So Eric contacted me a while ago asking if I could convert up a character for him to use an inquisitor for his armies. He's a fan of Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, a game I've played and somewhat enjoyed (despite its failings, gameplay-wise). For those not familiar with her, she looks something like this:
(image and character are copyright Square-Enix, used without permission)
I decided to start with a miniature that was close enough and greenstuff the extra clothing as needed. The base model was this Lara Croft knockoff from Freebooter Miniatures. For those of you unfamiliar with Freebooter and the work of Werner Klocke, surf on over and take a gander. They do some nice work, and I was pleased with the quality of the mini when it came in. I'm sure there's some irony in converting one video game character into another....
The originals sword is waaaaaaay too complex for someone like me to model out of green stuff at that scale. (on the other hand, give me 3D Studio Max and a rapid prototyper and we'll see) There are better sculpters out there than I who could've done a far better job, so I decided to go for the hard-modelling solution and create something that suggested the form and interlocking nature of the original without mirroring it. A Necromunda tri-barrelled shotgun fit the bill, combined with the machete that came with the original. The hand is pinned to the arm, but the sword is all glue, contact area, and faith. Hopefully it'll survive the journey and following rigors of the battlefield.
A lot of sculptors from other lines neglect to give their character minis things like holsters and sheathes for the weapons they're swinging around, so I like to make sure they have somewhere to stow their gear. If you've played the game, you get used to the sight of Lighting walking along with her holstered folding sword swinging against the back of her thighs as she walks. It must be terribly cumbersome to move around with it hanging like that, not to mention hard to keep your balance jumping around and such. Oh well, that's fantasy for you.
Lastly, I've started experimenting with watermarks for my photos. I've seen my images pop up on forums and stuff, and while I don't mind you folks grabbing and posting them I would like people who see my work to know where it came from. So all you guys who've been reposting Tyracron and Titan pics, thanks for the extra publicity, but please, please tell people where to go to see more. Not that I'm a web-traffic whore (don't see any ads yet, do you?) but it's polite to source your stuff, you know?
3 comments:
Very cool mini, and using Lightning as source material was inspired.
She IS a bad*ss...
Speaking of, there's always hope that FF 13-II (or whatever they're calling it) will be less linear, have less combo-happy arcade style combat and give us back a huge, open FF world.
I missed grinding for levels and exploring in 13.
The character and art design was still awesome as ever, but the game itself? Meh.
Yeah, I gotta say, I wasn't too thrilled with the hands-off gameplay of this one. Their weapons upgrade system was a little too Byzantine as well, considering how they simplified everything else. I have high hopes for the next installment, not to mention FF Versus on the PSP.
Hey I really like that conversion. It's so fun to see your inspiration come to fruition like that.
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