Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Alpharius wrote:
Well yes, except they haven't answered an email I sent them a week or so ago.

I understand that they're busy, but a week should be enough time to answer...

They usually get to me the same day or next day when I email them.

Got my second package yesterday.

I now have the complete collection outside of the few that are not done.

And no time to work on them.

legitimate world problems.

So here's another image group for ya'll, with some assembled minis and a brief take on them:


Zahra and Sereqet

Sereqet looks fantastic and was a dream to put together. Really easy to assemble (the legs are only one part per set!)

Zahra was a little harder to assemble, most particularly her leg positioning. I had to heat her headdress up and then put it on her while flexible to get it to fit right, but that was super easy.



Gaius

3 pieces, easy to assemble, and might be the best looking model of the line. He's beautiful.



Aquila

Another really easy to assemble model. His sword had a slight bend. Hot water fixed easily.



Ban Luca

Another really easy to assemble, beautiful model. I haven't put her cape on yet, but I like her.



Unassembled Marcus Furius

You can see the slight bend in the spear. Fixed easily in hot water. His chain net required the hot water treatment as well when assembled, as it was sticking straight out. Super easy fix.



Ur Kek

I love this model. He's incredibly cool looking, and was perhaps the cleanest cast of the bunch.



Frigge

The detail here is much crisper than what the photo shows. I'm shooting with an iPhone 5 with no macros, so it blurred a bit. The feathers on her hair were a pretty huge pain in the ass to put on because i put the axe arm on first. I'd recommend putting them on before the axe hand to anyone that is going to be building her.



And finally my sandy arena bases complete.

Milliput with random depresses using a sculpting tool and my brush. Light glue over top. Fine grain sand on top and another round of depresses with the sculpting tool and brush.

GW Zamesi Desert base coat. Devlan Mud Watered Down Wash. PP Menoth White Base dry brush. PP Menoth White Highlight light drybrush. gakky craft paint black around the rims. Done. I tried it out with white base coloring, and didn't like it. If I was more patient, I'd potentially attempt this:



But I'm not..... yet. Can always change it later. Dunno.

Thanks for the pics!

Really looking forward to my pledge showing up later this week...

Those bases look great - nicely done. I went with sand sans milliput myself, but purely to match the surface of my arena. They don't look anywhere as good as yours.

I'll also agree with your assessment of GP. He was simple to assemble, easy to clean-up, crisply cast, and looks like a ****ing boss. My only complaint is that most every other model comes to his belly-button - if he were about Micon's height, I think he'd be perfect.

 Gomez wrote:
Those bases look great - nicely done. I went with sand sans milliput myself, but purely to match the surface of my arena. They don't look anywhere as good as yours.

Thanks!

I may actually cast some up for folks and just charge materials cost for them, and for myself. Milliput is 'spensive, even with a Hobby Lobby coupon.

I'll also agree with your assessment of GP. He was simple to assemble, easy to clean-up, crisply cast, and looks like a ****ing boss. My only complaint is that most every other model comes to his belly-button - if he were about Micon's height, I think he'd be perfect.

Yeah, I actually have been meaning to do some scale comparisons.

Everything seems pretty okay, and I've been forgiving of Gaius because he's obviously not 100% human, but you're spot on. Bro is HUUUUGE.

And I'm still sad I didn't get Micon :(

I wonder how long it will be before they get their webstore up and running...

I guess it depends on whether they'll start it up before they ship everything to backers...

MIKH sigh

they're apparently hoping to have sent all of wave 1 out by the end of the first (full?) week of November

so some point soon after that if they do decide to go that way

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I guess it depends on whether they'll start it up before they ship everything to backers...

MIKH sigh

they're apparently hoping to have sent all of wave 1 out by the end of the first (full?) week of November

so some point soon after that if they do decide to go that way

They've already put out some feelers to see whether backers would be miffed at them for firing up the webstore before everything (read: the rest of MIKH's stuff) had been delivered (speaking as someone waiting on those very same pieces, I have absolutely no problem with them doing that but I can understand why someone might).

I'm secretly hoping that they've already got a few new characters and sculpts ready to go whenever the store is up and running - I'd like to believe they are forward thinking enough to have already asked Seb Archer or Benoit Cauchies (or any of their other productive sculptors) to get a head-start on the next generation of characters, like Anum and Sulla and that badass-looking rhino from the rulebook. I know they might want to sit back and relax a bit upon fulfillment of their KS, but I'm still hopeful...

 Gomez wrote:

I'm secretly hoping that they've already got a few new characters and sculpts ready to go whenever the store is up and running - I'd like to believe they are forward thinking enough to have already asked Seb Archer or Benoit Cauchies (or any of their other productive sculptors) to get a head-start on the next generation of characters, like Anum and Sulla and that badass-looking rhino from the rulebook. I know they might want to sit back and relax a bit upon fulfillment of their KS, but I'm still hopeful...

Um yes, please!

I got an email reply from them that indicated the webstore would be opening soon, as I wanted to purchase a few of the models I didn't pledge for but couldn't.

Update #71

Oct 29 2014

Please check addresses in shipping emails.
Comment
2 likes

Hello backers, especially international backers,

Shipping for Wave 1 has been smooth. A few backers have received shipping notices via email and noticed their address was incorrect. They quickly contacted us and we were able to fix the labels before the packages went out the door.

If you receive an email notification please check that your address is correct (both the formatting and the content).

