Denizens of Azor: Man-Apes and more Man-Apes!

[Alxbates]

Yikes - it's been a long time since I've posted an update.  I have stuff to say and stuff to show off, but for the moment I'll just say that I'm still alive and working, despite some unexpected delays.  I'll update the Kickstarter page this evening.

[von Lucky]

Good to hear!

[Alxbates]

Some new odds and ends that will be released with the Kickstarter - purely for atmosphere, although I think they can be useful as treasure markers or objectives.  All sculpted by Dave Cauley!

 A stone anvil:



A weapons and armor pile:





And a detail of the treasure pile:

[Lost Egg]

Lovely stuff.

I don't know why it hasn't occurred before but these minis would look great on a HeroQuest board.

[Alxbates]

Yikes!  Six months since I've posted an update!

It's been a long and difficult winter, but I'm still above ground and grinding away at this thing.

I'm mostly on Facebook and Instagram these days (although I've largely unplugged from both of those recently, too), but I haven't forgotten the LAF.  I'll be back with more stuff!

[Alxbates]

Here's a bit of flavor fiction I posted to the Kickstarter page awhile back - I'm fairly happy with it, I think it sets the scene for the Cyclops pretty well:


Dar-Enkaion tipped his helmet back and wiped the sweat from his brow. It was always hot at the copper mines. The sun baked the rocks, and dusty grit made ones tongue gummy. He took a sip from his canteen and spit to clear his mouth.
 

Still, he mused, it was better to be sweating above ground than cramped in the dark shafts below. Better to be an overseer than a conscript.
 

A commotion at one of the tunnel entrances caught his attention.
 

A dirt-caked, nearly-naked man was arguing with a sentry, eyes wide with panic. The sentry was growing angry and appeared ready to strike the man, but Dar-Enkaion, curious, walked up and gestured to the man to speak.
 

“What’s this, then?” he said, mildly. “You know there are punishments for shirking.”
 

“Overseer, please!” The man fell to his knees, groveling. “We tunneled into a natural cave! We found Titan bones!”
 

Still on his knees, the man pushed a basket forward, half full of odd-shaped rocks.
 

Dar-Enkaion nodded his approval. “Good. Natural caves save on digging, and Titan bones are always a welcome find.”
 

Welcome, indeed. Alchemists and apothecaries would pay good coin for such things. Credulous simpletons would grind them down and mix them into tea, hoping to cure a host of ailments. He snorted derisively at the thought. As if drinking sand had ever cured anyone of anything. He grabbed a handful of stones from the basket, letting them fall through his fingers. Small, many broken or chipped, but definitely bones made from rock. Larger or more interesting pieces – claws, skulls and the like – might go to the temples for prices that could make a man wealthy. Still, these little pieces had some value.
 

The idiot young nobleman who had inherited these mines along with his title thought that the finer points of commerce were beneath him. As long as the monthly quotas of copper were delivered, he didn’t want to know any details of the work. Any windfalls landed squarely in Dar-Enkaion’s purse, and he was wise enough to spread the good fortune around. Even the guard was smiling – he knew he’d receive a share, too.

“What is your concern? You know I reward those who find such things.” The man’s terror seemed unreasonable – the Titans and their ilk must have been frightful monsters, but despite their bones of stone there was nothing to fear anymore. Their flesh had been like all other flesh, long since turned to dust by the passage of time.
 

“Overseer…” The man gasped, still out of breath. He shook his head and looked at his hands, as if searching for the right words. “… there is a skull.”
 

Avarice lit like fire in Dar-Enkaion’s chest, but he took care to master his face, displaying no emotion beyond mild interest.
 

“Go on.”
 

“My Lord, the skull is almost like unto a man’s, but as large as a man… and with only one socket in the center.” The miner swallowed again, his hands shaking with supernatural dread. He looked up, daring to make eye contact with his overseer. “As if for a single great eye, staring out of the darkness!!”
 

