Thursday 28 October 2010

In The Pipe......15mm Praesentia

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In yesterday's post we looked at  how Craig and Dale at Critical Mass Games create and develop a new alien race in 15mm. Tonight we continue the story with how the Praesentia are turned from concept drawings into living figures.


Developing the Praesentia
Part 2: Realisation
"As you can see in the photos below, Phil has done an excellent job translating the artwork to miniature. Creating a miniature that does not look out of place next to a standard human.  The separate staffs have the hands sculpted on with balls that fit snugly into sockets on the wrist. This has allowed for a more detailed and dynamic miniature as a whole.



We knew we wanted the Praesentia to retain the simple monk like garb, but as a technologically advanced race we also wanted this to be represented, and so the Phase Shifters arrived, inspired by Guyver and many different Manga films the armour is much closer fitting and has less bulk than that of the ARC Fleet and Kaamados.

The Praesentia Enlightened are due for release on Dec 6th 2010 closely followed by the Phase Shifters on Jan 24th 2011. And following on from this, will be a new selection of Ancients, the leaders of the Praesentia.

Well, I for one think Phil's translation of the concept artwork into miniature is little short of outstanding. The bar has definitely been set higher!


These Praesentia have completely won this hard Sci Fi grognard over and yes even inspired me.These are the Martian Warlords I visualised for my vision of Victorian Science Fiction, whilst the Phase Shifters will rise as the Jundi Sand Lords of Mudd Eiseley.

Cheers
Mark

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Wednesday 27 October 2010

Developing a Sci Fi Race: The Praesentia

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Craig at Critical Mass Games called earlier in the week to make sure my health was OK and that it wasn't getting me down. Top bloke! It's always good chatting to Craig as it's like talking with a long standing army buddy. We can pick up the converstaion right where we left it last time.

Naturally the talk gravitates to the hobby, gaming plus the latest at CMG. Craig's always open and honest about his company, the highs and lows, what works, what doesn't. Our chats present me with a priviledged insight into what it takes to run a wargames miniatures company, warts and all.

So I thought it was an appropriate time to give you an idea of what goes into creating a range of miniatures. Craig and Dale have kindly obliged by providing this exclusive look at their next alien race - ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for..... The Praesantia!

Developing the Praesentia
Part 1: Concept
"Our initial plan for Critical Mass Games was to create 4 unique races. So far we have successfully released three from the original four lined up when the company launched in August 2009.  In addition to this opportunity has presented a diverse selection of miniatures which together has formed the inspiring Mercenaries range.

The Praesentia are the last of the initial four races and have represented the greatest challenge.  They are representative of a tall race for grey like aliens, yet scale being what it is, the challenge is to maintain them with in the realm of 15mm without them looking like they have been rejected as small 25mm miniatures.

As can be seen in the image below the miniatures have changed somewhat in the last year.  The three Praesentia casting on the left are all test pieces under taken by different sculptors, commissioned in early 2009 to test the sculptor’s abilities and to also allow us a look at what could be achieved with 15mm sculpting.  Casting further confirms that this detail will hold up.


In terms of detail they all offered a glimpse of each sculptors immense talent, but scale and look wise the design was not right, too tall or too wide, and so the Praesentia where pushed back in the development cycle. 

Another age old problem for the sculptor was posing, the initial artwork had the Praesentia rather static, and so this was exactly what was returned in miniature, not very inspiring! 

The staff weapon carried by the Praesentia Ancient was something Dale and I both liked and having looked around for ideas agreed that the pistols from the original art work should go and the staff should be the general armament for the Praesentia, combine this with marital art staff fighting poses and movement and something was beginning to emerge.  We passed these ideas over to our artist Rob Parkinson who in turn presented us with simple studies.

Over time built up to the finished Enlightened concepts which Phil Lewis would use as reference to sculpt the miniatures".


