Those of you who follow our Facebook and Twitter may have noticed that this last week we showed a box of resin miniatures that arrived. All of our mid-sized monsters that will feature in the starter sets will be resin/metal hybrid kits. The final production resins for both the Troll and the Minotaur showed up and I have to say im very happy with the results.
I also had cast copies of one of the Greek models that show up. The Lochagos is your typical hoplite unit leader/command model. He gives you a general feel for the style of the Greek models and a feel for the human models in scale to the mid-sized monsters. The hoplites and other Greek models are in our prototyping queue so I expect to have these in hand along with most of the other metal miniatures within the month.
A couple of points on the miniatures pictured. The bases are prototypes and the rock on the trolls base is just a 3D print, the final copy of it will be in metal. This rock can be either added to the trolls base so that the model matches the artwork or alternatively, mounted on a 30mm base and used as an objective marker.
This marks an important milestone in the preparations to launch the game as I now have tested and proven production casts of the resin miniatures on hand (and a reasonable level of stock on hand in preparation for the Kickstarter). This means that after the game launches there won’t be any supply or casting issues as they have been ironed out. On the resin front I still plan to cast up the other two starter set monsters (and the base for Horus) over the next few weeks. Once all of the starter set models are on hand then ill announce the date for the Kickstarter and the count down to the Kickstarter can begin.
In showing these to my artists and others working closely on the project, a common question came up. ‘These look big, are they big or are the humans just a bit small?” … Well here are some scale pictures to show you the scale of the models in the range. For legal reasons I have silhouetted miniatures from other companies, though to most gamers it will be obvious as to what they are.
It is also time to give you some more details on what we are doing with the bases for our miniatures range. We have endeavoured to try and do something a little different; as such the process has taken a number of twists and turns as we went about bringing you a high quality product that looks good, functions well in game plat and feels like a premium product in the hand. Looking at miniature unboxing’s and assembly videos, we noticed that bases packed with miniatures are generally always an afterthought. Making a cheap black plastic base interesting has always been a challenge for hobbyists and has spawned some great basing products, but we really wanted to give you something that would look good without the need to spend more money on additional basing supplies. So to achieve this I decided to make the bases for the Conquest of the Gods range from high quality laser cut timbers.
Using timber brings some new and interesting options. By using a grained timber hobbyists can opt to base their model on the wood itself and varnish or stain it to compliment the pallet they have chosen to paint their army. By looking at a variety of timber stains and varnishes, gamers can come up with some interesting variations to make their army look unique. Thinned downed paints and inks can also be painted over the wood grain to ‘tint’ the wood a certain colour. Gamers who have little or no time to paint miniatures may opt to base the model on the wood base and varnish the entire piece, making a nice looking piece that whilst isn’t as impressive as a completely painted miniature, it looks far better than an undercoated or plain plastic model on a plain plastic base.
By using wood, we can also laser cut the movement trays at the same time. This means that with our range of miniatures, movement trays will be included with the larger units at no extra charge. All you will need to do is glue the movement tray components to a suitable material such as plastic card, cardboard. By using timber it also allows us to have a larger range of base sizes, and whilst we have stuck with the ‘typical’ sizes for the smaller models, we have been able to introduce a few new sizes better suited to some of our larger models.
God models will also come with base toppers; these are designed to be an optional part to the base, turning their bases into a miniature plinth. This elevates the models up higher to make them stand out more on the table. The topper and base have a 2mm hole in the centre that can be aligned using a toothpick before they are glued together using your preferred glue of choice (we will be recommending PVA). For those who hate plinths (we know there are some of you out there) they may opt to not use the topper, though we feel that the design does enhance the model and helps make the important models on the table more eye catching. If the concept proves popular we will look at doing some additional topper designs for each army as optional extras to give players even more variation.
We will be experimenting with different timbers over the coming months and if the crowd funding campaign does well, we hope to offer each army different types of wood and grain to complement their range.
Before the Kickstarter launches ill be doing a preview where the timber bases are painted, stained etc.. to show of the versatility of going down this path for the bases. I’ll also show off production casts of the other two starter set monsters and starter set miniatures once they are on hand.
