Miniatures Waffle 2

Howdy,
taking a breakfrom the batshiz bouncing and creative musing/waffling to do a little show and tell on some figures.

These would be the plastics, and today's subject is yet more starwars figures (i collect a LOAD of all sorts of miniatures, some being over 200 years old!) Its been a rewarding hobby, and a universal one, in that people from all around the world and from different cultures have all mad miniatures in my collection: everyone makes miniatures, and its great to collect them!
Brace yourself, there are a few pictures.

Above: generic nagamonk snake I've styled as a monk... Ive styled the rest as pirates or generic female thispassians. According to Ep2, associated comicbook appearances... this is an accurately scaled nagamonk too! I can't believe they never made him, nor that no-one else made nagas at all. I play tabletop Fallout RPG, set in Thailand, and there needs to be more generic nagas for that... I suppose you could use them in Warhammer as Slann apprentices or something...

Above: Obligatory bent wotc style blades; all the rares seemed to come like that. It was hard finding a match to that certain style, that certain quality that theWotC figures have: too detailed and painted too well, and the figure wouldn't sit well within the broader collection... it was a doosy! Great work once again by the sculptor of the year, none other than ExManus Studios. They make generic fantasy/roleplay figures of the highest caliber which lend themselves to adaptation and modification .

Above: The entire council assembles, minus Tyvokka, a decent Yareal Poof, Good Dooku and Syfo Dias. Kenobi might be in thepicture, or in another that didnt turn out right.

 Above: Luminous Beings Are We... a translucent hybrid figure, to represent a translucent stalk-eyed anthropomorphic crabmonk. The figure was supposed to have a lot more stalks... perhapsa generic stalky-crab monk figure might emerge down the line, and this figure can be revisited? The lighting effects are straight from the camera: no retouchment at all!

Above: I never liked any of the two official versions of this character, so I built her in this mode. Note the covered midrift; the high levels of exposure seemed rather unjedee like to me.

Above: the character from rear: I'm unhappy with the pose and my paint work (dont have dieting pills + esspresso and THEN try to paint a figure), but I'll revisit this when wargames factory makes acrobatic/circus clown female figure poses.

 Above: Hasslefree "turtle stalky lizard" head + wargames factory bodies = neat looking jedi! If only Wargames Factory didnt mold minis with that plinth thing (which is load-bearing; try to remove it by most means, and you either melt the minior it shears off at the ankles...). Only pet peeve there: Wargames Factory are premier resin producing miniatures company, that care for their clientele- they've always gone above and beyond. Thank goodness we have so much choice worldwide for minis providers - hasslefree, coolminiornot, wargames factory, exmanus studios... I couldgo on forever, but we've got choice!

 Above: a naga monk, replete with bendy (out of the booster) blades! I could paint and paint and paint all the bucket loads of detail in this AWESOME NAGA MODEL from EXMANUS STUDIOS, but then it would be TOO DETAILED and thus would look out of place!

 Above: Aayla and a companion. She became popular, he faded into obscurity... its funny how that often turns out...

Above: See, she's supposed to be force-pushing, as in the videogame Battlefront (that was so frustrating, i liked it when the only way to kill a jedi was either by exploding them off a cliff, squishing them with the ATAT... or landing a vehicle ontop of them...

Enjoy this decadent eyecandy... actually, it isnt so decadent.
Most of it is recycled, the customs I've made anyways (made,or composed... its just adult lego or combinatorics!)
the bases are made from local MDF, its sweet! And you can even make pepakura/papercraft figures: german, russian and japanese models out there have set the bar in terms of what you can do with papercraft models!

What minis might you like to see made, that arent and would not likely ever be?
What types do you collect, and what are your rarest figures?
How do the people closest to you handle your miniatures passion?
How do you store and or display your collection?
Do you swap/trade figures - with penfriends etc? Where has the furthest miniature in your collection come from? (ie, where did the mini in your collection that has come from the furthest away from your geographic location, where did that mini come from?).

