March Projects Reveal (Patreon)

Hey friends,

We haven't even reached mid-February yet, but most of our March projects are already deep under way. So we might as well start showing them now before we completely skip the WIP phase.

First of all, much to Milana's delight, Fern has won the latest anime poll after going toe to toe with three other contestants right until the last day. I am quite used to intense polls by now, but this one has managed to stand out even by our standards. And while on the subject, I intend to make good on the statement I made in Discord a week ago: Cha Hae-In has appeared in our polls a total of six times (coming very close to winning in 4 of them), so she is now banned from polls for life to make room for other contestants who haven't been given nearly as many second chances (or first ones, for that matter). She might still appear as an artist's choice one day, but we won't be seeing her in any polls anymore.

For our second model, we've got Cloud, who might soon compete for the title of the next largest model (although I really hope not). Yes, yes, I know, at this point probably only the laziest artists haven't sculpted an FF7 figure, so picking this one was not an easy choice, as we wanted to create something unique. Which is why we decided to go an extra mile and add the Caytona motorcycle. After all, this has been our local meme ever since Officer Vi, and I vowed to one day release a model with a motorcycle we'd be fully proud of. And you know what, this time we just might, as it is already a thing of beauty; Kai, the guest behind Aigis this month, made sure of it! And with Victoria sculpting Cloud, I'm confident we have nothing to worry about. Except for how much resin this whole thing will take... but such is the cost of greateness.

For Totenn's next project, we decided to pick something different, yet still challenging in its own way, and give him a chance to diversify his portfolio beyond fantasy characters. Tekken might not be overly represented in 3D printing world (especially compared to Street Fighter), so we intend to try and remediate it a little bit by creating Reina, a new character from the latest game. Time will tell if it was the right call, but hey, we keep experimenting each month!

And now that we've finished discussing the main lineup, I'll address our usual BG3 bonus models. Even back in November I made it clear we weren't intested in sculpting Shadowheart because by then a lot of other studios had either already finished or were about to create their own. And you probably know we are not big fans of doing the same thing as others, especially if it means joining the race so late. And yet, just around the time we released Mizora, I was offered an opportunity to purchase an unfinished Shadowheart model from another artist, Augusto Castelo, that they were about to give up on because the concept was very similar to what others had already done. I kid you not, even though I was not interested in Shadowheart when I first heard about it, I was deeply impressed by what I'd been shown and it simply felt a huge waste to let this project fade into oblivion. Which is why we made arrangements with Augusto to change the concept and finish the model. This figure simply deserves to be released, and we intend to see it through!

Now, all that remains is to talk about an extra model for our 1000 subscribers milestone. It was originally supposed to me Minthara, but we already released her this month despite not reaching the number. We may end up making the same mistake again, but it simply doesn't feel right to not have a model prepared by the time the milestone is reached. To my knowledge, at the moment Wyll remains the only origin character not represented by any larger studios, so I took it upon myself to approach Ulysses Finamore last week and ask whether he would be interested in sealing the pact to complement his recent Mizora. Seemed only fitting to offer the opportunity to the same artist, no? And luckily for all of us, he said yes!

Before I wrap up, I should also mention that we will not be allowing BG3 into our character polls anymore, because that basically defeats the purpose of having characters from other titles in them, and we would like for our models to remain diverse. However, if can reach 1000 paid subscribers, we will start accepting suggestions and run separate BG3 polls.

Cheers!
Des