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I think it's the lack of forearms on the Drakon that ruin them. It's also the only real change I can see from the concept art, which is unfortunate, because that looks pretty cool, but the models look like they are riding some sort of scaly turkey.

New concept art for the brock riders:



Badgers! Awesome.

Yeah, the concept for the Dragon was actually for the Elven Lord on Battle Dragon (asked them at the open day) - the Drakons were freehand I believe.

When you look at the Corporation and Veer-myn artwork compared to the Models, which is all stuff from this year, they are much much closer!

scarletsquig wrote:New concept art for the brock riders:



Badgers! Awesome.

Interesting. I think that would make a good normal dwarven cavalry unit but it's definitely third out of three on my list for a beserker mount. Maybe partly due to the angrier nature of the rider as well as the mount, but I like the previous pic more. Dwarves on bears and with armored badgers has already been done but I don't think I've seem them with angry mini-dinosaurs ever.



Even the little bulldog horse appeals to me a bit more.

Can someone rehost pics of the Battle Nuns for the work blocked?

^ I've rehosted the pics in the first post for you. Hopefully imgur works.

So... will the Dwarves be riding dinosaurs or bears or rats?

If Naismith is doing the 'Battle Nuns' I'm probably going to jump on this. I really, really like his females in the Cobalt-1 line and I think he will do them justice.

^ Yes, he is. Concepts are from him, so I imagine he'll be sculpting them too.

RE: The romantic preferences of dwarves, I have no idea!

Alpharius wrote:So... will the Dwarves be riding dinosaurs or bears or rats?

Badgerbears - 'Good' Dwarves
Dinobeasts - Abyssal Dwarves

warboss wrote:




I'm generally a scifi gamer at heart but I've always had a soft spot for dwarven beserkers and random "useful for D&D" figs. The former would benefit from the beserkers on brocks shown but I'm not sure how the size matches up with the Avatars of War beserker box set. Do any fans of dwarves out there have both the Mantic and AoW not-slayers handy in a side by side pic? I'd assume the upcoming ones would be to scale with their previous releases. As for the later, the newer paladins and nuns would scratch the itch that D&D minis has left unfullfilled for a few years.

Those are terrible. They look like swan paddle-boats you see at the lake or a theme park ride.

My issue is the concept art often looks so far superior to the final product. I don't think I have seen a single concept art where the model has lived up to or exceeded the art. I have a really big problem as they draw such awesome orcs/orx in a Heroic scale with humanoid faces where the upper lip is small like a human and the clenched fist is larger than the orc's head and the arms are massive (heroic scale, World of Warcraft style) then the minis are TOTALLY DIFFERENT. We get bug-eyed extended muzzle D&D orks with small hands and realistic body proportions. And then they make a HERO model who looks like an entirley different species.

I love the Ork with the axe in the kickstarter. The final mini will look nothing like it I suspect which is a shame. It is almost as if the ork in the concept art is a half-ogre compared to the other orks who are more bestial, smaller and hunched.

nkelsch wrote:
I love the Ork with the axe in the kickstarter. The final mini will look nothing like it I suspect which is a shame. It is almost as if the ork in the concept art is a half-ogre compared to the other orks who are more bestial, smaller and hunched.

Do you mean this guy?

nkelsch wrote:

My issue is the concept art often looks so far superior to the final product. I don't think I have seen a single concept art where the model has lived up to or exceeded the art. .

Sad but true, theres always that chance of things ending differently than they started

Wow. I'm not a big mantic guy, but I can't pass up so much swag for such a low price. It'll be great for our D&D mini collection.

I think it used to be more of the case rather than now, especially with the very early concept stuff. Now they seem to have settled down with a design team, and to an extent with the various concepts, the design art we are getting is much closer to the end product. I've put some examples in the spoiler tags:

It is almost as if the ork in the concept art is a half-ogre compared to the other orks who are more bestial, smaller and hunched.

Those aren't orcs in the cover art picture. Those are goblins.

And the big orc on the boar is artwork based on the miniature that Emily posted, not the other way around.

There's already multiple posted examples of stuff that looks like the concept art, pretty much exactly. This is one area where Mantic has improved, a lot.

Gary Morley was the sculptor for the Drakon Riders. Massive, gigantic quality difference between his sculpts for the elves (Drakons, Stormwind Cav) and Kev White's sculpts (Palace Guard, Lord on Battle Dragon).

