" CONCEPTUAL REALITY "

" FROM CONCEPT TO FINISHED PIECE "

So my post today will be about how I go from concept to finished piece, this is my method and the medium I like to work in, others prefer different mediums and methods it's all personal preference and what works for you.

Step 1 CONCEPT ( Hils concept sketches)

For this particular project I had concept drawings, these were created by the talented Hils. Do I normally work from pictures ? To be honest not very often, I normally have an idea in my head and to save time I start making the model straight away. 

With this concept it has been a collaboration between Steve, Hils, Sarah and myself, so a sketch is the easiest place to start.

After much discussion, it was decided to add armour and cloaks to the models to distinguish them from other classes of citizen.

Step 2 THE FRAME 

I like to use paper clips for my frame, as I like the strength they give me when pushing greenstuff against them. I start by making three separate pieces, the leg frame, the spine neck and head, and an arm frame.

I then connect the spine to the arms with greenstuff and the legs to a base, or scrap piece of plasticard if it's not going to have a base, and also a blob of greenstuff on the hips for the spine to stick into once dry.

Step 3 BLOCK SHAPES

Once the frames dry and stuck together, I like to block out a rough body shape and head shape so I can start to see the shapes forming together.

Step 4 FACIAL DETAIL 

I like to get the head and face done early as it can determine the look of the whole model, as it was going to have a helmet, I still needed the eyes sculpted and the bottom half of the face before constructing the helmet.

Step 5 HELMET AND ARM 

Next I added the helmet ( you may notice the head is now purple, this was a spare cast head from a concubine, to make it easier to see how much of the head was covered by the helm), I also started to shape the breast armour and put in the left arm and 2 mm plastic rod to start the Glaive weapon. 

Now if you have seen the concubine model you'll know this species has three breasts, so why is the breast plate shaped like it is ? Commonly in fantasy and sci-fi sculpts you get cone shaped armour for women models, I find this unrealistic as a blade blow to the chest would be angled in to the centre of the chest, so drawing the blade in instead of being deflected away like you would want.

Step 6 LEG AND BOTTOM 

Next I made the first leg and also added a basic shape to her bottom, the second part will help with the clothing over the top. 

You may notice in the picture that the pin for the right leg has moved in, this was due to the position of the pin started to look out of place, so better to correct now before moving on.

Step 7 LEG AND CLOTHING 

next was the right leg and the rear half of her skirt, starting to build up the different layers that make up a model, a little more has been done to the chest armour as well.

Step 8 FRONT SKIRT

Now, from Hils sketch, you would have seen a very interesting style skirt with layered plates around the waist, to achieve this, I rolled out a piece of greenstuff between my fingers to the shape of the skirt, I then applied it to the model and pressed in the two layered plates to fit around the bottom of the breast plate.

Step 9 ARM AND TIDYING 

At this stage I added the right arm, and started to tidy up the breast plate, you can now see it really start to take shape.

Step 10 CLOAK AND DETAILS 

The cloak was made with the same process as the skirt and then the excess of the cloak was folded back around as if she had thrown it back from her arms. 

I also added the rope with favour token on the end to her right hand and started to build the detail to the top of the glaive.

Step 11 FINISHING OFF 

This cover all those little details to get a model finished, like finishing the weapon, adding the folded hood, and any other finishing touches you spot.

This is the male counterpart, it was built in a similar fashion to the female, but I added a hammered metal finish to the armour plates to give another texture.

Now I'm going to pass you over to Steve to give you some background to these new additions, over to you mate . . .

Thanks Dave mate. 

        

One of the first things I noticed about Dave and Sarah`s invented science fantasy world was that.. unusually (and rather refreshingly) human beings are not, by any means, the top dogs in this rather cool but terrifying galaxy. This opens the door for a wide and extremely diverse range of aliens to take centre stage... in a similar way George Lucas managed to achieve in his enduring Star Wars epic saga.

