BrookM wrote:
A free mini? And she's a doctor / boffin? YAAAAAAAAAAAY!

 Sculptdude wrote:
I'm back from my retreat to recover from all this Kickstarter hoohah.

Glad you all like the free Doc. Enough of the goal was made to fund one more model so who am I to quibble?

Our expenses are a bit different from Hasslefree because I'm paying for designs up front and some back-end brushwork. It's a bit of a different model as a start-up with all kinds of overhead factored in to each release. When we hit our stride in a few years, I imagine the Hasslefree model will be very similar to what we'll be operating under.

Survey will go out when as many of the sculpts are ready to go to mold as possible. We will need to send it early enough though to determine the print runs on some things. I'm projecting Nov/Dec for that.

In the meantime, regular updates will go out on Fridays.

Now I need to go pack for the Reaper Artist Conference.

Production Update 1
Update #29 · Oct. 13, 2012 · 2 comments

Fellow Bombardiers, I have been working diligently for the past couple of days to get some work done on the sculpts. This batch is getting close to completion. But first a couple of items to address.
KICKBACK

We will be sending the Kickstarter Survey™ either late in November or early December for you to choose your Kickstarter Rewards. This will be the primary way we will package your items so it will be important to include everything you want the Kickstarter pledge to cover. If you have added items on via PayPal Donate, those will be added to your Kickstarter rewards package.

If you add to your pledge amount via the PayPal Donate page you should be able to indicate what the extra amount is for in the text box on the payment page. Also include your Kickstarter screen name so we can match up what you will be getting.
WORKBENCH

As promised here are the shots of the stuff in progress. Betty has an all new face. I also increased the thickness of the legs from front-to-back in order to compensate a bit for mold compression. I don't have access to my regular lighting rig and will get better pics of these once I get back to the studio.

Tim has been sitting next to me at the conference and has expressed that he's very pleased with how she looks in person.

Maelee has a new hairstyle.

Vivian gets a bit of diving suit gear, hat and hair.

Nowada gets a bit of costuming and an axe.

Bomb Squad contributors Martin Jones (L) and Kevin Williams (R) are working on leveling up at the Reaper Artist Conference!

Top sculptors (L - R) Jason Wiebe, Gene Van Horne, Bobby Jackson, Julie Guthrie, and Bob Ridolfi are also in attendance lending their expertise.

More work is on its way including Sally and a few critters. Will post more soon!

~Patrick

Production Update 2
Update #30 · Oct. 19, 2012 · 6 comments

Let's get right to it. I have made some progress on Nowada and finished the main sculpting on Sally.


I generally sculpt directly over a wire armature and build up the material in layers. Bombshell Miniatures officially endorses Kraftmark's Procreate as the preferred sculpting material of choice. Sally has just about everything finished except the hands and rocket pack. Her gear will be created and printed from ZBrush. These items will also be available as part of the Sci-Fi equipment sprue.

The ring on Sally's collar may need to be extended a bit. Once the vaccuform table comes in and I can get some test casts of her helmet this will give me a better idea of how the parts will fit together.
NEWS

For those asking, if you would like to get art directly from Matt Dixon, you can head on over to his web shop and get it directly from him. He has a set of Dixon's Vixens cards available with many of the Babes we licensed for miniatures.

Things are starting to roll forward at a good clip. All of the bussiness nonsense is now completed, registering the name and setting up our new bank account along with tax allocations. I have upgraded a little bit of hardware and software here and ZBrush is up and running. I still have a good selection of print vendors to test the files once I get some printable pieces to send.

Over the next week, in addition to sculpting more Babes, I will also begin on the base inserts so we can start on the initial molds for those. There are a few sidekicks waiting for attention too.

See you next Friday!

~Patrick
The Sculptdude

Production Update 3
Update #31 · Oct. 26, 2012 · comment

There are lots of "behind-the-scenes" activities going on here at the Bombshell Factory. Most of this has involved setting up some stuff in QuickBooks in order to track things like income and outgoings. In order for me to be productive, this kind of organization is key so that things are lined up and not subject to be a distraction while sculpting.

We finalized the payment for some of the artist this week and did a little contract signing for the Dixon license. I got some color comps in from Keri for Meagan & Dusty and they look great. I'll post the final paintings once they are approved. Painting has started on some of the other characters as well and I'll update you on the progress as soon as I hear back on them.

In addition to finishing up some other over-due client work to ship out, I was able to put together a few more armatures and start filling out the anatomy for the Sword Maiden.

I've also created the blanks for our resin base inserts. The 50mm insert is still a bit rough around the edges, but the 40mm and 30mm are fitting in just fine. These pieces will be molded and cast in resin. These resin blanks will be used to model the actual scenic base inserts which in turn will get their own molds for production casting. I have it on good authority that we may have found a local supplier for plastic gaming bases in these sizes and will be able to offer them with the Babes. I'll post more on that as it develops around the end of the year.

Bombshell Digital is almost operational. The delay has been getting the correct HDMI cables for the monitors and an AirPort card in order to move the existing system to a more accessible area. In the interim I have some great resources to reduce the learning curve as much as possible. As an existing sculptor with experience in other 3D software along with being a Photoshop "power-user" I expect the curve not to be as steep as it could be otherwise. Really looking forward to posting some renders for you all.

Checking in with Kevin this week, he has armatures put together for the iSlug Sidekick and the Thulle piece that goes along with Professor Karrick. As soon as there is some anatomy blocked out on them I'll try to post an update pic.

That's all for this installment. Next week I hope to have a larger selection of pics of the sculpts for you. Hang in there.

~Patrick
The Sculptdude

 RiTides wrote:
Nowada looks much better than I expected!

Production Update 5
Update #33 · Nov. 09, 2012 · 4 comments

We got some preliminary color roughs in from Keri and the final painting on Professor Karrick and Thulle from Patrick McEvoy.




Other progress is coming along for making things.


The girls are all lined up and ready for me to give them some putty lovin' this month. I also need to finish out a whole batch of accessories that will need to mastered as well.


The first batch of digital files are just about ready to go for a test print. The base inserts should be ready to go to mold this coming week. I added some client tabs on there too just to cut down on the repetitive work a bit.

The Experiment

Sally's helmet has been in my head for couple of years now. I know Naismith did some big helmets for the Cobalt-1 figures several years ago and I think the idea is sound. I have wanted a space girl figure with a bubble helmet since the first Chronoscope pieces I sculpted for Reaper.

I laid out some of the basic shape profiles in order to create a mold for the vacuform. The various proposed shapes will lend themselves not only to helmets but also other pulp sci-fi designs like robots and brain tanks!

So, the vacuformer arrived along with some clear plastic stock and over the next few weeks I'll be making a few test forms for the helmet shapes. I don't even know if it will work yet, but the theory is sound.

Thanks for hanging in there. More next week!
Patrick

 BrookM wrote:
I think those can be found on the main KS page of the project.

 Elemental wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
I think those can be found on the main KS page of the project.

Not seeing the prices anywhere on there, or in updates. I'll just ask in comments.

Productio Update 8
Update #37 · Dec. 11, 2012 · comment

Here is pretty much everything that went to mold yesterday plus the Sideckicks 1 Sprue and the Sci-fi sprue.









These guys I ran a few of while making masters of the weapons.

More pics soon.

Patrick