Maiwa: ready to be sent to the caster

[Duke Donald]

I recently offered to try to sculpt Maiwa for Plynkes. I liked the picture he posted and was interested to try something outside my comfort zone. I wasn't planning to start so early but my laptop died on me earlier today. I haven't lost anything as everything's backed up but I can't really work and I decided to take advantage of this unexpected mini work break to start the sculpt.

The picture that Plynkes posted:


And the armature:

[FifteensAway]

Had no idea who - or what - Maiwa was.  So, I regooglesearched and discovered she is a character in an H. Rider Haggard story.  For the benefit of those as ignorant as I was a few moments ago.

However, I must say your armature looks distinctively too large to be of any use to me.  A pox on the ants in your kitchen, sir!   

[Duke Donald]

Had no idea who - or what - Maiwa was.  So, I regooglesearched and discovered she is a character in an H. Rider Haggard story.  For the benefit of those as ignorant as I was a few moments ago.

However, I must say your armature looks distinctively too large to be of any use to me.  A pox on the ants in your kitchen, sir!   

Too large!? I assume you're gaming in 15mm!

She's 29mm to the eyes unposed, 1m shorter than a copplestone male warrior and 1mm taller than a copplestone rank and file female, which is the size I chose her to be. The ruler is behind her, which may make her look slightly taller than she is.

Anyway, now with a first layer of muscle on the lower part of the body:

[Plynkes]

FifteensAway is making sport with you, Duke Donald. As his name might suggest, he is a dyed-in-the-wool 15mm fanatic, and never lets an opportunity pass to bang that particular drum. He doesn't mean any harm.



As for myself, I am astounded and delighted at this turn of events.


Perhaps some background is in order. Maiwa is indeed a major character from an H. Rider Haggard short novel: "Maiwa's Revenge or The War of the Little Hand." She teams up with Allan Quatermain to make war on the tyrannical leader of a rival tribe who murdered her infant son. Quatermain has his own beef with the fellow and so becomes her military advisor as they take on a superior foe. The picture is a scene from the climactic battle where Maiwa's Nala tribe(who look rather Zulu-like) assault the rival Wambe (who in this illustration have a distinctly Basuto appearance) settlement.

A few pictures from the story...

The original full image that inspired this whole business...






Another illustration of the same scene from a different edition of the book...






Quatermain directing Maiwa's Riflemen...






If I'm honest I don't remember this scene (it's been quite a while since I read the book), but it looks pretty cool...

[Duke Donald]

Thanks for the background and additional images Plynkes. I wasn't sure whether FifteensAway was joking or was genuinely agrieved she may be 0.5mm too tall to his tastes. I'm relieved it is the former.

Thanks to my enforced break from work, I found an hour this morning to progress on the sculpt.

From the front, she already looks more human than stick insect:


And from the back, she's even recognisable as of the female gender:

[Duke Donald]

Body essentially done. Given her clothes, which aren't overly revealing, I tried to get the anatomy right but didn't spend too much time on the polishing phase.

[Plynkes]

Coming along nicely there! It's making me rather uncharitably hope that your laptop doesn't get fixed too quickly.

[Malamute]

Really enjoying seeing this figure come to life.
Also looking forward to seeing Monsieur Plynkes paint job on the finished article. 

[Duke Donald]

Coming along nicely there! It's making me rather uncharitably hope that your laptop doesn't get fixed too quickly.

Don't worry, I'm quite enjoying this enforced break myself.

Thanks Malamute, I'm also looking forward seeing it painted by Plynkes.

The mini's getting there. I had to make some difficult choices for the face. The two illustrations are radically different. I kept the expression of the first but tried to mix the two. I'm not too sure this was clever, as it took me much longer to sculpt than if I had based it just one one picture. I don't think it looks too bad, but it is difficult to tell before the hair has been added.

[Helen]

Enjoying this thread very much, thank you.

[von Lucky]

Coming along nicely.

[Dan]

Ha thats funny, the hair was the first thing I noticed.

[HerbyF]

Is this figure going to be available? or is it a one off for yourself? I think she would make a great officer for a Dahomey amazon corp.

[Duke Donald]

Thanks everyone for the comments. The figure may be available as a small series if there is sufficient interest. Though, note it would be in resin and it would be a delicate mini. Otherwise, I will send the sngle copy to Plynkes.

The last picture was a bit grim, here's some progress and a slighty better pic, with my cat in the background.

[Plynkes]

Ha ha! Now I'm thinking she's the priestess of the Giant Evil Cat God, not Maiwa at all. Rider Haggard did have a tribe that worshiped a great evil ape (guess what happens to it?*), and Holy Hippos, but I don't remember a giant cat. Wouldn't surprise me though, he did go a bit crazy towards the end of the series.


This is getting good. I find myself waiting for the next episode like it was Game of Thrones or something.





*SPOILER: Quatermain shoots it dead, like just about every other animal that he runs into.