Final Days of Sculpting Course Kickstarter!

We would like to announce that the Sculpting Courses by James Van Schaik kickstarter is entering its final days.  We would like to issue a warm thank you to all of the backers who have made the project successful and James is looking forward to teaching you all in the classroom.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the kickstarter yet, it is a series of eLearning courses with the everyday hobbyist and modeller in mind.  The courses are complete guides to sculpting and modelling specific techniques and each course offers a wide range of resources for students.

High definition, non-time lapsed videos will show students exactly what they need to do to sculpt a detail or technique.  In addition, helpful pdf and power point guides will take students through the steps and will highlight important aspects of the technique.  References are provided as applicable and all of the classrooms have an eLearning campus where students can connect with peers and with James Van Schaik himself.  It is more than just a sculpting tutorial; it is an eLearning course that has been designed with the same thought towards curriculum as a college course.

Right now, with the kickstarter, all of the backers will receive savings of up to 75% of what the regular prices of the courses will be.  Plus, they are receiving many free courses and add ons at low prices for as little as a $15 pledge.

So if you have ever held a paintbrush and wondered if sculpting was something you could do, don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn all your modelling and conversion skills from a 15 year veteran of the sculpting industry. 

The kickstarter ends December 9^th so back it now!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1389554987/modeling-and-sculpting-course-videos-by-james-van?ref=home_location

Only 7 days left of the Sculpting Courses Kickstarter

With only 7 days to go and many rewards that are still to be opened up, there has never been a better time to learn how to convert your own miniatures and models. All of the courses in the core course lists are designed for the everyday hobbyist. If you can paint, you can learn how to do conversion on your models and miniatures.

Fire For Effect Studios and James Van Schaik are happy to announce the “Learn to Sculpt Miniatures” Kickstarter is close to smashing another stretch goal and will be unlocking more great rewards for backers for as little as a $15.00 pledge, and even more rewards at the higher levels.

So spread the word and share the kickstarter with your friends to learn how to convert your miniatures and make them a cut above all the rest. Don`t miss out on once in a lifetime prices on these exciting courses and back the kickstarter today!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1389554987/modeling-and-sculpting-course-videos-by-james-van?ref=home_location

Drawing a Mascot

Before I became a sculptor, I loved to draw.  I drew constantly.  Actually, as far back as I can remember, I have always had a sketch pad and a pencil lying nearby and whenever I had the opportunity, I would spend my time drawing.  In elementary school, I went to extra art classes and I loved it.

Art was always my favorite subject in school and my dad's miniature company gave me plenty of inspiration when I began painting and finally sculpting miniatures. 

While drawing was my first passion when it came to art, I haven't had much opportunity to draw over the years.  Work, family, ect has cut back on time I can draw and, of course, I do like different R&R time now, such as World of Tanks.

But what am I getting at?  Simply that I took the time to draw Sgt. Grumpy from my logo.  I had planned on hiring an artist to draw him but the more I looked at him, the more I wanted to take the time to draw him myself.  So I set aside some of my free time, sorry WOT, and sketched out this concept art.  I will be sculpting him but for now, I wanted to share the piece.

Over the next few weeks, I will pull out some of my old sketches that I did years...and years ago.  My wife, who hates clutter and actually had a bonfire with collectable cards (a horror story to tell another day and no, it wasn't during or after a fight), refused to let me get rid of them and has them safely tucked away.  When I get a change to scan them in, I will share the pictures with you.

But for now, here's SGT. GRUMPY.

Note:  If I refer to him as Sgt. Stumpy from time to time and don't catch it in edits, just ignore it.  I always think of Sgt. Stumpy who was a war dog in WWI.

And here is an alternate Christmas Version.

Stretch Goal and Pro Sculptor 2 for 1 sale on Kickstarter

Another stretch goal has been reached and to celebrate, Fire For Effect Studios and James Van Schaik have opened up several stretch goals that are free to all backer levels as well as some that are open to select backer levels. What that means is backers get more for their investment and can start earning free rewards with a backing level of only $15.

With the second stretch goal opened up, backers can receive 4 free QuikTec courses that are available to pick 1 and up backers. These courses are quick, mini courses that look at a specific detail techniques, such as sculpting cigars. They are quick to take, most taking no more than 15 to 30 minutes of your time and add a wealth of character to your miniatures and models.

In addition to the free QuikTec courses, backers who pledge at a pick 10 and up level receive 4 free courses. These are complete courses that can be taken on their own or with other courses available by Fire For Effect Studios.  

Finally, Fire For Effect Studios is offering pick 5 and up level backers 7 add on courses for as little as $5 to $20 dollars depending on the course. These are courses that are above the 30 core courses the company had planned on producing. With every stretch goal, the Fire For Effect Studios will increase the number of courses that they will produce.

At the next stretch goal of $10,000, Fire For Effect Studios will be opening up 3 free courses for a total of 7 free courses for level 10 and up backers, another 4 free QuikTec courses for a total of 8 free courses for pick 1 and up level backers and 2 more add ons for a total of 7 add on courses and 2 add on reference figures.

