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Sculptor preference


Patrick

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This has obvious interest to me considering what I do but here goes. My wife and I had this discussion on our way back from the paint club this weekend. I tend to favor both Tom Meier and Werner Klock lately for completely opposite reasons. Tom's stuff is obviously the most realistically rendered anatomy on the market. Werner's stuff tends to be more cartoony, but both have several figures where the facial features bear a striking similarity, particularly in the Elf ranges.

I still must give props to my all time favorite Jes Goodwin who gave us such fantastic figures as the (original!) Skaven and the Eldar.

Who is your favorite miniature sculptor and why?

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I have several (in no particular order) :

*) Jes Goodwin : characterful minis with clean details;

*) Brian Nelson : Mr Orc-master;

*) Jacques-Alexandre Gillois : probably the most precice sculptor on the market;

*) Allan Carasco : dynamic poses and a great sense in facial expressions;

*) Edgar Ramos : character and finess of the details.

Also, often, the studio artists are left out in these kinds of discussions. IMHO they play an important role because the sculptors often work from their designs :

*) Paolo Parente : where would Rackham be without him?;

*) Mark Gibbon : I love his dark style;

*) Stéphane Enjolras : a fonky dude :P.

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IMO- Brian Nelson is the best. In every way in every department. He could better any sculptor in any style you choose.

This may not be obvious based solely on looking at his releases from GW.

Also Juan Diaz is a personal favourite.

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- Kev White: Because his sculpts are so elegant and exquisite and fun to paint

- Edgar Ramos: He manages to infuse a very special kind of character into his sculpts. It's hard to put my finger on but most of the Wyrd minis and several of the ones for Sacred Blade has this.

- Jaques-Alexandre Gillois: He's probably the technically best sculptor right now. His Ilyad sculpts have the most amazing level of detail and subtleties I've ever seen.

There are several runners-up, as well: Werner Klocke, Allan C, Yannick Hennebo, Tom Meier, Raoul Latorre and probably a few more that's slipped my mind.

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Honestly, I don't pay attention too much to sculptors. After a while you do tend to notice a trend of stuff you like.

Far and away my favorite sculptor must be Jason Weibe. It always seems that a certain miniture will catch my eye, and inevitably it is one of his.

Thats not to take anything away from the other fine ones that have been mentioned. I am almost always about the mini first. Here is a few more that I really like that haven't been mentioned yet.

Andy Foster (Heresy guru) *EDIT* I see Gi6ers already got him!

Bob Murch (pulp figures)

Jim Bowen (Disturbia and Gotterdamrung)

Ben Siens (does a ton for Reaper)

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Looking at my miniatures and seeing the sheer size of the portion of figs from them in my collection Werner Klocke would be undoubtly first with a fair headstart, then Kev White.

I do however like other sculptors a lot too: Fitzpatrick, Chaz Elliott, Steve Buddle, Andy for the Heresy demons. I have to add the unnamed (or rather unknown to me) sculptors of rackham but then mainly the dwarves and goblin fractions one(s). And i probably forget tons of sculptors is this list.

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Kev White is my favorite. I like is less detailed style, it is a lot of fun to paint, and gives the painter a ton of freedom. Plus a lot of his minis have a very cartoony look that is still grounded in good anatomy, and I really like that.

I'm also a big fan of Chris Fitzpatrick. Like Kev, he has a bit of a less is more approach. Plus his minis just have a natural grace about them. I'm not sure how he does it but i like it.

I'm also growing to like Felix Paniagua's stuff. He goes heavier on the detail, but does it well. His minis usually just feel raw, primal, and powerfull. Very cool stuff.

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First up, thanks to anyone above who felt I was worthy of inclusion in their lists. It's always good to know that I'm doing something right :)

But, to the task at hand.

Brian Nelson - Yeah, got to echo Mirlo's point. Brian is just the total package. I've seen a lot of sculpting styles from him over the years (including his beautiful large scale figs at Euro Militaire) and he just gets it bang on every time. He's often associated with the Orcs but he's done a whole lot more than that.

Jes Goodwin - Probably the only sculptor that was producing work in the 80s that still really stands up for me. My only problem is that he's not given us a huge amount of non-space marines in recent years. But when he does, it's usually something special (Nurgle Chaos Champs for example).

Tom Meier - A real style thing here. Technically nobody touches him. About the only thing I'd disagree with in Morlo's point on Brian Nelson is that I don't think even he can match that crazy detail that Tom produces. Even with that much fine detail his minis are crisp and paintable. I'd still side with Brian if forced, but Tom is the master technician.

Other honourable mentions...

Jaques Alexandre Gillois - He's showing an insane amount of promise but it's only recently that he's really stepped up in quality to rival the above and so I'm waiting on seeing more of a variety of minis.

Chris Fitzpatrick - The definition of paintable figures in my view. Very stylised but just a dream to paint.

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There are a lot of names I didn't recognize in some of those lists. I will definitley have to check out some of their work. Do any of you have links to share too?

Here's a guy I didn't see mentioned but I kinda like his stuff too.

Jerzy Montwill

A couple of the poses are a little stiff but that may be something translating the 2D concept art. Pretty cool stuff though.

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