I must admit that I always found the idea of the Praesentia intriguing. There was something noble about the original miniatures that reminded me of some High Sci Fi artwork, from my teens and I feel they should be on an AE Van Vogt, Ray Bradbury or Frank Herbert book cover. Tomorrow night, we'll look at how Phil has translated these concept drawings into miniature with some exclusive photos of the new greens. 





Cheers
Mark
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Life, Work, The Universe...... The Laptop Strikes Back

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Thanks to Ronnie, neighbour, top IT guru and genuinely all round good guy, my laptop has been returned to full functionality and normality has been restored. That is, as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway.

My sage advice amigos is, after you fix the hardware, don't change your Admin password in Windows Vista when you are under the influence of medication or alcohol, or in my case, BOTH!

Cheers
Mark
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Saturday 23 October 2010

INCOMING....... Federal Army Reinforcements

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Khurasan's new Federal Army range has created a buzz leading to my review on 5th September receiving the highest all time number of page views on Dropship Horizon.

Responding to customer feedback here are the first wave of reinforcements and support weapons for the Feds.

15mm Sci Fi Khurasan Federal Army
Anti-Material Rifle (left), Fusion Gunner (right)
The barrel of the A-M Rifle was not straightened by painter


15mm Sci Fi Khurasan Federal Army
A homage to Vasquez. Fem Troopers!


15mm Sci Fi Khurasan Federal Army
Tankies/generic crew


15mm Sci Fi Khurasan Federal Army
20mm autocannon (comes with Anti-Material barrel swop)


Cheers
Mark
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Friday 22 October 2010

300 Club Ventaurans

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Nic over at Eureka has informed me that we need THREE more people to sign up to the 300 Club Ventaurans for them to go into production.
These will be 15mm versions of Chub Pearson's classic 25mm Ventaurans. 

25mm Denizen Miniatures 25mm Ventaurans

These have potential to make great proxy 15mm Zhodani! So Eureka, 300 Cllub, Go!

Cheers
Mark
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Wednesday 20 October 2010

Spikey Rock Clusters

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Something else from the workbench - Spikey Rock Clusters. A bag of shells, again picked up at Hobbitcraft. Lower section was cut off carefully with a hobby knife before hot glueing the shells in clusters on MDF bases from Martin at Warbases.co.uk.


Some desert basing material and these are ready for the tabletop. Ten bases for a couple of quid. I'm going to paint some in various hues of grey for my asteroid terrain but having said that, I think they could also look great painted as ice formations on a snow planet too. So many choices!

I'll post the finished results when I'm done.

Cheers
Mark
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Mistletoe and Wine...... Cheap Sci Fi Trees

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Thanks to Hobbycraft, I now have 20 new Sci Fi 'Spice Trees' and the makings of a large number of smaller flora for just £4.99.


No idea what the artificial plant was called - some kind of christmas decoration - Just snip off the arms with the berries, hotglue to a base and then texture (a job still to be done here!). May need a touch up here and there and maybe some matt varnish if you are bothered by the shine - but otherwise something very different on the tabletop to hackneyed aquarium plants.

Cheers
Mark
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Sierra Foxtrot One Five

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Looking back over Dropship Horizon several times I've thought "Wow! This is this. This ain't somethin' else. This is this". I had that feeling with Tomorrow's War, with Khurasan' Federal Army, with GZG's Light UNSC and Critical Mass Games' Combat Walkers.

I'm going to add Sierra Foxtrot One Five a magazine of 15mm Sci Fi wargaming, by Jason Weiser and George Grealy to that list.

 I want to applaud their effort for what is not only a great read but something the 15mm genre deserves right now. A magazine just for us 15mm gamers. Something we own.Well done guys!

Click on the link above to access

Cheers
Mark
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Mowing the Lawn

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I've not been so bloggy over the past couple of months. Laptop's been out of action, head down at work with projects and workforce issues. But also, plenty of self-proclaimed professional reviewers setting up .coms, folks with rules to sell trying to pick up traffic through reviewing and the manufacturers themselves finding their own voice on the blogging wires, making it noisy out there.