Cheers!
EDIT: Now with stat cards

And now, to ramble on collecting the Arts!

Time to change topics for a moment, from waffling to other things;
the arts, and in this case, miniature tabletop Fallout gaming. 

I like the arts; I like tabletop games, like Chess. I'm addicted to many variants of Fallout rpg atm, very fun and can be used as scenario tools for people to visualise, if they are paranoid and prefer to not use computers (yes, there are still Y2K people out there... *shudders*)
 I acquire many different mixed media miniatures from all around the world: New Caledonia, Germany/Spain, USA, Russia, China, Argentina, UK and Japan. and Norway, can't forget Norway! It's like a win-win: penfriends, and you get a figure too!
There are so many talented people out there, that have so many skills. For example, some whittle out of wood... some use mixed glues and clay polymers... others a type of papier mache. Some of the rarest figures in my collection are napoleonic mixed media tin soldiers, along with some from circa 1920-1940s germany (they made rare mixed media toy soldiers, with hideous bodies but porcelain heads; they're worth a mint, and my favorite minis). I even have some Ivory minis from long ago: back when whaling and ivory were cool, and thought to keep the populations of animals down. I certainly hope they don't make those today... but as they're heirlooms, I enjoy keeping them.

I prefer 1/48th-1/52scale for most things; its just a nice scale, has a lot of utility and lets you trade across a bigger spectrum. My partner collects ATC's, artists Mixed Media Trading Cards. These things are one of the coolest aspects of secret womens (and increasingly, all kinds of artist) business;
they're made from a huge range of mixed media from jewellery (pressed and embossed metal) through to fabrics and translucent materials. They're cool, and if you're into trading cards, these might just be the best thing!

So here's a new acquisition for my collection;
Below, a naga monk custom made for my fallout campaign that will be set in Harlan Ellisons Middle-East-Asia. He's a statue come to life, turned pirate. The toothpicks will be replaced with maces and axes at a later stage, (and armor and an eyepatch, he's a pirate afterall)... This baddie lurks around Angkor Wat or Wat Arun, Wat Pho or any of the other Wats they're building over there: its all concrete, to replace the wooden ones...

When he's not bumming around the temples, he'll be on his own custom boat, surfing and plundering the high seas. The Fallout probably mutated him, or I'd like to think it was an animatronic statue in a Wat that came to life. I was tempted to have another made with many guns, but don't we see enough of those already?

So, once this figure is done, I'll have to see if other naga monks and pirates can be made to tag along... I'm looking forward to painting this when i receive it.

I'll be sure to keep you posted, and I'll have to give a shout out once this is done,
cheers!

Q's for the Reader:
Do you collect anything? any numismatists out there (coin collectors)? What about stamps, crystals/minerals? Tektites? Skulls... (only a few people I've met have come up to me and said: "hi there! Do you want to see my Human Skull collection?" Cool collectables for sure).
Are you into tabletop gaming or RPGing with people, face to face?
Do you collect ATC's?

What do you think of the Naga Monk? Should the face be a little different?
I feel its reminiscent of one from a Wat I've been to, and if I can find the photo I'll have to put it up.
Should the mace be mid-air posed - like Heroclix action poses they have now (they've really set the bar in terms of all my other 1/48th scale stuff now)? or should the mace be flat on the ground, being dragged behind this roboslug?

I'm also hoping to have some objective markers made, to match a bunch of the stat-cards that are on the forums.

EDIT: PROGRESS!

We can see above, with a WOTC mini for scale (no coins or tapemeasure to hand in the lab).
The maker is making the mini, and they're doing a great job! This space pirate Naga Monk will be up in no time making an appearance at the LGS or at RPG outing. If the arms are right, and the weapons look generically sci-fi, I could probably also use it as a Fallout Mutant for asianic campaigns.
I'm told there could be many generic insect variants etc... and that there might be female versions as well... I'll be sure to keep you updated on the wheres and whens as they unfurl.