The World Of Twilight

I've decided I'm going to be good and try to do a thread saying what I'm up to... don't expect anything too exciting, but this can be a way to find out what I'm currently working, and games I've been playing etc. Feel free to randomly chip in and ask questions about stuff you think I might have forgotten...

22 June 2010
After a few good games over the weekend I've once again got lots of things I want to do. I'm still slowly working on the Fubarnii heavy cavalry character and the two shield/pick delgon troopers - they are all getting there but they are at the slow stage of sculpting... :)
Other than that I've got a couple of Dhogu on the go to try and figure out exactly how they look, so that I can finish off the Yirnak cavalry. Languishing on the sidelines is the armature new Devanu Jenta, but I'll focus on him at some point later...

24 June 2010
Hmm... the last couple of days haven't been very productive! Jules and I haven't been feeling terribly well (just a bit of a cold) and I also received a copy of Corel Painter that I now want to play with. Might be vaguely useful for doing some artwork if I ever get the hang of it, but not so good for the 3D sculpting...
I have got next week off work though and I'm heading off on a holiday. I'll be taking some sculpting stuff, but no idea if I'll manage to do anything with it!

Painter is great, Im assuming you have a decent tablet ? For quick dirty sketches though I prefer Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It feels more like "grabbing a pencil and piece of paper and getting stuck in". Painter has more to it obviously and is excellent in its own right.
I messed about quite a bit with 3D sculpting. If you have the cash then ZBrush is the dogs danglies. How they keep the program running smooth with all that data flying about is beyond me. Ive only tried the trial which only has the basic zsphere sculpting which is good but the full version has an amazing way of sculpting initial armatures.
This is a vid of the new zsphere sculpting. This is before its turned into a true mesh and any detail sculpting is done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uul-y1QqgGo&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uul-y1QqgGo&feature=related)

Having fun playing with painter, but struggling with some very basic stuff (should have bought an idiot's guide of some variety...). Do you know how to set the white sections of a scanned image to be transparent (so I can set that as a front layer and paint behind it), or does painter just not work that way?
As for zbush? Looks fun, but I'm going to struggle to find time to play with just the 2 dimensions!

Sorry Mike not too clued up on that. I presume you could magic wand the pic you want then invert selection. Scanned stuff will be tough though with the colour variations.

What you describe is something Ive found problematic creating transparencies on the background layer ie the first canvas layer you open. A way around this is to open a blank canvas first then add the scanned Image as a second layer. What you delete on the second layer will be transparent. I think manipulating the second layer is easier than the canvas.

Zbrush is fun to mess about with and quite addictive tbh. Best leave it be lol.

26 June 2010
We're heading off on our holiday today! Sunny Wales here I come. I've got my sculpting stuff packed, just in case I find some free time...

I'll be keeping an eye on the forum though and I hope to see plenty more creature entries over the next week :)

Wales?

You off to Brandlin's?   ;D

nope t'other end....

psst I'm only 5 miles over the border... i can practically see check point taffy.
I'm actually an English sleeper agent, laundering leeks across the border

30 June 2010
I'm quite approving of this holiday lark :)
No time to sculpt yet, but I doodled some 'birds' today (same body pattern as the kosok), and I'm getting slightly less useless at Painter.
Right then, better get back to eating icecream before it melts in the sun!

Jammy person.  I hope we at least get to see some cute baby-on-the-beach pictures.

personally I'd never call mike "baby" and have no desire to see him in speedos. Each to their own though ;)

03 July 2010
Home again now, and it is hot here!
Managed a wee bit of sculpting yesterday (trouser laces, lance bindings and a Devanu foot) and hopeful to get back into the routine now I'm home! But first I'm going to start sorting through some creature contest entries...
Might find some beach photos later, but worry not, they won't involve speedos. :)

13 July 2010
I've clearly failed on the beach photos so far...
I do appear to have got distracted with a new sculpt rather than doing the sensible thing of finishing off all my current projects so I can send off stuff to get cast. Don't worry, I'll get there soon - I've got a bunch of pieces close to completion that will more than fill a mould. The new sculpt has been a fun side-project while the weather was a bit too hot to be working on fine detail (the putty goes all funny when it gets too hot). With all the creature contest stuff going on I started doodling some more creatures of my own, including a large(ish) bipedal creature that I then felt compulsed to sculpt. The sculpt is coming along reasonably well and I'll see if I can share some pics over the next few days. :)

That's okay,  I saw them on Facebook so I'm happy!  Lexie with sandy toes!  :)


[pedant alert] Compelled.

26 July 2010
Time seems to be flying past at the moment! Lexie is 7 months old today, which is kinda amazing. Soon she's going to be crawling, at which point I'm going to have to be much more careful where I leave my sculpting stuff... We've just moved bath/bed time earlier, which will free up my old evening sculpting slot  :) Recently I've been snatching short patches of sculpting quite late in the evening, so I've been nervous working on any neat detailing and seem to have started a bunch of new projects rather than finishing anything off...
Current projects on the go: Empire Heavy Cavalry character, two dhogu on foot, one mounted dhogu, running beast, two delgon pick/shield troopers, weapons, baruk conversion pack (alternate head and tail), devanu jenta and a new enarii (but he is very very early in the process). I really need to bite the bullet and get a couple of those finished and off to the casters! Mark has a few other pieces nearing completion so we should have enough for a mould soon. :)
I've also started looking for another sculptor to help me out with the range, so now it is a case of finding somebody whose sculpting style fits the range nicely. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Yeah slow spell here  >:( 

I cant seem to get any decent light at the moment too. Eyes are starting to de-focus now and then which is a little worrying so must get light better. I got a bit more done on the mounted herders, bulking mostly and some detail on the heads. I find once character is built with the heads I get a bit more motivation as they take on more life.

Really no suggestions on a new sculptor but hopefully someone quicker than us lol.

Its funny, I had only 1 model left to assemble and its a baruk.  Now, should I not assemble it and wait for the alternate head & tail so both look different?

Sounds good Mike and like what you're doing.

I would be wary of being too patient! I've basically sculpted a new head and tail so you could now theoretically have 4 slightly different versions. I've not done any new baggage though, which is a little bit lazy. I might see if I can do one or two random extras to personalise them, or just resculpt a couple of bags on the original, but that depends! The head and tail will certainly go on the next mould, and I'll do a few extra masters so you (and anybody else) could get the kit a little bit early, but it'll be at least a month, probably two.

Wow that's a lot of models in process. Its going to be a great autumn for WoT - but can you actually see you working desk for unfinished miniatures?  ;D, t

I know, that I/we can't control your creative mind (or hands) - but some of us would really, really, really, really .... really like to see that heavy cavalry character finish soon :)

And would I love to see a sneak peek of those dhogu? * Don't think I need to answer that - do I?* :D

I have actually been doing a little bit more on the Cavalry character - I've just got a bit nervous about how I'm going to chop him up! I think he will work as three pieces (body, enuk leg, lance) as the body is actually quite a simple shape, but I'm not certain. He will be on the next mould though (along with Mark's skitterer, the two delgon troopers, the baruk kit and a bunch of weapons) so I'll have to finish him soon!

Great news  ;D - and dhogu - any chance for a sneak peak of what to expect?

Dhogu? Just some hairy hooves at the moment (it's cold in them thar hills, so the dhogu like to wrap up warm!).
My lovely wife has just informed me that I have a parcel from the casters! Nothing new, but it hopefully means a few more models will be on general release shortly (although I do need to order more bases!

There was indeed a parcel from the casters last night, so now I just need to do lots of packaging of minis. Slightly concerned that I've run out of small bases, but that problem is far from insurmountable  ;D

[miniminiminiminiminiminiminimini]
%)


mmm, pie

1 Aug 2010

How is it August already?! Yikes!

Lots of sculpting yesterday - I've decided I need to get a set of greens finished and off to the casters some time in the next couple of weeks... The Fubarnii character is almost done (although I still need to amputate a leg for casting purposes), as are the Delgon troopers. I even started on a couple of new shield designs yesterday (might have to ask for some opinions on those later...).

I've also nearly finished my latest creature, which has been dubbed 'Runner' until I come up with a proper name for it. I thought it was about time I showed you something new... He's standing on a 40mm base.

What do you think?

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Twilight/RunnerWIP.jpg)

I like how it looks, I can see green stuffing cloths on their back with numbers & having Fubarnii races with these (kinda of like greyhound dog races).  ;D  Or maybe a Devnau senario where they ambush a group of these, or have to chase them down and catch them (these look like they would be fast)

My only gripe is the location on the tab on the foot of the model.  I can see it doesn't place the model in the center of the base.  If you move the tab on the bottom to go from one side of the foot to other instead of front to back , the model could be centered better.  Or you can not put a tab at all and put a peg instead (Some of the Warmachine warjacks have pegs on the bottom of their feet. I usually tape up the slot and make a small hole for a peg).

BEEP BEEP

Love it Mike.
Doesnt look to be a tab on it yet but casting would require a tab positioned where the slot is on the photo. I nearly always cut tabs down to form pegs anyway so never really had issue with it.

Mark is right about the current lack of tab. I'll probably do a shortish tab so that it can be positioned further forwards or backwards.
I might use this guy as a mount for the ferals eventually, but for the moment greyhound racing and/or coyote baiting will have to do...

You've sculpted him with the colour scheme already in place :D

I thought I'd try and make your life a bit easier   ;D

You are all heart Mike!  ;D

That I am!
Now get back to painting so I can release some more figures  :)

10 August 2010
It's been a bit quiet here for the last couple of weeks, but that doesn't mean nothing has been going on... Keep an eye on Hasslefree as there should be new releases there very shortly as they should have received their stock of Kosok and Yirnak yesterday. I've also received some new storage for my new shed, so hopefully I can manage to get my stock a bit better organised!

23rd August 2010
You know how sometimes you put something off that you really don't want to do, but when you finally do it it turns out not to be that bad?

For a while now I've known that at some point I'd have to chop up the new captain model, specifically removing head from the metal enuk. I've been um-ing and ah-ing and even considering whether I could leave it as a single piece (possible, but I think there would be potential for bad casting issues...). Last night I finally dug out my razorsaw and did the deed, and it went remarkably smoothly! I even managed to keep the hand that is attached to the neck. ;D

Whilst avoiding decapitation duties over the weekend I did start doing some painting. I realised that I've not painted any Fubarnii since releasing Twilight and it's about time I did some. To begin with I'm going to be painting up some Delgon infantry. I'm not a great painter, but I'll share my progress somewhere on the forum. :)

Good to read about some progres;)

Don't worry, things are nearly always progressing! The difficulty often lies with getting enough models to fill an initial master mould - there are 16 slots (each about the size of a normal figure) and you want to fill as many of those as possible before sending off your original sculpts. I'm learning that it takes a long time to fill 16 slots on your own, but I'm looking at ways to speed that up for the future. The mould is very close to completion now, so I just need to bite the bullet and stop tweaking! The final distraction might be if I decide to do a quick conversion of the Baruk body with some slightly different baggage - with the new head and tail that would give an entirely new baruk with parts that are interchangeable with one another (like the Grishak, but actually giving 9 different options...). Nearly there though... :)

31st August 2010
Okay, I did get distracted and I now have a heavily converted Baruk body almost ready to go on the mould... There will now be two different baruk, but all the parts will be interchangeable. I'm kinda pleased with how it's looking!
The captain is pretty much complete and I just need to sprue up the lance and enuk head.
Which all means everything is on schedule for me sending off the mould in the next day or two. I'll try to take a few pics before everything gets packed up!

