World Wasters Playtest Edition Re-Issue.

I've been working with my mentor Steve Lortz on republishing his great set of sci-fi skirmish rules called World Wasters. WW is simple and fast, and focuses more on having fun than rules lawyering. Steve also sculpted some great new races for WW including the Bogies, Brain Worms and Back Biters. The miniatures for these will be reissued by Fortress Figures and the rules will be republished and available for download and print on demand.

Here is my redesign of of the cover using the original art by Steve as my guide. I think mine is more subtle.

Originally published in 1993 by Alternate Recreational  Resource Group or ARRG. © 1993 Stephen  L. Lortz.

Colors and graphic design by Brian S. Roe.

Early Realms of Chaos: Zygor Snake-arms and Leaping Slomm Two-Face.

Just a couple of classic Citadel miniatures based on an article in the First Citadel Compendium. This article, called "Mark of Chaos", explained the process for creating chaos-tainted creatures and featured classic John Blanche artwork. These concepts were then sculpted and cast to produce two interesting minis that are full of personality. There was a third miniature from the article, Ngaaranh, a chaos-spawn who was once a harpy but this mini seems to be much harder to find than Zygor and Slomm.

These minis were painted in my classic painting style meaning lots of washes, harsh drybrushing, and of course gloss varnish. If I had two fresh versions of these fellows I'd try something more up to date and smooth but I think this paint job "feels" right. Even with the gloss varnish there are dings and scraped paint caused by too many years of travel.

I'd really like to see Games Workshop go back and revisit concepts like these but as we know they rarely look back this far. So be it, I still think these foul little fellows are beautiful.

Artwork by John Blanche.

Zygor the Night Goblin.

Chaos attributes include, Headless, Tentacles, and Prehensile Tail.

Artwork by John Blanche.

Leaping Slomm Two-Face, Chaos troll.

Chaos attributes: Powerful Legs, Great Fangs, Multiple Heads (one extra), and Bestial Face(s).

Designing A Card Building for Robotech.

While I'm waiting for the Robotech Kickstarter stuff to start coming in I've been thinking about ways to make buildings for the inevitable city fight scenarios. There are several manufacturers that sell resin, laser-cut, or printable card models and some of them are outstanding. But while watching some of the first episodes of Macross/Robotech I decided that I wanted some buildings that look like those in Macross City. There's a sort of bizarre design aesthetic with these buildings that seems to combine sci-fi forward thinking with a basic Japanese neighborhood. 

Gerwalk down!

Sketches like this help to visualize basic shapes and proportions.

I took some screengrabs, did a few sketches and decided to start with this cool hex-topped building. Although I've done a good amount of card modeling I've never really designed my own model. Even with a building this simple there are difficulties that need to be overcome. 

I started by making a quick black and white mock-up in Illustrator and printing it out. This showed several problems and after correcting them I printed another copy, this time with windows and other details. Finally I took this into Photoshop and gave it some color. The windows were handled by Ronda Pattison, one of the perks of having one of the world's most talented comic colorists working at the next desk over.

I'm only taking baby steps with this one but I'd like to keep working on new designs. Please download the attached model, build it, and let me know of any construction problems you run across in the comments. Thanks in advance for your advice. 

Make sure to click this image and save the full resolution version. Print at 100%. 

Looking for A Sprue of Plastic Space Dwarves.

I've started working on a project and need a sprue of classic Citadel Space Dwarves for measuring. I'd like the entire sprue if possible but at least one body, one head, and a pair of arms. A las-gun as well if possible.

For trade for a full sprue set of Space Dwarves I can offer a full sprue of first edition Space Hulk minis, a hybrid sprue from Genestealer, and two vintage sprues of original Mark 6 Space Marines.

For a single Space Dwarf I'll trade for any one set of sprues that I have.

Please contact me at hellbox45@hotmail.com if you're interested in trading. Thanks!

Dirt Nap and Tubby Castings.

The final two zombies have been cast and will soon be shipped to supporters of the Zombie Plague Miniatures Kickstarter. These are Dirt Nap who was buried in the flower garden by his panicked wife, Tubby. Unfortunately after being bitten by her husband she soaked for far too long in the tub.

Once these have been shipped to supporters they will be made available for general purchase.

THI Utility Industrial Power Frame Painted.

I took a couple of hours today and painted the THI suit from Sedition Wars. Although I still think there has been some overreaction against the material these minis are made from I can honestly say now that I'm not in love with the stuff. After painting there are still a ton of moldlines visible even though I didn't see them before it was primed. This is disappointing since I really like the design of this suit.

I'm still not unhappy with my decision to support the Sedition Wars Kickstarter but I also wish that this material was easier to deal with. C'est la guerre.

Sedition Wars Gnosis Battlesuit and THI Utility Power Frame First Impressions.

I got my second, and I believe final, box of minis from the Sedition Wars Kickstarter today and spent a little time tonight putting together two of my favorite miniatures from the set, the THI Utility Power Frame and the Gnosis Battlesuit Kara Black. 

I love armored suits so I was really looking forward to these. And I'm not disappointed by them in the least.

There has been a lot of downright anger towards Cool Mini or Not and Studio McVey about the Sedition Wars Kickstarter that seems to be at boiling point on some of the forums that I frequent. Part of it is unhappiness with the material that these miniatures are cast in and part of it is accusations of miscasting and overall shoddy production.

The material complaint really seems to come from the fact that these miniatures are made from a plastic that doesn't clean up the same way as styrene or more traditional resin. The mold lines need to be cut off using a hobby knife since they don't want to scrape off as easily as they would with styrene. This is not a satisfactory method since it takes far longer than scraping and still leaves a lot of fuzzy plastic around the moldline.

I have found that using a fine bristled brass brush takes away a lot of this frustration and combined with basic scraping with the edge of a hobby knife can really make a nice clean miniature. Vigorous brushing with a brass brush removes any fuzzy bits and smoothes the line even further without destroying any detail on the mini. These miniatures do seem to take a bit more time to clean than other materials but I think that part of that is just getting used to them. I also used a fine sanding stick to further smooth them.

I went through the other miniatures included in this set and didn't find any that I would describe as miscast or incomplete. Yes some of them had a good amount of flash on them but using the method I've described really helps get them ready to paint. And I am really looking forward to painting these.

The miniatures industry is in a massive growth spurt and with all of the Kickstarter campaigns, all of the promises, and all of the disappointments it is easy to forget how amazing this hobby is currently. We are in a golden age.

There is always a place for solid criticism and trying to make things better. But the level of anger that I've seen towards this project seems disproportionate to the actual situation and just gets in the way of enjoying our hobby. And that seems very counterproductive when we're all just trying to have fun.

The Gnosis suit without the Kara Black head.

With a GW Space Marine.

I always see flash that I missed when I take close-up shots. Rats.