My Top-5 Sci-fi Novels of all time

 1_Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

When I read this book I was totally blown away. The sheer scale of it, the ideas and concepts explored. It is litterally a history of the universe from beginning to end - with some of the most imaginative alien cultures and civilizations I've ever come across. Whats more is when you find out what the "Star Makers" themselves actually are. Mind blowing. The Arthur C Clarke quote on the front cover is certainly there for a reason.

 2_Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward

The story of an alien civilization that has managed to evolve on a dying neutron star. We watch the Cheelah from the beginning as simple tribes and then watch them evolve into a more high-tech society, we see them make costly mistakes and evolve. Brilliant stuff that really excited my imagination as a kid. Nowadays I can appreciate it in a different light as Forward was a scientist and so the science is very hard and accurate - and this only adds to making it more believable in my eyes.

3_Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

Yet another hard sci-fi classic, this time that takes place on an Oblate planet, which is why it has varied gravity all over it. A pretty fascinating concept and makes you wonder if such a world might exist out there. A great story, and another that puts a non-humanoid alien as one of the central protagonists - this time a rather likeable alien centipede-like creature. Like Dragon's Egg - the science is very accurate and realistic which for me just makes it that bit more enjoyable to read.

4_2001 A Space Odyessy by Arthur C Clarke

Does this one really need any introductions? One of the best hard sci-fi novels of all time, and very likely to be the most known and famous. I guess with this one, Clarke managed to put Hard sci-fi into the mainstream for a while, what with the film and all that. An impressive feat and accomplishment and one I wish I had the talent myself, so I have often looked up to Clarke and would love to be as good as he was.

5_The Shadow out Of Time by HP Lovecraft

While I loved At the mountains of madness, this one blew me away even more and eventually became my all time favourite Cosmic Horror story. The histories and alien races described are mind-blowing and exciting - with the amazing Great Race of Yith and their mortal enemies the Flying Polyps - both of which became two of my all time favourite sci-fi alien races. The story is a perfect mix of that hard boiled detective style film noir and mind melting cosmic horror to make you feel very very insignificant in the universe.

Primeval Abyssian : Introduction - The Psylorthian Conflux

Introducing..... The Psylorthion Conflux

The Psylorthion Conflux are a species of artificially created beings made from a strong resiliant metamaterial that is able to withstand extreme temperature and weathering, making them hardy and strong - the downside to this however is that the metamaterial has a fast decay rate so the bodies need to be replaced somewhat
frequently. The Psylorthions live on Anchorworlds, two oblate ellipsoids, the smaller being a singularity resting upon the larger. The Psylorthion minds can only exist within the confines of the singularities - permanently tying them to their homeworlds. The Psylorthion metamaterial bodies however are able to go anywhere and are created en-masse on the anchorworlds by advanced nano-swarms.

The Psylorthion Conflux was born by the Adrifell long ago - who opened thousands of Singularities across the Etherverse and sent encrypted datastreams into each one. Eventually the Datastreams would gain sentience within the singularities and create a network of artificial minds with each Singularity becoming it's own cosmic computer terminal. The Adrifell would then link the singularities together to form an expansive universe scaled computer network and intelligence system that could monitor the Etherverse and repair any potential anomolies.

Primeval Abyssian - A Direction change for the better

A somewhat strange update - Primeval Abyssian will be having a direction change, both from an artistic and marketing decision. The game will not be marketed as "Lovecraftian" but instead will be related to what is more it's main influences and inspirations anyway - and those are hard sci-fi writers such as Olaf Stapledon, Hal Clement and Robert L Forward. I believe these writers deserve more of the credit for inspiration and deserve more exposure alike.

Of course all models currently sculpted are still in. Tolathians, Masters Of unlife and Luuran will remain how they are - which is, they were never really "lovecraftian" anyway, and I feel it is best to get away from the "cthulhu mythos" as far as possible.

Some races (ones that havent been sculpted yet anyway) will undergo radical direction changes - and there will be some new factions too such as the Psylorthion Conflux - which use oblate planets. The new races will follow from what you've seen of the Cascadians - which will be more high tech but abstract looking sillohettes.

PA Update

Been a while since I updated this thing. I have given sculpting a rest for the past month or so, and I'm just waiting for recasts of the Masters Of Unlife Abyssal Drone and Cascadian infantry so I can get back into it and get more units done, this is one of the main reasons I've given things a rest since I can't make much more progress until I get those recasts. 

I have however made significant progress with the Seeker Drone for the Masters Of unlife, so I thought id post a few pictures here and share the current state of this model.

It still needs quite a bit more work. It's been one of the more challenging models I've made - but I'm fairly happy with how it is looking so far.

