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

[Alxbates]

I gotta box from Alaska!!!!

Smallish box, but Oh What Goodies!!

To say I'm delighted is putting it mildly!!

Very, very glad I backed his Kickstarter.

Sentries, sultry n' sleepy received in good order...

ONE spear wasn't perfectly straight, tisk, tisk,you must do better...

Now, how do I get in line for some tents??

Thank you Alex, Bravo, WELL DONE Sir!!

Valerik

always something or someone else to jolly well buy

Aw, darn it!  I spent a TON of time straightening those damned spears! LOL

Very glad that you're happy with the figures!  I'm still not quite halfway through packing and shipping things, but, I'm progressing.  That's partly why I haven't posted much lately - I haven't had anything visually fun to report, just checking invoices, straightening bent spears, and packing boxes.  Boxes and boxes and boxes!

I'm also getting geared up for my *next* Kickstarter - it'll be called "The Eye of the Cyclops".  I've already posted pics of the Shrine (earlier in this thread), and the set will include the high priest of the Cult of the Cyclops, a couple of cultists, an armored cyclops and some treasure items & accessories.  Maybe a map, definitely some sort of pamphlet describing the cult & how to use it in your RPG campaigns. 

The priest is nearly finished, the shrine is done, the accessories are in progress, a sculptor is lined up for the cultists... I'll probably launch it in March, I think.

[Alxbates]

Also - the tents have been cast, they're being shipped to me on Monday, I should have them in hand by this time next week.  I'll post an update when they arrive!

[Alxbates]

I mentioned progress with the Cyclops cult - Drew Williams is nearly finished with the cult leader:



And I think I've finally got the blister card art worked out - painting by Jeff Lafferty:

[orc]

  Great sculpt and very nice blister card!!  :- Congrat Alex !!!

[Alxbates]

I'll also mention that I've got a small number of the Saleesa back in stock - and now, they have a net!



You've gotta bend the arms in a bit (huzzah for metal miniatures!), but it adds a nice element to them, I think.



The Saleesa are still $5, the nets are $2

[Wolf Girl]

Oooh, those Saleesa look awesome! 

[Alxbates]

Well, I'm still slogging away at shipping the KS stuff (nearly all US orders are in the mail, and I've begun on the international stuff!), but I've got some painting to do soon & last night I was feeling inspired, so I painted up one of the Doom Serpent Idols.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!





And, from the back!



Also, the leader of the Cult of the Eye (tentatively I'm gonna call him the "Voice of the Eye"), sculpted by Drew Williams for my next Kickstarter has arrived!



I'm really happy with how he turned out!

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Perfect! 

[Dr Mathias]

That serpent idol is spectacular, spot on.

[beefcake]

love the cult leader. Cool how you have covered the eyes.

[Alxbates]

I had a dream last night about packing orders and arguing with the lady at the post office.

BUT, as of Monday, ALL of the US Kickstarter pledges have shipped.  Man, that's a relief.  There are about two dozen international orders yet to ship out, then the painted sets, and then I'm done!

This has gotten away from me a little bit, but I'm in the home stretch.

Then, to apply the lessons I've learned from this and run another campaign!

[Alxbates]

I mentioned that I'm working towards my next Kickstarter - that's true, but I've also got some non-KS releases in the pipeline.

John Dennett just finished this magnificent Sirrush:



It's about nine inches long.



And here's a photo of the sculpt before it was finished, but it's a good angle that shows the pose:



I've always thought that the Babylonian Sirrush is an interesting creature. The carvings of it that exist are more lifelike than most ancient representations of mythological creatures, and I like the theory that maybe, just maybe, it was inspired by a real animal.

So, I tried to think about what a Sirrush might have looked like had it been real. The most appropriate real-word animal that I could think of was a monitor lizard.  Like, a giant monitor lizard - much bigger than the Komodo Dragon. And with horns! And a long neck!

Later I found that PJ Farmer's 'Tarzan Alive' book mentions that Tarzan once encountered the last of the Sirrush, so that made me feel even better about including a Sirrush in Azor.    

This is the largest creature that I currently have planned for Azor, and I'm very excited to bring a new John Dennett dragon into the world!  I plan to release it in resin, but I just might do a short run of metal models, too.  The old-school gamer in me is giddy at the idea of having a new large metal Dennett dragon on my table.  There will also be a second head with the mouth open, I just need to get a master casting made of the original first.

[beefcake]

Very nice. It definitely has a comodo dragon look to the hind part. The scales on the neck make it seem as if the head doesn't really belong to it is my only gripe.

[Alxbates]

Very nice. It definitely has a comodo dragon look to the hind part. The scales on the neck make it seem as if the head doesn't really belong to it is my only gripe.

I guess I can see that.  The larger scales on the neck are intentional.  If you don't mind me rambling on a bit, I'll explain my thought process. 

Here's the original image of a Sirrush that I started with:



It's relatively realistic-looking compared to a lot of the representations of mythological creatures you see from the time... but "relatively" means that it's still pretty weird.  As I said in my earlier post, the animal that seemed most plausible as an inspiration for it might have been an unknown, large and long-necked species of Goana or Monitor Lizard - something way bigger than a Komodo dragon.  Horns are unknown in the Varanus genus (as far as I know!), but lots of other lizards have horns, so I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch to add them to my Sirrush.



If you clean the art up you can more clearly see that it has a mane.  A lot of dragons and some real world lizards have a 'mane', or a crest of spikes or scales that stick up along the neck, but... it always looked a little bland or 'on the nose', so I started thinking about how to try something a little different.



I imagine the Sirrush as being lazy and opportunistic predators, comfortable in the water, and tending to lay in wait by waterways for unwary fish to swim by.  There aren't a lot of long-necked predators in the real world, and most of the ones that I could find tended to eat fish, so, that it seemed plausible for fish to be a big part of their diet.  Having prominent scales on the neck helps to break up the shadow of the creature when it's hanging its head over a body of water.  It can flex them a little bit for threat displays, too - although that only happens with other Sirrushes, of course.  They're large enough that they don't really see many other creatures as a danger.

Anyways, that's why the neck has big scales and the body is relatively smooth.

[Dr Mathias]

Great job, I was reminded of the images on the Ishtar Gate immediately.