Metal Detected

Check all of this out, just arrived today. I spent about an hour cleaning it all up with an old toothbrush and soapy water to remove the mold release powder.

The thing that's great about doing this as a hobby and not having to care about seeking profits is that you get free reign to do whatever you want! Contained within this lot of casts are some personal items that I've made purely for myself (for now):

• Clockpunk conversion parts (for use with my own sculpts AND Victrix Napoleonic plastics.) Lots of arms and heads. Also, 80 zombie conversion sprues, zombie head and arms, destined for some plastic Napoleonic infantry.)

• Ancient Greek conversion parts (for use with my own sculpts AND Victrix Ancient Greek plastics.) Lots of cooler heads and arms with swords! Also some shields of my own design.

• And a variety of dollies for future use...

Oh here's a design for an alien mutant range I intend to make, dollies for them somewhere in that metal mess above...

Away for molding

Just about to send these dollies off to go into a mold. This photo looks like it's from the 80's but I took it quickly today.

I'll show them all off in detail in the near future once I've sculpted over the top of them! I'm working on another mold's worth of stock parts - heads, weapons, etc.etc. but the mold after that might be something I'll make available to folks.... Peacekeepers.

P.S. those new greatcoats will be used among other things to make these Redcoats:

P.P.S. any digital artists out there (better than me, easy...) interested in commissions drop me a link to your portfolio in the comments and I'll get in contact. Used universe sci-fi characters and environments for Rebellion Protocol.

The sculpt box

Look at all these sculpts... I'm not even sure where to start!

Evidently sculpting is easy but taking it to the next stage of casting, producing and selling is where the hard work begins.

I have around 30 new heads and lots of arms/bits that I really need to get done in metal soon. These are 'conversion' parts for my own miniatures, scaled and appropriate for use with some Victrix plastics too.

Now to decide on what to work on...

Just a Dwarf test sculpt....

I'm sculpting a great variety of things at the moment, mostly tests and proof of concepts for various projects. Here's an idea I knocked out in about an hour...

LOTS of other sculpts but I can't publish it here yet: my stuff has a good habit of appearing on news blogs and forums and occasionally being taken out of context.

OK maybe one more pic...

More soon!

Fallen Dwarves – Characters and Paint Jobs

Phew, I'm lagging these days on blog posts: must do better!

To be fair I've just painted 33 Fallen Dwarves... quite a feat for me. Paints are now tidied away and I have a clear desk so I'll get on with editing the background for these guys.

I've just completed a little interview for the fanzine Word of Hashut, so I don't spoil that article coming out next month I'll hang fire publishing my design notes for the range here.

Anvil Industry who sell the Dwarf warriors and the Command models are interested in taking on the characters and the work in progress Stone Golem: great news for anyone who wants to get their hands on these! I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I present my own personal collection of the Fallen Dwarves!

  

Greek Mythology... maybe

Just messing around with some putty...

Usual story on these: “personal sculpts, for my own use, blah blah” but yes I'll probably make them available to purchase one day.

Initially these might be individual loose parts (heads, weapons, shields) which people can use to augment some of the amazing Ancient plastic miniatures out there.. Victrix are a personal favourite of mine.

Good chance I'll just make a lot of the mythological beasts and characters, along with conversion parts, and we can rely on the Hoplite/human heroes to come from other manufacturers. The Fauns will probably be my first target.

The horned head will be used as a fantasy Minoan/Cretan – lead by the Minotaur who has busted out the Labyrinth and usurped king Minos.

The front right head will be a black armoured Serpent Hoplite – lead by Medusa and the Gorgons.

Faun dollies:

WIP – Poseidon/Atlantean/Trident/Dagon/Mariner Hoplites

Fallen Dwarf Characters WIP

Some work in progress shots of characters for my Fallen Dwarves.

All the weapons are in the very early stages and there's lots of final tweaks to take place on all the miniatures.

I think my favourite is the downplayed captain with the bald head and the axe held propped on the ground. That's a tiger paw and fur around his back, he's a hunter... and he makes we want to make some berserker inspired middle eastern hunter Dwarves.

I was a little apprehensive about putting too much gore onto the high priest: a witch flame in his right hand and in his left hand... a bloody heart!

Whilst not entirely evil, the elites of the Dwarves will practice a blood and fire form of sorcery, in veneration of a giant fire demon entombed in a volcano which they worship (along with other forms of Jinn warriors and magma creatures). I've reasoned that this could easily be a goats heart or something...

The head was inspired by the sorcerer from Jason and the Argonauts who calls up the skeletons. As things progress and I work out what I can and can't fit into the one mold there's a chance I'll make a small alter to go on the base.

