Author Topic: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread  (Read 213767 times)

Offline luckyone

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #105 on: May 04, 2009, 09:03:38 AM »
Holy cow those figs are great. The shields paint up very well.
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Offline Alxbates

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #106 on: May 29, 2009, 05:52:09 AM »
I should mention that I'm nearly out of the spears (surprisingly my most popular item!).  I thought the Peafowl would be my best seller, but so far not too many people have bought them.

Next in the pipeline:

Primitive hand weapon sprue - Stone club and two stone axes
Primitive dagger sprue - with two stone daggers on the sprue

Small Sherden-style ancient shield

A second Snapping Turtle Shell Shield to complement the first one (and I may ask Tyson to sculpt a third.  Not that they've been selling all that well, I just think they're really cool!)

An actual Snapping Turtle miniature (scaled exactly with the shields!)

Two more Paleolithic Venuses (Venus of Malta and Venus of Hohle Fels)

Tyson Rhody is sculpting everything except the Venuses (Venii?  It just sounds dirty, either way...), I'm sculpting those.

I offer NO firm release date for any of those things, just mentioning that they're probably next to be released.  The Pterro-Man and the Mutant Terror (Pterror?) Bird are coming along nicely, but I suspect that the other stuff will be ready for sale first.

-Alex
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Offline Topkick

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #107 on: May 29, 2009, 11:04:38 AM »
The turtle shell is looking like something I will need when I make my rivet bulls. They match up well with the shoulder pads of Rasputins which I beleive are supposed to be the armored head plate from rivet bulls. I just need to get them and then cut them down to fit the head of the animal I use
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Offline Alxbates

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #108 on: June 05, 2009, 12:05:28 PM »
And I am now sold out of the spear sprue! I'll post a notice when I get them back in stock.

-Alex
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Offline Alxbates

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #109 on: June 10, 2009, 05:26:03 PM »
More greens that'll be sent to the caster in the near-ish future:



And for scale:





Not fabulous pictures, just quick snapshots I took while I had them out and handily available.  No firm date on when I'll be sending them to the caster - I'll wait till I have enough greens to fill another mold before I have any new molds made, so these probably won't be available for sale for a few months.  If you're *really* motivated and want to buy enough to make it worth my while to have them cast immediately (100+ of either little piece), drop me a line and I'll make it happen!

-Alex
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Offline Topkick

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #110 on: June 10, 2009, 05:33:27 PM »
Those would be great as a swarm allied with a Necromancer. They could be the scarabs that re-animate corpses into the skeleton warriors
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Offline Alxbates

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #111 on: June 20, 2009, 04:02:07 AM »
And some more green pics! 

Of interest to Chronopia players, the Mutant Terror Bird:





Of course, the bird creature has more than one leg and one arm - they're on a separate sprue:



(my apologies for the terrible picture)

And here are some pictures of the sculpt lying on its side next to a measuring tape... it's really difficult to take good pictures like this - when a figure is lying down it distorts the details and exact scale.  But I think the pics are good enough to give you an accurate idea of what the figure looks like.





The main foot comes sculpted onto a "rock", which is not quite enough for the figure to balance on on its own - you'll need to attach the figure to a base of some kind, but the 'rock' is small enough that you can put it on a 40mm round to use as a 1st Edition Chronopia Vulture Clan Totem, a square base to use as a monster in Warhammer Fantasy, or a large washer to use with your Pulp games (it's a Venusian riding beast!).
« Last Edit: June 20, 2009, 04:08:40 AM by Alxbates »
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Offline Alxbates

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #112 on: June 20, 2009, 05:13:08 AM »
And here are the promised stone weapon sprues, to compliment the stone spears I released earlier this year.  There are two different sprues - one with two axes and a club (or simple maul, however you prefer to describe it).  The second sprue has two stone daggers on it. 



You may think that the blade of the axe on the end is too small, but it's accurate for many of the stone-tool-using cultures that we have artifacts for.  The one in the middle is intended to be more generic, to be something of a cross between what ancient stone axes looked like, and what the popular depictions of them are.  The maul, or big two-handed stone club on the end, is also fairly accurate to what native american simple stone mauls looked like, and is probably similar to what they looked like worldwide.







I ran into a similar issue with the stone daggers - the blades on most of the stone daggers we've found are tiny, often only a couple of inches long.  So, to my eyes, they look like the blades are too short - I can't help but mentally compare them to metal daggers and how I know they look.  But stone is a different medium - it shatters if it is too thin or too long, and of course re-sharpening a stone blade means flaking off more of the blade material.



Kev White (and a few other sculptors) can make huge, anime-style oversized weapons look good, but it's a rare talent.  So I asked Tyson to sculpt the daggers very small.

As an example, here's "Otzi the Iceman"'s dagger, along with his scabbard and wooden retoucher:



Also, I think that most of my customers will be historical or pulp gamers, or even up to modern (Sentinelese Islanders still use those stone tools today!), and they're generally more conscious of proportionate weapons than fantasy gamers.

Tentatively, the axe sprue will be $1.75 (or $1.50) and the dagger sprue will probably be $1.00 (maybe $1.25).  I'll be able announce firm prices once I send the weapon sprues off to the casting company.

Both of the weapon sprues and the Mutant Terror Bird are sculpted by Tyson Rhody.

-Alex
« Last Edit: June 20, 2009, 05:18:27 AM by Alxbates »
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Offline Manic _Miner

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #113 on: June 20, 2009, 08:45:47 AM »
 I love how the Terror bird has turned out.Looking forward to ordering a few once available.

Offline luckyone

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #114 on: June 20, 2009, 09:35:16 AM »
Those turned out great!

Good luck with the line!
Always look out for number one, but don't step in number two.
What do you mean Flash Gordon approaching? OPEN FIRE!
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Offline dave kufner

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #115 on: June 21, 2009, 04:31:27 AM »
Alex nice tools.  Who makes that Minotaur???
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Offline Manic _Miner

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #116 on: June 21, 2009, 05:50:59 AM »
 That would be the Horned ONes Blood Totem.Very cool miniature.

Offline Veez

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #117 on: June 21, 2009, 02:25:03 PM »
It's like an evil version of that bird in UP!
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Offline Alxbates

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #118 on: June 21, 2009, 05:49:59 PM »
Alex nice tools.  Who makes that Minotaur???

Thanks!  The 'minotaur' is (as Manic Miner said) a "Horned Ones Totem", a Chronopia miniature that I included in the picture for scale.

-Alex
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Offline Manic _Miner

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Re: the Forge of Ice, miniatures from Alex Bates - blog/preview thread
« Reply #119 on: July 18, 2009, 03:52:37 AM »
 Just recieved my order from Alex.The tents are great.Very clean castings.Also got some of the Turtleshell shields.They are destined for a Wargods warband at some point.
 Looking forward to ordering more from Alex when the new releases come out.Keep up the great work Alex.