Charsaug, Colossal Magma Dragon

A few years ago, I decided to run an Iron Kingdoms D20 campaign in which our characters were all epic giants (from Bemoth) who were fighting against the godlike dragons that the world features. It took me a while to find dragon minis that were big enough to be IK dragons- they're all larger than Colossal sized D&D dragons.

 I eventually found three figures that I used. The first two were statues that I got from an Asian Gift store near here (repainting statues from there's become a habit of mine). They were very large, and not terribly expensive.

 But I wanted one of them to be truly special, so I ordered Viszeralyn, the Oracle dragon- a massive two foot tall dragon sculpted in fine detail by veteran Sandra Garrity. Well, it turns out that all of that detail is pretty intimidating a project. And wanting it to be special, and this massive helps me to put off painting it for a while. While the mini did come out to play a part in the Giants campaign, it was simply primed at the time.

 But now, after a number of false starts, I finally have him finished. I decided to go with one of my favorite Iron Kingdoms dragons for the color scheme: So, here is Charsaug.
 

Meg Man Board Game on Kickstarter

Ok, I'm a huge fan of the Chibi miniatures that we've been seeing from Soda Pop and Impact! I really love painting them up- the style is so new and refreshing.

 So, I've been excited every time I've seen a preview of the Mega Man miniatures from Jasco. Well, they're done with those previews, and started up their Kickstarter. And it is going pretty well for them.

 

I'll be keeping my eye on these. I'm not excited about the pre-painted stretch goal, but so long as I can do my own painting on top of theirs, it should work out ok.

Blood Bowl Minotaur Conversion

Here is a Games Workshop Minotaur mini that I converted to play Blood Bowl. The colors match the rest of the Chaos team he plays with. Here he is:

 
 

Swords at Weddings/in the Zombie Apocalypse

The theme today seems to be swords. I have a few friends who had swords at their weddings (it is traditional to arm the best man, to warn off would be kidnappers). Unfortunately, they were all married before I started making cake toppers.

 There are so many different kinds of swords one could bring (either to the wedding or to the zombie apocalypse).

 The Machete seems to be a standard weapon in the zombie apocalypse. I wouldn't blame anyone either- it is the largest full tang blade I keep around the house (for gardening...).
 
 

Katanas are always nice as well. As long as you keep it sharp, they might be some of the best swords around. http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/zombie-fighters/sword-and-gun-1.jpg This guy is disproving the notion that the Marine Saber is only ceremonial.

 

These two are fencers and use their Rapiers. Good Toledo steel.

 
And these two armed themselves with different sabers:

 

MMO Cake Topper

This couple had me create cake toppers to look like MMORPG characters. I love these kinds of original ideas, and the elf ears add a lot of fun. Have a look.

 

Malifaux minis revealed and Heroquest Kickstarter

his is quite the eventful time in miniatures, isn't it?

 At the moment, I'm watching closely Gamezone's Kickstarter for a 25th anniversary edition of Heroquest.



 

Gamezone has been making some pretty nice fantasy minis for years, and have a pretty large line of minis to their name. Apparently, they've secured the rights to produce Heroquest in Spain. So, they'll be producing games in Spain in a number of languages and mailing them out all over the world.

They've stated that they've been in contact with Hasbro (which owns the Heroquest property) and are not using any of GW owned works (mostly, GW owned the miniature sculpts themselves). All and all, this is a great time to be a Heroquest fan.

It is easy to see that Gamezone isn't exactly an English as a first language company. Even with the troubles they're having on that front, the Kickstarter has raised over half a million in its first three days.


So, second piece of news I'm super excited about. Wyrd Games just announced that they're having a Black Friday sale, and revealed a number of goodies that they'll be selling as pre-releases.

Among them, there's a new rules manual for Malifaux 2nd edition. I was afraid we weren't going to see one of these.

 

And there are a number of new kits of characters that have recently become plastic. Among my favorites is the Latigo Posse and Body of Evidence:

 



Anyway, happy Thanksgiving.

