Few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Phil’s blog and crafts. He’s making minis out of model kits sprues leftovers. I found this very cool, both for the challenge and for the principle.
After giving it a thought (and moving houses, which took a bit of time let’s be honest), I finally cleaned my craft desk and starting to work. Of all of his awesome models (of which, I encourage you, to check!), one was my favorite, by its simplicity and robo-esque design: the first and original Sprue Dude.
Of course, my design had to be one-eyed and robotic. This is the original drawing which ironically ended to be 1:1 scaled with the mini!
Keeping it simple, it would be a robot knight, brandishing his blade after (probably) a victory or just before a very bad encounter.
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_174928-1024x1024.jpg)
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_174945-1024x768.jpg)
And this is what I should be working with. I don’t have a ton of model kits (mostly gunplas), nor did I kept most of the sprues.
Like Phil, I started by gluing the feet to what would be my working cork. And this is the exact moment I realized “Oh my god this is small”. And small it was.
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_175945-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_181047-768x1024.jpg)
I struggled a lot with the torso. I wanted to have a wider piece than the pelvis, so I tried to glue together two pieces of sprue to sculpt, but nothing pleased me. I now respect even more what Phil is doing with his minis!
I ended using a leftover piece from a Gundam kit. Is this cheating? Probably. That was technically on my sprue at some point! Sorry Phil, I failed you.
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_184106-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_190456-768x1024.jpg)
Last but not least, this little injection mark was the perfect size and shape to make myself a nice little head.
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_190932-768x1024.jpg)
Then came the sword, taken from a panel on the sprue. I kept the little dots as they would probably serve a design purpose.
As you can see, I struggled a lot with my glue, and I used a bit much of baking soda. I sanded most of it before painting.
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240515_192457-768x1024.jpg)
I’m skipping the painting part as it wasn’t very interesting. White undercoat, and multiple coats of regular citadel paint.
The model
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240516_213746-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240516_213752-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240516_213801-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://things.thpo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/P_20240516_213817-768x1024.jpg)
The base was 3D-printed, the model comes from ecaroth on thingiverse. Is this cheating²? Maybe. I’m not even very proud of this part. Anyway. Please enjoy my little Sugilite Knight, crawling dungeons and fighting horrible monsters to save his kingdom!
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