Northern Shores Beckon

Next week I am having a well-earned break in the oft-derided but curiously wonderful place that is Skegness: well, Ingoldmells to be precise, which means Ingjald's sand banks in old Norse (and probably old English). Whether our Ingjald Ill-Ruler ever set foot there is open to debate, but to my mind he certainly did, leading the dragonships against Penda just like the Battle of the North Shore artwork by Stefan Kopinski (which adorns this here missive). If you didn't know, the Battle of the North Shore artwork is set on the north shore at Skeggy. True fact! And if you look carefully, a troll is doing his business where he shouldn't, just like millions do on Skeggy beach every year...

I digress: I've been working bloody hard recently, too hard to be honest, as Warrior-Queen Joanna can attest to, but that backlog won't get down by itself. So I deserve a break, I think - a week in Skeggy will certainly give me a little space in my head to think about stuff and drive Mierce ever forward. I always have plans, but plans need money of course, which means you guys need to buy stuff. If you don't, we can't fulfil any plans! Simples!

So please, buy our stuff, fellow and potential Miercenaries. You don't even have to like it - you just have to buy it!

Meanwhile, on Planet Mierce...

Planet Mierce, as ever, is full of Things that are Happening. You always want to see new miniatures first though, right?

The New Reivers

Rafael Callegari has been working hard on the new reivers for the Fomoraic, and we think the results speak for themselves. The old miniatures are... well... tired, so we're replacing them with something a bit more 2025. Here's Morgana, the reiver hornblower:

We think she looks pretty damn cool! Rafael is improving with every sculpt and the reivers should look stunning when they are ready. He's basically resculpting all the foot guys first, then doing the horsed versions; watch out for more on these in the next couple of months

100 Warlords

Progress here has been a little frustrating, simply because I had to have a couple reworked after the test prints; they just weren't quite right, either because the parts needed changing or detail definition wasn't coming out properly. Regardless, the first few are now printed in substantial numbers (Euryalia, Alexandra, Cadwaladr, Kraan and Ingjald) and the rest will be sorted when I get back from Skeggy.

Cadwaladr, with Kraan below...

These guys are day prints, so give it a week or so to get the last few done and the first sets will go in late September.

Adannwg

Another bit of frustration here I'm afraid: the rock base has caused me no end of problems, but I've finally got it sorted and while much of it is already in rubber the last few bits will have to wait till I get back. So, again, late September...

Uuluu, Iskarnos and Ilkulkaag

The best laid plans, right? These three guys were slated to ship this month but thanks to the warlords and Adannwg and Skeggy they'll have to be October shipments. Sorry guys - but hand-made miniatures (especially when turned into cast resin) are always fraught with delays and, as always, time is my enemy... especially when I go on holiday. Ahem.

The Corpse-Dragon

Rafael has completed Drēorgan the corpse-dragon and is now working on the rider; that should be sculpted in September, so I reckon this fellow will be a late October or early November shipment. I'm tentative on that one because lots of things can go wrong before then! Well not go wrong, just get delayed.

Regardless of that, he's going to be a bloody amazing miniature and no mistake!

Oghurücs

Ivan Flaman is now working on the new wild oghurüc for the Albainn, so keep your eye out for movement on those guys this month too...

Artisan Guilding

Many of you will have noticed a few Artisan Guild miniatures popping up in the shop here and there; in the nobles sale, for one thing. Well, they do now have a dedicated page - head over to https://mierce-miniatures.com/pages/artisan-guild - but I have abandoned any thought of getting them all ready at once for you, simply because there's so many miniatures in the range!

Bag a Beast

So, while there's a few full sets up there for the Nagarots, Draconians and Lizardmen (I like scaly stuff, what can I say), the rest will be on the site based on the type of miniature they are, so I can tie them into sales as well as introduce them gradually to you all. I have already put their beasts - such as wolves, bears and so forth - on the webstore in anticipation of the Bag a Beast half price sale which will go live on Tuesday (or earlier, if I fancy it).

Bag some Artisan Guild beasts!

I've done my best to ensure you can purchase all the Artisan Guild beasts individually as well as in unit form, but please bear in mind that all of Artisan Guild's graphics are designed around producing them as files - which doesn't always mean they are right for selling physical miniatures; so they're a little haphazard in places, and not very homogenous (there's a big word for a Friday). I've done my best to ensure you can see exactly what beast is what, but that's all I can do for now until I can get my own proper graphics done.

Some of these beasts I haven't seen anywhere else for sale on the internet as physical miniatures - not even on Artisan Guild's own website - so grab them here and now guys, we've got a bit of an exclusive on these. As well as that, I'll be selling all their miniatures in a few different ways, too, to mirror how we do things; so, for example, when I get to their cavalry, I'll sell the mounts separately so you can put what you like on them - although I will have to do separate graphics for those. Be rayt, as they say around here. (I'll probably do our cavalry and Avatars / Artisan Guild's cavalry next).

The cunningly-flipped version of Rēoc's Pack!

Of course, all of our own Darklands beasts will be on the Bag a Beast sale, with A New Thing - you can grab them flipped, or mirrored if you like, so you can have a little more variety with your wulfas and your rats and your drune-hounds! I am good to you guys.

If it's a unit of small beasts, such as hounds, you'll get the flipped versions in a unit of ten as well as individually; if larger, such as the frēawulfas above, the flipped versions will be sold in a separate unit.

Backlog Busting

Well, as promised, the backlog is being dealt with; the first mallax and Vras war towers have gone this week, with more when I get back of course. 

As you can see, the jutsweords and jutgār are getting there, too - the unflipped versions of them have had their first prints, and now I'll be getting on with the flipped versions. Expect movement on these jute battle hosts in late September / early October.

We always get there in the end...

To recap: the mallax and vras war tower are in full production as night prints now, and the jute battle hosts as day prints; after those will be the hydrar (night) and Érainn infantry (day). All the while, I'm also printing the brutal beasts (which are pretty much always night prints) and stock. At some point I'll indicate on the site what's actually in stock and what isn't... but that's for another day.

Website Funktionality

Speaking of the website, the observant among you will have noticed a few graphical changes in the last couple of weeks; I've got my programming dudes to ensure the old functionality (sculptors / artists names, contents and so forth) returns, and while I've got lots of data to input to get everything shown you can see what I mean with Carrowek here:

As always, we may look serene on the surface but our feet are paddling like a paddle steamer up a brown creek!

That's it for now, guys and gals - keep it Mierce, and I'll see you after I've survived Ingjald's sand-banks... or not...!