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 lord_blackfang wrote:
Why does the dragon look like it has Batman-style sculpted chest/abs armour?

To help me make a conversion of this of course

I love it when a plan comes together

Well, November is over, and it's beginning to look a lot like fishmen....


Not happy with the scrolls - scrolls + living underwater=Wha?

*EDIT* The options that they are discussing...
A

B

C


Of them, I favor B - if they are going to wear armor at all then have it protect the gut and other vulnerable areas. (I would have less trouble with them wearing no armor than their wearing bad armor. Heck, naked would be better than no armor - they live in the freakin' ocean!


The Auld Grump

That's Arianya from DS I think the scrolls were left off the scuplt (hard to tell from the angle below)



The trident is being held in an awkward pose (which can be fixed easliy enough I'm swapping the trident head to the top when I get it) the rest of the sculpt looks pretty good.

The Naiads might mix well with Sphyr from Deadzone/Warpath if they get their own force or even just as counts as something else.

I think the trident may have drooped. Look at her forearm, seems like its bent. That said, Id prefer a naiad without armour (or extremely limited, say, left arm and chest). Mostly because swimming in armour would be pretty damn difficult, even if you could breathe underwater...

I prefer my fish-people to be monstrous so these aren't my cup of tea unfortunately. It's a shame as these would be the only fish-people minis in HIPS that I'm aware of.

 DaveC wrote:
That's Arianya from DS I think the scrolls were left off the scuplt (hard to tell from the angle below)



The trident is being held in an awkward pose (which can be fixed easliy enough I'm swapping the trident head to the top when I get it) the rest of the sculpt looks pretty good.

Though a trident is traditionally used point down.... (Used for spearing fish. And by retiarius in the arena... arena weapons were not meant to be effective, just to make a cool looking battle... I don't know what end up they used.)

I also updated the images in my post - adding the concept sketches.

The Auld Grump

So I'm just gonna throw this out there...

The Nyads naiads or whatever live in the water sure. But where are the *fighting*? On land, in ranks. Because they were called up and told to do so, for the greater good, love, or money, whatever. Humans traditionally wear armor to war, but would they keep it on if they had to fight in the sea? (assume magical breathing aid if you have to =/)

I should think that the Niads are wearing armor specifically because they are on land and fighting in formations. If they were in the ocean they'd probably be flashing around in schools or skirmishing in small groups around reefs and sea caves or what have you.

That's my take anyway.

Come on GrimDork,

bringing common sense to the internets?

it's meant to be all arguments and fingerpointing

Oh well... I like number 2 then because... you all suck? And I hate you for.. reasons?

Mantic going for those sweet, sweet Pan Fo dollars?

Who'd a thunk it?!?

I really don't like that trident down pose.

Joyboozer wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Joyboozer wrote:
God really? I always saw the lion cover of that Jack Hamm book and thought the title was irony!

Have you read it? It discusses animal anatomy and proportions, and gives an aspiring artist an idea of what to look for in animal anatomy. Are you saying the lion on the cover looks as bad as the Mantic cat-horses?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alex, who painted that? I like it.

Yeah, read it, just always thought it was funny the lion on the cover looks line it's standing straight up. And waving.

I just assumed it was a circus lion. They do that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Why does the dragon look like it has Batman-style sculpted chest/abs armour?

Because some punk paladin killed his parents.

Those fishmen need more boobs. If Mantic can make a squid with boobs thy damn well better make a fish with boobs.

I brought my $145 down to $50. Not because I don't want stuff (I do), but Christmas takes priority. I'll build back up after the new year.

^I did the same. I'm hesitant to even leave the book on but I know I may never buy it at retail and I really do want it so going to stick it out at fitty for now.

I feel they should have at least webbing between the toes and fingers. And for some reason I can imagine them with only 3 toes/fingers quite long with long Nails on them.

overtyrant wrote:
I feel they should have at least webbing between the toes and fingers. And for some reason I can imagine them with only 3 toes/fingers quite long with long Nails on them.

Agreed on the webbed feet, also would like fins for hair instead of ears, and crazy hair that look like tentacles.

