sculpted for Immy. Rooted can be rather expensive. I’m not sure if the results of rooted will really be worth the price tag. Sculpted can look great. I would imagine that especially if the print is very high resolution then it’s just going to be a matter of how convincing the paint job is.

Anyway please stay tuned as I’ll have an update in a day or two!

I purchased some tripod lighting to see it I could play around with illuminating the “dark box” I made for shooting still photos

Now, interestingly when shooting photos on the iPhone 11 the smart lens automatically opens enough to get surprisingly good pics even when there’s next to no light available. But when recording a video without the tripod lights it came out just too dim and grainy.

Anyway here’s four poses, one revolution each on the carousel. Turned on every light in the room plus an open window on a sunny summer afternoon. I had played around with different angles for the two light sources and settled on placing them high and pointing a bit down onto the figure.

It’s passable, I’d say. But evidently I need to either upgrade my iPhone (at least to 13 if there’s now a higher one) or just bite the bullet and buy a camera that can do what I want for this hobby.

I think I’ll give Minsc a rest for a while. Unless I pick up cool new weapon or other accessory for him on EBay. Actually, it’d be great if I could find a 1/6 D&D monster to pit him against!

Come this fall I’ll turn my attention to building BG1 Imoen.

This is going back about a month or two but I had purchased a plastic mace with a spikey ball for Minsc about a year ago, but it was poorly painted.

And because in BG1 it can be fun to give Minsc the Stupifier

and have him dual wielding maces, I went ahead and ordered a resin 3D printed version of a mace from LotR.

So long story short I painted and weathered them both. First time applying a black wash and dry brush coat to weather items like this. I kind of overdid it a little bit. But it was a good learning experience. Here’s the results:

And here’s a longbow and arrows I picked up for him as well, which also underwent some slight modifications.

I wrapped and glued a 1/8” strip of thin leather to fashion a grip for the bow. And I dyed the bowstrings and the quiver.

Two revolutions on the turntable for six displays of the weapons I’ve assembled for Minsc thus far. Same basic pose for each. I.e., this vid is mainly a weapons display.

The very last photo with the red Superman cape, long sword, and ball mace (pre-repainting) I just tossed in because it’s a nice pic. The long sword is intended for Khalid.

I’ve also got the Unreal Customs wired Superman cape and a red cape meant to go with 300’s Leonidas to pose him with as well. So of course I’ll feature those in future videos…

The head sculpt is affixed using blu tack which works great when it’s securing against just simple gravity. I mentioned this before, but I learned the hard way that the Unreal Customs cape’s wires on the sides and bottom edge create tension that acts like springs when you futz with the cape. The same day I received the finished head sculpt from the painter, while adjusting the shape of the bottom of the cape I accidentally popped the head sculpt off. It went bouncing across my Pergo floor with a resonant ping, breaking the top of the left ear. Heartbreaking. Thank goodness Pedro Lujan and Mark Simpson did such a stellar repair job. Anyway, when I put that cape on again I’ll be doing it on the center of a bed, lol!

I really like how the bow worked out. The maces I’m satisfied with but eventually I think I’ll pick up some higher end die cast pieces.

The ball mace I bought on eBay. I think it cost $8 but $17.59 with shipping since it shipped from Turkey. It was crudely painted so I repainted it.

The morning star with the flanges is 3D printed unpainted resin modeled after weapons appearing in Peter Jackson’s LotR film trilogy. It cost $20. $25.06 with shipping, shipped within the US. Shown below with a gray primer spray coat.

After initially painting them, first I was going just use acrylics and give it a black/brown wash diluted with water.

But after some consultation with folks at Facebook groups instead I’ve applied a dullcoat and will go with enamels instead. Next step is to apply a “brown wash” to both, and then to dry brush highlights to make them both look a little more worn.

So soon I will be able to pose Minsc dual wielding maces!

Just a few quip snaps of Minsc recently.

Relieved that the repair to his ear is basically a non-issue. I’m so pleased with how this figure turned out.

I purchased a longbow for Minsc on eBay by ZY Toys for $40. The package they sent me had a crossbow included with it as well. So either the seller made a mistake or just gave me the closest thing to what they had in stock? Anyway I will probably find a use or the crossbow eventually. If I kitbash Garrick I’d probably use it.

Ordered this:

Received this:

Anyway, here are some pics of Minsc using the bow.

I would have preferred a more “archery accurate” pose with the arrow at eye level and the elbow holding the arrow sticking out perpendicular at the side. But it’s posed the way I did it because I didn’t want to risk breaking the bow by bending the string back too far. I was probably just being a bit gun-shy about that. When I first strung the bow the pin that connects the two halves of the bow broke! I had to superglue it all in place.

Oh, also—I did some slight modifications. I dyed the bowstrings and quiver a chocolate brown. And I made a leather grip.

Anyway it was fun and I actually look forward to some photo shoots with the bow equipped.

Minsc is so impressive with the two-handed sword or double wielding maces that I don’t often have him using a bow. But it might be fun to try a run with Minsc approaching with his stealth, firing off an arrow of biting, and then charge in with his melee weapons.

So grateful for the excellent repair work that Pedro Lujan and Mark Simpson did.

The repair is unnoticeable. If you stare at it and study it under a magnifying glass you might detect that the left ear was rebuilt. But no one is going to do that. It looks completely natural. Especially at 1/6 scale no one can see that anything was done. The head sculpt is for all practical purposes as good as new.

In a sense I was arguably quite lucky that the top of the ear was the full extent of the damage!