The fire turned cold in Dar-Enkaion’s liver. The sentry blanched and took half a step back.
 

“One great eye…”
 

Rumors from a few years ago stirred in his memory. A one-eyed child, born to a peasant couple in an outlying village, left exposed in the jungle to die. The parents, cursed, driven out of the village into the wilds, shunned by their former neighbors.
 

More vividly, he remembered a grand circus from his youth, his soldier days, and the finale in the arena that year. A monster, nearly twice the height of a man, screaming and babbling, wildly swinging a broken sword at anything that moved. It strangled a crocodile to death with its bare hands, then ripped the arm off a champion. It was finally brought down by four men with spears. A monster with one eye, its piteous wails eerily childlike as it bled out on the sand.
 

Perhaps this matter did merit the attention of someone outside the mines, after all.
 

He turned to the sentry.
 

“Send a runner to the Temple Sard. My cousin is a lesser priest there. Tell him to come here at once, urgently. Do NOT tell him why. Use my name… he will come.”
 

The sentry nodded and trotted off.
 

He looked back down at the shivering miner. Tongues would wag; men would have to be silenced. But first…
 

He nudged the man with the toe of his boot. “Get up. You have done well.” Reaching into the satchel at his side, he pulled out a Baton of Command and extended it. “Gather up a work party and enlarge that tunnel.” The astonished man took the Baton, too surprised at his commutation to speak. “Tell no-one what you have seen.”

[FifteensAway]

Even though I'm still pissed as hell at you for not doing my requested figures in 15mm!  for some reason I felt compelled this evening to peruse this entire thread.  My conclusion?  We should dub you Sir Boobsalot.   

Not really my interest area but a lot of very cool stuff.

[Alxbates]

Even though I'm still pissed as hell at you for not doing my requested figures in 15mm!  for some reason I felt compelled this evening to peruse this entire thread.  My conclusion?  We should dub you Sir Boobsalot.   

Not really my interest area but a lot of very cool stuff.

LOL

Maaaaaan, I was so conflicted for so long about the topless female figures.

I had always planned to have two in my range - the snake priestesses.  The fit my idea for the setting, they work well with the Minoan-esque inspiration, and I love Patrick Keith's sculpts.

But they sell SO WELL!  I thought that they might be popular figures, but, holy crap, they outsell my other stuff three to one or more. 

So, I had another one made.

Then another, then another. 

I think after the royal court set I'll be done with topless female figures for a long while - I made a point in my Cyclops set to have three armored female figures sculpted - and I have a nude male figure coming up, too.

I was really leery of getting a reputation for being one of those people who only makes cheesecake.  I don't necessarily have a problem with cheesecake, and, again, the scantily-clad-women thing is a common trope in the pulp fantasy sources that are a big inspiration for me, but there are limits.

I'm glad you think my stuff is cool!  If you're looking for 15mm stuff that's similar in tone, I recommend Crom's Anvil.

[angel barracks]

I'm glad you think my stuff is cool!  If you're looking for 15mm stuff that's similar in tone, I recommend Crom's Anvil.

Thanks Alex!
Very kind of you to say.

[Muzfish4]

I'd almost forgotten about this KS - does anyone have any word on how it is progressing?

[Alxbates]

I'd almost forgotten about this KS - does anyone have any word on how it is progressing?

I'm not dead yet!

I've posted a couple of updates to the KS since you wrote your post. I've got the miniatures in hand, I'm currently sorting through 6000 or so individual pieces and getting ready to ship them. I will be posting an update to the Kickstarter about that in the next day or two. I expect to start shipping miniatures in a couple of weeks (it's going to take me awhile to go through every individual casting), and then the book will be shipped separately at some point after that.

I've dropped the ball on this so badly in so many ways that I'm just trying to get it finished in bite-sized chunks, one thing at a time.

Everyone is going to get everything that they pledged for.

-Alex