I recently did a couple of minis to try some stuff out, starting with this mini Captain Maxx as a color palette test.



Let me know what you think!

Cool colors, really like the green and the way it plays with the rest of the palette.

On the face, is there any kind of mouth sculpted? It looks like there's something sculpted on there. Maybe just a little detail work to break up that lower half?

The loose sprays around the eyes I could take or leave. I get it if you're trying to make them seem like they're glowing but they also look a bit like the overspray got away from you. Tough to pull off on such a tiny figure.

Overall finish is a bit shiny for my taste but I know some folks are into it.

Overall, cool mini, dude.

Thanks, D! As usual, you are pretty much spot on for what went wrong The mouth has a line molded in, and I couldn't decide if painting it in would look too stark. I may yet change that... As for the eyes, the orange did get away from me a bit. I've tried a couple different glow effects on mini Maxx eyes, and this was probably the least successful attempt. Fortunately, I'm out of mini Maxxes now.

OK, here's mini number two... Pocket S-taiin! This guy is aaaaaaaadorable!

This guy is sick. It's nice to see some loose sprays on an s- taiin, whish doesnt happen very often. I'm diggin the colors on this way more than the maxx. I think I would have liked to see alittle more handpaint mixed in though.

The S-taiin looks amazing! I wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks, guys. I mulled over whether to paint the S-taiin for ages, and finally decided I would, as I don't see myself coming into a painted version anytime soon whatwith Gargamel's seeming resistance to make the Pocket line more accessible and available.

Evom- I'm curious where you think he would have benefited from more brush work. I agree that the sharp detail on this guy lends itself well to dustin's style of work, but I figured it was the kind of thing where you either really need to go all or nothing. I thought I could get away with the facial details, but if I'd gone so far as to handpaint the buckles I would have felt like I needed to do the rivets and raygun as well.

I just have to add that I'm blown away by that dark red body color. If I stare at it for a while, it's like I can almost hear that warm blood boiling inside of him.

Ben, I totally agree with your comment about the details. Once you start to brush them in, you gotta do them all. Looks unfinished otherwise.

Fun to paint though, right?

I think you couldve gotten away with hand painting or masking the gloves, belt, gun and maybe the S on his helmet. And loose sprayed the rivets and buckle. I just dont think I'm a fan of completely loose sprayed toys with so much detail, just personal taste though. But the more I look at it the more I dig it. Good job man.

Very nice clean work, Ben. Especially on the S-taiin, I really like the pink cheek accents. Your skills just keep getting better and better. Keep it up man.

Here's mini number 3... Max Toy Co Pocket Xam made by Gargamel. The Max Toy minis have really superseded the Max Toy pockets, but they are still pretty nice sculpts.





Clear red vinyl with opaque and clear paint. The black lining was an experiment that I’m pretty happy with.

You really did a nice job of capitalizing on the S-taiin face... is he helpful, creepy, pyschotic, or mebbe a just a little dead inside?
Sometimes it's hard to tell

This guy is one of my entries for the FOE Monster Invitational in July. He’s a realistic take on the mini Tripus sculpt flesh blank. I went for matte with shading on the squishy bits and shiny jade-pearl for the fish scales.



More pics here:
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/max-toy-co-real-type-tripus/

More info on the show here:
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/foe-gallery-monster-invitational-opening-july-8/

^ stunning. well done.

What an interesting paint job, it even seems to be flocked (or mossy). Perfect colours to fit with his seamonster body.
I love what you're doing with all these minis!

These are interesting!
I really dig Mini Maxx's colors. Sort of vintage comics-like.

Its interesting that you chose Mini Maxx and S-taiin for a loose spray style. I've been wondering if it was at all possible. I think you managed to pull it off. Perhaps some hand paint details on the face of S-taiin would wrap it up.

But I felt S-taiin's colors are disjointed. Maybe pull some colors top down or vise-versa. Also loose spray may not work on this milky base. If it was a solid color vinyl, the base color would hold it together.

My 2 cents worth

That S-taiin is my favourite, I love the colour scheme you chose, I agree that it really captures that vintage sci-fi feel. Great work!

Thanks! I think you are totally spot on with the Maxx... he's totally comic book to me, and I love that sculpt. S-taiin I've gotten a lot of comments both ways... I know I totally could have brush painted in a lot of those details, but I do a lot of model work as well, so I'm always looking for excuses to get really tight and technical with my airbrush. My thinking with keeping the gloves and boots loose was to use the semi-transparent vinyl to my advantage, giving me a little more room for error, so to speak. When the FOE show goes live I've got a couple of really experimental figures in there that I'll be curious to hear when traditional kaiju guys think.

Here's the current Max Toy mini crew battling it out on my desk. The glow Dragigus and Drazorus are by Mark Nagata, and probably two of my favorite toys right now.

Ben how much will that S-taiin be ? I love the colors !

Here's the rest of my FOE Monster Invitational show pieces:


M1GO Real Type Vira Seijin
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/m1go-real-type-vira-seijin/



Super7 x Paul Kaiju Khornate Partyball
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/super7-x-paul-kaiju-partyball-khornate/


Real X Head Zombie Akro-kaiser
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/real-x-head-zombie-akro-kaiser/


Gargamel Mighty Blue Mightin
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/gargamel-mighty-blue-mightin/

For anyone not keeping up, these guys are available at FOE now:
http://www.shopfoe.com/category/?id=25

Thanks for looking!

For anyone who was on the fence about the Vira Seijin before, FOE agreed to keep him at the shop at a new, lower price of $140:

http://www.shopfoe.com/ViewProduct.asp?ModelNumber=MI32

That partybal is awesome! I love how ou did his eyes

Thanks. He's actually going to be available in my webshop soon for a lower price than he was at the show.