A tolathian on webcam?

It's a rubbish webcam-shot, but here's a photo of the first painted Tolathian Puppet. His eye's glow a rather nice blue - but the webcam didn't pick that up sadly! I'll get better photos once I'm able to borrow someone's camera! I gotta attach string to it next which is going to be extremely tedious - I'll be drilling holes into it's body then attaching thread (glued into small pieces of plasticard tubing) into the holes. 

An introduction to my WIP Cthulhu Mythos skirmish

One of the rulesets I'm currently working on is a cthulhu mythos themed skirmish game between the different races. It was kind of a no brainer since none of the cthulhu games available focus on the monsters (most are rpgs/horror games set in some period of earth normally). I figured it was time to write about this game and see if there is any interest in it or not.

The Factions :


Unlike PA, I've taken a different approach to the armies within. There are three different slots you can take your units from. The first determine the "core" of your force, the second is determined by which god you choose to worship and the third is like an equivilent of mercenaries where you can fill your force up with a few random monsters that have joined you.

There are Six factions to choose from :


Mi-Go
Yithians
Polyps
Shoggoths
Elder Things
Chthonians

Each of these have an HQ, Troops and Elite type choice which forms the core of your force. These are obligatory, so you will need at least one HQ, 2 troops and 1 elite. You cannot mix any of the six factions.

Those We Worship :

The second choice opens up "god specific" type units. E.G. If your Polyps choose to worship Azathoth, then your god specific unit you must take are Pipers of Azathoth, or if your Shoggoths worship Shub-Niggurath then you must take a unit of Dark Young. This allows civil wars and "themed" armies to be more viable, so no two Elder Thing armies should ever be the same since your opponent will likely be themed around a different god, and this can of course be modelled by paint schemes or conversion work.

The list of Gods currently consists of :

Azathoth
Shub-Niggurath
Yog-Sothoth
Nyarlathotep
Hastur
Zhar & Lloigor

Of course there will be many more, there are dozens of Old Ones and Outer Gods afterall. I will likely add as many as I can!

Eldritch Aid!

The third slot is optional, but contains all the non-aligned one-off type beasts and monsters found in the mythos such as Gugs, Hounds of Tindalos, Moonbeasts, Star Vampires ect. This slot being optional allows a little more variety in units, and allows fans of the mythos to have a few of their favourites that don't belong to any specific faction.

Rules-wise, it will be a heavily modified version of the PA engine - but there will be specific rules for Gods and lots of other insanity. The goal of this ruleset will be to allow mythos fans to enact battles between their favourite lovecraftian aliens across the stars, or even act out famous battles such as the war between the Elder Things and Shoggoths, or the conflicts between the Polyps and Great race of Yith.

I'm not particularly sure what else to write about yet, it's still in it's early days but I will keep people notified on it's progress.

Cyclone Masters and Gusts

Now I've gotten the recasts I've been working on the ol' Tolathians again. The workbench currently contains the second Commander figure, and the second troops-choice the Gusts. Once these are done ill have 7 of the 10 units completed for the Tolathians.

I decided recently I'd rather have all three of the first armies complete because id rather release them together rather than make people wait for Second Waves that I would not know when I'd be releasing. From observing the 40k community, it seems like people don't like waiting for 2nd waves of models especially when they do not know when those waves will be released so it seems a better idea to do it this way.

Heres a few rough fluff tidbits for the Gusts and Cyclone Masters :

Gusts -
Gusts are nearly as common as Wisps and act as the Close-Combat footsoldiers in Tolathian Cells. Gusts are those that have slowly lost themselves to war and over time become more bestial and hate-fueled. Before the process of insanity takes over completely, the Tolathian will submit itself to be lobomtomised. It's eyesight at this point will of been almost lost entirely as a cruel side-effect of losing it's mind, so the eyes will be entirely removed. It's Electro-Talons will be removed and replaced by vicious metallic scythes giving it deadly close-combat weapons. It's mouth too will be reformed allowing it to bite and chew on it's enemies with enhanced stronger fangs. Knowing full well that not all enemies the Tolathian Storm-Empire and it's cells face will be honourable warriors - the Gusts are used as berserkers against these kinds of enemies, unleashed upon the ranks as weapons of pure terror and brutality.


Cyclone Master -
The most common military commanders of Tolathian Cells are the Cyclone Masters. These honourable leaders take their Cells from the front-lines, protecting their brethren with hurricane shields and decimating enemy lines with their powerful Wind-Staff's which litterally destroy the ground and change the landscape in front of them. The Cyclone Masters often use this catastrophic ability to rearrange the landscapes to suit their strategies and tactics. These masters of the elements are often feared by their enemies due to the sheer power built up within their cold souls.

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!

Happy belated new year!

Well it's a month into the new year, I hope everyone reading this blog is doing well - I have been extremely busy with all kinds of real-life stuff have sadly not had the time to sculpt anything new let alone post on this blog, but as things settle down I'm getting back into the swing of things.