After that I can start on my next projects  ;D

Congrats Mike. good to see things moving along.

Faster than they are here - I feel kinda bad that it's taking a teenager in the holidays longer to paint figures than an adult with a day job and a baby is taking to sculpt them...  :P

Yes but the operative word in your sentence is "teenager". Your peer group isn't renowned for its "jump out of bed and get on with the day" attitude!

And I think I'm pretty much there... 6 new models are now tabbed up and pretty much ready to go, along with 14 different weapons/bits. I hope it all fits on the mould! The last stages always take soooo long.

Sounds awesome, can't wait to see/read how everything comes out.

Ive seen 'em and they look very nice.  ;)

Still waiting for those pics.  ;)

Good point! I've been putting off actually sending everything off to the casters - I keep getting distracted fixing little bits (over the weekend I added some hoof armour to the enuk...) but I need to actually bite the bullet and call them finished!
I have had some fun with new sculpts over the last few days, but I'm keeping the details of those quiet for the moment  :)

I've just launched a new contest (http://www.worldoftwilight.com/forum/index.php?topic=160.0). This time I'm asking you all to design a scenario... Let me know what you think!

8th September 2010
I probably shouldn't just show you everything that is going on a mould, but I did promise some more photos and I thought you might like to see this. You've seen better photos of most of these already, but there's some new stuff if you squint carefully.
These have all gone off to the casters now and I now just have to hope that everything fits and goes smoothly...
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/CastersSept10.jpg)

oooo

I like the sickle headed spear - probably completely impractical but cool looking.... and are those animal reliefs on the shields?

Is that a new knight in the top left... have we seen that? i may have missed stuff...

I showed some WIP shots of the knight a while back - he's a heavy cavalry character riding on an Enuk Nobilis.
The sickle headed spear is for the Dhogu and is generally used from the back of a Yirnak for hacking at stuff. Might not be the most efficient of designs, but from what I gather the Dhogu swear by them (or possibly at them, it is so hard to tell with the Dhogu).

They are animal reliefs on the shields - a long-horned enuk (very rare, possibly mythical) and a grimblar. Not typical designs for knights, but that sort of heraldry is quite common among clan militias.

Yeah finally, the heavy cavalry are coming. Really cant wait to get that one - and Baruk is a must have as well. Got 2 already - so will need a third one to break up the static look.

The accessories looks very promising - and cant wait to see what the are to be used for - Klute's mounted herders, perhaps!

And those round shields :D - masterpieces, as simple as that.
 
Still can't make my mind up regarding the 'Runner' and Skitterer - as they don't look 'Twilight' to me (yet). They are very nice sculpts, indeed - but their look is so different from what you have been doing until now - but like always I'll probably change my mind - so don't worry :D

thanks mike - I remember the heavy knight now! doh!

and i see you have the Delgon mountain symbol on the big square shield - I like that!

I like the runner - but now i want a half dozen different poses so that I can make herds from them ... (never satisfied)

I saw it as a millitary application of a farming tool...

Lovely set of releases Mike. Loving the shields

It's been a quiet few days on the forum, hopefully everybody is busy thinking about their scenarios...
I've had a shockingly busy couple of weeks at work since I got back from my week off. It's amazing how much more efficient my sculpting was when I wasn't knackered after a 10 hour day at work!

I'm slowly working on the aged engineer. As always, I'm torn between showing WIP shots and saving him to show as a finished piece when I've got a better idea of a release date!
The gushrak armed delgon is also progressing, although Jules has dubbed him gonzo (because of his gas mask) and another friend pointed out his resemblance to a quar. While I do love the quar, that wasn't quite what I was aiming for! I'm sure he'll turn out okay though.

The runner will certainly fit into the expanding world of Twilight. Just imagine a feral-looking fubarnii clinging to its back... Another pose is probably a must, but Brandlin might be waiting a while if he wants too many different options!
The skitterer will also eventually have some company that will tie it all together nicely.

As always there is lots going on and lots that I'm meant to be doing, so thanks for the patience and it will be worth it in the long run  ;D

No, I'm working! First chance I've had to login...

Unlikely I'll be able to complete a scenario along with the secret project as well...

I've had a rubbish couple of days - I've not been well...  :P

But I'm feeling a bit better now! I've also got plenty of good news - Hasslefree have released a couple more twilight models, so you can finally get hold of Arak Katain and the young Fubarnii.  :)

I also received a parcel from Mark yesterday containing the finished Empire light cavalry which are looking rather good. I just need to finish off a couple of my own sculpts to fill a mould. Hopefully I can get that sent off in the next month or so.

The scenario design contest also draws to a close at the end of today. There's still time to get an entry in if you want to - don't forget there might also be a small prize or two for scenario ideas even if you don't have the whole thing written up so it's worth entering anyway!
Over the next week or two I'll compile my favourite entries and open them up to a public vote to see which one you like best! I'm hoping I might even get to try a few of them out so I can choose my favourite :)

Plenty Lemsips

Lightening fast posties on the job there with "the package"  ;D

Whats on the corks now BTW ?

Lemsips wouldn't have helped much. It was more a case of keeping a bowl handy for most of the day, but I don't think anybody needs more detail than that!

Very impressed with the posties  :)

Next up we have a special weapon for the Delgon and an even-more revered (old) engineer for the Empire. I've done some more work on a new Belog, but he's a looong way off.

Glad to hear you're feeling better now. It'll be interesting to read your opinions on all the submitted scenarios too. As for the Delgon special weapon, I'm looking forward to using several of them, oho yes...

It's my birthday today, so I think I'm going to stop thinking about windfarms and go home early  ;D

I posted the winners of the scenario design contest last night (congrats to Jubal, TheGremlin and Geckilian), so now I can get back to the important process of designing more troops, civilians and critters to populate Anyaral. With my last couple of sculpts pretty much finished I can go back to some that have been untouched for a while, including the dhogu and a new young Devanu. I was thinking over the weekend that I really should do one or two conversion kits for the existing devanu to give a few more options, so they might also appear on the drawing board.

One thing I have been meaning to mention is that if any of you guys would like to get hold of any previews a bit early then do just drop me and email and I'm sure we can figure something out and save you waiting for me to get them into full production!

Anyway, I'd best rush home so I can take my gorgeous little daughter out for a walk!

All my posts seem to be about being ill at the moment, so I'm not going to grumble about that again!

On some good news I have a set of greens pretty much ready for going to the casters. I'm going to try and take a few pics tomorrow before popping them in the post - it's been far too long since I've had some new stuff to show you guys, but that should improve in the run up to Salute!  :)

Good to hear! With any luck I'll resist temptation and not spend -quite- so much at Salute on your stall like last year. I should probably keep some money for food after all!

You need to eat? We'll hopefully remember to bring a bowl of sweets this time, so I'm sure those will tide you over  :)

I'm currently waiting at heathrow for a flight over to the states... Not quite the way I would like to be spending the weekend! I've got seven flights to look forward to over the next week, so I'm hoping to find a few hours to work on the second rulebook - there's plenty of fluff and background to write, and I won't have my daughter around to distract me  :-[

how did it know mike?  inquiring minds need answers!

It was a long week, followed by a rather challenging week back in the office... Lexie is also ill, so I'm staying home to look after her.

On the plus side the book is coming along, I got a bunch of master casts back and I've nearly finished a new Devanu jenta that I might sneak onto a production mould in time for salute. I've also got next week off, so maybe I'll be able to make some more progress!

I'm enjoying my week off so far! Jules has sadly come down with a tummy bug, so that's going to disrupt plans a little bit... We did have at least 24 hours with a house free of illness though, which was nice.

I've just started work on a Belan. This big creature is going to be ona  60mm base and will be about 60mm tall (once fully laden). All going well I'll manage to get him cast in resin so I can have a couple of Belan for the demo game!
I'm going to be experimenting with polymer clay (fimo) for this sculpt, so I've started off by doing a metal armature covered in ProCreate. Hopefully the whole process will go reasonably smoothly as I've not used fimo since I was a kid. The sketch was printed at 1:1 scale with the final piece (not with an actual Belan. That'd be silly) so I can measure the skeleton against it.

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/BelanWIP1.jpg)

Looking good so far Mike, but with the metal prices shooting up will this one be cast hollow? Or in resin?

As satisfying as a good hunk of metal feels to hold, it'll be a right ball buster cost wise

It'll be in resin if I can get it done. Failing that it'll be a case of painting up the original, but that would be a bit of a shame. I'll have a chat with Ian at Fenris (in case he has a gap in his dragon-casting schedule) or the guys at Grey Matter to see what might be possible.

Looks good, glad you've started on this.  I like how you've matured the design from the original Mk1 sculpt in line with all the recent stuff.

It'll be a huge change from the original one... I'll show them side by side at some point!

Lots of progress last night - great fun trying such a different sculpting material! Huge amounts still to do though, and I'm not sure what to expect when I start working on the details...

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/EOS002.jpg)

Awesome! I See super-heavy knights already  ;)

I think you should leave it with those little chicken wings, but I'm sure I'll change my mind when I see the progress.

Will you bake it before detailing? What type of fimo are you using?

Why do I just know someone is going to cover this in armour and mount an infeasibly large derak on the top in a swivel mount?

*whistles*

This is designed as a pack beast, but a little howda might be fun at some point...
The putty is a mix of classic and soft, but just because thats what I happen to have. I know there are other putties I should experiment with when I get a chance. I've textured the skin etc but may do more detailing once it's fired.
I've been making lots more progress tonight and it seems strangely close to being complete... I then have to decide what to do next - get it cast as it is and add baggage after, or just go ahead and sculpt the baggage.

I vote cast as is, but that's because I don't have to do it  ::)

The way I see it is that way you can do alternate baggage arrangements, a howdah for a particular opulent trader or even a wild one. The change in pose is not as necessary as in the baruk, say as it's head and neck aren't so long, and also you don't cover the nice musculature you've done.

I say packs separate. 

Looking good so far and you say 60 mm base?  Do these warmachine style of bases come in 60mm?

You can get resin curved edge bases in almost any size from places like Fenris

Looking good, I'll get a good when I come over later.

Another quick update. Not had any time to work on him over the last couple of days, but I did start texturing his skin a couple of nights ago, and I'm pleased with how it's coming out. Hope you like him.

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/BelanWIP2.jpg)

The packs will eventually need to be cast as part of the body - sculpting separate packs would never look as natural as having them part of the model. If I can get them done in time I will get the main sculpt cast up as is (once I've done the final stages of detailing etc). I'll also buy some resin bases from Fenris to come with him.

Ben (Emberbreeze) and I were chatting last night and were wondering how much people would expect to pay for a large creature like this. It'll probably be driven by casting costs, but I'm wondering how expensive the casting would need to be before it becomes impractical to sell the model. What do you guys think?

Looking FAB. will it come without a pack as an option?

Cost? Havent a clue!

_{Free is always good in tha absence of cold hard cash though  ;D}

Are those little vestigial arms I see?

Yup, vestigial arms (enuk do also have small vestiges of arms if you look at the skeleton, but they aren't visible).
The one with a pack will probably be a different model rather than an optional piece. But it all depends on the practicalities and costs of resin casting! I'm fairly confident that it won't be free though  ;)

Superb mate, love the texture. Im trying to decide if he looks a little off balance at the front. Maybe the tail needs a bit more added ? Perfect spot for a rider behind the head.

