Review Arnau Miniatures "Girlfriends"

[Patrick Kamsma]

Spanish painter Arnau Lazaro has released his first miniature under his own brand(name) and it's a refreshing release. Arnau is famous for his women and bold and refreshing colour choice and his first release is a nice expansion to the already wide variety within the figurepainting hobby, as it isn't a fantasy nor a historical subject, but a scene from everyday life of the modern teenage girl.

Title: Girlfriends (www.arnauminiatures.com)

Scale: approx 1/12 (10cm)

No of pieces: 10 including two heads per body

Material: Grey resin

Desgin and sculpt: Lua Garo (https://www.instagram.com/somniacrawler/)

 

[Patrick Kamsma]

A look inside the box:

The box itself is a white sturdy cardboard box. The top and lower side tied together with to black ribbons and hold together with a waxseal.
It's a nice touch and it makes it a classy gift (to yourself). Downside, once the ribbon has been removed, you can't get it back up.

The contents of the box contains 10 pieces, a sticker and a small businesscard with the artwork of the miniature.
You'll find four heads, two bodies, two arms and two hands.

 

[Patrick Kamsma]

Both the girls come is a set but are also sold separatly and even within the set can be painted as separate busts.
You get the choice to portrait the girl with the beanie to play a selfie prank on her BFF or making a solo selfie with her right hand in heavy metal look (devilish horns).
To accomodate the fantasypainters each body comes with two heads. You'll be given the option to portrait the girls as normal or with an Orcish look as small tusks are sculpted around the mouth. Not my first guess when looking at the boxart, but it's a nice swing to the subject and widens the target audience within the painting community.

Let's take a closer look at the girl on the left (white top):
The style is cartoonish and a bit anime with bigger eyes and voluminous hair.
The casting is crisp and lots of small details can be found, like a nosepiercing, earring and a collar around the neck.
The pose is what i'd like to call instragram-pose. Revealing a little bit of shoulder, fiddeling with the hair, little bit of a tease.
But not overdone. It's still classy and the way the jacket is sculpted it suits the skinpainters as well as painters liking folds
There are hardly any casting seams to deal with. Only some small casting block here and there but on reachable places and well chosen. Once removed and cleaned they are well hidden.

Both heads with on the right the orkish look with the small but noticible tusks.

When the head is placed on the body a small seam is noticible on top of the head and around the neck.
A small piece of putty required to solve this problem.

 

[Patrick Kamsma]

The girl above is the same if you buy this as a set or separatly.
As mentioned before the girl with the beanie has two options if you portrait these as a set or apart from each other.

The girl with the beanie has the same catoonish/manga appearance. She has the same bigger eyes but otherwise than that, she has a different look.
This girl is sculpted more with a punkish image with a beanie, a torn shirt, nosering and the boxart expresses this to the darker lipstick, nailpolish as well as tattoos.

The backback and reveals buttons and a hidden spraycan.

Also two versions of heads.
The look is kinda cheeky and different then the first girl, but they work very well together.

You will be given two options for her right arm. Considering she is taking the selfie with her phone, it would be weird if she was pointing two bunny fingers on her own
One has a heavy metal/punk used as her own pose and the bunny fingers when placed together.
The arm with the bunny fingers will be glued to the back of her friends head. When placed on the right place (no pinmarks available), it is a seamless connection.
Also, as with the first girl, the head reveales a small gap around the beanie and neck. A tiny bit of putty will solve this.

The last part is her hand holding the phone. It is detailed very nice. The hands, also from the first girl are detailed very well and the phone is big enough to paint the selfie photo on it by hand (or at least the appearance of it).

All in all this is a refreshing piece and really stands out, which is difficult nowadays.
I like the subject because it's a topic of todays everyday life.
And it gives you plenty of possibilities to give it your own twist, in colour, subject, set as a duo or as individual pieces.

The casting is crisp. The fit is near to perfect. The quality is very high. Even when you think this is Arnau Miniatures' first release.
Highly recommended and looks promising for eventual future releases.

Cheers
Patrick Kamsma
*Reviewed mini paid with my own wallet*

 

[Nap]

Hi Patrick

Excellent review , castings look really good indeed and well thought out in respect the build

Nice presentation and pictures

Clever subject , popular and I'm sure this will be

Lovely artwork as well

Thanks for sharing

Hope we see more from Arnu Miniatures and from. you

Nap