UK TEXT : This was a very, very hard choice.
In fact it’s pretty irrelevant this year to make such a post, as there was a lot of brilliant miniatures.
This is the finals miniatures I chose between all the different “best of the month” 2013 :
- The Walking Dead Diorama, by Emuse
- The Pixie from Mathieu Rouèche, Blacksmith Miniatures (sculpt by Valentin Zak)
- Volomir High Elf lord on dragon :
- And finally, Giu’s robot repairs, by Raffaele Picca
So many good miniatures…
All this five miniatures are really awesome. They all are above my skills, and in a very different approach and style.
To make a choice, the thing is to focus on little faults here and there, and try to forget all the good and crazy parts for a moment.
- The Walking Dead : All the scene is very clean and very easy to read. A pleasure on that. After it’s the airbrush aspect that kind of disturb me on some place. Like on the grey zombie. Also the manner to hide the connection foot of the character/car with some bricks. Very lucky to have some bricks here but not elsewhere on the diorama.
- The High Elf Lord : In fact it’s mostly the base, that is a bit too simple in kind of textures for my personnal taste, and with a water too colorful. And some very tiny parts of the painting that are a bit simple (like the black handle of the axe), but I know how hard it’s to make a such big miniature. And fore sure, Raffa did a stunning work on it !
- Giu’s : behind the incredible amount of work that represents this project, and the insane idea of such a piece, the scene is pretty frozen, and in details, the painting is good, but not extraordinarry. Or at least, not the best of Raffa. Even if it’s normal to “reduce” the painting aspect considering all the work to do behind the miniatures.
I also have to point, that, Raffa won the Best miniature 2011, was finalist in 2012, and is again on tracks for 2013. Really, Raffa is in my opinion, one of the very few crazy guys in this tiny miniatures world that is ours. And this piece is crazy without any doubt. It’s just difficult to make the balance between the technical aspect that makes this piece so “Woooowwwww”, and the only “miniature” aspect.
- The pixie : have an incredible painting level. And I love the cartoonish sculpting style of Valentin Zak. All the colors works together, the base is very well done. All is very well balanced. The only thing, is that’s maybe less ambitious than the others, and less charismatic. But this is normal, as it’s a commercial painting, on a miniature design to be sell. Yep you read it well. This is a studio paint job. Damned !
It’s in fact, a master work from the sculptor, the painter, and the company, to propose such a quality in the end.
- Hush : is a fantastic sculpt, have a very nice design, and the creative process showed during the step by step was impressive. All is crazy about it.
My final three (without order) became :
Giu’s (because of the crazyness of the project) , the pixie (for the perfect balance), and Hush. But, it became pretty obvious, by looking on the paper, that the only miniature I didn’t have criticism for, was…
Miniature of the year 2013 : HUSH by Chris Clayton.
Congrats to Chris Clayton for this fantastic bust, that’s a wonderful sculpt with a very ingenious painting.
Chris is knowed for his skills, but definitly, he won the point with this project. Don’t forget to take a look on the step by step he made about it.