I was wondering about the balance as well. There is a lot of mass immediately behind the legs and the 'torso' is a lot thinner, so possibly it balances out reasonably, even if it looks slightly imbalances in the profile. When I add baggage it'll very definitely be weighted over the back though as a bit of a counterbalance. Putting a rider over the neck would have the opposite effect, but the rider would be fairly small anyway!
The stumpy tail is also a distinctive visual feature of the original design, so I would rather not lose it (it also stops it just looking like a big baruk...).
All in all I think I'm happy about the balance. Probably.

The texture was a lot of fun - the fimo gives you time to build it up, starting with major texture and working down to fine texture using a coarse brush.

This guy looks great!

A very fun creature.

A shame you can't do the packs separately.

What about two castings, one without packs, & one with? or too expensive to make 2 different molds?
Just that I can imagine a lot of fun scenarios like 'capture the wild beast we just spotted before the devanu find it & eat it"
and conversions.. a slightly delusional old funbarnii decides to use it as a mount and be a knight, Don Quixote style... so many possibilities.

I wonder if having two pack pieces, a right and left side, that fit at the top like a puzzle piece, would work and look natural enough? a bit of green stuff and it would be fine for most people.  it wouldn't have an underbelly strap, but people could green stuff that without needing much skill.   It could also allow for having different kind of packs.  Such as instead of the various sacks like the Baruk have, it could have rows of big baskets or big ceramic jars... Those may look more natural as a separate casting... theer could be a left side & right side, with two straps going across, one side's ending in a clasp, so it can be glued in place over the other side's strap, to make it easy for the person putting it together, and wouldn't need an underbelly strap, since it'd look fine as the weight of both sides keeping the goods in place.

Kind of like this set-up for a camel:
(http://camelphotos.com/Graphics/saddle34.jpg)

As for price, hard to say.  I tend to spend more than I should, but rather than price tag as a decider all on its own, I tend to weigh heavy things like 'how cool is it?' and 'how useful is it?'.. and if things are very fun and have potentially many uses, then it makes it easier to justify spending the money  ;D

I have every intention of doing at least two versions, one with baggage and one without. I've no idea if that'll be economically sensible, but that's never really been the point with twilight  ;)
My ideal would be to have one with a reasonable amount of baggage on it, and a bunch of loose bits of baggage that can be piled on top or wherever, but that might be too impractical!

Good news, it survived being fired  ;D

I think it lost some of the more subtle skin texture in the process, but hopefully that won't matter too much.

Last night we got slightly worried as Lexie had developed some rather nasty looking spots on her legs and arms - there's been a bout of chicken pox at her nursery so we immediately started considering the worst. Good news though, Jules took her to the doctor and it's just a mild infection  ;D

I know that has nothing to do with sculpting or Twilight, but it's made my day and I thought I'd mention it! To get back on to more traditional topics... I spent last night sculpting a couple of bags onto one of the unarmoured enuk and trying to finish off a second Devanu jenta so I can send it to the casters within the next week. I've also got three very nice sculpts from Mark that I am very excited about getting cast. A lot of stuff seems to be falling into place in time for Salute, but it is looming rather close!

Awe sorry to hear the little ones poorly. Horrible when your kids are sick.

You should do a sprue of loose baggage.

Small loose baggage or big loose baggage? I meant to do a sprue of small loose bits with the original baruk, but it somehow never happened. Good idea though.

Hi all!

I've been a bit rubbish keeping you guys up to date on Twilight over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to spending all my spare time trying to get stuff ready for Salute! Tonight I'm going to be putting the finishing touches on a few pieces to send to the casters, then I can get back to working on the new booklet.

One thing I can say is that there will be a LOT of new, pre and special releases available at and around Salute. A big driver on this has been my sloppiness at getting things released over the last few months, but I've also been working hard to get things finished! Current list is: Danomar, Fubarnii Elder, gushrak, heavy knight, light cavalry, light cavalry specialists, running beasts, fubarnii hunter with hunting beasts, enuk with baggage, new baruk, shocktroops, new knight spears and shields, devanu jenta with throwing spears, various weapon/equipment sprues, new rulebook. Not to mention the belan and anything else I've forgotten.
You've seen some previews of those, but any you've not seen will be shown here over the next couple of weeks. I'm getting kinda excited now!
Do feel free to ask anything you like about the releases  :)

Mike

Well done, glad your getting everything ready for Salute, I'll be there to help out on the day and trying not to spend any money (Weddings are expensive!)

Really want to get my hands on a Belan, so hope you get them cast up in time.

I'm sure I can get you a belan in time. You might be painting one  ;)

On the day

In the corner

And don't come out 'til you're finished!

:D

At Salute a couple of year's ago Ben was sat in a corner snipping knight spears off sprues, so painting would probably count as a promotion  :D

 :P

Only becuase I remembered to bring some clippers!

I might get promoted to fetcher and carrier, at least I get to move around  ;)

And the 300 figures you need to paint for the big game!

The last of the greens have just gone in the post to the casters, so fingers crossed everything goes well with the metal and resin casting! This is always a scary time...

Awesome. Can't wait.

For us poor unfortunates that can't make it to Salute, how long will it be before the new releases are available? I'm already itching for some of those nifty shocktroopers...

I'll do direct orders around salute (details to follow some day soon), so you won't have to wait at all.  :)

I'm not certain when they'll be released from HF though - they are particularly busy around Salute!

Direct sales works just fine for me! Thanks for the quick reply!

I got a new parcel from griffin (my metal casters) yesterday  ;D
I now have stock of all the new models (except the belan - hoping to get the first resin casts in the next couple of days though) and there will be a LOT of new goodies at Salute. I'm starting to get excited now  :)

I'm drooling over the new delgon, especially kal rush. Brandlin was right, too - those striders will multiply if you let them. Once you announce the salute deals you can expect an email or pm from me! :)

Goo to hear! When will all the salute deals and releases be posted with prices?

Once I've figured them out... :-[
Expect it to be similar to last year - various army deals then extra offers (discount on starter sets or rulebooks) if you buy more than one. There will also be a freebie for every £30 spent. Not sure what else just yet...
I'll start pulling together things together v soon!

Looking forward seeing the deals and glad that you'll make them available for direct sales, too - as I still haven't been able to convince my better half, that a spring-holiday in London could be spend at the Excel Exhibition Centre.

Still have lots from last years deals to paint - so I'll mainly be out looking for some of the new stuff. Right now, I have these on my list:

Danomar - a must
Aged Engineer (http://www.frothersunite.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_frothing.gif)
Kal Gush - even more (http://www.frothersunite.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_frothing.gif)
4 Kal Joran's (shocktrropers)
Baruk #2

But Mounded Herders are tempting too.

Can you say anything about expected official release date for these new goodies - and I mean 'expected'? Have tons to paint, so I'm in no hurry - both wont wait ages for them either.

Last, can we expect there will be something 'limited edition' this year, again? - like last years mounted Trader? That would be a rather cool little surprise.

You probably want a couple of heavy knights to keep Danomar company - he just looks lonely towering over his subordinates otherwise...

I'm not at all sure about official release dates from HF just yet. They'll be on limited release from me for a while (or any time really), then I'll trickle the full releases out over the next few months.

The laden enuk is a bit of a random release for this year. As with the trader he may well eventually get a full release, but he'll be a fairly long way down the list so I recommend you snap him up if you want him  :)
The belan will also be somewhat limited - initially at least.

But, but .... ? are they done yet? - or are you suggesting some kind of conversion??? :o - oh no ;)


All fine by me - just tell me where, when and how :)



Got the Trader from you last year, so no worries there. Belan is an interesting piece, but looks 'naked' right now, so I'll wait and see if a packed version should show up a bit later this year ;)

Yup, the heavy cavalry (knights of relan) are cast and ready to go. Didn't I mention them? I knew I'd forget something!

I've spent this evening converting one of the belan to carry luggage. This one will just get painted, but it's good practice for doing a proper one after salute!

Earlier today I finished another draft of the book. Ive asked a few friends to review, but it's all looking set for going to the printers early next week.  :)

If you need any additional proofreading, feel free to pass a copy my way.  :)

Do the Knights of Relan, the Belan, the Kal Gush, and the mounted herders have rules yet, and if not how open is the suggestion box?

The Knights of Relan have rules, as do the basic mounted herders. The Belan will have play test rules for salute (seen as it'll be a centrepiece for the game). The Kal gush and herder specialists are more open to suggestions. I've had some thoughts on fire effects, but it's a case of not letting them get too complicated!

After rather a lot of writing, rewriting, drawing, editting, playtesting and formatting, the rulebook has now gone to the printers. That's a relief. :)

Next up is finalising the prices and deals for Salute. Then I can start to worry about leaflets, posters and reference materials for the day...

Pah, that's nothing to worry about!

Sooooooooo far behind.

Don't stress, yet :) Still .. (counting, counting) .. 8 days left   :o

Aaaand we're ready...

Phew...

Tired now...

See you tomorrow!  ;D

Have a great show, Mike and all the rest of you that's going. I envy you this chance i life - but luckily I'll have my little "taste" of Salute in the post the coming week or two.

And to those who is going. Someone, please bring a camera, so we can see Mike being busy - and see the awesome gaming table being used.

Cheers  ;)

I'll br bringing a camera with me, so rest assured, you'll get at least one blurry photo of the gaming table partly onscured by people crowding round it.

Blurry is better than nothing, right? And, as I already told Mike, feel free emailing them to me during the day (smart phone pictures that is) - and I'll - happily - post them in here. Can't do much these days, just laying still most of day/night, so will have plenty of time for that.

Ouch it's early, especially after being awake most of the night thinking through what i might have forgotten!

Very excited...  ;D

Ditto, about the leave the house. Looking forwad to it, with (literally) a whole suitcase of stuff for the bring and buy!

Great Event, I've got photos of the big game to process and upload. Will make sure they're up tomorrow.

Awesome - looking forward seeing. That gaming table was a rather impressive sight - so lets dwell on it a bit more  ;D

This morning was the first time for ages where I could have a nice sleep in and didn't have a host of things that urgently needed doing. :)
So of course I was awake shortly after 6am thinking through everything I want to do now... D'oh!

With Salute out of the way I've now got lots of random plans to get excited about - I need to sculpt at least two Devanu (matriarch and jenta beast), and NuraSehn Gohral definitely needs a model. Then there is Dehran, the new enarii, and the Dhogu...
And more big beasties.
And baggage for the belan.
That'll keep me busy  :)

Im planning to do a painting competition very soon, which I'm kinda excited about!

Someone had a good day, I see.

Glad to here that batteries are fully charged - and you are full of energy and inspirations.

And am pleased to that Dhogu are in there - think we need something completely new. Always wished for a 4th race/spices (with some of kind water element) - but an Delgon allied contingent will do.

What's NuraSehn Gohral - some character from the new book?

And now, don't forget the Dhogu prevew you promised me ::) 

Full of inspirations at least, if not energy  ;)

NuraSehn Gohral is a priest who has been overseeing many of the Retribution Attacks. From a rules perspective he is generally identical to a normal priest, but with a rather nifty (2 stamina) ability that allows him to return an initiative stone to the bag before it is used, then draw another one. I got horribly beaten in one scenario where Steve was using the ability to very good effect while he massacred a small town...

I'd be very interested to hear from anybody who tries out any of the new scenarios!

