The subtle art of miniature sculpture

You might not have realised it, but sculpture, especially miniature sculpture, is a very subtle art indeed. And it is very different from standard sculpturing. And I am here to tell you why. Okay, I do not have any kind of actual education on this subject. All I have is more than 10 years of miniature painting to fall back on.

Here's the thing:
When you sculpt a miniature that is meant to be cast in metal or plastic, packed up and sold unpainted, you must take two things into consideration, apart from making a kick-ass mini, obviously.



Firstly, you have to think about how the miniature "comes apart", as it were. If your mini is going to be cast in one part, fine, skip this, but if it comes in many parts, as a modelling kit or similar, you have to consider positioning on a casting frame and such stuff.

Secondly, as it is going to get painted at some point in its existence, you ahve to consider what I like to call layers. Layers?, you ask. Yes, layers. Like the layers in Photoshop. Upper layers come on top of lower layers (dur!), which means that, as any self-respecting painter knows, the lower ones are the ones you start painting.
It's kind of hard to explain in words, but most of the time, the skin of the mini is the lowest layer, and you start off with that and work your way "out", as it were.
This is pretty much standard; skin lowermost layer, then some clothing close to the body and out.
High Elf Spearmen are text book examples of this!

The skin is the innermost layer, then comes the leather shoes and the wood shaft of the spear. After that, white cloth, scales and finally the trim. Yes, the trim is actually on top of the scales layer.

So, all in all, it is important as a sculptor to take into account how the layers on your lovingly sculpted mini rack up, to make life bearable for the painters that come after.

Why I bring this up? You knew the rant and rage was coming at some point, right? Despair not, here it comes:

I have, as I now have nothing to do except chase grad. work until March, sat down and begun to finish off the belated Vostroyans to TotenVeloren on DevART. The first three (Grenadier, Medic and Vox-officer) were all painted in the same batch, as their layers lined up the same, or at least not too different from each other to be a hazzle for me.

The last three (Colonel, Standard bearer and Commissar) however, do not line up as far as layers are concerned. Not at all. I figured "well, fair enough, I'll just paint 'em one at a time. Only gonna put a minor crimp in the schedule". Heh...
The commissar and colonel have proved easy for my mind to "map out", no probs. It's the standard bearer that makes my gears grind.

Why?

Beacause the damn standard is the lowest layer instead of the skin and hair, and that the standard itself is layered in a very complicated manner. Urgh... It took me a while to wrap my head around it (I'm not a genius, just fairly smart, so I have limitations, you know!) but I think I've cracked it now.
The whole thing was kind of compounded by me not getting along with the standard at all. Don't ask. I don't think I can give a sane-sounding answer to it. But it is related to the fact that I prefer free-hand over painting over someone else's sculpted relief art. It's some trend they have at Citadel right now. Sculpting standard designs. Please stop doing it, for the sanity of decent free-handers around the world. At least give us a choice!