I have just received this little gem from Mr Lee's Mini's:

Title: Sad Fairytale
Concept and sculpture by Alina Ivanchenko.
Casting by Ownage.
Comprising 10 parts in light grey resin plus two rings in bright metal. A "thank you" card along with a Mr Lee's Minis sticker was provided for sticking to your paint box.


The bust depicts a beautiful, albeit sad looking Ukrainian girl in traditional dress with a headpiece from the Vinnichna region with lots of twisty, curly ribbons in her long hair. The assembled model will stand some 140mm high. Her head is around 30mm high.


The kit was well packaged and presented. The box for the parts is very nicely produced with an attractive coloured illustration of the subject by Alina. The parts themselves were comfortably held in "paper tagliatelle" to safely protect them from the rigours of delivery. Small parts were sealed in a zip-lock bag, as were the four ribbon castings in another.
The kit box was placed inside a corrugated cardboard outer packing and sealed plastic bag for delivery.


The crispness and detail of the castings is lovely. The casting for her long hair is quite heavy and features some projecting strands that my get damaged unless handled with care. A similar thing can be said for the amazing petal detail around her headband. I would think twice about discarding the tagliatelle before you start the build.


Holding all the parts together for dry fitting is a challenge which I failed to achieve, even though the caster has very thoughtfully included some small magnets in the joints at the neck and at the hair tress which work well and are a great idea. The joints were well prepared and only minor work will be needed to get a perfect result.
The model includes a circular base but not a pedestal. A 5mm circular rod of around 100mm length would fit the holes and provide sufficient height for the ribbons to hang. Do watch for interference between the pedestal and the hair casting before committing glue to either item. For the same reason, I suggest avoiding having a pedestal much larger in diameter than 5mm as I think this could be a problem.
The kit does not include any assembly instructions, but I found it easy enough to figure out what goes where from the plugs and sockets cast into the parts. There is one short ribbon that attaches towards the bottom of the hair tress in case you should be scratching your head about where it goes.
I hope these notes are of some help to those of you considering buying this kit. I'm delighted that Santa thought I had been a good enough boy to have it as a Xmas gift (but maybe my buying it myself was kind of force majeure....). I think it is a beauty and do hope that Mr Lee and Ms Ivanchenko continue with some more gems like this !
Pat

Cheers Pat - thanks for the pictures and review. It certainly is a bit off the beaten track and I've got to say really appeals to me. Casting and presentation look really fine.

(If I ever got around to one myself I'd be tempted to replace the cast 'tear' with a spot of clear resin or silicon perhaps? That's a very minor point though and certainly it looks really good painted up 'flat' like a cartoon character so should look brilliant when worked up a bit)
Nice touch to include the pedestal as well which saves having to find something suitable given it's likely to appeal to painters and collectors who might not usually 'do' busts.
Cheers
Paul

Very nice casting...

Very good review and bust. Thanks

Fantastic. This bust is seriously stylish.

Really great review Pat. It's a really nice and different bust and a good size to.

Gary