I wanted to show how modeling works for the folks who aren’t in this hobby. I really wanted to make a couple very specific characters for gaming purposes, bu there weren’t any existing minis that fit. So when that happens, you can just build your own.

If you get into this for a hobby you will eventually end up with a giant box of spare parts to choose from. Also, Privateer Press sells all of their individual bits on their online store if you need something really specific.
For example, I wanted a troll pirate/warrior. So big ax, shield, and jaunty hat. 🙂  So I got a regular troll, took the hand and ax off a jack, but had no arm. So in goes a super glued chunk of paper clip for the skeleton.

At the same time, for an IKRPG character concept I needed a black guy with Solomon Kane hat, a pistol, and a gun… Good luck finding that. So modeling to the rescue. Reaper hat, Rastafarian head shaved to fit, Warmachine body (the poncho is a nice touch, pistol and sword off of a Dystopian wars samurai, paper clips and super glue later:

Up next, I take green stuff putty and sculpt a new arm on top of the wire. I made it chain mail rather than try to mess with creating muscles. The buckle actually came out okay.

I also had to shave down the troll’s other arm with a hobby knife and green stuff over it to match.

Then paint

So very specific. 🙂

And it really isn’t that hard to make them look like they were meant to be that way.

And I’m a pretty crappy sculptor, but slap some paint on there, put some highlights to disguise the novice sculpting (and keeping in mind that this is way way smaller in real life) and it looks like it came from the factory:

This is another kitbashed model. For those of you that have read Into the Storm, this is my attempt at creating a Savio Montero Acosta. If you haven’t read Into the Storm, go here now, because it really is awesome:

http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00EUSMLLE

No WiP shots on this one, but basically just swapping hands and gluing extra bits on, but even that and you can get pretty character specific

Because Acosta can never have enough swords and guns, (I loved writing that lunatic) and speaking of bits, the swords on the back come from the poncho body above. See? Lots of extra bits for everyone.

So I screwed up yesterday’s announcement, but the anthology Space Eldritch 2 is available now!

And that is a pretty awesome cover for Lovecraftian sci-fi. 🙂

http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00G8PFZYW  *

My story in this one is called Dead Waits Dreaming. When the last ship left the system Atlas was a thriving colony of half a million people, but when the patrol ship Alert arrives thirty days later, everyone has gone missing… Except for one solitary survivor, who happens to be incapable of dreaming.

And then you’ve got stories from a whole bunch of really good authors. Looking at that list, I think I’ve Book Bombed half of them individually. I know Steve Diamond’s is about an asteroid prison where not everything is what it seems, and he probably wrote it on the clock back when I was his boss in the military industrial complex. Jerk… Howard wrote the sequel to the excellent Flight of the Runewright, as he needs to keep expanding out into fiction that doesn’t require all that difficult drawing stuff. Eric J. Stone is the writer who has been nominated for every award there is, including Motortrend Car of the Year. Dave Butler has the finest mustache of any author alive. Tom Selleck respects Dave Butler’s mustache. And more!
There’s one review so far, and it is just 4 stars… However that is because the dude bought it for just Howard’s story, didn’t read any of the other 90% of the book, and then rated it comparative to the expense of the whole anthology against his enjoyment of that one story… Yeah… I’m pretty sure that’s not how anthologies work… But anyway, what I’m getting at is please leave an honest review after you’ve read it. Unless of course, you didn’t like it, because then nobody wants your negative waves, man.

* Full disclosure, when you buy the book through the link I put to Amazon, I get an extra % for the advertising refferal. In fact, once you enter Amazon through any of the links on my page, whatever you buy on that visit I get a refferal, so it is pretty sweet.

We are 2/3 of the way through the MHI challenge coin Kickstarter. Last week we added  Zippo lighters (which were a huge hit) and the Backer’s Choice coin, and a PUFF exemption coin overwhelmingly won the vote. Our next regular MHI challenge coin will be revealed shortly. We are just finalizing the artwork on that one now.

So today’s big announcement are two new add on coins, only these are not from the MHI universe. We have added Dead Six and Swords of Exodus challenge coins, and they look amazing. They will be the custom shape you see below.

and

Since we brought in Kurt Miller, the cover artist for the D6 novels, as our special guest artist, and a portion of the proceeds for these two will be going to my co-author on that series, Mike Kupari, these two coins are a seperate add on and are not part of the Alpha package. To get either of these all you need to do is increase your pledge by $15 each and then specify what you want in the backer’s survey which will be sent out after the KS concludes.

First off, I don’t normally Book Bomb myself. That seems uncouth. But this is more of a Book Bomb for a bunch of other writers that I happent to be in an anthology with, and I also Book Bombed the first one in the series, a whole bunch of you bought it, so I figured I might as well.

EDIT: Here is the link
http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00G8PFZYW

Even though I make my living writing about monsters, I’m not a horror author. I consider the MH series action adventure with horror elements. I think the difference is mostly in how the protagonists react. In action, the protagonists want to win. In horror, the protagonists just want to survive. And MHI is made up of winners. 🙂

But I wanted to try actual horror. Some of you may remember that I Book Bombed Space Eldritch 1 and also wrote the forward for it. It was an anthology of Lovecraftian sci-fi. I loved it. I thought it was a really strong anthology with some excellent stories in it. I really liked Howard Tayler’s Flight of the Runewright especially. So I volunteered to be in the second volume.

So I wrote a story for the Space Eldritch 2 anthology called Dead Waits Dreaming. I’m pretty proud of it. Honestly, it is messed up. It is a little Call of Cthulu, a little Lost Colony of Roanoke (in space), and even some Kafka. Because why not? It is weird, gross, and disturbing, and I had a great time writing it.

The MHI Challenge Coin Kickstarter is heading into its last 10 days.

We are 2349% funded at $70,473 and 825 backers.

Last week we added the Backer’s Choice coin, and we’ve got a winner for that. There will be an update sent out later today to all the backers letting them know, but our winner was the PUFF exemption coin. Jack sent me the art, which is great. I just need to go over the legalese on the back.

We also added Zippos, and those have been a huge hit.

There will be some new cool things added shortly. We’ve got another coin reveal and another special add on.