Steampunk girl bust...

So after the Dwarf Bust.. I have still had the urge to tackle another large piece.

Well as luck would have it, I have found my next muse. And what a Muse it is!!!

This gem of a bust, which you can see is quite large ( yes that is a Hobbit Goblins beside it for scale purposes ), and it is nicely detailed up as well.

Sculpted by the ever so talented Lee Blair of Manchester, he did a remarkable job of capturing the image of a one Miss Kato.

Formally a UK native, gone American now.

So once I saw that it was officially for sale, and my move to the UK finalized. Well.. it was a no brainer to just order one on up!

To give a small breakdown of the purchase experience.. it is quite simple. Heading over to Fantasy Realms as the middle man ( UK LOVES their middlemen ) for the transaction, I soon got a message from Lee via Facebook! Seeing as I had friended him previously, and been following the progress of this piece for a bit as well.

He would go on to inform me the time lines for when I might receive my Steampunk girl, and being open about the fact that he was waiting on some resin to show up before he could cast my copy of her.

Also then updating me on the status of it through the week+ while he worked to create it.

What is funny is that he would go on to send it off on a Friday afternoon, only for me to receive it the next morning! If I haven't said it before, I will say it now.. I really like being over here in the UK when things like this happen. If I were still in Turkey, I am not sure when it might have arrived in the end, and how much I would have paid in customs for such a large piece.

Looking the piece over though, I can see a lot of details on it. A bit more that are even present on his studio paint job ( sorry, but its true! ). So I look forward to tackling this piece as my new signature piece after the Dwarf Bust.

I won't say that the casting is perfect. There is a bit of a mold line along the back of it, the ears need a bit of cleaning up, and one of the eyes has a slip of resin on it. But honestly these are minor in comparison to what I have seen with pieces from the E2046 site, or worse from GW Finecast or FW Resin pieces. So this will not take too long to prep up and get ready for painting. I can foresee some Milliput White washes, and maybe some GS work to smooth out a few pieces, but that would be more personal taste more than anything.

As for color scheme.. I am still thinking on that part. Though I might go with the latest photo from Kato's page where she is standing beside one of her dressing dolls ( shown to the right ). It might not be the more contrasting piece, and it will be difficult to pull off her colors, but I think it will be a good reflection of her overall.

Now to go away for a bit and look up some methods to painting a very pale, but feminine skin tone.. That should be interesting in and unto itself!

Hope you like.. and let's see how long it takes to do up this beauty! Cheerio!