The Primeval FAQ

FAQ :

The models look pretty fragile, will they stand up to tabletop gaming?
They should do! Trollcast plastic is pretty tough and strong as you can see from videos that Ed has posted. If they do break, teh breaks are very clean so it shouldnt be too difficult to fix. I'll probably do some experimentation with this to get a better answer though!

Some of these things look weird for weird sake, what gives?
Blame "The Doctor who monster book" I saw as a 4 year old kid. As I grew up Hard sci-fi authors like Robert L Forward and Olaf Stapledon became bigger inspirations. I'm also obsessed with deep sea life. I don't think my stuff is really that unique/original when you take all that in mind, it's just fairly uncommon in larger skirmish games. If I had to explain it, it's the appeal of the sillohettes - I really prefer them to more common designs. In Short? I love squiggly things!

Do you expect to make a living from this stuff?
Not really. I'm more than aware this is a very small niche and it's more of a personal hobby - and I have fairly low expectations for future sales. I'd just like to give the tabletop gaming world some unique and cool aliens.

What will the prices be like?
For starters I'm no Bob Naismith or Jes Goodwin and while I am happy with what I make I know my skills don't measure up to those sculpting giants and nor do I have the ability to create those high quality multi-part kits. The prices reflect this, you'll be able to get about 22-30 models for about £35 and that's the standard size of a game of PA.

When is your game coming out?
I really have no idea to be honest! Theres so much work ahead of me and it's all so new. The goal is to make 40 kits, that's 10 per faction. It's already taken nearly 2 years and I am just over halfway. Beyond that, I am working on the rules and I need to get artwork, and then these kits need to be moulded and cast up. I'd like to say give it another year or so but I can't give any guarantees.

How many Factions will there be?
I'd like as many as possible and have ideas for as many as 21 but I'd like to focus on the first four to begin with, if those go well and they sell then I will expand as much as I can. I would like a minimal of 10 and that's what I will try to achieve.

Some of the races sound more "Pulpy"?
Yep! I love my pulp sci-fi cheese. There is a race of alien plants because I was a huge fan of Day of the Triffids and always thought killer plants needed more exposure. Is an army of killer plants considered a garden though? There is a faction of giant disembodied brains inspired from those old 50's killer brain films as well as more recent stuff like Super metroid and Doom. There are a few other pulp style factions too but those are the two I really want to get made.

What are your biggest influences?
Classic Dr who episodes, 50's b-movies, hard sci-fi writers and deep sea documentaries that I watch when I should probably be sleeping.

What about the Tolathian sci-fi web show?
Like the miniatures-game, I always wanted to make my own sci-fi show since I was a kid - this will take years and years most likely. I'll post updates when I have them, but I'm starting right at the bottom and need to work myself up. In short : A very long time.

What are your favourite sci-fi aliens?
 From Dr who I would say the Gel-Guards and Krynoids. In general? Triffids, the Crystaline entity from Star trek, the Vorlons from Babylon5.

Primeval Abyssian - Masters Of Unlife Seeker model

Heres something for the Masters Of Unlife, this is the Work In Progress "Seeker" :

These large bio-mechanical worm-like drones do what they say on the tin, they fly ahead of the other drone types - seeking out the best places to hit and run to soften the enemy down until the main drone-army can get there.

It still need tons of work before it's finished, but I wanted to show one of the things I've been doing this month :)

Primeval Abyssian - Cascadian Time-Warden Sculpt finished

Finally finished the Cascadian master-sculpt, and managed to get better photos of it.

This is the finished model I'll be sending off soon.

Here is a slightly older version of it (before i finished the pistol) but I wanted to post it too as it had some different angles of the model :

And finally a Biography to see what all those weird bits actually do :

I'll be sending this model off to Troll Forged next week to get the recasts I need to make the majority of the Cascadian units. Really can't wait to get to work on this faction as they are one of my own personal favourites.

Primeval Abyssian - Tolathian vehicle (Work In Progress)

Here are a few shot's of the WIP Tolathian vehicle, working title "Lightning bolt". It still need's a lightning gun mounted on the rectangular area on the front Pillar. Quite happy with how it's turning out.

The Cloud part of the vehicle is made from expanding foam, the foam gives a nice cloud-like appearance as it slowly expands and gets more "bubbly". I had to do several versions before I got one that I was happy with. The pillars themselves look a bit rough at the moment, So I need to sand the sides down to get a smoother surface.

Primeval Abyssian - The Cascadians

First post of the new year and I have a special preview of one of the new races - the Cascadians. They are perhaps one of the most abstract/weirdest designs I've come up with but still in my "style" of thin and wirey asymmetrical sillohettes! I am really happy with it though. For those that do not know about the Cascadians, they a type of sentient/intelligent anti-body created by the Time vortex within the Ether itself - so I guess they are like cooler versions of Time Lords.

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!