Space Hulk Squad Gideon

Well, I posted up my squad Lorenzo as I painted them up. But when I finished off Squad Gideon, they didn't get photographed right away. So, here they are.

 I had a bit of a block going into this set, as I wanted to have something subtle show the difference between the two squads, without making them look like they were from a different chapter. In the end I chose to make all of the jewels a different color (Lorenzo's squad has blue jewels, rather than the green ones here).












Also, I updated my Librarian Calistarius. I had originally painted him with metallic metals, and without dark lining. Last thing I did on the set was paint him in Non metallic metals to match the rest of the Space Hulk set.

 

Romantic Ninja Across the Threshold

Here is a Romantic Ninja cake topper I created a little while ago. I really love to see some of the details that my customers find for me to match. Here, I think it was the shoes that really excited me.
 And ninjas are always fun too.

 

Zombie Cake Toppers and Silent Kills

I blame the Walking Dead for pointing out just how good it is to kill zombies quietly. At least, I'm pretty sure that's where the crossbows come from:

 



But there's also a group that prefers the traditional bow and arrow approach (I think Katniss showed us how deadly that can be). Also quite good at keeping the volume down, but I sometimes feel that couples aren't always on the same page as far as that goes:

 




 

And I don't think this post would be complete without at least a couple zombies to fight off:

 

Time Travelers Cake topper

Well, here is a cake topper that I created a little while ago, featuring a time traveller and his wife. The weaponry was quite unique for this one. As I understand it, the cake is shaped like a blue police box from the '60s.

 



 

Zombie Survivor Cake Toppers: Go with the weapon you're familiar with...

More cake toppers.

 In a zombie apocalypse, the baseball bat is a good option. In fact, it is probably best to go with something you might have nearby (and no matter where the apocalypse starts, a bat shouldn't be too far away).  Even if the apocalypse hits on your wedding day.

 But most of all, you've probably held one before. That's the important thing. Go with something where you know the weight and how to swing it.
 Here are a few couples who had that sensibility going.

 



 Some of us might be more familiar with an acoustic guitar, which is just fine too.

 

And here's a pitcher who decided she could make a ball into a deadly weapon. Her groom picked up an less likely weapon to go along.

 

Missed one

And I had a good picture of the Suicide Queen that I missed posting with the rest of the Relic Knights minis. Here she is:

Relic Knights Studio Minis (Gencon Display)

Well, I've been excited about Relic Knights for a good long while now.  We've just seen the production miniatures on the Kickstarter, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that we'll not be seeing these minis soon.

By the way, I've painted the resin version of Sebastian Cross, and I honestly can't see any differences in the picture that they have.  I might be able to find some slight roundness if I scrutinize them closely in person, but I can't tell for sure.  It looks like they're doing good work with this.

Of course, I've been anxious to get my hands on these since well before the Kickstarter's delivery date.  I suppose that's the trouble with Kickstarters in general- we end up seeing all of the set backs on the production end.  Before, we'd just find out when the product is actually being released and that'd be it.  We wouldn't know that they were late, or that they had planned on having more minis at the release and such.

I'm pretty sure that the Wrath of Kings Kickstarter held back on adding loads of new minis to their range simply because new minis adds a lot of time to the production.  I wonder if I'll get my awesome pig sculpts on time.

Anyway, at Gencon, they had quite a few new minis that we haven't seen before- including the one they had unassembled in their update:

Wrath of Kings- pics from Gencon

If you're like me, then you probably follow a lot of miniatures Kickstarters- sometimes just to see how well they do (or don't do).  I'm always excited to see new projects that look good- especially if the minis look really wonderful and original.

One of the brighter ones I've had my eye on is Wrath of Kings. I was told that the developers are a bunch of old boys from Rackam- and I think it shows in the style of the minis- very much like the best of Confrontation.

It is nice to see such a nice miniatures line starting up.  The Kickstarter seems to be going quite well for them, and they're now entering the last stretch.

Here are some photos I took at Gencon.  I'm particularly fond of the crazy gnome riding a berzerker pig man.  I'm excited to see this setting get fleshed out with more minis.