Here be Dragons

It's been a good long while since we brought you a dragon to gawp at... so why don't we let you do just that? Here's the mighty Adannwg... or, at least, a work in progress shot of him!

Rafael Callegari has been very busy of late. Not only has he completed his warlords for the 100 Warlords project (more on that later), he's begun proper work on the beast that will eventually become Drēorgan, the corpse-dragon for the Jutes. You read that right: you're not just getting one dragon... you're getting two!

It made a lot of sense (to me, anyway) to do the living dragon that Drēorgan is based on first, so that after flesh and scale and muscle are stripped away it still looks like a dragon. So I thought - why not give you that living dragon too? Enter Adannwg, a draig for the Brythoniaid!

As you can see, he's going to be a big lad...

He'll have a different base - that base is for the corpse-dragon (and yes, a 32mm fella can stand in the tomb entrance) and I will ensure he gets a rider, too, probably Urien; and he will absolutely be a part of the Monster a Month series (although Drēorgan won't as he's a kickstarter monster).

The lovely base for Drēorgan!

I'm hoping Adannwg will be ready for the end of July, with the corpse-dragon later on in August, so watch out for more news in a couple of weeks...

100 Warlords... well, 80...

I'm still waiting for Cleyton to start the two remaining warlords; if he hasn't started them by Monday, I'll have to give them to someone else, which is a shame as I love Cleyton's work.

Multi-Tasking

What else have I been up to since I came back from France? Apart from cooling down, I've got a big Task List thanks to having some room to think. I've been implementing a few things in the last couple of weeks, including (but not limited to) making new graphics for miniatures, adding new hobby brands (including Pro Arte brushes, pictured), revamping a few pages, and (most crucial of all) giving my programmers a brief to get the site looking more like the old one.

I say look, I mean have the functionality; so, hopefully at some point over the next few weeks, you'll see the item cards change alongside the item pages. That means you get to see sculptors, artists and what not, with bigger variant graphics and a few more bells and whistles to make your website viewing a happier experience.

Kindred Paint Sets

I've also begun to add Vallejo Game Color / Xpress Color paint sets for the Darklands kindreds! There's three sets for each realm (or, there will be eventually); a big one with eighteen paints, and two smaller ones with nine each. The big one is effectively both of the smaller sets; the smaller sets are the main realm colours, and then beast colours.

The large paint set has six main colours (named appropriately), each with three shades - dark, main and light. The dark colours are always Xpress Color paints - basically contrast paints - so you paint your miniature with the main Game Color shade first, then paint over that with the dark Xpress Color to flow into the recesses, and use the Game Color light shade to give your protruding bits a highlight (said the vicar). This will get things painted fairly quickly, and of course you don't have to stop there: you can mix your shades or add further highlights.

I've only done two realms so far, Mierce and Ker-Ys, but the graphics do take time so don't expect them all at once. I'll get one for each kindred done over the next few weeks, and then move on to the individual realms for each kindred.

I have no idea if these will prove popular, but I think it's definitely useful for all of you that would like to paint our miniatures in their proper colours! At the very least, they're a good guide for you.

That'll do for now. Busy busy!!