Mantic aren't using as many different random freelancers these days, they seem to have settled on a few guys that they are happy with, and try to get one sculptor to do an entire range of models themselves where possible to avoid the problems they had in the past.

Cyporiean wrote:

Alpharius wrote:So... will the Dwarves be riding dinosaurs or bears or rats?

Badgerbears - 'Good' Dwarves
Dinobeasts - Abyssal Dwarves

Are you guessing or have they actually come out and stated this?

warboss wrote:

Cyporiean wrote:

Alpharius wrote:So... will the Dwarves be riding dinosaurs or bears or rats?

Badgerbears - 'Good' Dwarves
Dinobeasts - Abyssal Dwarves

Are you guessing or have they actually come out and stated this?

I hope this is the case, as both look amazing, and Dwarven Cavalry is an idea enticing enough for me to probably start an army based around it.

So, for $175 dollars pledged, I get 4 armies and a host of goodies that I can use in two different games?

It seems almost too good to be true.

Valhallan42nd wrote:So, for $175 dollars pledged, I get 4 armies and a host of goodies that I can use in two different games?

It seems almost too good to be true.

You get to choose one of those armies. It is still too good to be true, but not that good.


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Personally, I'm shooting for the $125 for the two little armies and I'll boost up with some other stuff to 175 to get all the freebies.

Ha! Reading *all* the words is important!

warboss wrote:

Cyporiean wrote:

Alpharius wrote:So... will the Dwarves be riding dinosaurs or bears or rats?

Badgerbears - 'Good' Dwarves
Dinobeasts - Abyssal Dwarves

Are you guessing or have they actually come out and stated this?

Has Mantic come out and stated it? No.

Have I talked to Ronnie at 3am about Dwarves riding Badgers among other future releases? Yes

Does that mean its locked in? No. Things change.. afterall, we don't have Black Mantic Cases for Warpath releases. (As per Gencon 2010 discussions.)

Those are terrible. They look like swan paddle-boats you see at the lake or a theme park ride.

My issue is the concept art often looks so far superior to the final product.

That's *not* the concept art for those models though... regardless, they're old sculpts now. Just look at the Corporation, Veer-myn and Goblins for examples for where they are really starting to hit their stride. McVey's input can only be good having seen the quality coming back from Sedition Wars!!

More Celestian stuff...

Those Celestians will make great DCA if they get funded.

Dawnbringer wrote:I think it's the lack of forearms on the Drakon that ruin them. It's also the only real change I can see from the concept art, which is unfortunate, because that looks pretty cool, but the models look like they are riding some sort of scaly turkey.

Forearms, as you say, also the leg positioning (the models look awful) and the head/mouth shape - going from an organic beast look to the form of a stone gargoyle - or perhaps a Chaos Land Raider gun ornamentation!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nkelsch wrote:
My issue is the concept art often looks so far superior to the final product. I don't think I have seen a single concept art where the model has lived up to or exceeded the art. I have a really big problem as they draw such awesome orcs/orx in a Heroic scale with humanoid faces where the upper lip is small like a human and the clenched fist is larger than the orc's head and the arms are massive (heroic scale, World of Warcraft style) then the minis are TOTALLY DIFFERENT. We get bug-eyed extended muzzle D&D orks with small hands and realistic body proportions. And then they make a HERO model who looks like an entirley different species.

I do agree with you - and it applies almost as much to the Corporation figures as well, The concept art for the officer posted above is superior to the actual figure. I expect overall similar results from all the stuff being sculpted here as well, but they do sometimes manage to pull off some gems, and I've always loved Ogres and Trolls and other large monsters - which should also give them more of a canvas to pull something cool off. Admittedly, the undead (their best models to date, still) are quite small and still very good, so there's hope still. I'm still in for $225. Nothing says I can't cut and convert and swap bits with GW and other models to bring the Mantic figures up to speed where I think they need it.

I guess I need to figure out my final wantlist by tomorrow...

I find it hard to believe that anyone gave the Drakons a green light for production. There had to be illicit substances or a malaria induced fever involved.

The history of our hobby is littered with bad and awful sculpts. Even from the best producers.

Are there any concrete details about the Mummy figures released yet? I've looked through the updates and can't find any.

not really, no.

Black Nexus wrote:More Celestian stuff...

"I thought you had a flaming sword?"

"What do you think this is, a flaming letter-opener?!?"