Mara Ordered!

The Mara, sculpted by Andrew May

My news for today is that I've ordered 50 sets of the Mara, or Tibetan inspired demons. Sculpted by Andrew May, they will be sold in sets of six demons. They come with separate hands and heads to maximize the individuality of your warbands. Six different bodies with six different heads and over twelve different hands (I can't recall the exact number of hand/weapon variants done) is 432 combinations, at least, by my calculations. Each set will be $30.00 US with Tekumel Club discounts applying, even though these are not technically related to Tekumel.

If interested please email me at: green27 -AT- sympatico - DOT- ca

Postage is a fixed rate: Canada $5.00; USA $10.00 and International $15.00.

I hope you like them!

In the line-up are their beautiful but deadly sisters: the Daughters of Mara, also sculpted by Andrew.

Best Regards,

Howard Fielding

Galley Seating...

...is better than coach! Well, maybe not so much. :-)

Anyhow, I made a tiny bit of progress today, finishing the benches and gangway for the Khmer galleys. There will be ten oarsmen down each side. This will be molded and cast in resin and included with each galley. The figures will be sculpted sitting, cut-off just below the knees.

There are meant to be wicker screens that provide some small bit of protection (see my previous blog entry) but I haven't figured out exactly how to make those yet. Per the last entry I have some strips of styrene that I hope to weave together to make the wickerwork. It seems likely to be very fiddly and I'm still working out how exactly to approach it. When they are done - if I can do it - they will also be cast in resin by JTFM. They will be very fine, but JTFM specializes in super-fine detail! :-)

Here is one last picture, showing one of our Swamp Folk standing on the gangway...

28mm Wicker Work

The Khmer galleys had a wicker screen that shielded the rowers and I have been agonizing over what to do about it. Tony made a version but I think I want something finer. Today I picked up some .25mm x .5mm stripstryene by Evergreen Scale Models and I'm going to try and weave a screen. My thinking is if I do a panel I can get it molded and then either stick a bunch of the moldings together to make one long screen or just have them so that several are used on each side of the boat.

Sounds easy, eh?

Canoe WIP

Canoe Prow - WIP

Andrew sent me this work in progress picture of the prow of one of the war canoes. Some progress at last...Yay! :-)

Unfortunately the paddlers and fighting crew, and the crews for the galleys, are pushed back. The unfortunate negative side-effects of Kickstarter... :-(

More progress on the galleys...

Just a small update: today I learned that 1) Andrew has received the Galleys and War Canoes I sent him and will be fitting them into his schedule, and 2) Jeff has mailed out additional copies to go to sculptors to have crews done.

Crews...

So the galley and war canoe are on their way to the UK to be customized.

I've asked for additional copies to send to a sculptor to get the crews started on.

Also, currently looking into the possibility of doing other variants some time down the road. In particular: Dong Son (bronze age Vietnamese, essentially)

Of course, we need to translate this into some concept art first!

War Galleys and Canoes...some progress!

Khmer War Galley (top) and Canoe (bottom) - cast by JTFM

Jeff Trnka of JTFM sent me these pictures today of the Khmer War Galley and War Canoe models. He has cut the prow and stern off about five of the plain versions. The bits will be sent to Andrew May in the UK for him to add some funky Khmer detailing similar to the examples below:

The idea is that the prows, body and stern will all be interchangeable to allow for maximum customization. Once that is done, I'll start thinking about crews. These are intended for the Garden of Kama setting so there will be Kamjola (Khmer), Champakou (Cham) and the Amazon nations of Ologog and Aoa.

The galleys were sculpted by Tony Harwood. The galley is about 12" long, and the canoe about 8".

Oh, yeah, almost forgot - the Mara are going off for molding and casting tomorrow. :-)