End of year post!

I guess this is the final blog i'll make this year. This blog is about two years old at this point and it's strange to see how much i've accomplished over the past few years - so I am looking forward to 2013 and hoping to push on and complete more sculpts and hopefully, finally get my Wargame out! 

Of course my wargame isn't the only thing I want to make within the PA setting - there is the sci-fi web show too! Progress on that is extremely slow for a number of reasons,  but I finally got a camcorder for christmas (thanks to my very awesome Dad for believing in me!) so it isn't much but I spent some time with it to see how the prototype Tolathian puppet looks on-screen under different light-levels. Here are some pictures I screencapped from the footage to show you :

Next year I'll be sculpting more miniatures (this is the priority) but I'll also be slowly working on a modular set system I can use to create the Tolathian Outpost in the sci-fi web series I hope to make. My goal for next year however will be to get some of the set moulds ready and perhaps do a very simple/basic 5-10 minute short-film to get to grips with film. It won't be anything amazing or special and will be more to get experience and working in the world of film but I'll probably post it on here for opinions anyway!

Anyway. Hope everyone had a good xmas, I will wish everyone a good new year and thank you for all reading my blog and the nice and supportive comments I got! it's very appreciated!

To the people that ask me about Kickstarter

I've had several people ask me or recomend me to do a Kickstarter, so I thought I would talk about this here.

The truth is I have definitly been thinking about kickstarter and I have been watching kickstarters over the past year or so that have both been successes and ones that have been failures - basicly I've been taking notes and seeing what made certain ones suceed and others fail.

I definitly wouldnt be able to do this kind of project on my own, that's for sure and I would definitly only do a kickstarter if I knew for 100% that I could get people the rewards they pledge for, to do otherwise would feel completely wrong, unfair and I am not the kind of person who wants to cheat people out of their hard earned money! So better to not do it all than do a half assed job of it where I can't fullfill promises. Maybe a year or so down the line I will be in the position to plan for one and have the help to make it work.

Of course hypothetically - if I did use it, I have had various ideas in my head such as using it to fund my Sci-fi web show and have miniatures as rewards, maybe even full size hard plastic Tolathian Puppets the same as the ones i intend to use to film to with myself. I think I can do my miniatures without a KS - but the option could be the potential way to get the funds to film my sci-fi.

If you havent read about my sci-fi web show, it's something I have wanted to do for years now and it does indeed take place in the Primeval Abyssian setting, allthough it is not based around battles and war (that's what the tabletop game is for!) it is more inspired by hard sci-fi writers such as Olaf Stapledon, Robert L Forward, Arthur C Clarke and Hal Clement to name a few. The premise revolves around a Tolathian research outpost in an area of the Ether that is teeming with spacial anomolies that they research. I am working on this project more on the side since it involves so much work (on different frontiers as well).

Anyhow, this is just what has been on my mind with the subject, and I thought I'd share it since people have asked about it and I havent really been able to properly give them an answer, so I hope that clears things up.

Recasts and Glowing Eyes!

Today I got a package from Ed (of Troll Forged) which had a whole load of Tolathian and Luuran resin recasts. This will mean I can finish the remaining units using the recasts as a base.

I also managed to get one of the first casts of the Tolathian puppet (http://outsidetheuniverseitself.blogspot.com/2011/06/so-i-figured-i-should-expand-this-blog.html)

Tommorow I'll start prepping the puppet, it has some flash, mould lines and bubbles to fix - which won't take very long at all (it isnt finecast :P). Next week I'll start painting the damned thing - which will be interesting since I've never painted anything that big before - and I am also excited to try out the blue glow in the dark paint which I'll be using to paint the eyes and Rune on the body.

The web show will likely take years before it see's fruition - I have to make all the set-pieces which will then need to be recast a lot, and I need to get good enough with the camera and then theres post-FX, props that are specific to the stories ect. I'll keep things updated as to the progress though and maybe ill put some test-footage up so you can see the creature with it's glowing eyes!