In addition to the stretch goals being reached, Fire For Effect Studios is offering a limited sale on Pro Sculptor courses. These sales are buy the male anatomy pro sculptor course and receive the female anatomy pro sculptor course free of charge. As well as purchase the male superhero pro sculptor course and receive the female superhero pro sculptor course free of charge.

Check out the kickstarter today for more details. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1389554987/modeling-and-sculpting-course-videos-by-james-van

Fan Appreciation Contest

Wow, it has been a busy two days.  Before I get into the contest, I would like to take a minute to thank my wife. She is the person behind the keyboard who is updating the kickstarter and making everything run smoothly. 

While she has been busy working on the kickstarter and business end of everything, I have been happily sculpting along for my clients.  It is exciting to see the kickstarter doing so well and while I would love to watch the computer, my wife is the tech savvy person in the family so it is just safer if I check on it over her shoulder.  Also, I want to make sure that I get my client's miniatures done and shipped out for them.

If you have a question about the kickstarter, you can email her at fireforeffectstudios@gmail.com and address it to Sirena.  She will have all the answers to your questions.

But right now, I wanted to take my lunch break to announce a fan appreciation contest that we will be running on the Fire For Effect Studios Facebook Page.  This contest will have the following prizes:

Ultimate Prize Win 1 Free Commission: 32mm Figure of any genre.

In addition, we will be raffling off a number of greens, miniatures and copies of miniatures that we have here.  So there should be something for everyone.

What you need to do to win:

For this contest, there are a few things that we will need to do as a community and it is very important.  This contest will only happen if we reach the goal. If we don't, then the draw won't happen.

So, between now and December 9th, we need to raise the number of fans who like our facebook page to 5000 for the Ultimate Prize to be raffled off.

However, if we reach a goal of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 likes, we will be raffling off miniatures and greens, more details to follow.

To enter in to the contest, you must do the following:

1. Like the Fire For Effect Studios Page
2. Like and Share this image and link on facebook.
3. Relax and wait for the draw

And that is it.  No muss, no fuss.

We are raffling off three different types of items.  For warhammer 40k fans, we will be raffling off 10 marines throughout the contest; for heroclix fans, we have super rare, resin preproduction copies of miniatures that I received when I worked in studio; and for fantasy fans, we have a bunch of fantasy greens that I have kept over the years.  Here is a photo of some of the items in the raffle.  More details will follow the closer we get to a draw.

Thanks for all of your support in getting my studio name out there. 

Kickstarter is Live!

James Van Schaik and Fire For Effect Studios are proud to announce the launch of their kickstarter.  It is an exciting initiative that brings the world of sculpting techniques to everyone through comprehensive, easy to follow, sculpting classes.

The courses offered are high quality courses filmed in HD without time lapse on techniques. You see everything as it is done, clearly and concisely, so you can learn the skills you need for adding to existing models and miniatures or sculpting your own. The courses will include a virtual classroom, several modules for each course, PDF quick cheat guides, module notes and references for students. There will also be a course forum for one on one attention from James Van Schaik while you are learning.

These courses are designed for everyone, whether you are new to using putty to enhance your models and miniatures or not. All skill levels, all jobs, learning that is easy and enjoyable.

The kickstarter runs from November 19th until December 9th and we are offering great incentives to backers of the project.  Courses are offered at over 75% off what they will be when released to the general public.  In addition, some great miniatures are being offered to backers including a chance to have your own private commission from James Van Schaik. Stretch goals are planned with the opportunity to receive free courses and special add ons.

For more information on our sculpting courses, you can read the descriptions at http://www.f4estudios.com/f4e_studios_009.htm or back our kickstarter today at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1389554987/modeling-and-sculpting-course-videos-by-james-van

Housekeeping, Winners and a Figure

Good morning, good morning, good morning.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I did for the most part but spent a lot of it working.  The live of a freelance sculptor often means that I work weekends but there are a lot of perks to the job as well.

One of them are the figures that I get to sculpt for clients and I have a few that I am working on that I am really happy for.  I will definitely put them up as soon as my client releases the figures as I have to stick to NDA agreements and wait.

But today, I thought I would post a new figure that I wanted to show everyone. That is, after all, a big reason for this blog, to showcase work I have done.  Last week was really busy with news about the launch of my own studio and a few of the initiatives for the business.  While the sculpting classes are going to be a lot of fun, the majority of my work day is dedicated to clients and I will continue posting photos of the work I have done for clients over the years and continue to do.

With that being said, I do have to make one announcement for the studio and that involves the two contests that were running over the weekend for 1 of 5 miniatures.  The cut off date was this morning at 12:00am EST so when I woke up, the first thing I did, after having a coffee, is draw the names for the winners.

If your name was drawn, please email me at fireforeffectstudios@gmail.com to send me your shipping address.

For the facebook contest, where you needed to like and share the Fire For Effect Studios facebook page and post, the following people won a miniature.  The winners are:

Sean Wesley Johnson
Lee Foster
Mark Farebrother
Richard Poffenberger
Adam Beanish

Congratulations on your win.  Again, send me your address, either on facebook or at the email listed above and I will get them shipped out as soon as possible. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for the miniatures to get to you as I am working with Canada Post ;).

