2026A - Freeborn Pi (Fpi)

 Though she was started some months ago, the first completed miniature of 2026 is now done. A conversion of an old Void 1.1 mini, Xiao Pi 3.14. It comes from the early 2000s, I believe. It was sculpted (like a large number of the early Void minis) by Kev White. I've painted copies of her a couple of times in the past, but those have been lost or sold off because I had other copies to paint up with the knowledge gained form those early forays. This Pi may be my last.

Even before my great luck stumbling into the legendary Antares Cornucopia, I was a big fan of Beyond the Gates of Antares. I had a few minis before that excellent find but the sheer mass of figures  expanded my ideas on what could be done. The plastic kits especially opened up several possibilities I have yet to explore. 

It was while looking at some plasma guns from the Concord and Freeborn plastic kits that I realized I needed to preserve them to use in some future conversions. So I made a simple press mold with some oyamaru stuff to use greenstuff to make copies of them. They turned out surprisingly good. 

Then I thought about one of the conversions I had in mind for some time without actually comparing the pieces. 

Pi (or should I say 'Fpi' which is what I've decided to call her for now, short for 'Freeborn Pi') was the first one I decided to try. Instead of using the greenstuff versions of the rifles, I used the rare Freeborn plastic one I had left. And it was a good fit.

I think I actually started painting Fpi in November sometime. But it was slow going. i knew I wanted to echo the colors I used for the (incidentally) Kev White sculpted Freeborn character Hansa Nairobi. Is she his companion? His rival? Both? I don't know, it just seemed like the right thing to do. Yet I couldn't fully commit to those colors because I didn't want to mess her up. In the last couple weeks I was able to overcome my doubts and worked on Fpi here and there.

Instead of her legs being painted as bare skin, I thought some pants of red would be pretty cool. I think they came out okay. And the teal color that I love came out pretty good for her armor bits. The darker red for her shoulder pad had texture that forced me to paint some slight battle damage.

Her hair started out purplish and I worked it up o a lighter and lighter purple/pink. It came out close to what I wanted, but the pictures make it look a bit whiter than the reality.

With Raging Heroes Jailbird and Primaris Marine

With a Freeborn plastic Domari and the recent other Void Syntha conversion into a Freeborn heavy weapon

Since she's the first mini of the year, I thought she needed ot have a ton of comparison pics with some Antares and near-Antares minis. Fpi was a joy to build and paint and see next to other things I've painted. Does this mean the year will be mostly female minis? Sadly, probably not, but it was a treat to get to paint up another Kev White mini.

With the Freeborn Shefdu and a Ghar Battlesuit

With Captain Ridel and the old reliable 'Punch-bot'

With the recently rediscovered (also Kev White sculpted and with a similar color scheme) Space Girl and the Cthood Gunslinger conversion