Wednesday 15 March 2017

Meet the Inmates: Dan Lavin

Hi, I'm Paul, and I'd like to welcome you back to The Asylum.

Today I bring you the first edition of our new continuing series, Meet the Inmates. Focused entirely on our readers, Meet the Inmates will bring you an insight into what your fellow hobbyists are painting, collecting and playing. From armies to armour, from Kings of War to Konflikt '47, we'll cover the many and varied splendours of both our beloved hobby, and you, our adoring public.

And so we come to our first Inmate ... Mister Dan Lavin!

Over to you, Danny Boy.


My name's Dan, and I've been involved in this hobby since 2nd edition 40k over 20 years ago. Since then I have moved onto bigger and more time consuming projects and armies, administrating the International Brotherhood of Hobbyists hobby group, and being an active member of various groups and forums. Most importantly I also run my own hobby page, Danse Macabre Painting.

Growing up I devoured Black Library novels. I really enjoyed the Gotrek and Felix series, so I was chuffed to say the least when I received a Dwarf Slayer bust from Clay Dreams Miniatures as a Christmas gift last year! The bust itself is 1/10 scale and stands approximately 45mm tall.  It's limited to 150 casts  and will set you back 15 euros (about £12). It's cast in a white-ish resin, with minimal mold lines and not a single air bubble. Cast in three pieces, it also features beard braids which need to be glued into place. The only thing I added to the bust was a display plinth. I would recommend drilling and pinning the bust to the plinth just to help secure the two pieces together.

The bust has lots of awesome (and challenging!) little details: the bulging vain on the side of his head. The various piercings and scars. The movement suggested by the hair, beard and angle of his head and shoulders. I also felt that the bust would be a good opportunity to try out some different techniques and practice painting skin (which is something I have never really enjoyed). I also wanted to see how far I could push the hair and beard just using drybrushing and washes.



Overall, I'm pretty happy with the bust. It's a superb sculpt and it's very reasonably priced. The size of the bust isn't too daunting if you are new to painting larger scale modes. I will certainly be visiting Clay Dreams Miniatures again in the future, and checking out some of their other products.


 
Inmates, please take a moment to thank Mister Lavin for both his time and for such an illuminating article. Be sure to be here the next we let another Inmate out of its cell. Until then...

...Stay crazy

3 comments:

  1. Thanks guys - great post (even if I am a little biased) ;)
    Hope to work with you again soon!

    ReplyDelete