How could  have missed this little sentence?

This surely sounds interesting - and I'm looking very much forward hearing what you have in mind. Not that I'm an award-winning painter - but because the themed challenges and deadlines really helps motivating and keep production running :)

But please don't push deadline, might have surgery done, that might keep me away from painting a few weeks.

My inability to post is legendary. What I meant to say was are you planning to do a model for each jenta? If so will the handler model have a Grishak whistle?

You are particularly useless! First time you post and you get it wrong...

There will be new jenta, but if you want a whistle then that'll probably have to be a conversion. I'm sure Paul will help you out with that!

I hope everybody is having a good easter! I'm visiting family up in Kendal (north if England), so apologies if anybody is waiting for emails or invoices - I'll get things organised when I get back home tomorrow! :)

Kendal, lovely place hope the weather holds out for you. I went to a nightclub there once. Someone had a border collie with them. Seriously.

The Park?
Not had the pleasure of Kendal nightlife for many years...

Lovely weather - spent this afternoon relaxing by the river trying not to let Lexie go swimming...

Might have been Keswick now Ive thought about it.   ???

I've been having a rather pleasant weekend in wales for ben's (emberbreeze's) stag do. Thus far they played golf, then we went drinking, then karting the next day, then laser tag (wow that's come on a bit from my memories of quasar!), then a game of diplomacy and today we are off gorge walking. Great stuff, but I'm knackered now!
This does mean I've been a tad quiet and slow to nuke spambots, so sorry about that. Back home to jules and lexie tonight though, which is always good :)

Jules, Lexie and sculpting you say eh? Good to hear! ;)

If jules and lexie will let me ;)

Back from a great weekend, although nearly everything hurts now!

I'm trying to keep up with the great flurry of activity on the forum, but I'm sure I've forgotten to reply to some threads I meant to...  :-[

Also please feel free to prompt me if I've forgotten to get back to you on something...

I spent lots of time yesterday packaging up orders to send around the world. I turned up at the post office to find it had closed 10 minutes earlier... Sorry to anybody who is waiting, but I'll do my best to get to the post office in the next couple of days!

A big pile of orders went out on Tuesday, so hopefully they should be winging their way around the world at the moment!

Sculpting progress since Salute has been slow, but I do have a third devanu jenta that is coming along quite well and the dhogu have seen a little bit of attention. The next think on the list for me will be Gohral so that I've almost finished all the characters from Of Gods and Demons. Mark seems to be showing me up at the moment with his progress, so I need to get myself in gear  :)

Sounds good - and yes, better get in gear - there is a master mould that needs to be filled :P

Got mine today - thanks Mike  ;D After looking through the book I've already started a list for my next purchase... You're going to bankrupt me I fear  ;) Cant wait for new stuff!

Yeah get yer finger out.

And get me that Belan sent Im going to give it a "big frikkin lazer" !!

Making some good progress on the Dhogu now  :)

Fantastic news. Have been awaiting these in a very long time. So if they are near completion, that would make them certain for the next master mould, right ? Don't hesitate having a few extra spins done ;)

And I'm looking much forward seeing the final ones.

Seconded on the extra spins, I'll be after several.

as will i

Will these guys be a new faction? I am aware they work with the Delgon but having a fourth faction would be great!

I think the Dhogu will be limited as allies, for the short term at least. They'll hopefully have enough options to let you do a heavily themed force, but I have other plans for the fourth culture (and the fifth, for that matter).

:O

more!

*cough*Ferals*Ferals*

     Hi every one how gose it ?

 sounds like Mike has his work cut out

I must appolagise for not being around much lately.

Anyhow im always thinking of the independant games that have such a great quallity I think of

Twilight as a place not everyone can visit but those that do are deep in another world .
That grows with the players the fact is as long as theres WOT theres something interesting occouring.

 ;)

I've just had a restock, so those of you waiting on orders (or part orders) should be getting parcels over the next week. Sorry for the delay!

Sorry it's been a tad quiet the last couple of days - I'm off travelling again. Just for a couple of nights though, so I'm heading home tomorrow  :)

So, the blog has been quite lately. Anything new going on? 

Sculpts are progressing, even if slowly. I've almost got enough for a new mould, which is always exciting! Im struggling to get ready for a good consistent release schedule, but I'm laying the foundations so that we should back to regular releases some time soon. Ill probably try to mix in some new stuff in with the full releases that you've seen already.

It's my daughters christening tomorrow, so that's quite exciting  :)

Good luck! :)

Everything seems to have been moving far too slowly recently... However, as usual things have been progressing behind the scenes. I have a very heavy box of metal at home waiting to be unpacked, which will finally see a few of the pre-release models going into full release. Watch this space for an update in the next few days.

I'm also quite excited about another couple of developments... first up I've been working on a little periodical that should hopefully go up on the website within the next week or so. It's mainly as a bit of fun, but should be a good source of background material, updates, new scenarios and the likes. I've also been working with a designer on a fancy new logo. It's still going to be heavily based on the existing one, but with a bit more spit and polish. I think that may well be unveiled with the magazine, if all goes to plan  :)

So next week should be quite exciting! First up, I'm going to go home for the weekend and see if Lexie has any less spots (she's been pox-ridden all week, but is now on the mend), then I can investigate my box of metal  ;D

Nice! Photos too, plz.

i like the idea of this online magazine thing. perhaps if its popular (though something tells me It will be) forumite submission might be allowed? good to see things progressing even if slowly :-)

very cool news... looking forward to hearing what's going into full release :)

Almost certainly! I'm kinda relying on that actually  :)

Lots of stock packed up, and the mag is almost done... Kinda excited now  :)
Hopefully things will be good to go by the end of the week...

we're excited too... now where's the pics? hehehehe

Looking forward see both the new figures and the mag. Quite exciting :)

The new releases are just backlog I'm afraid (as will be the case for a lot of new releases over the next few months), but this month you can finally get yourself a unit or two of light cavalry if you so desire (along with the devanu jenta spear). I'm also including rules for the light cavalry special weapons (bolas and sling stave) and a scenario so yuo can have a go at herding enuk (or killing and eating them if you prefer).
The magazine does have a couple of previews that will be new to you.
The main purpose of the magazine is to give you a bunch more background as well as a framework to the release schedule so that you guys know what to expect and so that I can get back to having regular releases!

Busy week! There I thought a week off work would give me more free time, but it seems to have given me less... I did however manage to send off a set of greens to the casters, which is kinda exciting! Now I just have to wait for a few weeks and hope everything comes out well... Those of you waiting for prizes from the painting contest might finally be able to get something new  :)

Off to Wales tomorrow for a family holiday - not sure if I'll be able to get online, but I'll do my best! Hopefully I might get some time to work on the next issue of The Twilight Traveller as well...

Have a great holiday, Mike! :)

Having fun so far - even braved swimming in the sea today! Brrrr...

I got some new masters back yesterday  :)

woot

It is certainly about time you got something new to paint!

Don't just tease us...when can we see some pics?

HN

These are my dhogu so far. I'm pondering whether the 'sickle' is a sign of leadership (making the guy on the right a leader), or just a random weapon... The twin-knife combo will need some sort of special rules!

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/DhoguInfantry.jpg)

... and an inked pic of the herder captain, who will be available very shortly!

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/HerderCaptain.jpg)

The Dhogu look really great.  I'm not sure about the sickle guy being the leader, but would be easy to tell when playing though.  Or if you want the sickle to be the leader model, can you make a special head to help it stand out more, a head with a mask?  But which ever way you go, the models looks great.

The Herder captain looks really nice, but the pic makes the model look like a larger scale.  I'm sure it is the right size.

Looking good, keep it coming ;)

I am in love with the herder captain! Awesome :D

I'm painting the herder captain ;)

The herder captain is a big fubarnii, but is still in scale. I had to check quite carefully when I got him, but he fits comfortably with the herders to make a unit. Mark really has done a nice job with the sculpt, so I'm looking forward to seeing it painted! Ben is on it, so I'm hoping to see something soon.
Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned but he's going to be released by Pyre at the end of the month. The first few will be master casts until I get the production mould up and running.

The dhogu leader wouldn't just be the sickle - I've got some ideas for how to do his head, but I'm going to see how they turn out (whether to go for goggles and delgon tech, or something more primitive). An alternative body would also be nice, just to make him more distinctive.

... I obviously type too slowly as Ben's message popped up while I was typing. Now I'm going to have to go and check my emails  ;D

Lovely sculpts. I like the idea of the sickle as a mark of leadership. Perhaps there could be a head with slotted goggles, just like some eskimos wear...I think.

HN

P.S. Liking the turquoise background!

I keep basing the newest sculpts on the last one finished. You will need a 50mm base for the next Fubarnii :P

I have just picked up a herder Cavalry unit and some herders to prepare for the awesome that is that captain!
this will also give me a good reason to playtest the herders on enuks with the suggested rules.

It's been a strange few weeks to say the least! Work is proving rather tricky at the moment and I'm going to be having a major shift in my day job some time soon (possibly changing employer, possibly just changing roles within the same company). It's all hopefully for the best, but has been a tad draining!
This has led to a bit of a delay with the next Twilight Traveller and organising the tournament. Sorry about that, but they'll get there eventually.

On more interesting news...

I'm finishing off a couple of sculpts that should interest the devanu players - another jenta and a nice big and spikey kopa-grishak. Trying to decide if the grishak should be squeezed onto a small base or be given a bit more room to breath on a medium base...
I sculpted a mask onto one of the dhogu heads. That's not much progress, but better than nothing!
The enuk packbeast is going to be going into production very soon, along with a companion.
The mounted trader is going to finally make an appearance in some form as a regular release.

You can expect to see some fancy logos for each of the three cultures very soon - Tears of Envy has once again done a great job and is currently finishing off the Devanu one.

I think Pyre still have one or two sets of dhogu left if you want to pester Darren  :)

That'll probably do for the moment, so keep watching this space. Particularly if you want to see that grishak...

Ooo...new sculpts sounds good for the Devanu!

HN

The Devanu are generally a tad underserved when it comes to new sculpts, but given the effectiveness of each model they don't need as much variation as the Delgon and the Empire do.

But saying that, I would be interested to hear what Devanu players would like to see added to the force. Would you like more different devanu, more beasts or something else?

I want to do them a big beastie at some point - young devanu packs occasionally get a bit reckless and lure some particularly nasty predators to assist with their attacks. The effectiveness of this approach is variable, but the ensuing chaos can be remarkably effective.

I would like to see the Kopa Grishak on a 40mm base, since it should be larger and more menacing. 

I still would like a Devanu slaver matriarch.  I know you mentioned in a post a while back, that the empire would never allow it and surely would purge the Devanu tribe.  But even if the slaver is in the Agoran Wastelands?  I always thought that some Devanu would try to reclaim the old ways.   I see a matriarch devanu with a bunch of chained rundown/naked Fubarnii around her as her slaves.  Something like this picture from Matt Wilson: http://mattwilsonart.com/gallery%20pages/soulcollector.shtml (http://mattwilsonart.com/gallery%20pages/soulcollector.shtml), with or without hoods. 
You could mount the figure on a 50 or 60mm base with two or three fubarnii slaves on the same base, would be quite a sculpting challenge.  You could have scenarios, like Hunt for the Devanu slaver or even a Spying mission using hunters as scouts to get within so many inches of the slaver and escape off the board, etc...... 

