I had this idea to create both a full body miniature and a bust utilizing the same sculpt. I haven’t attempted a project like this before but I knew several things that would need to be considered and learned several more along the way. I’m writing this to share the things I learned and hopefully give you some things to consider for your next project.

The sculpt I wanted to create was a Christmas version of my company’s mascot character, Lunette. She’s a moth and caretaker of a magical library where she guides curious readers through the various fantasies and adventures behind each cover in her collection. For this version of Lunette the idea was that she snuck into The Night Before Christmas, stole an elf’s clothes, and started tampering with Santa’s naughty list. Here was the initial concept art:

I liked a lot about the early sketch but moving to the sculpt phase highlighted a lot of areas that weren’t working. The clothes weren’t feeling stolen, or particularly elf like without color. Instead it was looking more like a cave woman or fairy.

Going back to my original idea I brainstormed some ways I could rethink the costuming to better convey the story. I pulled up lots of references for different Christmas elves and made notes about the elements I liked or thought would work well. I ended up with this:

I liked how the awkward lengths of the sleeves and pant legs were reading more like these clothes didn’t belong to her and the Santa style belt seemed like a strong Christmas element. I was feeling pretty good about this direction and ran it by a few trusted friends. They thought it was looking more like a pirate than an elf. I could see what they meant and went back to my references to see what else I could use to really convey the Christmas vibe.

One of the things I noticed was the triangle edges on a lot of the collars, cuffs, skirts and such. I really liked the long tailed vests and thought adding some lace would bring in that homey/authentic quality. Thinking more about how to push the idea of the clothes being too small for her.

This was finally working. The triangle edges for the cuffs and pointed shoes were looking very elf-like, the unbelted shirt allowed me to push the tightness of the buttons and awkward length of the vest further. I split the pants along the seams a bit and we were ready to move on to polishing.

A common misconception about creating busts is that the sculptor can simply chop off the head or top third of the figure, stick it on a box or cylinder, and call it a day. The truth is that a lot of things that need to be exaggerated to look right at 34mm would look terrible at 75mm. The hands are a good example of this. At full figure scale the hands and pen needed to be very oversized and bulky to not only be understood and paintable at scale but also to minimize weak areas like thin wrists and tiny pen nibs. Here’s a closer look at the level of exaggeration needed at the 34mm scale.

In the mini version you can see they are very oversized and chunky. My main unit of measurement here is ensuring the pen is at least 1mm thick and then adjusting the hand around that marker. Less than 1mm will create very very thin and breakable areas. When sculpting for casting you cannot break the 1mm rule, honestly it's a good rule of thumb even for printing to ensure durability. Though modern printers are certainly capable of rendering smaller detail, the first time you accidentally knock it off your table you'll be breaking out the super glue. I want the things I make to last and prefer a chunkier style anyway so I do my best to ensure that thinner areas are at least 1mm thick.

The button detailing on the vest is also simplified compared to what will be needed in the bust. Though no one will likely ever notice, every wrinkle in this fabric was redone by hand on the bust to accommodate the larger scale and greater level of detail. Though I've made the figures roughly the same scale in the above photos to give a direct comparison it's important to put that into context. Here's an accurate scale difference between the two models:

So let's take a look at where we ended up with the final figure...

Moving on to the bust I started thinking about plinth designs and collecting some reference images. I don’t have a lot of experience creating plinths and it’s a task that still intimidates me a bit. I do love having the space and freedom to really play with shapes and patterns and add to the story of the character through the basing design. Since the theme of my Tribes release this month is going to be The Nutcracker I’ve been looking at quite a few nutcrackers and getting really inspired by some of the more elaborate versions of them.

The next step is deciding where to have the figure end. The only hard and fast rule on this topic is to never “cut” a figure at a joint. Instead of cropping the body at the shoulder, consider cropping it along the center of the forearm or between the shoulder and neck instead. You are more likely to convey that this is part of a larger image/scene and less likely to communicate that your character has suffered some terrible trauma. There are plenty of similar images if you feel stuck but here's a general overview of where to properly crop the figure and what the results of that look like.

With all that in mind I set to work sculpting the base and came up with this design:

I knew she needed to keep both her arms in order to retain the story component. Which didn’t leave a lot of areas to cut it. I really loved all the designs on the plinth and how it felt like the imagery supported and expanded on the story of the figure. Adding in Santa and his reindeer to the plinth also inspired me to put Santa’s wax seal on the bottom of the naughty list. I experimented with adding this element to the full figured version but it just wasn’t legible at scale and seemed to be more confusing than helpful. I shrunk the hands and pen like I initially planned to do, detailed out the lace patterning in the sleeves that were too small to do before, and retouched all over the figure to ensure things looked good at the larger scale. There was a lot about this that I felt was working but it still felt a bit awkward. My husband pointed out that she looked like she was coming out of a birthday cake.
He was right, the silhouette was not benefiting the figure and the awkward placement of the junction between the figure and the plinth was distracting from the overall flow of the piece. I tried angling the top rim to give a more dynamic slice but that didn't fix the issue. After some more brainstorming we decided to crop her a little higher and make the plinth overall more bell shaped. I loved this idea as it had a nostalgic Christmas feel to it and made a much more pleasant overall silhouette. Here's a look at the final pieces, I hope this was a fun look into the making-of process and that you like our Christmas Lunette as much as I loved creating her!

For many more articles like this, an assortment of models, and other fun content, join my tribe! https://www.myminifactory.com/users/moonlightminis

Buy Christmas Lunette Bust: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-christmas-lunette-bust-199423

Buy Christmas Lunette Figure: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-christmas-lunette-199422

Happy Holidays from our family to yours! ❤️

Moonlight Minis- Christine Van Patten