Friday 5 December 2014

Online store now launched

Hi everyone, Just  a quick note to say that I now have an online store for Meridian Miniatures. The complete Steam & Aether range from my first KS is now available to the general public. So if you missed out the first time around then now is the perfect time to stock up. Thanks again to everyone that pledged to make this range possible. Check out the store at:
Meridian Miniatures

Please if you can take time to share the link with anyone that you think might enjoy the figures.
Cheers!
Andrew


Monday 15 September 2014

Interdimesional Bestiary Kickstarter launched.

Hi all, those of you that follow me on Facebook  will have seen that I have been feverishly working away in the darkest recess of the Steam & Aether setting and have birthed quite a monster! I launched a Kickstarter campaign this morning ad it's gone great guns! Here's the blurb from the front page:

Meridian Miniatures hope to bring you the first in a line of impressive creature models to populate your tabletop worlds.
with this, my second project in the world of Steam & Aether, I invite you to contribute towards the moulding and casting of a monstrous 28mm scaled creature and more!
As expeditions into post-catastrophe France increased in frequency, so too did the discovery of bizarre and monstrous forms of life inhabiting the Aetheric wasteland. Whether these creatures are divergent mutant strains of life corrupted by the Aether explosion, or are not of this world at all, remains to be seen. The Prussian science ministry and British Royal Society demanded military missions into the wasteland carry out research and bring back samples, both mineral and biological. The Prussian Guildmasters and British regimental commanders were initially reticent to endanger their men by subduing some of the more ferocious beasts of the Wasteland, but as soon they saw the rewards offered by the authorities, they danced to a different tune.
Just over a year ago, with the help of many generous backers, I successfully funded my "Steampunk Army" campaign to produce miniatures for my Steam & Aether game setting. Since then the backstory for my Victorian sci fi world has grown, unveiling a rich setting that demmands to be populated!
After the Aetheric catastrophe, much of Western Europe was permeated with cosmic emanations, transdimensional elements and particles were strewn about the land, wreaking chaos everywhere. While the Consulate's portals remained open, stranger things still crawled, strode, slithered and floated through into our dimension.
The first monster that I have chosen to create is this horrifically tentacled maritime mass, dubbed "Aequatherium Magnus", of the many concepts and sketches that I have compliled I felt that it was the most versatile in that it has plenty of scope for use outside of the Steam & Aether setting. I can imagine it being used in plenty of other sci fi/fantasy/mythos games.
Many soldiers and collectors have lost their lives in the pursuit of these terrifying monsters, but their high demand and sky-rocketing value ensures that there are always others willing to risk life and limb for the sake of the hunt.
Of course, in the Steam & Aether setting someone needs to step up to the challenge of defeating such a monster, each side needs it's steampunk monster hunters to take to the tabletop! Both of these 28mm scale miniatures are cast in high quality resin and aretimed limited figures available for the KS campaign, only seeing general release one year from campaign end.
Hanne Haas is an infamous maritime hunter, renown across Prussia for her explosive exploits since the Aether catastrophe.
William Scoresby III is an avaricious British whaler turned monster hunter, leading expeditions deep into the northern teaches of former France in pursuit of riches.

I have full back story and rules to publish for these figures too, it will be posted on the Kickstarter first and then compiled here. So even if you don't pledge do check in periodically to see what develops.
Many thanks for your time Steam & Aether fans, please spread the word far and wide!
Andrew


Monday 1 September 2014

Imagining post-europocalypse France part 2

Hi everyone out there in S&A land.
My Tooth & Sword Kickstarter turned out to be quite a success but don't think that I have been entirely distracted in the mean time! Behind the scenes I've been busy with my gaming terrain project and have received the first laser cut sheets components that I need to bring an aether ravaged world to life.
The concept has translated really nicely and I've been busy trying out prototype building ideas. Sadly it seems that these A4 sheets may turn out too expensive to sell on to you, my dear readers but I will endevour to find a solution, I will email round some more cutting firms shortly. I'm also toying with a couple of other ideas to get my vision of ruined splendor into your  hands including resin components and cardstock buildings, I will keep you up to date!

Meanwhile, remember that you can keep up to date with all Meridian Miniatures on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Meridian-Miniatures/278329682295664
At the moment I'm working on and chronicling one of the less pleasant inhabitants of post catastrophe France....


Wednesday 18 June 2014

Sorry for the short break......

