Asharah 28mm: Photos and review

Well, this has been quite a journey! Producing these first three minis will have been a much more challenging endeavour that we would ever have imagined. It also has been way longer than expected since we originally planned to have Asharah's Command Group released at the end of... September 2009!

So now, the Asharah 28mm casts are finally here! Since we feel our work is an ongoing process that we constantly strive to improve, we wanted to share with you our impressions about this eagerly awaited and best-selling mini from our first production run.

We've already received great feedback from some of our customers, so you might find that that some of the remarks below are nit-picking. But we want to be able to provide the best possible quality, which is why we're already thinking about what we can do better next time. (Text continues below...)



We are really pleased with the overall look of the mini. The silhouette and attitude that has probably attracted most customers to Asharah are perfectly rendered, and she certainly makes for a charismatic character on the battlefield. The time and effort put into perfecting her pose and proportions really paid off here.

We could have been happier with just a slightly better rendering of the motifs on the leg armour. It's really hard to "get" the correct proportions when working in the 3D software on this kind of element but we've learned our lesson and know how to improve on this for next time. Some of you may also feel that the facial features may not be strong enough. We would say that more than anything, this is a stylistic issue. We chose to privilege a more natural way of representing facial proportions, with less exaggerated and caricatural features, especially as we were working on females. Style-wise, we'd say it's closer to Prince August Mithril Miniatures than to the comic-like faces of Warmachines characters. As the trend seems to be on more exaggerated features nowadays, we will probably move towards that for our next releases. On the other hand, it makes for a fine and delicate face. Guess it's a matter of taste more than anything on this one. (Text continues below...)



Some may notice a very tiny texture effect visible on some parts of some elements, but a light touch of extra primer will smooth it out completely. Called stair-stepping (tiny parallel lines due to the printing technology), it can hardly be seen without a magnifying glass. In most areas, this effect is invisible or has already been removed by hand at the mastering stage.

We've been very pleased with how many details have come out. For example, Asharah's magic staff, with its little female bodies on the top, came out very crisply. Also, the two little demon heads on the hilt of one of the swords were originally supposed to have been removed on the 28mm version for fear that they would be completely shapeless once cast. But there was an error in the file, the heads remained, and they came out very well. The faces on Asharah's shoulders also come out very nicely, confirming the hypothesis that a face that is more sculptural and less natural renders better in the end. (Text continues below...)



The whip, however, could look better. When working in the 3D software for the 28mm version, proportions need to be exaggerated to a point where objects seem totally ridiculously big and bulky. Apparently, we were still too shy on the whip chains: the chain links came out too thin, they're a pain in the behind to cast, and they still manage to "bleed" onto one another. The whip is still totally usable though. On the other hand, the "entwined' sword came out beautifully, even though we wondered if it wouldn't be too thin and delicate. (Text continues below...)







Basically, what we learned out of all this is that, even though we're happy with the end result, we must keep on pushing the exaggeration of proportions in the 28 sculpts.

How we do it

For many reasons, it would have been much simpler to take the usual path, with traditional sculptors working with green stuff to bring our concepts to life. However, for many reasons, 3D printing was really the only way to go for us. Some of these reasons would probably seem a bit strange from the outside, and some are really production and design-oriented. The possibility for our art director to conceptualize projects directly in volume, tweak the sculpts made by 3D artists, refine the posing, or even sculpt from scratch were definitely assets and proved a good move given the feedback received on the many miniatures forums concerning the look and style of our minis. Also, working with 3D gives us many creative options that would be hard or impossible to manage in a traditional environment.

However, creating 28mm miniatures with this 3D printing technology is pioneering work. Issues we've had to resolve have been many and diverse. Initially, our plan was to set up the website only when the miniatures would have been cast and ready to go, but when the end of 2009 loomed and we found ourselves three months behind our carefully laid plans, it became obvious that our only option left was to launch the site with pre-orders based only on the images available at that time: the Moloss and Minion casts, and the 3D sculpts images for Asharah and for Eleriel and Alaniel. The other option would have been to shut it all down before it had even begun...

So once again, our full thanks for all of you who've supported us in this adventure and put their trust in our products. Asharah's Command Group was only the beginning. It is our first creation, perfect in some ways and not-so-perfect in some others. We've learned much already, we've polished our process, and the quality of our next releases will reflect that.

From here, you may now wish to race over to Asharah's page, check out the full Command Group's special hot deal which includes the Heroine Asharah, the Standard Bearer and the Musician, or go back to the blog for more news...