Mike's blog

[Emberbreeze]

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.

[Carcharoth]

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.



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?

[wallybubs]

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} 

[Jubal]

Are those little vestigial arms I see?

[Carcharoth]

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 

[Klute]

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.

[Carcharoth]

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.

[Laughing Ferret]

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:


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  

[Carcharoth]

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!

[Carcharoth]

Good news, it survived being fired 

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

[Carcharoth]

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 

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!

[Klute]

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

You should do a sprue of loose baggage.

[Carcharoth]

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.

[Carcharoth]

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

[Emberbreeze]

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.