Archive for month: December, 2013

To close out 2013 we thought one final preview was in order, this is one that we have received a few requests for given that some were keen to know what they could be fielding along side the Oni sculpt.. so we present the Samurai unit.

We could not release a Japanese army without giving you the option to field plenty of Samurai. Australian 3D artist David Sparrow has done a magnificent job in bringing our vision for the samurai miniatures to life. The challenge was designing samurai miniatures that were a nod to history, affordable, in scale, containing the right balance of detail and dynamic enough in pose to make players feel like we were bring you  something new and interesting. The solution was to design a mutli-part  metal kit with interchangeable parts and a number of head options.

The head options below are not all of the options that will be available and are subject to minor changes before release (the tori gate head option in particular), we plan to release the kit with at least one additional head option included – and we are already considering releasing head variant kits later on down the track to give players more variation.

The basic poses of the samurai in our range are based on 5 culturally appropriate fighting stances, with  interchangeable parts, players should get some variance in the samurai they assemble for their army. We have also designed an optional flag for the backs of these models, however we are yet to determine as to if we will include these with the basic samurai kit or make them an optional extra with the planned head options.

David is already  contracted to work on some more Japanese models for our range that we hope to show off some time early next year. In the meantime feast your eyes upon one of the infantry options for our Japanese army.

 

Today we preview the 70mm scale mythical model that will be included with the Japanese starter set, the Oni. Sculpted by Oliver Cook this 70mm scale metal and resin kit is our rendition of the renowned Japanese Yōkai.

Oliver Cook is a Sydney based 3D character/creature artist  who has worked across TV, Film and Games. Olivers credits include being a character artist for the popular computer game LA Noire and having created CG creatures for the various BBC ” Walking with Productions such as ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’. Oliver is currently a 3D art teacher at the AIE in Sydney teaching 3D Art & Animation. Olivers journey into character and creature design started after having seen Jason and the Argonauts when he was younger, a life changing experience we are grateful for! Since then he has been passionate about mythology and creature design – making him an ideal fit for our design team.

In approaching the design of the Oni we first looked at a lot of historical references that were generally more comical and unrealistic in design, knowing that this would not fit into our design aesthetic we then incorporated Oni designs from a  alot of other Japanese cultural references including traditional and modern tattoo art. Merging both the historical, traditional and contemporary reference along with some artistic license brought us to our final design that Oliver managed to pry from the pages of history and drag it into the real world. The end result is what we think an Oni would look like if it were real. Olivers next challange is to take on one of the centerpiece models for our Greek range, so watch this space!

The final model has an optional dignity loin cloth (pictured) to cover his demonhood, this was made to look as if it was pinned to his skin. We are looking forwards to seeing  how hobbyists approach painting this model and  we are confident that it will look awesome marching alongside your Japanese army on the table. Please note that the base this model is on is not the final base and that the assets for the final base have changed between these renders and the final print model that is now complete and sitting with our 3D printer for printing!

 

Todays model preview features what will be the largest model in the Egyptian army in the initial releases found within the pages of the Conquest of the Gods core rule book. Sculpted by Australian artist Carly Glover, this multi-part resin metal kit has an intimidating wingspan just over  18cm, the height of the sphinx himself (without is base) is just over 10cm.

Carly Glover is a Sydney based 3D Artist who specialises in the design and modeling of the weird and the wonderful characters that have yet to exist. With a Bachelor of Design from COFA UNSW, her professional background kicked off in Graphic Design and Television Production within the Art Department for several Australian Networks. More Recently, Carly moved into the 3D Arts where she studied Animation & VFX at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Carly is currently producing a short film with a team of six as a proof of concept for a children’s series pitch later next year. As an artist, she is always seeking new adventures and exciting characters to bring to life and Demigod Games has provided just that! Carly is already working on another monstrous creation for Conquest of the Gods, this time for the Norse army.

The design philosophy of this model follows the broader philosophy we bring to all of our models, what would this look like if it were real. As each army will have at least one ‘giant’ model in it, we wanted this to be the giant model for the Egyptians, and for it to have a truly fearsome presence. This originally was not going to be the ‘giant’ model for the army but as the concept evolved we felt that making the model larger was the only way to truly give the concept the respect and attention that it deserved.   Given the importance of the sphinx units within the armies rules it made further sense to make the Alpha sphinx a centerpiece model, one that will only be rivalled in presence by the Egyptian god model that we will be previewing next year before we launch our crowd funding campaign.

The Alpha Sphinx will act as a conduit between your god and the non-winged sphinx models that we will be featuring once they are closer to completion. The Alpha Sphinx will not only be a key strategic mythical unit (if you opt to field mythical units in your army) but is also a fearsome combatant that can hold its own if necessary.

Whilst we did give you a small preview of this model in our initial preview post, it’s only fair that we give this beautiful piece of art a proper post to show it off. This model is presently in our prototyping queue with  the growing number of models we need to have printed with our 3D printing firm and should be ready for casting sometime early next year.