Space Bug Heavy Weapons

     I wrapped up the new heavy weapons for the space bugs yesterday. Here are a few pics.

     You've seen this guy before. I had the flame thrower done a while back.

     Here's the anti-air missile launcher.

     And last the dual anti-tank launcher.

     Juggling commissions, sculpting time and needed funding makes it difficult to mesh with the mold makers availability sometimes. He is booked until around the middle of August so I probably wont have these available until later in the month. But I'll get them sent to him this next week with the new 1889 stuff just in case.

Space: 1889 Gashant Conversions

     In spite of the heat induced torpor, I've made some progress on the sculpts for the end of the month. The gashant conversions are wrapped up and ready to go.

     I'll end up with two poses that are fairly stationary. I'm planning to use those for command and pack animals mostly.

     So far, I'm planning one mold with all of the poses without hardware to be used for herds, corralled animals, etc. All will have simple, more native tack and harness added to them. I'm not sure if there is really a need for European style. Since the Earthers wouldn't have been developing harness for these beasts for hundreds of years, they'd probably adopt the local hardware with some specific pieces like saddlebags and carbine sheaths added.

     I'll be wrapping up the adventurers this weekend. They should be on the way to the mold maker on Monday.

Space:1889 painted samples

     I've finished painting a few samples of the Space: 1889 masters. First up are two color tests of the gashant model.

     The test sculpt of the British infantry is next.

     The last two are from the character packs. Wilderness adventurers.

     And American adventurers.

     The adventurer packs will each have 4 different figures in them when they are released. The sculpts for the additional figures for these two and the 4 London adventurers should be heading to the mold maker sometime during the last week of July.

     I'll also be sending the rest of the gashant poses without hardware on them at that time. Look for an end of July/ early August release for these sets. Until then some painted pre- production pieces will be available while supplies last.

Two in one day? What the hell?

     I try not to overload people with product announcements and random blog entries. But...

     An hour after I posted the gashant conversions. I received a call from my mold maker. He wanted to let me know he was making the molds for the Space Pals and the Space Bug assault troops today. He should be casting tomorrow and have the first production run in the mail to me on Thursday.

     I should have these latest additions in hand on Saturday or Monday at the latest. The bugs have been added to the shopping cart and can be ordered here: Shop for Bugs . I'll be shipping these out around Wednesday of next week. Sooner if possible.

     If you are interested in the Space Pals and Nemesis set, please email me for details.

Space: 1889 Gashant converstions

What if Custer was not placed in command of the 7th Cavalry here on Earth. What if he instead had a long career in the 5th cavalry which was transferred to Mars?

For the two months since I started sculpting the gashant I've had this image in my head of Custer at the Little Big Horn.But my mind superimposes Custer and his troopers in a desperate fight with Hill Martians. The cavalry are trapped within the banks of some dried canal behind a makeshift barricade of dead gashants while the martians stream and swirl around them on their own mounts.

With this image in mind, I did the first simple conversions of the gashant model.

This one is converted from the original green which came back with the base broken off. The second is from one of the casts. I hacked a bit here, re-positioned a leg or tail there and added some tack.

I don't see the sense in making multiple styles for what will in effect only be a scenic piece or marker. So the plan is to make one mold only and sell them in sets of 4 or 6. I'm not sure what multiples I can get in the mold yet.

Space: 1889 backer card test page

I laid out the test page for the product backer cards last night. They are very simple but include all of the branding and license requirements.

I tried several colors to see how they looked. I'm liking the yellow simply because it provides the best contrast with the Space: 1889 logo. I'm toying with the idea of using different colors for the various nationalities and races.

I'll need to have a test sheet laser printed at Office Depot to see what really happens with the colors.

Space: 1889 15mm update

     The latest Space: 1889 figures will be delivered to Frank Chadwick for review. I'll have some photos of painted examples on the blog in a day or two. Limited painted and unpainted pre-production casts will also be made available for purchase on the website early next week. The production casts of the first three sets of adventurers should be available at the end of July. I was hoping for a Historicon release, but a combination of factors has delayed that.

      Also, after discussing the release priorities with Frank again, we decided that it would be almost as easy to  do the British troops without any exotic gear first then add it later. So the sculpting schedule gets moved around a bit. Here's what it looks like at this point in time:

End of July:                Finish the three character sets; American, London and wilderness
                                 Gashant pose conversions
                                 Possibly add a Martian character set

End of August:           British troops w/out exotic gear
                                 Hill Martain troops
                                 British gashant cavalry
                                 Hill Martian gashant cavalry
                                 Gashant herd set

End of September:     High Martians
                                 Pack gashants
                                 British air crew
                                 Martian air crew
                                 British troop conversions; exotic gear

     I'll leave the rest of the year open for now to allow for delays and computer drawing work on the first air ships.

Pre-production casts are here

I received master casts from the latest mold on Friday. I painted a few up over the weekend. I have some unpainted copies for sale.

First the new space bugs. Tow poses with tri-barrel SMG and a leader. These will be sold in packs of 9 (4 each SMG and 1 leader) for $12. Shop

Next up is Hogzilla. This will probably be packaged with the new red neck hunters later. For now I have
some extra master casts. Unpainted. Painted.

My favorite bit of this order was the casts of the Space Pals and Bounty Hunter.

The camera angle makes the weapons look huge, but you get the general idea.

I'm looking into a limited license for these with the profits beyond operating costs going to charity. I'm still waiting for the reply on that one. In the meantime, email me for details if you'd like to be put on the list.

There were also some master casts of new Space:1889 items in this package. I'm still painting them and will post photos and availability as soon as they are done.