Beyond the hatch (workbench)

 The following build was actually triggered by an image that I found in my Instagram timeline early in August.
Painted by "painted.by.the.funny.one" aka Jonas

I loved it from first glance!
And lately I had been thinking about a diorama idea with Wilma, Vladimir and Klausz as they land or disembark on a new planet.
So this image sparked an idea.
I had an empty tin can waiting for a brilliant idea

And with some of the brilliant Spiramirabilis_miniatures like these in mind

I got my sketchbook out and scribbled (literally) this idea down

Funny when I look at it today :)

Nevertheless, with the tin can at hand and the idea in my head I fired up ZBrush and got to work.

So Wilma was the first to be placed in the "capsule". Contrary to the sketch I didn't give her a scanner (yes, that's the thing she was holding in my scribble). I also decided to switch Vladimirs and Klausz' roles from the sketch and moved Vladimir forward.

As the idea was to have Wilma right at the front, obviously curious about whatever was outside, Vladimir a little more cautious behind her, and Klausz somehow still making his presence known from the back.

There was a lot of tinkering, getting the two of them to fit into the relatively shallow capsule. With only about 20 mm of depth, getting three characters in there without turning them into a flat wall of faces was probably the biggest challenge of the whole design.

But I got them in there and so I began to insert Klausz into position

With him it was rather difficult to get a decent pose

But I found a good one that did work just right

After that it was a lot of tinkering, substracting models and optimizing meshes to get them separated in a printable format

The first print

Didn't quite fit and I had to do some cutting and shaving

But the second print, with the assistance of some greenstuff did work out

And so I started painting!

I started with the lid, as I was sure the whole model would rise or fall with that image. It had to look like an actual old piece of expedition equipment rather than just a painted tin with some figures inside.

Argh! painting letters was never my strength

I briefly considered using printed graphics or decals, but in the end I wanted the whole thing to remain painted.

So there was a lot of back and forth and sanding

The lettering was probably the least forgiving part – there really isn't much room to hide mistakes on something this small. But I got to a point where I was happy with the result (so far)

And so I started with the actual model, setting the light.

With this I hoped that all three would be well visible, while Wilma would be clearly the focal point

But the first paint went on Klausz - no, he's not looking like me at all ;)

Would he be well visible deep down in the capsule?

It was fun painting him

And I was quite pleased with the result

So next up was Vladimir

For him I mixed a different skin color

And the uniform had to be completely different from the chocolate brown leather jacket

But the two of them came together nicely

So, on to Wilma!

Again another skin tone and her typical auburn hair

That looked nice already!

As for her uniform I decided to copy the pattern I used for the Carsendo Base diorama

Wow, they really came together

A quick greyscale check helped me see whether the three faces still separated clearly and whether Wilma remained the main focus.

And as the whole miniature together

Then the actual capsule needed some TLC, or rather some weathering and wear. Not too much, but convincing.

And I (tought I) was done!

Not quite!

The figures were finished, but the capsule and lid still looked a little too clean and separate from each other. Some wear and weathering was needed to make the whole thing feel like one object.
 

But this is it and here are the final images

I hope you enjoyed this little workbench post!
Cheers