Heroic style Desert Rebels

 

Finally getting round to doing all my old smaller scale sculpts in chunky 'heroic style'. 

Not quite 100% replication but thematically close enough to the old desert rebels. More to follow, personal preference but I'm not keen on making 10 man strong units... 5 max for the time being.

Masters. Hoplites and Techno Communion

Cleaning up master casts is quite a time consuming effort.

First I give them a short dunk in warm soapy water followed by a light brush with a toothbrush to get all the mould release agents off. Usually the release agent is powder.

Then I set to work with a set of small files and a scalpel blade removing all the mould lines and any imperfections. They need to be completely perfect.

Then it's another soapy water bath and brush to remove the filing and shavings, and I'm done - final set of masters ready for production moulds.

I just need to add the Spartan helmets to a little sprue and make 14 spears and I'm good to go....

Back by popular demand too, the Techno Communion will get another run!

Soon as these are in the post to the mould maker I need to put together an actual web store...

Imperial Peacekeeper paint jobs!

Quick recap then, these are test casts I had done and I've decided to quickly paint up a few as proof of concept.

I'll go back and remaster some of the sculpts and maybe make a few more for the range before getting production molds done, then I can offer some up for sale at some point.

(I definitely need a bigger light tent for group shots)

Peacekeeper painting WIP

I wasn't happy with the mold on this one, partly my fault for not reinforcing some of the sculpts (they got a bit bent and warped.)

While I remaster the set I've decided to paint up a couple of the test casts. Good chance I'll have scope to use different heads and make some variant versions...

The red guys are the desert planet police force, hence the riot shields. The blue guys are the same political allies, only acting like a space United Nations military force.

All I need is the crowd control mech and a couple of characters before I can organise production molds for a little diverse skirmish force. If I did this full time things would move a million times faster...

New mold commission - Peacekeepers

Quick shot of the mold plate layout for a new bunch of miniatures, I'm hoping I can make some available for purchase in the coming months.

These are my Byzantine oppressive police force, 3 come armed with rifles, 3 with pistols and 1 with a riot shield and electric stun baton.

I guess the only thing that makes them "science fantasy" is that they are all armed with knives as well...

Combat Protocols_

A few snippets of things for Rebellion Protocol (where my sci-fi sculpts are set)...

New year images...

2 months since my last post... I'm pretty sure I had a hobby drought of around 7 weeks or so. It's over now.

Few bits and pieces to show off here, nothing particularly fancy!

Some WIP character sculpts for Rebellion Protocol:

Some new bits for the Fallen Dwarf range, 2 handed weapon guys that will be nice single piece items and a couple of grenadiers (who will chuck gunpowder potion grenades):

Some dollies I made prepped for sculpting, there's another faun dolly not pictured. Now what to make first, ancient mythology or sci-fi mythology...

Warm up sculpts I did, relatively simple and almost heroic in style, perfect for smothering in detail:

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...

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!

You like terrain? I like terrain!

Here's the first test for my Rebellion Protocol showcase terrain, there will be 4 boards in total initially.

All I've done is the basic colour blocking, I still have tons to do. Next up is the detail (modelling and painting) then my favourite part: weathering! It might be a while before I get this all finished, I prefer quality over quantity, and to get quality means you can't shirk patience.

For anyone struggling to find suitable boards like this that wont warp, are precise and cheap... I use cake presentation trays. This one is about 45cm square and cost me less than £5. All my buildings are mounted on smaller sized cake boards too.

For now I'm focusing on the war torn suburbs, and trying desperately no not make it look like Tatooine from Star Wars! Instead I want to emulate District 9 or Elysium style, only set in the likes of Khartoum or Amman. I've got big shipping crates, market stalls, palm tree's and other bits and pieces in the works... oh and my prototype vehicles will take pride and place as abandoned bits of terrain.

Sigh. I wish I could do all this stuff full time... I love it.

I have a dream: about flying trucks in the desert.

When I say dream I mean daydream, and by daydream I mean sketched it out on a post in note at work. This is the mock up model.

• First I did a little paper versions.
• Then I built one quickly from plasticard, all from scratch.
• Then I decided to give it a lick of paint.
• Then I stuck windows in it.
• Next up, I’ll get some suitable decals for it and then pigments and weather it all.

It's pretty basic and scratchy but I'm going to use it as a scenery piece for Rebellion Protocol.

The idea behind it: along the lines of tug boat – it's a flatbed truck that flies. Simple. A little ubiquitous work horse for doing light run around's and delivery stuff. I have ideas for a few variants, like a longer one for transporting big loads, and a little jet bike in the same style.

Here's the catch – the Desert Insurgents, the good guys of Rebellion Protocol, like to steal these from the city states and mount big guns on the back/side of them for hit and run raids !

Sounds cool right, I'm planning on making that next (along with the jetbike).

I could construct these and get them cast up in metal, but the thought of building these in metal is a bit meh for me. In all honesty I'd be quicker scratch building one than cleaning up a metal model then pinning and gluing it. Not to mention it would be lighter. (Seriously, I'm sure it shows, but cutting and gluing all this took me about 2hrs total)

I'll do a full blown tutorial for making them. Maybe I'll get the crew, gun, stowage and the jetbike cast up though, much more metal friendly.

The final tutorial version will have a few tweaks to the design, this was just the mock up. For example, the bed of the truck is 1mm too narrow for getting a miniatures base in there. Naturally it would be nice for the rest of my soon to be fleet if I could get mini's on the back...

Not bad for about 4.5hrs work...