Hi, everyone. As some of you know, I've been working for the last year or so on establishing a line of miniatures reminiscent of those we used in the vintage days of role-playing gaming.

Please check out the result below, and feel free to chime in with your thoughts either here or on the forums. Input is always welcome and certainly appreciated!

http://www.centerstagerpgs.com

Thanks, all!

For those of you who would prefer to not navigate outside of The Acaeum, here is a picture of the finished green....


CSM-001 Dragolisk, Sculpted by Dave Summers

Thanks, Paul, for the kind words.

The decisions of scale and slotted versus integral bases were the two most difficult choices to make.

While my original intention was to stick with 25mm scale, so that CS minis would be compatible with true old-school miniatures, I decided to stick with 28mm. After consulting some industry folks for their opinions, 28mm scale would keep my figure lines compatible with not just modern miniatures, but modern map tools (Dundjinni, WoTC map tiles) etc. that players are currently using.

If it is any consolation, the Dragolisk was sculpted with the instructions that it should be equal in scale to dragons from the 11-series Council of Wyrms line - so there is some old school continuity there. Human-sized figures (from the CS "Age of Heroes" line, debuting this fall) will be 28mm scale, but will have the old school versus World-of-Warcraft look so present in the industry today.

As for slotted versus integral bases, the second and third releases in the monster line are designed for slotted bases - but later releases will feature an integral base which can easily be glued or attached to a Warmachine-style slotted base for those who wish to have their miniatures on slotted bases.

Order placed---I'll need this when I run S4!

Wow, that dragolisk looks awesome!

2 questions, out of pure curiosity:

1) Are you doing your own casting?

2) What type of metal are you casting with?

Great stuff, Matt. The dragolisk looks fantastic. So good in fact, that one is winging its way up north.

Best,

Paul

Center_Stage wrote:While my original intention was to stick with 25mm scale, so that CS minis would be compatible with true old-school miniatures, I decided to stick with 28mm. After consulting some industry folks for their opinions, 28mm scale would keep my figure lines compatible with not just modern miniatures, but modern map tools (Dundjinni, WoTC map tiles) etc. that players are currently using.

Don't let anyone give you grief about scale, or tell you 28 mm is somehow not old-school.  

I don't claim to be typical of mini-buyers in general, but I can't get worked up about the 28mm / 25mm disparity.  I mix my figures as recklessly as I did when I was 12.  If I want a female elf, I dig out a female elf; who cares if she's 3mm taller than the cleric?

In the 70's & 80's every manufacturer said their figures were 25mm scale, and every one of them was fudging it.  What do they say about a rule honored more in the breach than the observance?  Just put a Tom Meier (Ral Partha) sculpt next to a Neville Stocken (Archive) or a Heritage Dungeon Dweller for an idea of how elastic that 25mm scale could be.  

As long as the monsters are big and scary, you're doing OK in my book.

The Collector's Trove wrote:
I have 6,000 miniature in 25mm scale and I'm not about to start over at 28mm.

Holy cow! How the hell do you store these? (and doing some silly maths, if each of your minis had a 20mm base width (a guestimate as presumably many are preslotta), if you lined them up they would stretch 120 meters - blimey )

The Collector's Trove wrote:Howdy,

The problem is when your orc is bigger than your ogre or when your fighter towers over the clay golem that just crushed his head in.

Sorry, but for those of us who've been collecting for awhile the 28mm scale is a deal breaker. I have 6,000 miniature in 25mm scale and I'm not about to start over at 28mm.

It does matter and if someone is considering making miniatures in an "old school" style, the size should match as well.

There is a reason why Ral Partha 25mm AD&D 11-series miniatures sell for 3 to 10 times what Reaper offers and 3 to 100 times what the plastic mini's go for.

So, again, I state the need for such a line of 25mm compatible miniatures.

Futures Bright,

Paul

I understand your stance, but a brand new, great looking, well-crafted miniature is hard to find.  And let's face facts, this dragolisk is friggan awesome.  The slight turn of the head with the open jaws, the raised claw, and the motion of the middle leg makes me want to use it.  It looks like a kitten about to bat a ball of wool or, in this case, the head off one of my players.

I've used terrain or other objects to solve the height issue, and never had a problem.  

Besides, this critter is going to be a blast to paint.  I've already got the paint scheme in mind.

Best,

Paul

Howdy,

JohnGaunt wrote:Well, they are miniatures that represent imaginary characters and not the "real" imaginary characters themselves.  So as long as my imagination works, the clay golem (or whatever) is as large as it "really" is compared to my character.

Why use miniatures at all if you don't care how they look on the table next to each other?


Futures Bright,

Paul