So they're fish people, but the only fins they have are... on their head and thighs?

Could be like Jar Jar Binks? lol

Fish people are going to look stupid no matter how you do them, unless you make them look more like scary monsters, which I don't think is what they are striving of. They're shooting for Elves under the sea.

Creature from the black lagoon would be cool, and close combat oriented.

 adamsouza wrote:
Fish people are going to look stupid no matter how you do them, unless you make them look more like scary monsters, which I don't think is what they are striving of.

Agreed, I would like to see something more like Deep ones or Murlocs.

But oh well, I got some lizardfolk in hard plastic out of this KS at least

 adamsouza wrote:
Fish people are going to look stupid no matter how you do them, unless you make them look more like scary monsters, which I don't think is what they are striving of.

Rubbish. Mermaids have been a part of the public consciousness for centuries, and Atlantean-types have been handled well by the likes of Magic: the Gathering.

They're shooting for Elves under the sea.

That's a problem, because Mantic elves are gak.

Mantic should totally do a Fishman hero who looks like Aquaman. Just saying.

Are they really offering 20 hard plastic minis for $15? For 4 new armies? I'm going to have to buy them in the pledge manager no matter how they turn out, even if just to mess with the bits.

How come the Deadzone hard plastics are $4 per mini?

Some good news and some bad news.

The good: the Succubus kit is apparently going to have eleven different heads in it - 5 horned, 5 unhorned and 1 champion.

The bad: they're still at the "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" stage of denial about everything else.

Siygess wrote:Mantic should totally do a Fishman hero who looks like Aquaman. Just saying.

I had the same thought. I would also accept Mermaid Man, or Sub Mariner.

AlexHolker wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:
Fish people are going to look stupid no matter how you do them, unless you make them look more like scary monsters, which I don't think is what they are striving of.

Rubbish. Mermaids have been a part of the public consciousness for centuries, and Atlantean-types have been handled well by the likes of Magic: the Gathering.
.

A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.

This is a mermaid


These are refugees from Darksun standing around at the beach


They look cooler, but nothing about them denotes aquatic. You could photoshop them into a desert and look like anyone from Darksun. The most aquatic thing they have going for them is their seafoam green skin.

This looks aquatic

They're shooting for Elves under the sea.

That's a problem, because Mantic elves are gak

I agree

We're talking about two distinct underwater niches: "Atlanteans" and "Deep Ones". You want Deep Ones and have no interest in Atlanteans, I want Atlanteans and have no interest in Deep Ones, and neither niche is filled by the concept art Mantic showed us. Agreed?

 AlexHolker wrote:
We're talking about two distinct underwater niches: "Atlanteans" and "Deep Ones". You want Deep Ones and have no interest in Atlanteans, I want Atlanteans and have no interest in Deep Ones, and neither niche is filled by the concept art Mantic showed us. Agreed?

oh they're not catering to you

theyre dooooooooooooooommmmmmeeedddd

The problems with the naiads is one shared with many of mantics designs, lack of background ideas. It seems that they probably just tell their concept designer: "Draw us some water creatures, let's call them naiads! Culture and background? Nah, just draw something cool, and then we'll backtrack!". And then they just post them and says: "Hey everyone, we will listen to you! Pick and choose A, B or C and then we do some design by kickstarter comments!

The problem is that instead of seriously thinking about background and asking themselves some basic questions like:

Are they aquatic and live most of their time under water or are they amphibious and live their life in some kind of swamp or coastal territory? And if amphibious, do they live in a swamp near the coast like a mangrove forest? Or do they live along the rivers in swamps like the great swamps in Iraq? Or is it like the bayous and swamps of southern USA?

Do they farm or do they hunt? What do they hunt or farm?

Are there several tribes spread out in different biotopes?

Is one of the reasons that they fight that humans, dwarfs, abyssals etc threaten the eco systems they live by logging, draining etc?

All of these questions could give more answers and inspire the designs more instead of just saying A, B or C and with what weapons?

I do not think that Mantics biggest problem is the stubby legs. Mantic needs to stop designing different models and instead start designing factions, otherwise Mantica will continue to be Generica.