Sea Elf Conversion Bits and Landgriffon size comparison

By popular demand, some size comparisons of the upcoming Sea Elf conversion parts and a look at the relative size of the landgriffons to a humansized rider.

First off, some examples of the Sea Elf conversion bits used with some Perry Miniatures plastic arms (and one head). As you can see, the Elf bodies and Perry bits look like a marriage made in heaven and should allow for some good customisation opportunities.

I don't have access to my current edition GW plastics at the moment (stored away since the move), but I did have these 6th edition state trooper metal command bits available (head and arms) and I think they work pretty well.

Finally, a very limited couple shots of the elf bits used with each other (heads, bodies and arms separate). The fifer arms work best on the female torso, as they were designed for it, but they can be made to work with most of the others with a little extra TLC.

Moving onto big beasties, here are a few shots of the landgriffons with an old GW knight panther. As you can see, the size in itself works well enough, but the crouched pose of the feline paws make it look a bit low to the ground compared to a warhorse.

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...

Da Vinci's Tank

The other week I got two of Black Army Productions' Da Vinci tanks in the mail and thought I'd take a minute to plug these excellent models. Mastered by Tobsen, the main hull is a solid block of none too heavy resin, with some metal add-ons (gun/cannon barrels). As per Leonardo's original designs, there are no superfluous frills, making them quite simple to paint, but no less striking on the tabletop. These will go well with my landsknecht dwarfs (and a nice, historically based alternative to the GW steamtank). Go check them out, they are good value for money!

Official picture from the BAP site: