Production Update 7

It will soon be time to start collecting data.

=== The surveys have NOT gone out yet. ===

We will be sending them out beginning NEXT WEEK! I will be posting another update with more pics of the Babes that are done at this point between now and then. This will give you an idea of what to expect from the other pieces not yet completed. That way we can go ahead and start scheduling our production runs.

Assorted Sundry

Keri turned in the final art for Dusty!

Bearing in mind that there are lots of other things to do in addition to sculpting the Babes themselves, I was able to knock out some of this side work and get that wrapped up. There is still a lot of lead time on some of the digital and resin pieces that will require printing and silicon molding. In order to accommodate that I have finished these up first in order to get those off to the contract casters.

Here are the Sidekicks that are finished so far.

As posted previously, I made a 3D sprue for the base tabs on the figures with the Bombshell imprint. This file has been printed by the vendor and it will be going to mold next week to test the viability of the printing resin in the vulcan molds.

The base accessories have been completed and are off to the caster. Here are some shots of the ammo base insert in progress.

I needed to also make a couple of larger base inserts for The Atomic Punks creature and Shunkaha.

The next batch of digital files will include Maelee's wrench and Sally's rocket pack. This will allow me to put the parts together for the Sci-Fi sprue and have that mastered.

There are still some details to add on the rocket pack. So far I've learned a fantastic amount about ZBrush. All of these skills will come into play next in putting the HS38 Rocket Bike together. Once these parts are printed they will be going off to Valiant for molding.

NEWS

Many of you are aware that over the holiday weekend our male cat Shas'tan had a medical emergency requiring hospitalization. We brought him home today and he's finally eating and passing fluids properly. Thank you for all your well-wishes as we endured this traumatic time.

Due to both the holiday and our family emergency, I was not able to complete the pieces and get them out to Reaper for molding as expected. Over the next few days I will be playing catch-up at the workbench and posting new pics of what I can before we start sending the surveys. If all goes expected, we should be making our first masters later in the coming week.

~Patrick
The Sculptdude

Production Update 6

Many of you have asked

=== The surveys have NOT gone out yet. ===

We will be sending them out once more sculpts are completed at the beginning of December.

Kickstarter recommends sending the survey near the shipping stage of fulfillment in order to verify everyone's address is up to date. We will have to send it considerably sooner than that to get an idea of how many copies of everything to order.

We are at the half-way point of the Production Process

I would like to say that half of the work is done, but that's not really an accurate way to describe the schedule curve. As we get closer to fulfillment the amount of completed work will increase exponentially. Hang in there.

I'll have more cool stuff for you next weekend. For those of you in the States. have a great holiday!

~Patrick

Production Update 5

We got some preliminary color roughs in from Keri and the final painting on Professor Karrick and Thulle from Patrick McEvoy.

Other progress is coming along for making things.

The girls are all lined up and ready for me to give them some putty lovin' this month. I also need to finish out a whole batch of accessories that will need to mastered as well.

The first batch of digital files are just about ready to go for a test print. The base inserts should be ready to go to mold this coming week. I added some client tabs on there too just to cut down on the repetitive work a bit.

The Experiment

Sally's helmet has been in my head for  couple of years now. I know Naismith did some big helmets for the Cobalt-1 figures several years ago and I think the idea is sound. I have wanted a space girl figure with a bubble helmet since the first Chronoscope pieces I sculpted for Reaper.

I laid out some of the basic shape profiles in order to create a mold for the vacuform. The various proposed shapes will lend themselves not only to helmets but also other pulp sci-fi designs like robots and brain tanks!

So, the vacuformer arrived along with some clear plastic stock and over the next few weeks I'll be making a few test forms for the helmet shapes. I don't even know if it will work yet, but the theory is sound.

Thanks for hanging in there. More next week!
Patrick

Production Update 4,

Sculpting is coming along. Nowada is almost finished and the anatomy on the Sword Maiden is blocked out.

Several new armatures are posed and ready to go on the next batch of Babes.

Kevin also completed the iSlug Sidekick.

I have been noodling with ZBrush and go the basic structure of Maelee's wrench blocked out.

NEWS

The next round of sculpts will need to be completed as soon as possible to get our first batch off to the master mold maker. As you can see from the mold layout there is space for several more Babes and quite a few Sidekicks. The plan is to get this mold pressed before the end of the month.

More stuff next Friday. Lots of new things on the schedule for this week.

Patrick

Production Update 3

There are lots of "behind-the-scenes" activities going on here at the Bombshell Factory. Most of this has involved setting up some stuff in QuickBooks in order to track things like income and outgoings. In order for me to be productive, this kind of organization is key so that things are lined up and not subject to be a distraction while sculpting.

We finalized the payment for some of the artist this week and did a little contract signing for the Dixon license. I got some color comps in from Keri for Meagan & Dusty and they look great. I'll post the final paintings once they are approved. Painting has started on some of the other characters as well and I'll update you on the progress as soon as I hear back on them.

In addition to finishing up some other over-due client work to ship out, I was able to put together a few more armatures and start filling out the anatomy for the Sword Maiden.

I've also created the blanks for our resin base inserts. The 50mm insert is still a bit rough around the edges, but the 40mm and 30mm are fitting in just fine. These pieces will be molded and cast in resin. These resin blanks will be used to model the actual scenic base inserts which in turn will get their own molds for production casting. I have it on good authority that we may have found a local supplier for plastic gaming bases in these sizes and will be able to offer them with the Babes. I'll post more on that as it develops around the end of the year.

Bombshell Digital is almost operational. The delay has been getting the correct HDMI cables for the monitors and an AirPort card in order to move the existing system to a more accessible area. In the interim I have some great resources to reduce the learning curve as much as possible. As an existing sculptor with experience in other 3D software along with being a Photoshop "power-user" I expect the curve not to be as steep as it could be otherwise. Really looking forward to posting some renders for you all.

Checking in with Kevin this week, he has armatures put together for the iSlug Sidekick and the Thulle piece that goes along with Professor Karrick. As soon as there is some anatomy blocked out on them I'll try to post an update pic.

That's all for this installment, Next week I hope to have a larger selection of pics of the sculpts for you. Hang in there.

~Patrick
The Sculptdude

Production Update 2

Let's get right to it. I have made some progress on Nowada and finished the main sculpting on Sally.

I generally sculpt directly over a wire armature and build up the material in layers. Bombshell Miniatures officially endorses Kraftmark's Procreate as the preferred sculpting material of choice. Sally has just about everything finished except the hands and rocket pack. Her gear will be created and printed from ZBrush. These items will also be available as part of the Sci-Fi equipment sprue.

The ring on Sally's collar may need to be extended a bit. Once the vaccuform table comes in and I can get some test casts of her helmet this will give me a better idea of how the parts will fit together.

NEWS

For those asking, if you would like to get art directly from Matt Dixon, you can head on over to his web shop and get it directly from him. He has a set of Dixon's Vixens cards available with many of the Babes we licensed for miniatures.

Things are starting to roll forward at a good clip. All of the bussiness nonsense is now completed, registering the name and setting up our new bank account along with tax allocations. I have upgraded a little bit of hardware and software here and ZBrush is up and running. I still have a good selection of print vendors to test the files once I get some printable pieces to send.

Over the next week, in addition to sculpting more Babes, I will also begin on the base inserts so we can start on the initial molds for those. There are a few sidekicks waiting for attention too.

See you next Friday!

~Patrick
The Sculptdude

Production Update 1

Fellow Bombardiers, I have been working diligently for the past couple of days to get some work done on the sculpts. This batch is getting close to completion. But first a couple of items to address.

KICKBACK

We will be sending the Kickstarter Survey™ either late in November or early December for you to choose your Kickstarter Rewards. This will be the primary way we will package your items so it will be important to include everything you want the Kickstarter pledge to cover. If you have added items on via PayPal Donate, those will be added to your Kickstarter rewards package.

If you add to your pledge amount via the PayPal Donate page you should be able to indicate what the extra amount is for in the text box on the payment page. Also include your Kickstarter screen name so we can match up what you will be getting.

WORKBENCH

As promised here are the shots of the stuff in progress. Betty has an all new face. I also increased the thickness of the legs from front-to-back in order to compensate a bit for mold compression. I don't have access to my regular lighting rig and will get better pics of these once I get back to the studio.

Tim has been sitting next to me at the conference and has expressed that he's very pleased with how she looks in person.

Maelee has a new hairstyle.

Vivian gets a bit of diving suit gear, hat and hair.

Nowada gets a bit of costuming and an axe.

Bomb Squad contributors Martin Jones (L) and Kevin Williams (R) are working on leveling up!

Top sculptors (L - R) Jason Wiebe, Gene Van Horne, Bobby Jackson, Julie Guthrie, and Bob Ridolfi are also in attendance lending their expertise.

More work is on its way including Sally and a few critters. Will post more soon!

~Patrick