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Hello everyone
As some of you may know, I do a fair amount of custom work involving Lego
minifigures. I've got a recent project I'd like to share the results of, and
also a question arising from that project. You'll find an image of the figure
in question, a Canada Post lettercarrier, here:
http://www.parlugment.org/res/events/ss2004/minifig.jpg
I'd be interested to hear what people think.
For comparison, the Canada Post site has a number of useful reference images of
real life lettercarriers for comparison, including these two:
http://www.canadapost.ca/business/corporate/about/newsroom/photo_centre/images/191_rgb.jpg
http://www.canadapost.ca/business/corporate/about/newsroom/photo_centre/images/LetterCarrier3.jpg
For reference material, I also spent a lot of time staring at passing
lettercarriers as they delivered the mail in our neighbourhood... :) One of
them had a red stripe on his jacket that I've used on the minifig.
The cap, both arms, torso and both legs are all painted in some way to match the lettercarriers' uniform. Unlike many people whose creations I see online, all of my work is done by hand using paint and brushes, rather than computer-generated decals and/or stickers. I suppose it comes in part from a 30-year background in painting wargames figures and other miniatures.
The background to this custom figure is a bit unusual for me, and has suggested
the question I referred to above. Please excuse a short descent into quasi-spam
territory, since it's relevant to the upcoming question. I've been making
minifig customs to order for several years now for customers in the Ottawa area.
The work (mostly comic- and anime-related characters) is done in dribs and
drabs, and doesn't often involve duplicate subjects.
Recently, though, I decided to try something new. This less heroic<*> subject
was one of two prototype figures for what I've called a "subscription series" of
customs. The intent was to tackle a large series of similar customs, if
everything worked out. This particular prototype went as a gift to one of the
members of ParLUGment in our recent Secret Santa exchange, and the other is in
my collection.
At the most recent ParLUGment meeting, I proposed making a series of similar
lettercarriers if enough of the members would pre-order them. I quoted a
substantial reduction in my usual price if quantities got large enough. I find
that once the design for a custom is worked out, it's a lot less fuss to
duplicate than one might think, if I work one all the duplicates at once. I
thought perhaps I could use this to help drum up some business.
In the end, I had 12 orders, so I spent some time painting away. I must admit,
that Canada Post / Post Canada badge on the figure's sleeve was a bit of a trial
to paint 24 times over on little tiny dark blue arms, but I persevered! :) In
any event, the figures were finished in time to help finance Christmas expenses,
and the responses I've received so far suggest that the various ParLUGment
customers are happy with them.
So (finally...) here's my question: how do others approach working on multiple
figures or similar projects? Do you find, like me, that working on all of them
at once works best? Or, does some other method work well for you and prevent
tedium?
Thanks for taking the time to look and read. Best of luck to all the other out
there who take brush, knife and chainsaw to innocent bits of ABS without
remorse!
Norbert Black
* mind you, given the weather of the past week up here in Eastern Ontario...
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