Dr. Cecilia Reyes of the X-Men

X-Men: Dr. Cecilia Reyes Mini-Bust

Well, I have some good and bad news. The good news, of course, is that the final X-Man from the trio of new or newer characters that joined the team in the late 90s is finally available. Dr. Cecilia Reyes was the third member of the crew that joined the team during Operation Zero Tolerance, along with Marrow and Maggott. This is another incredible sculpt by Troy McDevitt and he totally nailed her power set (protective force fields) and her character with the caduceus on the base. She has always been primarily a doctor, and never really wanted the life of an X-Man. She still frequently serves as a team doctor of sorts.

Now, on to the bad news. I used a new castor for Cece, since the castor that has done the majority of my previous pieces has been very backed up. Unfortunately, the result was extremely disappointing. The castings got delivered, and even to my untrained eye, they looked rough. They were obviously FULL of pinholes. I sent one to my painter (Rob aka skorpsta), and he confirmed my suspicion that these were really bad castings. I had hoped that the molds were good, and that they were just improperly cast, so I sent the molds out to another castor. I feared the worst, which turned out to be the case. The molds were bad as well.

So, I've been faced with a tough decision. While I hate selling a product that I am not proud of, I really don't have much of a choice here. The cost to remold and recast her is way more than I could ever hope to recover on the handful of pieces that I would sell, so it's just not financially practical for me to do so. As a result, after thinking long and hard about it, I'm going to sell the castings I have at a discount. Honestly, I wish I could sell her cheaper than the below, but I've already sunk so much into her.

I want everyone to be aware of what they're buying here, so I'm including a ton of pictures of the castings. On the bright side, with a talented painter like Rob, the finished product still looks pretty fantastic; it just takes some extra work. She looks great on my shelf with her teammates! The most disappointing part is the power effects, which were supposed to be clear resin, but came out quite cloudy. I do have another castor looking at the molds just the powers and might have them recast in truly clear resin. If I do that, I'll offer new power sets to anyone that buys a casting at a cheap rate to basically cover costs.

Castings: $60.00 USD (would have been $85 USD with clean castings)
Shipping & handling (to France): $40.00
Shipping quotes by request to other destinations.
Paypal (friends & family): jnoordyk@gmail.com

Thanks to Troy McDevitt for killing it on the sculpt! Thanks to Rob (skorpsta) for working magic with the prep and paints (and for all of the support along the way)! Thanks to Jesse for the advice on the castings.

Please reach out with any questions.

Final painted kit (with and without powers).









Initial sketch and original sculpt:






Castings:

She is sculpted nevertheless by Troy so I take it in a heartbeat .

ouch! A lot of work to have something clean before painting and for me, the clear pieces can't be use with these bubles!

cinemodeles a écrit:ouch! A lot of work to have something clean before painting and for me, the clear pieces can't be use with these bubles!

Agree !! The casting is realy too bad !!

It's a shame about the castings, but I will get her. Better to have half a glass of water then no water at all.

Pour la résine transparente, c'est bien la le casting qui est plein de bulles, en revanche pour la résine opaque , la il s' agit du moulage qui est la cause de ces "petits creux" ; pour faire simple, le moule est pleins de bulles ou plus exactement de "petites poches d'air" .Lorsque la résine est coulé et catalyse, elle chauffe ce qui provoque une expansion de l' air dans les "petites poches" et par conséquence , de petits creux dans la pièce en résine .
En gros il faut refaire le moule car tout les tirages seront comme cela .

applefish a écrit:Pour la résine transparente, c'est bien la le casting qui est plein de bulles, en revanche pour la résine opaque , la il s' agit du moulage qui est la cause de ces "petits creux" ; pour faire simple, le moule est pleins de bulles ou plus exactement de "petites poches d'air" .Lorsque la résine est coulé et catalyse, elle chauffe ce qui provoque une expansion de l' air dans les "petites poches" et par conséquence , de petits  creux dans la pièce en résine .
En gros il faut refaire le moule car tout les tirages seront comme cela .

C'est bon d'avoir l'avis d'un technicien !! Merci Franck

The caster should have reached out to you before he made more castings. He certainly did something wrong for that casting to have so many issues with pitting.

The whole thing was very frustrating and disappointing.

En tant que mouleur, je confirme ce que dit applefish. Pas d'autre solution que refaire les moules. En plus nos amis américains utilisent souvent de la résine blanche de la marque smooth on que je trouve pas terrible car elle mousse énormément.
Après en tant que peintre la préparation d'un kit avec autant de défauts prendra beaucoup de temps donc la peinture reviendra cher.

Another great Cece paint up!  Making the best of the rough castings.