I found that I just don't have time or the will to scurry round scavenging news and titbits from other online sites to pass off as news. So, my line in the sand is here and now. With a reducing number of pounds in my pocket in real terms like everyone else, if I think something is good enough to buy, you'll see it here on Dropship Horizon, either in my wishlist, on the workbench or on the tabletop as part of my collection. And that is the final arbiter after all.

Figurewise I've really been kicking my heels waiting for Khurasan's new Federal Army range and Critical Mass Games' Light Recon support weapon packs. Jon has kindly allowed me to have some input on expanding the Federal Army range, so these are likely to be my main forces for 2011.

Things haven't been completely quiet and I do have a few surprises up my sleeve!



Let's Get Some!


Cheers
Mark
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Monday 18 October 2010

RAFM 20% Off

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RAFM are offering 20% off until 24th October. A great opportunity to stock up on their 15mm ex-Citadel Traveller minis!




Cheers
Mark
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Tuesday 12 October 2010

Khurasan's "HOG" - You are gonna love this!

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New from Khurasan to give the Federal Army mobile support on the ground:
"The DIMOG Armoursuit is a light assault mech which permits the Federal Army to bring the power of their platoon heavy weapons -- the 20mm autocannon and the Rattler heavy anti-tank missile launcher -- to bear in an offensive.  The Federal Infantry love the DIMOG because it is right there when they need it, and have nicknamed it the "Mog" or, more often, the "Hog".


There are two variants of the DIMOG -- the DIMOG Mark 1, as shown in the image, and the DIMOG Mark 2, which is hardened (with additional armour so that it is completely enclosed).

Both kits will be available within a month or so, and each comes with two sets of legs, two autocannons, and one missile launcher.  (Yes, that attachment point you see on the roof of the DIMOG is a weapons port so you can mount all three weapons on one DIMOG!)

In the image you can just make out the sergeant operating his Mark 1 Mog.  This should make it clear that this is a small Mech, not a towering cyborg like the L-HAC."

 So, what  is the Dropship opinion? I showed the pic to Eli just before posting and he came back with:

I like! This scream armed labor militia to me. Like a modified civilian loader. It makes me think of a game I ran for an Aliens RPG (not the Leading Edge one) I ran back in the 80s. One of the missions that the Marines were sent to do was to provide security during a hot labor dispute on a corporate colony world. Modified loaders were used as weapons by the militia groups. They carried everything from jerry rigged flamers and rockets up to smuggled in heavy weapons. Walking technicals they were.


Me? Jon, I want six!

Available from
Khurasan Miniatures
E.T.A. SOON!

Cheers
Mark

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Monday 11 October 2010

Sunday 3 October 2010

In the Pipe...... Garn Terminators Hasta La Vista Baby!

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Coming next from Khurasan to reinforce the Garn legions are Garn Champions! - Scaly Terminators, the Arnold Garnineggers of the reptilian world!

Get to da Dropship!

The largest, bravest and strongest Garn are trusted with the heaviest weaponry--huge particle beam weapons and superheavy flanethrowers that can incinerate a typical colony prefab in one fiery gout. similar to the heroes of old Norse mythology, they glory in war and slaughter; and are free to join Garn expeditions as they please, being free to go where the battle will be fiercest.

Jon has commissioned Two poses of mega-Garn, considerably taller and more massive than the others, armed with equally large heavy weapons. These were made to supplement the normal squad heavy weapon borne by a warrior in the command pack. Tomorrow's War gamers will benefit from the exra heavy firepower the Garn Champions bring to the table.

The Champions unfortunately missed the current casting cycle, that's happening right now, so no firm ETA, but they're made and coming! 

Just the thing for those who want Garn BFGs and want them to look like Garn ... because I guess when it comes to the Garn, there are no substitutes!

Hasta La Vista!


Cheers
Mark
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