Of course, its all well and good inventing lots of weird and wacky aliens, but unless the reader, the gamer, and the game host can feel an affinity with these creations, the game will simply feel too `alien` for anyone to feel comfortable with, and immersion will suffer because of it. Dungeons and Dragons got this aspect of the game right (with over forty years of experience to fall back on) by inventing  character races and NPC`s that feel cool to play and interesting to interact with, but also feel `human` enough to seem familiar. Dwarves, Elves, Drow, Tieflings, Half Orcs and Halflings, and so on and so on. Games where the races and aliens are simply too weird, never seem to flourish and do well in most gaming circles. Empire of the Petal Throne might be one such example, with a bestiary of characters and monster types such as the Ahoggya, Hlaka, Hlutrgu, Hlyss, Mihalli, Nyagga, Pahi Lei, and the Pe Choi.

And so it is with the Planet Traventi and its outlying worlds and nearby systems.

In essence, I would describe the central core of the game as being a little like Frank Herbert`s "Dune" with tiny sprinkling of  Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Barsoom" (John Carter from Mars) thrown into the mix. Other sources of similar reference might include a bit of the tone and feel of some of the great authors of old such as Fritz Leiber, Mervyn Peake, Stephen Donaldson, and perhaps even Durante Degli Alighieri (Dante`s Inferno).

Yes, there are many strange and wonderful creatures monsters and alien races which habit this corner of the (nicely undefined and left open) universe, but we knew straight off the bat... that playable races and species would need to feel comfortably familiar, and at the very least deliciously interesting, invoking a desire to want to play (such as the insect like Exuvium... reminding me a little bit like the D&D "Dark Sun" Thri Kreen).

As I said, the central planet of this game is Traventi, ruled over by the Lord Vallatrix (note, two L`s not one). Lord Vallatrix is a Traventian, a very tall, blue skinned race.. indigenous to the planet. While he likes to surround himself in the trappings of opulent living, he also likes to have beautiful women and concubines draped all around him. Many of these are exotic aliens: but a fair few are the highly alluring, strangely sensual and attractive indigenous Traventian slaves and servants. It also stands to reason that many of his personal royal guards would also be male and female soldiers of this same blue hued race.

One of Hil`s initial sketches... which Dave immediately set about turning into the first of the miniatures for the new skirmish/rpg game... was always going to have been, by necessity, a male/female version of these essential Royal Guard. I was very clear on that and was delighted when production started on this right away.

The Traventian Guards of Lord Vallatrix carry the traditional electro spear, beloved by the martially adept of this race. The spear is a well balanced 

pole arm in its own right; but with the crackling light, extremely sharp vibro glaive at the end of the pole, in the hands of an expert... this weapon is deadly. The weapon itself also contains an `umbrella` force shield (for deflecting and stopping incoming ranged attacks, and has an electric area of affect blast (called a "Ground Quake" energy discharge) which means that when the bottom of the pole is thrust onto the ground, a thunderclap of blue lighting energy casts a pulse force wave in all directions surrounding the guard, which will stun any opponent failing to make a saving roll. As if this weren`t enough, the glaive weapon also serves as a highly effective short ranged repeating pulse energy gun (like a repeating laser blaster). Although the people of Traventi respect martial skill above all else, they are a practical people, and will use whatever means necessary to defend their Lord, should the need arise... as indeed, it often does.

The Guard also carries a whip, for subduing truculent slaves,  but also as a ritualistic sign of  submission and servitude (anyone who has read John Norman`s Gor books will understand this aspect better).

And so, this is just the beginning of lots and lots more to come: as preparation in a cool new game (all based off the original Death Match idea) is being created, fleshed out... and made ready so one day (when all is complete) gamers can experience and enjoy this rich and wonderful world for themselves. There`s never been a better time to jump on board, and literally be in on (at the start as it were) a brand new gaming venture - to be properly and officially released outside of TGC, at Salute 2018.

Article by Dave & Steve