As tensions grow with the Delgon, Devanu may secretly begin to regain some power right under the empires nose.  or at least I would hope.  ;D

I do like the idea of a large beastie. How about the jenta handler and the matriarch/ alternate Sempa?

HN

The Handler is the other Devanu model I mentioned...

Good point on the matriarch though - she's definitely on the list along with NuraSen Gohral. Then that'll be everything done from Of Gods and Demons.

A slaver is an interesting thought. Lovely artwork, but a Devanu slaver from the wastes would never look like that - that's far too sophisticated a look. The Devanu are certainly getting less attention from the empire at the moment than has been the case for generations...

If you made a Belan-sized predator that'd be very fun indeed... Oho ho ho...

I actually dont like the idea of a slaver. I would hope the Devanu would just accept that ship sailed a long time ago...
I think another beast would be great. They train grishak like dogs is their something bigger and more ferocious that could be trained? Or a Devanu ambush specialist.
Look forward to those new logos!

  :P booooo, hehe

I was thinking, how many more types of Devanu can we actually have anyways?  We have different versions of Jenta and Sempa, we have the Kopa and 1 unique Kopa.  And a few trained beasts: Grishak and Kosok.  For a non-tech race, I think you have developed them pretty well.  You can added maybe one more type of beast to handle to add more options, but probably that's about it for beast department.

Now, how about more devanu characters like Arak Katain with unique stats?  Character Jenta, Character Sempa, and another unique Kopa maybe?  A choice of a few unique Kopas can make help add or change things up when playing Devanu (it's like having a choice of different warcasters in Warmachine).  A character Jenta could work also, the army cannot include kopa or sempa and may only include Jenta and Grishaks.  It can make all Jentas more aggressive but reckless, etc....

A few unique models is what I think the Devanu need (at least another unique Kopa  ;) )

The devanu have always enslaved and oppressed in some form. If they do go back to their old ways with the Fubarnii there will be a twist to it - it won't simply be devanu with whips and fubarnii in chains.

Jenta packs will certainly become a more viable option - almost exactly as you described with an 'alpha jenta' and a mix of jenta and beasts. That's the sort of place a big beastie would fit in (maybe not quite belan sized, but certainly big enough to worry belan).

Good point on the characters. I've got plenty of ideas I would like to explore there. They wouldn't necessarilly be bigger and meaner as there are plenty of other ways to make them unique.

Would there be any kind of hermit Devanu with a bit of a shaman vibe?

HN

Possibly. If I could get the feel for it right...

A Devanu egg model. easy sculpt but could have loads of character. could just buff all friendly Devanu models in an area.
I second a Shaman. or a totem pole. perhaps both...

Devanu eggs would make good objective pieces for games. Definitely something I should do somewhen...

The employment stuff I've been going through is finally reaching conclusion, which is a huge weight off my mind! Hopefully that might lead to increased productivity ;D

woohoo im excited especially since Christmas is coming :D

Pleased to hear that the employment status is heading for firmer ground by the sounds of it & I look forward to whatever may come of the future spare time!  ;D

As of this evening I appear to be on gardening leave - my boss has kindly disabled all access to work and spent his Friday evening remote wiping my blackberry... It is nice to get more confirmation that I've made the right decision to leave!

The relevance of this is that I should actually have some free time over the next few weeks. While Jules is already lining up some actual gardening jobs, I'm more interested in the Twilight related jobs  ;D
First up I've got a new master mould to finish. Currently it holds:
3 dhogu heads (although I'm not too happy with one of them)
2 dhogu bow arms (I need to add another empty right hand)
1 uber-grishak
1 devanu beasthandler
1 civilian with hammer and chisel
Bits and pieces from Mark - instruments etc.
2 converted militia -simple mods, but should make for a slightly more varied unit.

There are two priests close to completion, although I'm struggling with what to put in the NuraKira's right hand... His left is pointing, but I'm not sure what to do with the right. The staff is earned once a Priest is elevated up to NuraSen status. I was vaguely considering a small knife, but I'm not sure. NuraSen Gohral is a little older and more wizened than I originally imagined him, but a little old priest wandered into my head and needed sculpting. Seen as NuraSen Gohral needs a model, I think it must be him. I'm looking forward to sculpting two big bodyguards (by Fubarnii standards) to go with him, but they won't be on this mould.

I think that is it for the moment. I might add some other bits if I get the chance and can fit them on!

Mike

Sorry to hear about that, but excited to see what's in store for Twilight.  Sooooo, when are those pics going up? ;)

Uber-Grishak and Devanu Beasthandler...ooo?

HN

The list of stuff to own gets even bigger. I'm very much interested in the Uber-Grishak... those Grishak missiles need a bigger missile to lead them.

perhaps the priest could be holding a scroll, book, or a censor. anything priestly :-P
in looking forward to some new militia models. will they be available seperatly? i could do with more militia.
depending on how these devanu look i might be tempted into expanding on my predator friends.

The Uber-grishak are the kopa. They are substantially larger than the sempa you've seen previously, but unlike the Devanu there is no limit to the number of grishak kopa you can have. I'm not yet sure what exactly the rules will look like, but expect medium sized beasts that play quite differently to the grishak missiles.

I'll see if I can take some quick pics. The jenta is already cut up and sprued, but the others might work...

I'll do the new militia separately initially, then work them in with the standard units. I've also got thicker spears for them now - it might actually be a matter of taste whether you prefer the more refined thinner spears or the thicker ones so it'll be interesting to see what you think.

Very quick photos, but thought you might like to see.
First up, the ubergrishak/grishak kopa. Big and spikey.
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/GrishakKopa.jpg)
Next we have an early WIP of the priests. To the left is NuraSen Gohral, to the right is a NuraKira, issuing orders to the troops.
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Priests.jpg)
Let me know what you think...

Ooo new stuff. I like the extra bulk for the Grishak Kopa, big but not too big. The priests are looking very cool too. After looking at the sculpt I think the NuraKira needs a knife, perhaps something a bit more ornamental than battle-practical. Gohral looks very much weighed down by the years, is she finished now? It's a bit difficult to make out the detail with the smallish pics.

HN

Really into that big grishak

Gohral is nowhere near done. And I'm fairly he's a he... I'm trying to decide whether his eyes are visible or hidden. His hood will probably be back, and he'll be wearing the usual priest mask.

Nice thought on the ornate blade. It would be in keeping with the more military nature of the 'Kira.

Oops...he. I hope the striders won't be after me.

A bit of a squinty eyed Fubarnii; very wizened.

HN

*releases striders*  :P

Don't worry hairy Norseman, striders are about as scary as jellyfish on top of a mountain. Their mechanical legs will never work!

Mwa ha, har...safe I am. ;P

I very, very much like the look of that Grishak Kopa. Seriously hoping that's available to some extent soon.

Call me old-fashioned, but I really, really like the priests running around without visible weapons. Just lets the mind run wild about what they might be hiding inside those robes... I realize that kind of curtails the number of possible poses...

Sorry macc... The NuraKira is sitting in front of me wielding a small ceremonial dagger. I don't think it is out of place, but you can always stick with the original acolyte model if you prefer!

Lexie is off at nursery, jules is working, I've got the new Florence and the Machine album and I'm sculpting priests. Idyllic  ;D
Today is officially a 'Twilight Day'. My job list includes working on the priests and finishing issue 3 of the Twilig Traveller. I'll aim to share some pics of stuff later as well.

There will be a limited release of the grishak in December  - as long as the moulding and casting goes well. I've promised Darren a few pre-Christmas pre-releases so keep your eyes open in early December.

How did it go?

It went well!
The magazine is progressing, albeit slowly (I need to sketch some more artwork...). The sculpting is getting there, with the two priests definitely taking shape. The procreate (grey sculpting material) makes the NuraKira look a little bit rougher, but they both need more work.

Let me know what you think, but I hope you like how they are coming along!  :)

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/GohralWIPsmall.jpg)
NuraSen Gohral

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/NuraKiraWIPsmall.jpg)
NuraKira

Upon further review, I recant my prior heresy. They both look great, but I love the top sculpt... Going to need two of them, at least! :)

OOh nice.

Whats the deal with the hood on the second one ? Does he see using some kind of sorcery or are you planning making the eyes visible ? Personally I think making the side of the hood netted would look cool. Keep it looking sinister.

The hood is thinner over the eyes so they can still see, but the heavy cowls are a mark of subservience to their Enarii masters and acolytes are expected to wear them at all times. More senior priests get a little more leeway.

Very nice pair there! No doubt I'll pick them up, though it may mean a few too many priests...

Looking good. That staff looks pretty hefty, I'd hate to get clubbed with it. It reminds me a bit of the wooden club/axe in Last of the Mohicans.

HN

Being from Ireland I find these sentiments disturbingly familiar ...

really nice looking stuff there.

great looking figures i will get one of each when they are available

Sculpts went off to the casters today  ;D
They should hopefully be back in a couple of weeks, then a handful will go straight over to Pyre for a pre-Christmas release.

The Traveller is also pretty much done - I just need to finish a sketch of the KalGush then I'll publish it  :)

That traveller is the only thing that is going to get me through work tomorrow.

Here you go! I'm out and about at the moment and will launch properly later...
twilight traveller 3 (http://www.pyre-studios.com/traveller/TwilightTraveller3.pdf)

Love the sketch of Danakan

I agree. Though I am actually preferring the enuk and slinger earlier on. Always a sucker for companion animals mimicking their owner.

This. Absolute stunning bit of work which i would gladly hang on my wall if a large print was made available (hint  ;))

Somewhat bleary today due to a late night at a Christmas party last night (getting to go to the Christmas party on day 3 of my new job was rather good timing!).
However, I did get a parcel from the casters, which I'm kinda excited about.  ;D

It's almost like an early christmas present. :)

How is it so nearly Christmas?!  :o
Most of my shopping is however complete, so I'm not panicking too much yet. I'm also off until the new year, so enjoying spending time with Lexie and Jules ;D
Yesterday I spent Lexie's nap time chopping up some shiny new inserts and pieces of foam for blister packaging. I doubt these will be used for mail order, but I might finally get some Twilight on a shelf in a 'real' shop courtesy of Pyre. It's a small start, but I'm quite excited  ;D
Sculpting has been a little slow, but I did receive a new green that I commissioned from Black Crab that I'l have to share at some point...

ooo that's posh.

New green? Do tell/show...

HN

I might keep it quiet for a while, especially as the Devanu have had a couple of previews recently...

you tease...

You know that really rubbish feeling when you've done something really stupid?
With everything that's happened over the last few months I knew something would be missed, and turns out I've been really stupid and messed up my booking for salute... I should still be there, but I'm not going to have a demo table  :(
Really gutted, but not much can be done about it. I'll just have to try to look on the bright side and not let it ruin Christmas! I feel particularly bad as this messes up alan's plans as well... :(

I'm coming up with plans to make the most of what space we will have - cant let one stupid mistake get in the way too much! It won't be what I had hoped for, but it will still be something special :)

At least you will still have a presence mate. I take it Salute is fully booked with no extra room then?

HN

Tease! Aaron does some good work... :)

Doh!  :-[

I have at least got a stand, so that's something  :)

Anyway, Happy Christmas everybody!

merry christmas Twilight gang!

And while its sad there wont be a demo table as long as you're there is what counts!

It's been a great Christmas so far - Lexie is definitely old enough to appreciate it now  ;D

Trying not to dwell on the lack of table - there will be plenty of positive stuff to focus on instead  :)

Shall have to see if I can get there this year!