Early days on the Stone Golem, he needs a beard and some weapons/hands. This is around 50mm tall, reckon I'll get a couple of different arm poses from this.

Achieving a multi pose dynamic with the arms leaves a lot of unnatural gaps which I'm not happy with: it might be that the mini gets pinned and glued into the appropriate pose then a little bit of putty work is required to bulk out the inner arms (where it connects to the torso)

Techno Communion Mold 1 is now going into early retirement.

I've sold enough sets to recoup the Mold/Production/Manufacturing costs, and secured a small stash of the minis for personal use: mission accomplished, thank you. (not bad, only took two weeks!)

I still have the original sculpts of course, and the metal masters, and the actual mold itself... saved for whatever the future may bring.

That's em gone for now!

In the meantime I'm pottering about with some conversions whilst I get enough sculpts finished for my next mold commissioning endeavors... more on that soon!

Finished Techno Communion scout conversions, ready for painting:

Rebel Insurgent Conversions

Wow it's been a busy week for selling miniatures! Thanks to all who made a purchase in the last 5 days:Techno Communion have far outweighed the Desert Insurgents in popularity.

I managed to find some painting time today and finished off (well 95% finished) the paint jobs on the Peacekeeper conversions.

This could be as simple as a head swap within the Desert Insurgent Mold 1 set but I sculpted a few small capes for dramatic effect as well.

So “in universe” these guys are either Imperial Peacekeepers who have defected and joined the rebellion, or they're insurgents who happened upon a Techno Communion cache of armour destined for the Imperials, and commandeered the armour for their own use.

Next up on the conversion front will be some Techno Communion miniatures. Then all going plan I can get stuck into sculpting again, I think reinforcements for the Fallen Dwarves are in dire need or some attention...

Techno Communion casts have arrived!

Emails have gone out to all the folks waiting on their sets and I have about 18 left over, anyone who fancies a set ping me an email: sales@miniaturesofthenorth.com

These are quite popular miniatures so they might not last long.

I'd previously reported that the thumb on the Synaxarion (Machine Speaker) had been broken off and all the subsequent casts lacked a thumb. Turns out, upon receipt of the latest batch of casts, it technically hadn't.. all casts actually do have a thumb!

This was discovered when the latest batch of casts went through quality control, one had a green epoxy resin thumb lodged into a metal hand – the thumb had broken off an was stuck in the mold cavity. It took a good 35+ spins of the mold to get it out! Sigh...

Oh also, here's a peak at one of my rebel peace keepers: a simple head swap within the Desert Insurgent set. Followed by Desert Insurgents with some Techno Communion hooded heads... infiltrator scouts.

Desert Insurgents - Personal Conversions and new WIP sculpts

I'm about to go into pimp mode.

No not street vice crime, I mean showing off some of my miniatures with cool conversions and alternate colour schemes.

I've had a nice steady stream of informal sales but that's dried up over the last few weeks, just as the end is in sight for the Desert Insurgent Mold 1! Yep, it's close to retirement. I have roughly 35 sets to hand and will order in my final lot of them pretty soon.

Ironic that at the end I now start talking about advertising and showcasing... oh well.

Here's a squad of Peacekeeper defectors: they've read the Rebellion Protocols and sided with the rebels! They look cool right? They'll get white battered armour to tie them up with the Insurgents. Next up, traitor Insurgents (wrap your head around that). A dastardly tribe bribed by the ruling elite of the super city state... kind of like a CIA funded terrorist unit.. among the “terrorists”.

Here's a few WIP sculpts:

Desert Insurgents for sale

sales@miniaturesofthenorth.com if you are interested in purchasing a set or two. Once I clear the existing stock I'll be able to fund the continuation of the range with new molds!

£15 for 1 full set

£40 for 3 full sets

£60 for 5 full sets

Product info and shots of the parts: http://miniaturesofthenorth.com/#/desert-insurgent-mold-1/4579905428

Thanks folks!

Techno Communion – Paint Jobs

Lost my painting mojo half way through this lot and struggled to the finish line. Gah. The general colour scheme is there but I'll maybe take another pass at these guys in the near future.

I had intended to post these pics in conjunction with having a full quota of them to make available for sale, but alas this second run has all but disappeared so I await another shipment..

In a cool twist of fate I realised earlier that if you take this Techno Communion Mold 1 (you get extra heads) and mix it with the Desert Insurgent Mold 1 you can make a cool little skirmish force. Use the hooded heads for the Techno Communion armoured bodies, and the bare cyborg heads for the Desert Insurgents to make light scouts.

I'll need to schedule in time for that kit-bash...