The forum contest was similar and all that was needed to register and post an introduction.  Unfortunately, we are just going by usernames for the forum so if you see your username here, send me a message with your shipping address.

And the winners for the forum contest are:

Pserratv
Epsilon
Thyrm
Mlaw
Neidzweidz

Congratulations on your win and the same thing, please allow 4 to 6 weeks for shipping.

So the only other housekeeping is to announce that I will be having a contest for you to win your own private commission from me in the next week or so.  There will be free miniatures, scifi and other, including some of my own personal heroclix that will be signed.  It will be run through facebook and will be running during the time that my kickstarter is running.  If we can get enough fans by a certain date, we will do the draw.  But I will post the details when the contest begins.  Just to let you know, no purchase is necessary.

And that is it, now I want to share a few figures that I did for Mierce Miniatures.  These were for their kickstarter that they had.  I had a lot of fun with these figures and they are "historically themed" miniatures.  They do have an alternate timeline with fantasy.  And as you know, when I get the chance to do something historical or involving a superhero, I have a lot of fun sculpting them.  So here are a few of the miniatures that I did for them.

Kickstarter Announcement and Sample Course Video

I have mentioned this several times this week but for an official announcement, I am launching a kickstarter.  For over 7 years, I have been teaching sculpting techniques to modellers, converters, modders, and aspiring sculptors.  It has been a process that has included writing several books on complete sculpting for people who have been in my courses and doing a number of video tutorials on here.

Through all of my teaching, I have found out one secret that many people don't realize...Sculpting can be done by anyone.  Even if you don't think you have a creative bone in your body, you can sculpt and make your miniatures go from ordinary to extraordinary.  Sculpting relies on two things; practice, which you will get over time, and techniques, which I will teach you.

While I could go through doing a full figure from start to finish, which I do have a course for, the average hobbyist doesn't want to do that.  Instead, he or she wants to learn how to add a skull to a shoulder pad or do a head swap or make a custom base.  All of the courses have been designed with this in mind.  Each course focuses on one technique that range in difficulty from beginner to advanced.

All of the courses will be offered online through an eClassroom.  In addition to high definition videos, each course will have module notes, quick guides, references and resources. Every course has its own online campus forum to get advice from me and to post your work and homework...and yes, there will be homework that you can do when you get the time...or not at all if you prefer.  The online campus forum is also a community to connect with other students and peers.

If you aren't sure whether these courses would work for you, take a look at the list at http://www.f4estudios.com/f4e_studios_010.htm for basic, http://www.f4estudios.com/f4e_studios_011.htm for intermediate, http://www.f4estudios.com/f4e_studios_013.htm for advanced and http://www.f4estudios.com/f4e_studios_014.htm for the sculpting apprenticeship programs.  As you can see, there really is a course for everyone.

The kickstarter will be the start up cost to produce 30 of the courses and get them hosted onto the virtual classroom.  Anyone that buys in at the kickstarter level will receive up to 75% off the regular price of the courses as well as free courses and kickstarter exclusive perks depending on the perk level you buy in at.

But enough about the kickstarter.  Below is an excerpt of the blending module from my course on Basic Sculpting Techniques.  There are 6 modules total, so 5 in addition to this one, covered in this course alone and with the kickstarter, depending on the level you buy in on, you could get the course for as low as $10.  This includes a 1 month access to the classroom when you activate your code to download your videos and files, which you can do whenever you want, and a lifetime access to the classroom forum.

So here is the video.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  The kickstarter is launching November 18th, 2013.

Name our Mascot Winner

Thanks everyone for your entry into the Fire For Effect Studios Name our Mascot Contest.  After tallying up the votes, duplicate votes weren't counted, the winner of the contest, by 1 vote, is Sgt. Grumpy by Lazaro Arellano.  

Congratulations Lazaro.  Please private message me or email me at fireforeffectstudios@gmail.com with your address and I will get your copy out to you on Monday morning.  

If you didn't win the contest and would still like to win a free miniature, be sure to enter my contests running on facebook and my forum right now.

Name the Mascot Voting

Thank you to everyone who entered a name into our Name the Mascot contest.  There were some amazing names submitted and it was hard to narrow it down to the top 10.  But after some careful consideration, I did just that.  Here are the 10 finalists, in no particular order:

1. Sgt. Mayhem by Austen Sweet
2. Sgt. Grumpy by Lazaro Arellano
3. Sgt. Pork Chop by mike szokola 
4. Sgt. Hobo by Brandon Hakker
5. Sgt. OddDog by Dave McKay
6. Sgt. Zodian by Sean Wesley Johnson
7. Sgt. Boomer by David Santucci
8. Sgt. Ruff by  Jorden Schrama
9. Sgt. Bully McWoof by Pixel Fabian
10. Sgt. Steel'o Dogneill  by David Bios

So now we have to do the vote for his name from these 10 entries.  Post in the comments section below with the number of the name that you think our mascot should have.  I will also be posting this on Facebook and will tally the votes between here and there.  Get as many people as you can to vote for you name to win your miniature.

Name with the most votes will win.  Ballots close at 12am on November 16th.  

Thanks and good luck!