Already got my tickets...has turned into a family outing what with my wife and our first born coming (assuming everything goes well :) ). We are also taking my Nephew as a belated Yule pressie and now my rents are coming along, madness.

HN

I will probably buy my ticket soon, I want to get there early so I can spend a good few hours hanging around the twilight stand  ;)

Happy new year everybody! Hope to see a few at you at salute in April, and there's lots of other stuff on the cards if things go smoothly  :)

well i for one will definatly be there to give you all my cash in exchang for empire goodies

Started my new job in earnest this week! Far too much commuting, and the season ticket was painfully expensive, but enjoying it so far. Plenty of time on the train to think through random Twilight stuff...
Jules is currently assembling building components for the new demo board.... It should look fun  ;D

I spend so much of my time thinking about the next set of rules, planning what is going on the next mould or getting on with sculpting that it is rare that I actually find time to paint. In all the time I've been working on Twilight I only have a (very small) handful of models that I've painted, usually relying on other people to do the painting for me. So I've decided it's about time I did some painting for myself. I've assembled a small group of Dhogu and I'm now slapping paint on them. I'm not a great painter, but it'll be fun to see how they come out  :)

Assembling: The multipart nature of the Dhogu does make them a bit fiddly to put together, but I'm pleased to say that I managed to assemble them all without too much hassle. I didn't bother pinning (which I may regret) and only used a very minimal amount of putty but they've worked out well. It's always a good bit of experience to build some of my old models so I can know how well they go together and what proves to be fiddly! I normally just assemble them to ink, but with the Dhogu it was fun to try out different options as well.
My force consists of a captain mounted on a yirnak (wielding the hook stave), three spears and a bow. I've also assembled one 'trapper' (title TBC) using the new fur-clad body, a captain head and a pair of knives.

Painting: I undercoated in grey then splashed on various browns and greys. They've then been heavily inked with Devlan mud. Plenty still to do on them, but seems only fair to share a WIP...

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/1F7C7F41.jpg)

Rules: I'm still sorting out the details but for the moment... The Dhogu are good fighters and will be masters of ambushing - they'll all have 'Ranger' as a minimum. The captains are likely to have 'Scout' so you can effectively start the game with no models on the table and choose the very best locations to attack from. The trapper will be a very strong close combat trooper (by fubarnii standards). I need to figure out exactly what he'll be like, but he'll probably also have Scout so you can take him on his own to lead Delgon troops through difficult passes.
At a rough guess I think the models I've assembled will be worth 150pts to 200pts (15pts for infantry, 40pts for the trapper, 50-100 for the captain).

That is a great looking selection of mini's right there.
seeing them all together like that is really impressive

I think the Dhogu may well become my favourite force. Nice painting so far Mike, I really like the colour scheme with the splash of blue.

I think you said before that they are available to both Delgon & the Empire but with different options for each. I look forward to seeing the rules and hopefully adding them to my Empire...when I've painted them that is, lol.

HN

Oh nice one. I like the desaturated earthy look myself. Its kind of semi realistic.

I'm not sure Mike can paint anything other than grey and brown ;-)

They look really good together as a force.

Nice looking models! I might have to get some when Pyre gets them back in stock again.

 :o Well now I know what I'm working on next time I'm off....  :D

@emberbreeze  :P I can't help it if the dhogu tend to wear drab colours can I?

Glad you like them so far. I spent far too much of last night ironing, but I did get a couple of skerrat based and undercoat. The skerrat are seen across the empire, so I'm going to cheat and let the dhogu use then as well as the herders. The snow skerrat (name tbc) are a bit more aggressive than their southern cousins. They'll probably still just be 1 combat and support, but it's likely they'll be the only models that can support the trapper.

I'm trying to figure out moulds for getting the dhogu into production. The multipart nature makes it even more tricky than usual...

The group is now accompanied by a couple of bright white skerrat. I probably should spend longer neatening up the paint jobs, but tempted to draw a line under them and snow the bases so I can start on something else!
The decision then is whether to expand the dhogu or paint some of the other models that are in the queue...

I like brown. Brown is good

Nice work there young Mike

The Yirnak has come out really well

Had a fun pair of games on Sunday. My large force of Delgon suffered at the hands of Tony's Devanu...
I took 800pts of Delgon, led by Roban and Gohral with a mix of troops. Tony's Devanu had Arak, 2 Sempa, 2 Jenta, 2 kosok and a group of Grishak led by a Grishak kopa. Again, 800pts.
In game 1 I spread my troops a little thin. Roban almost killed arak, but one of the Sempa snuck through and killed Gohral. D'oh!
In game 2 it was going well until arak carved his way through half my army. Ouch. Roban almost pinned him down with a couple of striders, but he snuck past and ate my priests again. Another victory for Arak's crusade...

I've been painting Gohral and a nurakira this week as they'll be useful!

Still getting used to the commute in to London!
In spite of that, I managed to get some painting and sculpting this week, finishing off my little Dhogu force, a few priests and a couple of KalGush. They all got an outing last night - the dhogu proved somewhat effective (popping up behind Ben's caravan and wreaking havoc) and the KalGush sent a Hunter and his poor Graku to a fiery death...

I heard some good news last night - Cre (Hairy Norseman) became a father yesterday when little Mael (pronounced Mile) was born. I expect this means we might see less writing from him, but he's given me a few pieces to see me through the next few months while he isn't sleeping  ;D

Where do you work? If its close to leciester square pop into my work place! its filled with chocolate :D

Cheers Mike, luckily the snow is keeping our little Jenta safe from the local Devanu population.

HN

Congratulations!

Congratz Hairy, best wishes and all that.

Congratulations, Cre! :D

Thanks Chaps! :D

HN

Congrats Cre, bit belated just spied the notice! :D

- T.

Cheers Mr. T ;)

HN

Nice one Cre

Congratulations to you and your better half

I trust mum and Mael both doing well?

Yes thankies. They came home on Sunday and have settled in well. Mael has assumed his role as chief nappy filler as well as Mummy & Daddy waker.

HN

Who would have thought it would take so long to sculpt a few bags?!
This week I has mostly been sculpting baggage onto a Belan. It's getting there now...

Coolies...does that mean the frugin flinging belan is next? ;)

HN

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/BAFCF585.jpg)

No frugin finger just yet...

Finger?

'Frugin Finger' is the term used to described the residue on the fingers after handling so many Frugin Flinger (http://www.worldoftwilight.com/forum/index.php?topic=812.0) pods. The instructions suggest enuk hide gloves, but many never bother to read the manual.

Playing Catch-up here, but many Congrats HN!

Realy liking the look of the loaded Belan. Somehow looks a lot less daunting to paint without all the open areas of skin - definitely going on my purchase list when its released

Mike - apologies for the initial email and then nothing - I fried my PC about 20 seconds after downloading your reply, so am completely without a computer and have no idea what your response was!  ???

if you were interested, drop me a PM so I can access from any PC and I'll try to stay in touch, but it'll be even less regular than normal for a while whilst I beg and borrow NET access until I can get a new computer of some kind, sorry! I'm happily painting Hunters at any rate, though it may be a while before I get a chance to post photos online.

Lovely work on the Belan, the instrument is a nice touch; tis good to have tunes on the road.

Cheers TuffSkull!

HN

Frugin Flinger :P

Tuffskull - sent you a pm.

Sorry the last few days have been somewhat quiet... I'm currently in Dubai for a conference on space risks, which has left little time for sculpting  ;)

Space risks...do xenos count? ;)

Back home yet? Looking forward to seeing your Belan in the flesh tomorrow night.

A couple of pieces of good news today:
1) I should have the new Belan in production in time for Salute
2) There's going to be a twilight demo table at Salute. It won't be the large table from last year, but it will be there  ;D

???

Yup, it was a long shot, but has panned out. Will share more details shortly!

my ticket for salute is on my desk!
Now i only need a Twilight t-shirt!

We've been playing with the new display/demo board today. A long way to go, but it's starting to take form...

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/2DDE3B17.jpg)

Looks good so far; outskirts of a settlement? I take it this is 2ft square.

Any plans to add WoT foliage?

HN

Yup, a traditional empire settlement built into a craggy hill. You can expect a poor unsuspecting trader to come under attack whilst drawing close to home...
Some foliage would be nice! Depends a bit on time, and how carried away I get with the architecture!
This is a small demo table for the stand itself - there will be a larger participation game that Hasslefree are kindly providing space for. That will probably be on the round snowy table we had last year.

It's great to see that even though you are branching out into other web stores (Pyre) that Hasslefree are still supporting you. :D

Honestly those traders can't help but get into trouble!

HN

This week has thus far been taken up preparing moulds... We've got new dhogu moulds finally getting prepared, along with moulds so I can fully release the priests, Grishak and Devanu jenta fully. There are a couple of new greens as well, including a Devanu from Aaron Brown that I've been saving as a surprise.
On the train home I've been getting distracted thinking about the ancient Devanu towers. Until know they've been quite a vague concept - something shrouded in the mists of history, but I've been doing a bit of archaeology. Expect to see some pics in the not too distant future. I'm kinda pleased with how they've turned out, even if they've all been destroyed, so they aren't much use for actual games...

Ooo new surprise Devanu :D

HN

Sounds exciting about the Devanu,  can't wait to hear more.

Today I have the dubious pleasure of a day trip to Zurich... Currently waiting for a plane that has been delayed by fog...

Tonight I have a big pile of masters and greens to prepare for casting. Fingers crossed I can get them back in time for salute! Mark's civvies are looking great - lots of character and detailing. There are also some slots in the mould that are going to be filled with random bits that Mark sent me. No idea what I'll do with those, but they are too cool not to cast! :)

Here's hoping my flight is ready to go soon...

And yes, the Devanu is kinda exciting. It's another jenta - planned as an 'alpha-jenta', but would also make a good alternate hunter... That'll make 7 different poses of Devanu - that's a BIG hunting pack! ;D

Everything is packed up and ready to go to the casters today... Very exciting! ;D

Claps excitedly.. civilians and accessories.. looking forward to it!

It is a particularly unusual mould - 1 Devanu, 2 civilians and a big pile of random bits. The bits may end up as salute freebies... I am however looking forward to having a random selection of tools, instruments and bottles available whenever I need them!

Coolies! The random collection of bits will come in handy for dressing terrain...when I finally get time to make some :(

HN

Just had a lovely weekend with my friends and family  ;D
Twilight has always been about sharing something I enjoy creating with other people and it is always most fun when I get to collaborate with others in that process, or get to see what other people build based on my creations. As you can imagine I was kinda sad to come back from my weekend to read Brandlin's announcement on the forum, but at least I've got a lot of exciting salute-related stuff to keep my mind off it. It'll be a couple of weeks before I get any casts back, but I've got a loooong list of things to do in the meantime...

Made some good process on my little demo board this weekend - still far too much to do and it's still looking very blue, but we are getting there! Ben is building a couple of the buildings to slot into the board and sent through a pic last night that is quite exciting. I'll see if I can post some pics later, but I'm hoping he'll share those pics here.

I once again seem to be travelling this week, but I'm quite excited as I got an upgrade. I've never had one of those before! ;D

Enjoy the comfy seat for a change. Almost a shame it's not a longer flight.

I'll post the pic of my WIP buildings this evening (memory permitting). Trying to decide what the surface details should be, where windows should go etc.

