In today's world of miniatures the one thing we all desire is QUALITY and manufacturers realise this without a doubt , a recent example has been the re release of this review item from Broken Toad ....
why a re releases ...simply in the words of the owner Kris from Broken Toad: so

"Earlier this year we had to remove Skin Deep from sale due to various issues we had during casting, there weren't any issue with the model itself but we couldn't guarantee quality and were faced with a lot of miscasts which we couldn't use and refused to sell."

So all credit to them so lets look at the concept of this piece , the jester hiding his agony behind the mask due to the way society judge him and us in today's lifestyle , what we see is only skin deep underneath the exterior something else we can't see is there ..yet sometimes we all just see the beauty on the outside and not the inner.

The sculpting of the release has completely been redone meaning that all the quality that is essential to the customer and of course Broken Toad is there .

Details of the release:


Title: Skin Deep

Reference: BT-MB003

Scale: 1/10th ( Approx 80mm tall)

Material: Poly Resin

No of Parts: 21

Box Art: NA

Sculpted by: Roberto Chaundon and Dennis Zarnowski


Packing is in a lightweight but strong box with the logo on the box , no box art , the parts are held in plastic bags and put between 2 thick foam layers .

Parts consist of the main torso , right arm , hat pieces (x 4) , hanging wire ( x 4) , 4 small round balls , (headwear decoration in the form of heads (x 4) , face mask , ribbons for mask.

Be careful when opening the bags as there are some small pieces

Prep

Torso..Quick sand around the base
Right Arm...Dry fit and sand fitment peg down as needed.
Mask...Remove small casting plug
Headdress...fit 4 pieces into cutouts around head of his "crown", drill hole under each to fit wire and fit small heads and small balls as in picture above ( I would suggest drill)

That is it ...absolute minimal work and not a casting line anywhere on the pieces and I spent nearly 20mins looking !!!...So Kris has achieved the aim of the resculpting and re release....QUALITY

We will look at the main torso in this part

Starting at his "crown" , very nicely done with the 4 areas for the horns to be fitted into , dry fitting promised a filler free build , the casting is sharp and around the head we have diamonds and hearts , the band has vertical lines around it..

To the head now this is a great bit of sculpting one side being as we expect , the other has scars and spots and wrinkles ...very clever idea ..the mask is used to hide the truth..

With sculptors like Roberto and Dennis we can expect really good work and this shows in the face , nice features , particularly the nose and the eyes with the mouth with a single tooth in it in a downwards movement resulting in a sad face from both sides..

The back of the head is covered by the hood he wears under the fools crown with good folds and hanging naturally .

Clothing consists of the ruffles around his neck , these all show really good undercuts on both sets . with the under piece having a design running down the centre , nice laces holding it together .

This finally leads down to a cast in base , small to work with the bust itself and 5 sided.



Continued in next post

Nap

Now to the remaining pieces

Arm

There is just the right one in the kit , the other side is blanked off nicely on the torso , the right arm is bent at the elbow slightly raised , fit to the torso is good and accurate , no need for filler on the review piece. the sleeve is bloused out at the shoulder with some nice decorative work , the sleeve is long reaching to the wrist with lots of creases all very well done , the wrist end has a good incut showing a little of the wrist this naturally leads us to the hand itself ...

Worth a special mention , this is a hand of an old man , veined and wrinkled , the fingers are well shown with the finger nails all being worked onto the fingers showing as much sculpting care as the rest of the hand , the position of the hand is holding the mask itself.



Mask

Almost "Phantom of the opera" in style we have a mask over a facepiece , the actual face under has the mouth shut tightly , nice nasl details , the eyes are empty but it seems to look at you despite this ..strange eh!!!.
The mask has a slightly venetian look to it with swirl designs over the surface

Sitting well into the hand this portrays the image that others see not knowing whats under the mask...quite moving IMO.

There are 2 cutouts one each side ready to take the single ribbon that flows from each side.

The " Horns"

4 in total sculpting hanging , finger like in pose with a criss crossed design at the base , fit to the cutouts on the head are spot on .

You will need to drill to fit the wires and the balls 9after removing from the former) that hang from these.

Now to the Small Heads , these are on a former as with the balls and fit to the ends of the horns ...although there is no reason not to change them over . Fit will need a small hole into the top of the heads which has a flat bit for ease .

You get all 4 on one former so careful cutting them off ..they are small but they are one of my favourite parts showing skill in both sculpting and casting ....

and ALL are different , one is smiling , one is smirking ,one is miserable with the final one has his tongue out ...love them

Final Thoughts

So there you have it "Skin Deep" resculpted and re released in order to obtain the QUALITY we all so desire with all their piece ..has Kris and the taeam at Broken Toad one it with this ...MOST CERTAINLY YES so a big thumbs up from me.

Plenty of painting options here as well, so you can go wild as you want , the releases from BT are always different and the website is well worth having on your favourites .

For more details on this and others go to
Website: www.brokentoad.co.uk
or they are on FB as well as this forum ...well worth following on both

Thanks to you all for looking in and of course to for the Review piece

Nap

Lets have some more views of this piece

Nap

STOP PRESS ...
. will be at Eindhoven the SMC show this weekend 1/2 October with a brand new release ...catch it on FB ..a great bit of work from what I can see ...a pirate..with a difference ...Arrrrr.

PS ...Don't forget all the other products they do , Pigments , brushes , more busts all something different and much more