If you notice anything wrong with your address please send an email to chelsie@redrepublicgames.com

We appreciate the help.

Until next time,

-RRG

Those pics look amazing, cincy!! Any chance you got my Mago in the mail yet?

My baby ate him.

But seriously, he went out on my way to work this morning.

You sir are a scholar and a gentleman . Can't wait to see the casting results in-person, they look really good in the pics!

 RiTides wrote:
You sir are a scholar and a gentleman . Can't wait to see the casting results in-person, they look really good in the pics!

They're honestly much better than my pics.

There's a few bubbles here and there (I'll go over this more in my full review), but to me that falls under "normal resin expectations."

I only had one problem, and that was with Noxious. There was an internal bubble in his ankle which you couldn't see until I went to put him together and his ankle snapped. But, I mean, with Quik Set and Super Glue it was an easy fix.

I'd say overall casting quality is up there with Infamy and Wild West Exodus for me, which is just a tier below Kingdom Death, which I consider to be the cream of the crop. But to be fair, Poots is maniacally anal retentive with his QC. I bought one of the "junk" bags last holiday, and some of the stuff in there was perfect save for an easily filled bubble.

Got around to completing my first gladiator, and started a painting thread over in the showcase...

Waaaa,

I want my toys, you lot are making me jealous

now back to waiting for my shipping email

Just appeared in the comments

Hello backers,

All wave 1 packages have been boxed up. Labelling should go on for the rest of the week. International labels have been taking a bit longer than we hoped. Inputting data for customs forms and double checking address formatting makes it a slow process. But we are working hard to get everything out the door ASAP.

We've been emailing with MIKH, asking about Septimus updates. When the next set of photos arrives we will post them in an official update.

Until then,
RRG

soon my pretties, soon

Some great looking models here - do they have an eta for general sales / supplier in the uk?

thanks

Nothing I'm aware of yet, but they'll have a web store up and running by Xmas apparently

I'm almost finished painting my first Arena Rex gladiator. The sculpts and casts have some really great detail, makes them a lot of fun to paint. This is one of my favorite, Otho Mentulus, so I'm taking my time on this one. They showed some early WIP pictures of the sculpt during the KS. The realistic proportions and the level of detail went a long way to convincing me to back the project.

Absolutely fantastic.

What metallics do you use?

Forget metallics. That skin tone looks great!

Thanks! For the metals I'm using Scale 75's Metal n' Alchemy paints. They are some of the best (water based) metallic paints I've come across. The pigments are super fine so they flow really smoothly and you can more easily build up the color in layers for better blends. Other metallics paints tend to be pretty thick compared to regular acrylic. I also like Vallejo Model Air metallic paints. Since they're designed for the airbrush they have a lot of the same behavior. Unfortunately while their white/grey metals are very nice the yellow metal selection is a bit limited. But they are easier to find, I've seen quite a few hobby shops that carry VMA paints. For Scale 75 you're probably stuck ordering them online.

I'm also mixing my metals with regular matte acrylics to take down the shine in the shadows and keep them dark, then hitting upper surfaces and edges with the brighter metallic tones.

For the skin here's what I used (Reaper Paints):

I like the Reaper skin options, but based on the images you can hopefully find similar shades in whatever paint brand you like. For the shadows I mix Mahogany Brown with Rosy Shadow (roughly 3 to 1) and Chestnut Brown with Rosy Shadow (roughly 3 to 1). The rest are just pure colors. Of course I go from one to the next in stages, mixing slightly more of the lighter color in each time. After I'd finished the shadow-midtone I went back in with some glazes (adding Vallejo Glaze medium + water) of rosy skin and rosy skin + chestnut brown to help blend the transitions. Then I did the same thing after finishing the highlights, using rosy skin + fair skin and pure fair skin. The last step was to take a few glazes from GW (their bloodletter and then bloodletter mixed with Guilliman blue) further thinned with water and add some more color variation. So a little more red in the knees, elbow, knuckles, heels, and in some areas in the torso and a little purple to deepen some of the shadows. I want the effect to be subtle and build up gradually, so that's why I add 1 or 2 parts water for every 1 part glaze.

Even if you don't follow the whole process, that last step is a great trick for any skin. For faces mix up some glazes and then add red to the cheeks, maybe the nose. A blue glaze over skin gives a nice subtle 5 o'clock shadow. I tend to build up the color in 2-4 layers but you can still do an entire unit pretty quickly. It helps add another layer of detail to the figures and makes them stand out. Just remember to thin the GW glazes first.

Awesome, thanks for sharing your paint colors! I am going to check out those metalic paints, as I am never super happy with GW's but they have been the best I have found so far. (And I am super sick of NMM )

Got my shipping notice, excitement rising

They sent Otho instead of Mago for my add-on to cincy's pledge, so unfortunately I'm still waiting! Major bummer...

 RiTides wrote:
They sent Otho instead of Mago for my add-on to cincy's pledge, so unfortunately I'm still waiting! Major bummer...

Yeah.. Still waiting on that response from them, too.

In the meantime I painted something. Sorry the pictures suck.

So I started with the base:



And then got a few base coats down:



And then messed around with colors a bit more until I'd fethed with it enough





Total working time around 2 hours. Good enough for me.

Looks great - and it looks...real too!

Very cool, yeah, nice natural coloration, and the base looks solid.

That does look really good! Scary, actually