Received a big pile of metal from the casters today  ;D
several production moulds and one master mould. Oddly enough, none of the masters are mine...
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/690ED31E.jpg)

Wow, I bet the postie was glad to off load that lot ;)

HN

Huzzah :D

Hmmm (peruses goodies).. loving the civilian goodies and the foodstuffs, even unpainted the "wheat" stacks are self evident.

Superb release.

That's only a tiny portion you can see... There were about 6 other bags of new stock on the other side of the table. Certainly heavy!
I assembled an artist and an alpha Devanu jenta tonight. Will aim to ink and share tomorrow.

It is a fun set of masters - lots of random bits from Mark that I wouldn't normally have an excuse to cast. No idea how/if I'll release them, but I'm sure they'll be useful for something!

Its fun just to do random stuff alongside the main sculpts just to keep the mojo flowing.

I would suggest that in the long run you should sell things like bottles as several options, well 2 mainly. A bag of say 10 of the same and a bag of 10 different ones. Be a delight for custom basing/dioramas etc.
Things like the crop bundle probably a pack of 2 or 3. That one was quite bulky and not sure if the cost would warrant many sales. I mean unless you take a hit on the price then cant see many selling. So price it at least at cost value then the few who do want them then at least you are covering cost.

That little "harp" looks cute from here :-)

I'm looking forward to seeing them all inked up.

HN

I cant wait for salute...

So when do we get to see the inked up minis for Salute, I want to write my shopping list :D

HN

I'm working on it...

Current new releases should be:
Artist (£4)
Devanu Alpha Jenta (£6)
Random bits (TBD)
Dhogu - Hunting party (~£35), spears (£6 for 2), bows (£6 for 2), trapper (two knives), two yirnak rider variants (£8 each)
Laden Belan (TBD)

Plus I should have some of the other releases/prereleases that Pyre has had over the last few months. Of particular note are the grishak kopa and the Jenta beasthandler.
I've shared inked pics of the Artist and the Devanu Jenta now. The only things you've not seen properly are the laden belan and the bits... The Dhogu are similar to before - the new yirnak variant is an alternate head for the yirnak to give a bit more variety.

Ahh yes I forgot I had seen much of this. I have finally gotten around to writing a couple of warband lists for my Devanu & Fubarnii...just need to get cracking with the paint jobs. I have finally started to put my knights together...I say knights but what I mean is one knight minus the GS and a small bit of conversion work.

I may have to pick up a pack of random bits...amongst other items.

HN

Busy couple of days... making progress sorting stock and building the mini-demo table. Slow progress, but we're getting there...

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/3FA9DEFD.jpg)

Whoa looking good there Mike. The building are definitely off to a good start. :D

HN

I wonder if i'm allowed to sneak back in the twilight world........ :-[

apologies for my long absence.....loving the new stuff, just caught up.......damn I want some Dhogu!

Hi Tater! Welcome back  :) I hope this year has been treating you a bit better!
Dhogu you say? I should be able to help there! Are we going to see you at salute this year?

still ups n down mate.....more downs than ups really........

Lovin all of the new stuff mate, nice to see some reinforcements for my Devanu :)

The Dhogu are looking fantastic, barbarian fubarnii....yes please!

I am at Salute once again, a week after my birthday so hopefully will have some cash to spend :)

what will be in the Dhogu bundle?

Wow this is going to be good!

My current thought is as follows:

Dhogu: Ambushers
Yirnak Captain
Captain
6 Spears
2 Bows
1 Skinner + 2 Skerrat

I'm still finalising that, but that should be somewhere between £35 an £37 and gives a force of around 300pts. There will be equivalent forces for all the cultures so a new (or old) player can buy a box knowing that they have a playable force.

Tempting...it looks like im gonna be spending all my salute money on twilight :P 

I'll do my best to convince you to!  ;D

First lick of paint on the board:
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/DFA1079D.jpg)
It's quite a relief to see if coming together!

A splash of paint always helps to bring things together.

HN

That's looking really very nice Mike

Top drawer so far!

Yup, it suddenly starts to look like a coherent piece that we might actually get finished...
This evening we were putting stock into actual blisters - its a great feeling to see blistered twilight stock :D

A random photo from last weekend, with Lexie helping out with Quality Control...

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/0A13A5C6.jpg)

Glad to see QC is being rigorously attended to! It must be paying off, I've yet to receive a dodgy cast. Just 9 days to go eh? I expect things are getting somewhat hectic round your place.

Seeing these WIPs reminds me of the weeks of stress leading up to my first salute whilst I was working with DRM. It seemed like hell at the time, but its definitely worth it when you get the day & everyone's coo'ing over your hard work. I'm sure it'll be no different for you as its all looking great so far - keep it up!

Nice to see that the family's involved too - between yourselves and HF, its clearly the way to go for miniatures success ;D

So that's what you look like! 18 months is business and now we've met  ;D I love that Lexie has obviously spotted something and is pointing it out. Sam does the same thing .... at 2:35am... every day.

Having just started to recover from Conpulsion I can only imagine how Salute matches in the "economy of scale".

Yes, the whole family is definitely involved, my spare time is now filled by packing stock!  ::)

And of course the whole house looking like an explosion in Beru's workshop..... >:(

Well on the bright side at least a fair few people will be alleviating you of all that stock, so it'll clear up a bit in 9 days.

Wow.. that is a lot of stock, and the table looks great too :)

Knowing any goodies have been packed with delight by a young toddler just adds to the uniqueness of the Twilight World .. :D

You think that is a lot of stock!? That's just the tip of the big metal iceberg...

Another busy day today! This morning I painted a basecoat on the buildings and we even managed to get some flock onto the board... I only took a photo pre-flocking though.

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/CFDAEF70-1.jpg)

Looking good there Mike! Nice to see the table coming together.

Looking good mate, it makes me want to get building me stables. Might be a good idea to finish my knights first though, lol.

HN

That table is coming along very nicely!  Looks like it'll be a blast to play on.

So very tired...

But everything is packed and ready to go.   :)

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly in the morning. Not looking forward to the 5am start... I'll aim to send photos to people tomorrow! If anybody would like to volunteer to post some pics then send me a pm with your email address and i'll send some from Salute.

Looking forward to seeing/meeting a few of you tomorrow, as well as seeing quite a few freshly painted figures!  ;D

Glad to hear it's all sorted! Don't worry about the 5am start, once the door open at 10am, and once I've been to register stuff on the bring and buy and fought off people at Forge World, I'll pop along with a load of miniatures and chocolates!

I'll also be armed with a camera, though as per last year I'll probably forget to use it...

See you at some point during the day Mike :)

One week on and just about recovered! As always salute was an excellent chaotic day that leads to lots of inspiration and new ideas. I'm currently sculpting a couple of new civilians - danakan and his assistant muri.  :)

:D Good, good...(rubs hands together) :D

Is that the character creating competition over then  :P

There's a whole world to populate. And I have no plans to stop sculpting  ;)

Looking forward to seeing these guys! It's always good to have more engineers.

Danakan isn't really an engineer, although you could use him as such...
I'm trying to decide how to do his arms - one option is to retain the joint that Mark did on his civilians, making it possible to swap his arms over and opening up a few more options. The only concern there is that it might distract slightly from how he looks...

I like the idea of a multi part set. But keep 'em unique! That's what I say

So that's a yes to interchangeable parts, but no cheating and reusing existing arms?

Cheating is perfectly fine with me - the result is still a new model and if time is saved then we can get our hands on them quicker. Win/win.

Err Danakan is an Noble explorer-type and Muri is her scribe...I think your talking about Jagi & Gro'thi. ;)

HN

The plan in my mind was to have a universal shoulder joint but each figure has their own arms. That way the arms can match the look of the figure they are specifically for but will also fit the other models if people so wish.
I think the aesthetics of the Fubarnii clothing help making a noticable joint for the shoulder. Leather vests over bare arms or puffed sleeves etc/ Little shoulder pads. That sort of thing.

Anyone obsessed and knowledgeable enough in a single area can be classed an 'Engineer'. ;)

Not actually true... Sorry!
A fubarnii engineer has quite a distinctive way of thinking and outlook on life and is not just the product of training - an engineer is effectively born an engineer and a non-engineer cannot become one. I guess they are effectively diagnosed by their future masters who then apprentice them and train them up in whatever they fancy.
You could of course have an explorer engineer, but he would probably be dressed more scruffily than Danakan...

That's interesting, so engineers are more like a caste, rather then a profession?

A calling I suppose.

HN

Not a caste - an engineer could emerge from any social background. Their minds are just wired differently, which can probably either be seen as a gift or a curse. The fubarnii of the empire embrace it. The Delgon don't tend to get engineers for some reason. I've not spent so much time studying the casani, but I imagine their engineers are seen more as mystics or witch doctors.

Please dont say they have midichlorians  >:(

Is the pain still raw? ;)

Don't worry, it's just that they are a bit crazy (but in a good way).

Fair doos, guess I was quite mistaken then. I can't even remember where I thought I'd read that snippet. Always good to learn more about Twilight thoughh, and makes me want to go back and expand upon Clan Orelan. Hmm.

Sounds cool. I could imagine them obsessed with the relationship between things and the effects that causes.

HN

Nice to have an excuse to ramble. I probably should do a Ramblings on engineers at some point...

It's exciting to kick off the 'tale of' - hopefully a few people might join in  :)

I reckon you should do a ramblings on the critters and gribblies of the Setir mountains. It would be nice to convert up a big nasty monster for the Dhogu or Delgon to fight in a little scenario.

That would be all kinds of awesome!

I've just put the latest Traveller up for download - giving full playtest rules for the dhogu, the Grishak kopa and for nobles. You can find links to all the travellers in a single thread on the forum (sorry, tricky to put the link in from my phone!).

I've finally got organised and put all the rules and travellers up for download on the twilight website. Have a look here (http://www.worldoftwilight.com/Rules.html).

Good job mate. So I take it this is going to replace the forum page for the links...

HN

Just a quick question on twilight traveler! will these replace official rulebooks? or are you still planning to release the good stuff :D

Don't worry, I'll do more full rulebooks!  :)
The travellers are just a way to share playtest rules, scenarios and ideas. Not to mention cre's writing.

Any idea when the next one will be out...not that I'm chasing you up as am pretty knackered at the mo...the wee man has a cold and isn't sleeping too well.

HN

Theres a few things on the release schedule that I simply cannot wait for! a new rulebook and The casanii? ( i think that's how you spell it)

It's been a slow couple of weeks - a week in Paris (for work, sadly) followed by a busy jubilee weekend (great fun, but not very productive!). Hoping to actually do some sculpting tonight!
I am working on the character contest shortlist, so hopefully I'll get those ready for voting reasonably soon. Sorry for the delay!

I really should do another traveller soon - there is so much cool stuff from Hairy that needs sharing! I just need to get this set of sculpts ready and off to the caster.

Ooo new sculpts, yay!

HN

Finishing off sculpts to go to the casters early next week... And a parcel arrived from Mark yesterday  :)

Oooohh! Exciting!! ;D ;D

At the moment the mould has...

Grakukan with rider
New spear arm (for Grakukan or knights)
Orelan shield
Orelan militia spear
Noble guards (x2)
Devanu egg stick
random rifle (non-twilight, but might be fun to scifi up those dhogu)
Farmer arms for civilian, plus head
Lots of bits.

Hopefully there's enough there to count as exciting, even if Im not going to get danakan and the casanii warrior done in time...

