Mantic’s sculptor – Bob Naismith – talks all things Undead
Right then – Undead!
When Ronnie and I sat down to figure out how the Mantic Undead would look we had several aims;
To make detailed and reasonably priced figures,
To try and restore the idea of ‘real’ fantasy (yes I know that doesn’t make sense!) – in other words to have men look like men, elves like elves etc,
And most importantly – to entertain you! To do this we wanted to make some of the figures easy and quick to assemble but also to give you some additional ‘hobby’ type elements – stuff like extra heads, weapons etc – plus some ‘fun’ – our skellydog for example.
For all those wargamers out there we also recognised the need for additional troops to make fielding a Mantic Undead army viable….. . . . .
So we worked on giving you the ‘heavy’ infantry in the form of the Revenants. These are uparmoured versions of the basic troops with plumed helmets etc etc plus lots of goodies…
Then there is the war machine. We had some fun with this too – mainly as we wanted it to have a simple construction and yet was a robust design. The crew were good fun too – I feel I should mention that I think I may have one of the top jobs in the world; making model figures!
Bob
(more in part 2, in a few days time…ED)
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Mantic Blog – Part 1 – From the Sculptor’s view – Mantic Undead http://www.manticblog.com/?p=727
via Twitoaster
March 3rd, 2010
As nice as the elven army releases were, I really believe you’ve hit your stride with the undead sculpts. While I haven’t had a chance to start working on my skeletons yet, I have been oohing and aahing over their sprues. Certainly a very characterful army.
Already have a large order placed for a couple of undead army deals and the revenants regiment deal.
Would love to see you do an undead sprue for each of your upcoming army races after they’re released too.
March 3rd, 2010
Thank You for the Elves !
I got very tired of the standard elves out there and when I saw yours a small smile turned into a large GRIN…
I love the ‘extotic beyond human’ feel about them and have no problems at all with there thin look, in fact I have painted mine in dark metalic and then put snow on the base to emphasise the spidery thin look about them.
Also like the detailing on the armour…my Dark Elf army has now hit 200 figures but I’ll probably go for 300 maybe 400 I like them that much.
Thank You Again
Madan Mitra – is building bigger armies 8¬)
March 4th, 2010
To bad the skeletons have not hit the states yet. Still waiting for ours.
March 4th, 2010
Hi Bob,
Always great to hear from the sculptors.
Love to here you say more about how you developed the ideas for the armour for both the Elves and undead.
It has a great ‘vintage fantasy’ feel about it that I really like.
I would also be interested to here your thoughts on the limitations and possibilities when sculpting for plastic instead of metal.
Great to hear you still enjoying knocking out top notch stuff after all these years.
March 6th, 2010
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