Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster.
I have been working on producing a new 28mm miniatures line with my sculptor friend, Peder Bartholdy and I was looking to show off what we have. I'm pretty excited about the progress that has been made since work began in late 2014 and I hope you like what you see.
The human miniatures are 28mm true scale, which mean that they are 28mm heel to eye. I made the decision for them to be scaled this way so that there is more wiggle room to make the aliens in this line seem more impressive, or demure, without having to make them absolutely huge. When placed against
GW figures, a Space Marine actually looks like a genetically engineered super warrior, for example. The goal of this line, however, is to show case aliens and other non-human species in a ratio of about 3:1 of non-humans to humans and really make an attempt to make some really weird and cool stuff. I don't have many comparison shots right now, but they're smaller than Infinity's human miniatures, but scale well next to Eureka's modern line.
The latest batch are going to the caster in September, once convention season is over.
First up are the Aumanii Shock Troopers, a human faction that took up residence in the Small Magellanic Cloud during an era of history that has been clouded by the progress of time. Newcomers to the galactic community, the Aumanii are reluctant to participate in the political machinations of the great powers and were quite happy to live out their days in relative isolation behind the Veil of Tears, a series of stellar super clusters and nebulae that impede travel in that region of space. It was only until the forces of the Dergh Empire, seeking a short cut into the heart of League space, managed to find a viable route through the Veil that the Aumanii were forced to take a more active role in galactic affairs.
The influences for these miniatures have been mostly cyber punk video games, like Deus Ex and Metal Gear Solid.
The Aumanii Shock Trooper commander is pictured next to an Infinity guy. He's wearing a set of medium sized power armor and is armed with an assault rifle and a baseball cap, which I think is pretty spiff. This guy is true 28 scale and I think the comparison here kind of illustrates why I chose to go with this scale.
This is an Aumanii Special Unit Operator. The elite special forces of the Co-Prosperity Sphere of Auman are drawn from the most dedicated, intelligent and educated members of the armed forces. Due to the rigors of interstellar warfare and, at times, the disparity between combatants, many members of Special Unit volunteer for cybernetic enhancement. This model is armed with a pump action shotgun. Most of his body has been replaced by cybernetics, most visibly his legs and arms. This model has two heads which give you the choice of being cool and hip or wearing a sinister looking gas mask. The Kroot Hound and Tau are there for scale comparison.
This is a Brother of the Foundationalist Church of Auman. They serve a unique role in the Aumanii Armed Forces, attending to both the spiritual and physical needs of soldiers in combat as both priest and first aid attendant. He's armed with a snub nosed revolver for self defense. These guys are civilians that operate outside of the military chain of command. For cultural reasons, however, they are allowed to accompany the military whilst on campaign... To refuse their services is considered a cultural taboo.
These three miniatures are already cast in pewter. The rest are sitting in a drawer waiting to get the same treatment.
This is a fairly standard Aumanii Shock Trooper. He's armed with an automatic rifle, which possesses a high capacity helical magazine. He's wearing a muscle suit, which enhances the strength of the user and allows them to carry their gear over long distances with reduced fatigue. It's made of bullet resistant material as well, which supplements the ballistic chest armor which helps to limit injuries to kinetic weapons.
There's another Shock Trooper which is supposed to round out the blister... I don't actually have the picture on hand right now, since I'm posting this on my lunch break, but I'll be sure to put it up later on.
The Menaanites are an ancient race of sentient machines that have no known home world. For hundreds of years they traveled through civilized space, offering their services as laborers, merchants and mercenaries. In more recent history, they have taken to religious extremism and terrorism, causing the general public to distrust them. This machine is armed with a light rail rifle and is wearing tattered linens, which serve to protect its frame from the elements.
This Menaanite Fanatic is charging head long into the enemy armed only with a knife and a stolen handgun. The Menaanites have synthetic muscles which grow stronger through use, meaning this guy is particularly buff compared to the others.
The Menaanite Proselytizer is preaching to his robotic flock, urging them on to commit great acts for their mechanical god. This figure fills a leadership role in this faction, boosting the efficiency of units within its radius with a specialized electronic suite located in its head. While not equipped for combat, like all Menaanites, the Proselytizer is fully capable of tearing an unarmoured man limb from limb.
The Skaugran are a race of bipedal insects. Contrary to popular tropes, I've decided to make these guys a race of individualists with motivations recognizable to human beings like us. The image above shows the amount of diversity they have as a species, which will be represented in further releases.
This Skaugran is armed with an updated assault rifle, stolen from the tyrannical forces of Leptis Prime during an extermination campaign waged against them. The Skaugran are not an intrinsically warlike race and do not have much of a military industry. Most weapons are captured or supplied by foreign powers. Most combatants have little to no training and pick up habits that are not necessarily conducive to waging warfare in a successful manner. This Skaugran has picked up a number of trinkets, which it believes will make it a superior warrior.
This Skaugran belongs to the professional armed forces, trained and equipped by the Vedic. Since very few items are produced in the Skaugran sphere of influence for military purposes, nothing really quite fits right.
The Perathians are a race of... Well, floating, tentacle flapping, gas bags. Despite their appearance, they are a civilized, honorable, race that has a strong warrior tradition and an excellent military track record. The sketch shows an unarmoured Perathian. Traditionally, a warrior manufactures their own armor and propulsion systems from scratch, leading to a varied appearance. I only have
WiPs to show you right now, but I can probably get better pictures later... I also I only have just the one Perathian on my photobucket right now, for some reason.
So, yeah... That's what I've got on the go. Sculpting is being done two at a time, so as to round out blister packs. I'm working on a skirmish game for the figures too, which will emphasize character building and campaigning. The first set of these rules will be free to play, but if it gets popular and there's demand, I'll go ahead and write up an expanded book and put it up for sale with fancy art and support and the like.
What do you guys think?
Automatically Appended Next Post: I also have some concept sketches that should give you an idea of what is coming next.
I like to think of this project as a contribution to the community. The objective is just to make some sweet minis that I'd personally be proud to own and if you guys want some, that would be rad.
This is a concept for a Skaugran soldier. While this species is not inherently warlike, the existential crisis that they are facing at the hands of Leptis Prime has forced them to take drastic and uncharacteristically bold steps towards self preservation. The soldier has been genetically engineered and nano technologically enhanced with the aid of the Vedic, a mysterious race that has recently allied itself with the coalition formed much earlier by the Skaugran and the Perathians against The League.
These are some sketches of the Huasca. When they're sculpted, they'll look quite a bit mangier and cobbled together... The short story is that they were forced into underground bunkers quite some time ago due to an ecological disaster, probably caused by The League, which are supposed to be the clean lines good dudes with a dark side. Their inspiration was
LotR Orcs in space, because Weta did a rad job, in my opinion and those Orcs need the space treatment.
This is a concept sketch of a Vedican Warlord... They're the aforementioned shady aliens from beyond the fringe. They wear cyber-organic armor and are fueled by nanite colonies and calculated rage. The Vedic race have single handedly tipped the balance in favor of the coalition forces against The League(
tm), but at what cost?
A silo of an Aumanii Shock Trooper... This is the guy that my missing sculpt is based on, actually. He's wearing his muscle suit, a dapper little cape and is packing a semi-automatic grenade launcher... For close encounters.
This was the original concept sketch of the Menaanites... I liked it.
The color sketches with all the fancy detail were done by Greg Breault... If you like Dwarves, check out his board game project, Dwarves of the Iron Peak.
The pen and pencil sketches are practical works done by my sculptor friend Peder Bartholdy, who has done work for World's End Publishing and Peterson Games, to name a few.
