From concept to figure...

Thought I'd show how some of the figures go from concept to mini. If the sculptor is really lucky, he gets one of these rough sketches from me that show pretty much what the final figure is supposed to look like. I usually add a second one in a static pose, with just the clothes and no accessories, for a clear view.

Most of the time though, and especially when conversions of existing poses are involved, what the sculptor gets is this:

An even rougher sketch, drawn with a mouse over a picture of the original mini. Pretty, isn't it? But it gets the job done. Besides, if the sculptor should feel like complaining, I'll just point out that for some of the early minis, I gave John some written instructions as well as some diverse images where I would say to take the pose from that, the clothes from that and that, add a hat like this, etc... We've come a long way, really... 

Oh, and in case you're wondering as to how faithful to the artwork the final figures end up being, here are the three figures that were used as an example (ok, the hornblower was still WIP, but the only other picture I had was without the swordarm). 

I'd say that's close enough...