Friends of Talaminiatures > Forge of Ice
the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
Alxbates:
Hi everyone!
So... I'm starting my own miniatures company. I've been tinkering with miniatures for about 20 years now, and I've had a lot of ideas for figures that I thought'd be cool over that time... sometimes I've found figures that looked like what I imagined, sometimes not. Going to GenCon and meeting the Crocodile Games people in 2006 and 2007 made me realize that there was nothing stopping me from spending some time and money to have my ideas sculpted and cast into real figures!
It's taken awhile, but things are really starting to roll for me - I've got a business license, an artist, sculptor contacts, and finally a few finished greens!
When Cacique Caribe over at TMP posted pics of the greens of his primitive hide tents in August of 2007, I jumped to buy them from him. They're at the caster right now, I should have finished castings in my twichy little hands in a few weeks (then I just need to get a webstore up and running! Aiee!). Based on my disposable income and available free time, I expect that I'll be able to release six or eight miniatures a year, and I have a few ideas for T-shirts, dice, and posters, too.
I also got my first greens that are my "design", as much as a person can design a real-world animal. The package arrived in the mail a few days ago (delayed by Hurricane Ike taking out Sandra's post office!). Three peafowl, sculpted by the extremely pleasant and personable Sandra Garrity:
I'm two or three paychecks away from being able to afford to cast the birds in metal, but I expect I'll have them for sale in November or early December. More updates will follow as progress is made!
Here's my ghetto fabulous photo setup... I need new bulbs and maybe crepe paper screens for the lights, but it'll do for now (and the lamps are a write-off! HA HA!! I can write off nearly all my hobby expenses this year! I ain't paying a dime in taxes at the end of the year!!!):
Here's a painting that I'm doing. It'll eventually be the insert card for my clamshelled figures (I do hope to sell to retail stores eventually). The painting is only about half done, I need to add some more movement lines and solidify my colors, but you get the general idea. I placed it between to significant pieces of inspiration for me, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (that's a comic from 1981, I think), and the Fire and Ice movie, Frank Frazetta's only animated feature. Neither of them is really anything amazing, but they both left a huge impression on me when I encounterd them as a kid.
And some more inspiration:
Mmmmm... ice cream...
The logo isn't quite finished, but again, it's close enough for you to get the general idea:
And that's it for now!
-Alex in Alaska
-Forge of Ice
Alxbates:
heh... looks like photobucket deleted the "peac ock" titled photos... must've been picked out by their profanity filter... I'll retitle and repost them shortly...
-Alex
joshuaslater:
Dang filter. Email sent to ya regarding this. Congrats on your progress Alex!!
Alxbates:
I'll take a moment to mention that the display tailfeathers bit fits much better than that, but in order for it to stand up unaided I need to balance it slightly off-kilter as shown in the photo. I couldn't find my blu-tack...
And the final catalog photos of the birds will have them next to a dual unit (inches AND cm) ruler for scale reference, but they're scaled for 28mm figures, the same size as Reaper's Dark Heaven line, Copplestone, Crocodile Games' Aegyptus stuff...
-Alex
Alxbates:
D'oh! I forgot one - here's the peahen:
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