In our miniature painting world sometimes we find precious jewels that stand out for its originality. Usually we run into these kits too late and when you want to buy them they are sold out already. What we bring you today is one of those cases (and fortunately, it has not sold out yet).
REVIEW
Here we have the latest release from a still barely known company which we are sure will have a lot to say in the future, ‘Miniature Madness’ from the Spanish sculptor Leonardo Escovar Quintero. Their first great big releases is this kit called ‘Smile!’. It’s composed of three busts representing three goblins (orcs or even trolls, whatever you prefer to call them in each case) that are having a party like the ones we used to have when we were kids, with lots of candy and coca-cola. This funny diorama is the one Leonardo took to enter competition in the last edition of the ‘Leganés’ contest, and took Gold in the Open category. Leonardo now offers copies of this great piece and they are sold, as a limited edition, in the catalogue of his company.
UNBOXING
As soon as the figure comes to our hands, we are surprised by this packaging.
Is it my birthday and I haven’t noticed? The kit is shipped in this particular way. With this detail, the company prepares us for the party we are about to find inside.
Inside the festive wrapping, we find a card indicating the copy number (very limited edition, 150 copies only), and a hard plastic blister, without any labels, that shows inside what appears to be a joke. The box is filled with confetti!
We open the blister. No, it’s not a joke. It’s a party!
We haven’t started taking the miniatures out of the box and the company already managed to put a smile on our face. Smile!
Inside the confetti we need to put some effort into retrieving all of the pieces that compose the diorama. There are a lot of them and they can be lost among so many coloured paper.
We finally take out all the pieces we find, and we see that the smallest ones come inside a bag of clear plastic, and the rest are swimming in the sea of confetti.
We take them out of the bag and we see that all the pieces are there.
As we can see, there are a lot of them, and that’s considering we missed a second bottle that we found after a second visit to the confetti!
Let’s take a look at the busts in detail. First, the goblin with the raised hand.
The first thing that comes to our attention are the small confetti bits on the model. Nothing that we cannot solve just by washing the pieces with soap and water before priming. We take a close look and we see no marks from the production process. We do not find any mold lines.
Regarding the sculpture, we see a lot of funny details. Check this little piglet out, the one wrapped around his arm. With details like this one, this kit can be the perfect gift!
Let’s see the other goblin now.
This goblin has a piece of paper in his hand, which can lead to many interpretations. On top of that, the goblin is making the sign of victory with his fingers. Just with this bust or the previous one alone give us multiple options, they can be used as standalone busts or as part of a bigger diorama.
With regards to production, in this one we also cannot see any mold lines or production defects. The resin is spotless.
Finally, the third bust, considerably bigger than the other two.
In this one, our favourite, Leonardo has done a really good job. These organic volumes can host a very pleasant painting. Just on its own this bust can be a great piece!
Here we can see the rest of the pieces from the kit (and now, with the second bottle we missed at first when unwrapping from the confetti).
To our surprise, we have a second piglet!
We can’t resist building it all up to check out the whole set.
With the confetti, this is a party!
CONCLUSIONS
This kit was a very nice surprise to us. These are some of the coolest miniatures to paint we have seen lately, because of style, originality and because they can be a wonderful option to paint as a gift. They have got it all!
PROS:
- Originality. If you are tired of so many soldiers and warriors, welcome to the party!
- It’s a very versatile kit. The idea to depict a goblin party is of course heavily encouraged by the sculpture, but with so many separate pieces, we can think of many many options to even do something outside the party theme.
- The quality of the resin and the copies. It seems there nearly won’t be any preparation required.
- The price of the complete kit is very competitive. It’s considerably cheaper than other bust kits of the same size.
CONS:
- Limited availability of only 150 copies.
- Some people may not find the topic of the miniatures attractive.
You can find the busts in the website of Miniature Madness.
And also, DON’T MISS WHAT COMES NOW! As a especial and exclusive detail for our readers and friends of volomir.com, Miniature Madness is offering a 3€ discount to the first five purchases that use the following code on their website: Volomadness
Run while they last, these are only for the first five!