I have an interesting question though! what kind of Cthulhu Mythos monsters plastic kits would you like to see? and do give this some thought, I know many will probably say Deep Ones/Innsmouthites/Cthulhu Spawn so try and be creative ;) 

Blackball Games release Elder Thing

Theres a few Elder Thing sculpts out there to buy,, but I never felt they were really that good - until now! Blackball Game's have released this beautiful and fantastic depiction of the Elder Thing  sculpted by a very clever chap named Aragorn Marks for $20 here :
 http://blackballgames.bigcartel.com/product/book-of-fragments-elder-thing

Overall, I'd give this thing a 9/10, nearly perfect depiction. The only thing I'm  not really sure about is the weird faces around the body which feel a bit out of place to me. The model is apparently a multi-part kit thugh so if like me - you're a lovecraft fanatic that only cares for big hordes of monsters, then it look's totally possible to have a dozen of these things in a variety of poses. Perfect for recreating the battles between Shoggoths and Elder Things!

A little of everything, and more.

Been a while since I updated this thing!

To quote one of my favourite shows, "Many, many things have happened".

Firstly, I'll be sending off a huge bulk of the finished kits in the next few weeks! I have no idea how long it will take for the caster to mass-produce them for me in plastic, but it feels like a huge step forward and that makes me happy.

Secondly, I'll be releasing pictures of the dreaded Ekimmu master-sculpts in a few weeks as well. The Ekimmu are inspired by Assyrian mythology as the name suggests. They are a gasseous based form of life and vampiric in nature.

Theres also a good chance the packaging will be done as proper boxed sets, but this won't put the price up at all. I intend to keep the prices as low as I possibly can for a variety of reasons - being that my sculpting abilities arent as high as companies like Citadel and Privateer Press - it would not be fair to customers to charge those kind of prices, and secondly I want it to remain affordable. While you will only need about 20-30 models max, an army should not cost you much more than £30-£40.

And finally, the first draft of the rules are nearing completion! the Alpha-rules will be posted here for free. I do hope that this will attract more attention so I can get some constructive critisicm and feedback on the rules so I can make the next version better and more fun. The rules are intended to be fast, fun but balanced - and balance is important for both friendly-games and those with a more tournement mindset.

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And it's kind of unrelated to the blog but it looks like I have a pretty solid chance of getting signed to a small record label for my electro-industrial project Ion Plasma Incineration. If you're interested, you can get my first 2 IPI releases on bandcamp and they are dirt-cheap :


http://ionplasmaincineration.bandcamp.com/album/tdcp


http://ionplasmaincineration.bandcamp.com/album/the-rush-ep

Favour?

I would like to get some coverage on beasts of war and would kindly ask anyone on that site to email them and tell them you want to see coverage on "Primeval Abyssian", please :) It seems they are becoming the "go to" site for wargaming - especially now they have just launched a TV show dedicated to tabletop wargaming!

You can contact BoW here :  http://www.beastsofwar.com/contact-us/

Primeval Abyssian - New sculpts

So, finally I have some new WIP stuff to show you today.

First up is the Luuran Eye Of Judgement, the gaps still need filling (obviously) but it's done enough to show you :

Next up is the Tolathian Thunder-Drummer, which also still needs more work, and maybe a few bits that need resculpting (What do you think?) :

Next we have the Master Of Unlife. These abominations exist in the Necroverse and Lead the legions of Abyssal Drones, biomechanical abominations that seek to wipe out all life :

And finally, we have the Mind-Harvest prototype which looks a bit rought at current and not to mention the "static" pose of the spinal-Chord. That will change once I get resin casts to put into fancy poses, and they'll be a variety of lethal surgical type weaponry on the ends of the spinal-chords :

Well, that's all for today folks - hope you like the sculpts so far!

Primeval Abyssian - misc updates!

No new pictures today sorry, but heres a roundup of various newsbits of what I've been working on.

Tolathians - The Thunder-Drummer kit is being worked on. Thunder-Drummers have litteral drums growing out their backs and their hands are organic drum-sticks - a bash on the drum sends a powerful signal into the skies ending a blitzkrieg of lightning bolts into enemy ranks! Thunder-Drummers will come in packs of 3 Plastic figures and are a heavy-support slot.

Luuran - I'm making the vehicle kit for these guys. It's called "The Eye Of Judgement" and is a pyramid shaped machine with an organic eye growing on top of it. It's shaping up rather nicely, but I don't want to spoil it too much.

Masters Of Unlife - Commander kit done, Infantry kit done. 2 more kits need to be created still.

Mind-Harvest (temp name) - Killer space-brains, the master model is done and done. It has a robotic spinal-chord with surgical weaponry on the end. These creatures live in large Dyson-Spheres and the backround is shaping up to be a mix of classic 1950's b-movie elements and Olaf Stapledon influences.

Tolathians - Outpost Cyclopean (The web series) :
I've heard that Ed will be casting the plastic puppet kit's for these soon, hopefully this month. I still have yet to start on the tiles I intend to use to create the sets with, but should be able to do some basic test-filming once I get the puppets back at least.