How brave, bold and valient of them.

Did you know that furbid horrors doesn't allow comments by people who aren't members? *snickers* I'm not terribly surprised, really. Which reminds me. I think it's time this lj went public again. I really have no reason for it to be friends only anymore. I'll probably be paring down my friends list a bit in the future, as I intend to spend less time on line and more time being productive. We'll see how that goes... but anyhow, even if you get droppped from the list, you can still read all the joy! Lucky people.

Photography and painting.

Well, I found out how to work the up close function on the camera. It sucks. It sucks like a vacuum cleaner. I'm hoping that JJ's camera has a better close in. *crosses fingers* Else I may just have to go buy one myself on that basis. Anyhow, relaxed a bit after the day's stresses by fixing the fire on my fire mage, and then took some photos.

http://bladespark.topcities.com/minis/firemage1.jpg Before. Plain dull red with yellow highlighting
http://bladespark.topcities.com/minis/firemage2.jpg After. Five layers of graduated color in washes from white through yellow, several oranges, and red, with yellow drybrushing and red-black eyes. I could wish the photo didn't suck, but the paint job doesn't in any case! Heee. It's hard to believe this guy is just an inch tall. And I'm still in awe of people who can do actual facial features. I'm lucky if I can get eyes on something, though I did attempt eyebrows on the green elf gal. It... kinda worked out. I need more practice, and one size smaller brush. And a magnifying glass or loupe or something.

And the collection, now photographed without flash, and in up close mode, so they're slightly better than before.
http://bladespark.topcities.com/minis/minis002.jpg

Inquiry

I ask this of the all-knowing internet. Has anybody, anywhere, under any circumstances, heard of a commercial toy manufacturer that has open source toy designs? That is, designs that are free to be copied by anybody, and sold for profit by those who have copied the designs? Now I do know that it's kosher to copy and sell designs when you've bought al pattern, though the legalities of that are a bit weird at times. But you've paid for the pattern, you get to reproduce it, as intended, and can then sell the thing you made if you wish. But this isn't like that, this is just... open source designs.

Anybody know of such a thing? I'm attempting to research the specifics, but the person I need to speak with is out of town for a day or two, so I thought I'd ask you folks.