Sounds exciting to me!

Sounds like a good collection of bits & minis.

The rifle sounds random & cool, perhaps the other Fubarnii have underestimated the Dhogu...

Fingers crossed Danakan makes it in time and isn't waylaid by roving Devanu ;)

The Casanii warrior sounds cool too.

HN

Noble guards. That is all :D

The Noble Guard are rather tasty  :)
I might have to tweak one as a captain at some point, or see if we can mount one...

Danakan has sadly been waylaid - hopefully the next mould won't be too long though! Better to delay him than rush him.

Off to the states tomorrow on business. On the plus side that means I'm going to have a few hours to myself on the plane  :)
I'm planning to do all the prep for the character contest entries, so when I'm back next weekend I can get the voting up and running!

Voting is now open (http://www.worldoftwilight.com/forum/index.php?topic=1640.0) on the character creation contest!

It's Friday, I'm heading home, my family are visiting for the weekend and I've got a parcel of new casts due on Monday. All is good with the world  ;D

Indeed it is - on Sunday is my birthday, Monday I go on a short holiday with my other half, and the following Saturday I get married. Most importantly though, those casts will be arriving. ;)

You are getting married next week? I'm trying to remember if I knew about that... Congratulations anyway! :)

I mentioned it a fair while back, so no worries. Cheers! Pales in comparison to cast Grakukan though. ;)

Congrats Geck, sounds like your going to be busy :D

9 July 2012
I got a parcel in the post today  ;D

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/Snapbucket/B25D746B.jpg)

Nice collection of minis & bits there sir! I like the little WoT Birdie. Will definitely have to grab a Devanu egg cluster at some point.

HN

Yes, lots of tempting minis there.
What is the function of the 'birdie' thing? Is it purely decorative, or perhaps flocks of them can be trained (as in Hitchcock's Birds)?
I like the farmer.

There is a plan for the birdie thing at some point, but for the moment it's a little extra for basing etc.

I'll make all these bits available for points purchases if anybody would like them. Just got to figure out how much the grakukan should be!

Very nice stuff there! Seeing a Grakukan cast is simply excellent!

Sorry for the quiet over the last week - very busy at work and we are deep in the process of buying a house. My AiA painting is making some more progress and I'm hoping to get some of the new releases up for sale from Pyre some time soon.
How is everybody else doing with their painting? Not long now!

Not doing too bad, but behind the excessive schedule. Delgon are done, Devanu are mostly done. Need to sculpt a figure for the Dhogu, and the Empire needs a hell of a lot of work to get even close to finishing what I pledged.

Well so far this month my painting time has tallied up to a big fat zero but fingers crossed I can do some more work on my knights tomorrow.

Hoping to start the 300 points of Empire troops tommorow. Since i painted the Devanu &  Dhogu i went and painted 45 Undead-10 Dwarfs for Kings of War and 4 Norman Knights for a saga warband .Not leaveing me a lot of time to assemble and paint the Empire troops.

Just 3 more days left to the end of the Artists in Anyaral contest 2012!

My small contingent of Orelan Knights is coming along, but it is going to be a bit close. I've been doing jury service for the last couple of weeks, which was quite an experience. We are off to see The Dark Knight Rises today, but this evening I'll be hard at work with the painting, making sure everything has a solid basic paint job so I can focus on detailing tomorrow. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly...

4th August 2012
Off on a family holiday to sunny Wales today! Hopefully I might get some free time to do creative stuff, but we shall see...
I did get a parcel a couple of days ago with some resin casts of a new Fubarnii that I got commissioned. I'll share some pics when I return. :)

Commissioned eh? Consider me intrigued.

Glad to hear it!
Nice looking tags there. I think I need to work on a dhogu icon though...

It's always strange getting back to the usual routine after a few crazy weeks... Last weeks holiday was great - lots of time spent on the beach chasing after Lexie and my niece and nephew as well as a little time to do more relaxing stuff like snorkelling and fishing.

Back to the real world now, which does mean I can get back to sculpting in the evenings. I've taken a rather random tangent and started sculpting another bigger beastie... It's fun to be working on a slightly larger model and in a different sculpting material.

In other exciting news: Darren (of Pyre) has been helping out a lot behind the scenes on Twilight and we've been talking a lot about how he could be more heavily involved. I expect he'll be along shortly to talk a bit more about that, but it's very exciting to have somebody on board who can help drive things forward  :)

Good Morning all!

As Mike mentioned I’m going to be playing a larger part in getting WoT out there. I’m hoping it’ll come across as more of a “championing” role than just being separate retail Pree-Pree… Time will tell though as talk is cheap. I should say that I'm inordinately honoured by the trust Mike is placing in me with his creation. The past 2 years have been a blast!

While we're keeping it quite flexible I will be focusing on assisting Mike with the following;

• Getting Book 3 and its miniature range released
• Drastically ramp up awareness of the World of Twilight by any and all means available barring animal/human sacrifices. More on this in another post later today…
• Increase the player base via similar but potentially bloodier methods. This of course means an increase in sales or bringing on additional retailers. This may seem like a bizarre thing for me to say given that I'm also a retailer but a rising tide lifts all boats...

There are a few other things lobbed in for good measure but they will be secondary to these three.  Mike and I have been hacking out some ideas and programmes similar in scope/impact to our (“our” still sounds weird ;)) points system though it will take a further effort of time to get them right.

Our main short term priority though will be the release schedule for Book 3 as it underpins all other areas. We’ll get it posted up when it’s done so you can all see what’s planned for Anyaral.

For the Empire!

Great news to see the team expand. I'm sure you'll do a grand job Darren! :D

HN

Glad to hear it! It'll be good to spread the word.

OOh sounds exciting  ;D

Had a little holiday myself but feel ready to get stuck into some sculpting again. Workbench is pretty empty though barring a few bits and pieces.

Yup, it's exciting to have a bit more of a team ;D
I've started sketching out the third book, but I might create a thread to see what you would like to see...

Currently working away on a little engineer's hut. I'm pleased with how it's coming along, but I think I underestimated how long it was going to take! WIP pictures to follow soon...

Here's some progress on the house so far. I've done quite a lot more since this photo, more tiling and I've done more on the chimney. It'll be a sealed building eventually, with sculpted door and window.

What do you think?

(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh269/Xrgut/EngineersHouseWIP1.jpg)

Love it, looks like it's staying up on pure faith alone. The integrated trunk is a great touch. :)

Eventually a resin product or a show only objective piece?

- Taelan.

I'm hoping this will end up in resin so I can do it as a scenario set for the engineer. It's taken a lot longer than originally anticipated, so I'm hoping there aren't any casting problems!

Man that's awesome. we should get some WIP shots up on the ol' FB.

That is really nice. Look forward to it being available.
I am still waiting for the Pree-Pree Palace, though.... ;)

nice looking house please post some more photos

Nice! I love the hut. Just the kinda flavour I'm looking for :D

Will we need a Pringle tube for this ;-)

I'm looking forward to the releases coming up this week! Mark shared pics of the greens for the Noble Guard a while ago, but Joe has done a great with the paintjobs that I've been looking forward to showing off.  :)
Watch this space!

And I'm also having fun doing more Twilight folk too, but lest I get smacked around a bit by an angry Eragu I'm saying nothing :p

I have decided to keep all the releases for myself. No! I shan't be diswaded.

We've just bought a house! Moving in two weeks time, so that'll be a tad stressful... Should be worth it in the long run though! ;D
I've also pretty much finished the engineers house - just a case of figuring out production.

Ooh! Jolly good show. You'd better send me more stuff to paint before the big move :p . I demand shiny things...

Twilight central is on the move... Everything is currently boxed up and getting thrown in a van... Exciting and scary! I'm looking forward to getting the new garage all sorted with room to store all the twilight stock  ;D

Great news on the house, all sympathies on moving chief. :)

Look forward to seeing new images of your hobby area.

Good luck mate, hope it goes smoothly for you all :D

Good to hear it's all going to plan! Is the garage going to have room for the car?

The move went well and I just had my first good night's sleep in about a week! Far too many boxes still to unpack though.


It'll certainly have room for all my twilight stock and scenery building stuff... Not sure about the car yet, but that's a secondary concern  :)

Gotta love that unpacking - took me half a year to get that done!

Wow, what a busy month! I'm a lot hairier now than I was a month ago due to taking part in Movember. I really should be brave and share a pic at some point... Give you something to laugh at!

The house is looking a lot less full of boxes now and I finally found my sculpting stuff :-) I've started on a little Grishak Jenta, so that might be a fun addition to your Devanu forces.

Darren is doing well with his kickstarter campaign, which has once again raised the potential idea of doing one for twilight... I just have to figure out the right timing and subject...

Oh, and it's my birthday today, which probably means I won't get much sculpting done over the weekend...

Yes, YES! Embrace the hairyness! Mwa, ha, ha...

Ahem...err...glad to hear your settling in well and pushing putty once again.

Maybe coinciding the start of a kickstarter campaign with Salute. The boards are always more active on the build up to Salute and right after it so why not capitalise on the popularity. You could even have a little code or something on flyers allowing peeps to get something extra in the campaign, even if its small. It would help encourage peeps to check out the campaign etc.

Enjoy your Bday mate and I hope you all have a chilled weekend! :D

Hope you had a great birthday Mike, and good to hear there's progress on that jenta! I may end up needing quite a few, once some of the other Twilight stuff has cleared.

How did I miss this? Happy birthday mate!

Cheers  ;D
Had a great weekend with friends, alternating between playing with Lexie and lots of boardgames. The new X-Wing game is looking fun, although I already need more tie fighters...

Hey hey, Happy Birthday.

Tried on the day via your usual email, may not have got through  :-\

Looking forward to new Twilight goings on, glad to hear the dust is settling after the move :D

- Taelan.

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner! The sculpting tray made an appearance for a few nights (during which I sculpted a Grishak Jenta - a bit smaller and less spikey, but just as bitey), but is now getting buried under tinsel and wrapping paper...
Last night Darren had me sketching a couple more random images - I'll admit that I never thought I would draw a carol singing Devanu ;D

Sooo.... any pictures of that Jenta? Also, glad to hear those models arrived alright.

Yup, kinda pleased with my new belderaks  :)
I do need som bow-wielding dhogu though...

I know it is probably expecting a lot, but any further progress on the house?

 ;D

Not expecting a lot at all!
The house arrived at the casters today... He's a tad concerned how the hollow structure will cope with the mould making process, so keep your fingers crossed.

It survived casting  :)

Yay! :D

Glad to hear it's all going well!

Evening all!
Life at Twilight Central over the last month has been a blur of new baby craziness. Great fun but a tad tiring!
Sorry that I've been rather quiet but there are a couple of little projects going on in the background that will come to fruition at some point... Mark is working on something that I think is particularly special, but it's not ready to share yet :-)

Sculpts finally went off to the casters yesterday... Fingers crossed!

:)

Any news? :-*

Not yet...
I'll start fretting in a couple of weeks if they've not appeared!

I have noticed that there are some photos of the new sculpts on the facebook page (very nice figures). I am not on facebook so can only get a very poor 'guest' page version. Any chance of any photos on the forum?  :-* :D

The mould was of mixed success - big toothy's jaw broke, so that's a pain. Everything else worked though, so there are a few new bits and pieces.
It's tricky to get the photos from my phone onto the forum but I'll see what I can do today!  :)

There you go - new thread started!