I've been more than a little busy with this.....
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2004599158/tooth-and-sword

Normal service will resume momentarily!

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Imagining post-europocalypse France.

I've pondered over what direction to take the landscape of Steam & Aether for a while, I want the aesthetic to be unified and distinct with even the industrial architecture to reflect a style or art movement. My vision of a Steampunk world while toned from most down needs ostentation and I don't shy much away from anachronism.


A muted and ruined Art Nouveau has been drifting inexpertly into my sketchboook, I just need to figure out how to coalesce the ideas into tabletop reality. As I said before, I aim to have individual elements drawn out to be laser cut, ending up acting like modular panels that will enable me to build simple structures that will be suitably embellished to be in keeping with the the Consulate's lofty heights.





Hopefully my doodling will elucidate you a little as to where I'm going with the terrain plan, see below for an idea of how I imagine the laser cut panels being laid out.


I'll keep you all up to date as the new project progresses.


Saturday 26 April 2014

Steam & Aether quick-play rules.

So here at last we have the free Beta edition of "Steam & Aether" fast play rules of download. This is the consolidation of a very large amount of pondering and pontification over my gaming life as to what would make a game that I would like to play. After a fair bit of play testing and an expert edit and thorough re write from Mr Mark Latham, it's time to hand it over to players. This is very much a "beta edition" and I'd love to hear what you think, especially if you actually try it out with Meridian Miniatures or even other figures from your collections. What work for you, what doesn't and what you'd like to see in the future. These rules are designed to be fast playing, fun and easy, they're definitely not designed to be an accurate simulation of reality, they're a game and written with enjoyment in mind so do please take them in that spirit. I'll be updating and expanding over the coming months based on feedback and further play testing. For those wanting to purchase more miniatures I am able to take orders via email, please contact me via the blog. I have a webstore being developed as you read this, I'll be keeping everyone up to date as it launches in the next couple of months.
Many thanks

Click here to download

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Building a world Pt2

As promised, here's the full collated gaming board build that was previously only to be found in full on Lead Adventure forum I've edited and added a little detail to this posting, let's hope that it proves inspiring for you all reading out there.

Over the course of our hobby, I'm sure we've all considered utilising a cheap, common wallpaper pasting table for gaming. The thought has crossed my mind several times over the years but I've always discarded the idea, the tables are too long and narrow and pretty unstable but suddenly one day I had a brainwave, now I'm not sure if anybody else has had the same thought or even already built a table like this but it's a fresh idea to me so have look at what I've been up to.
I'm sure many of you share my problem of having too little space for a real gaming set up, especially a permanent table with any thickness for landscaping. As I mentioned, I used a pasting table but anyone with a solid set of woodworking skills could adapt the idea to make a board with different dimensions. I however have fairly rudimentary woodworking skills and an old pasting table otherwise gathering dust. My table is intended for Steam & Aether so covered in cobbles/paving but I should think it'd work well with grass or hills or whatever you like.
The idea is to actually build the board on the inside of the table, thus protecting it once it's folded away also I'm changing the edge that the table folds along making a nice square surface, it's hard to explain so I hope I make sense, here come the pictures.
Here's what I did on the first day of building......

Take one ordinary pasting table.



It opens like this, pretty useless....



Still, open it flat and carfully remove the legs.



Now remove the hinges.



Now turn the halves 90deg and put the hinges on, this time on the other edge (I drilled guide holes using the hinge as a template).


Next take the legs and cut them down to fit the inside width to use as braces (the fibreboard surface is pretty flimsy!)


Now with white glue underneath and screws in each end through the frame, fix the bracing.


I found some more wood to brace with in the shed and used the off cuts of the legs to make cross bracing. Make sure your extra braces are the same thickness as the legs or it will cause problems later.


Next using guide holes drilled from the other side I used little screws to fix the bracing securely to the board. There's no real depth to the fibreboard for countersinking so the next step is pretty essential.


I got two cheap foamed sleeping mats for camping and glued them to the board. This covers the screwheads and protects the board. It'll also protect the board from slipping off of where ever you lay it.


Here's it finished, the edges were fixed down with superglue.


And here it is folded again.


And weighted with heavy books to help the gluing (I actually added more and distributed them more evenly).


Next comes the infill, I used really cheap polystyrene packing sheets to build the bulk of the board. Some areas have been left shallow as I want to add scenic elements below the regular playing surface, you could carve a river or trenches or whatever you like (allowing for bracing).


Next the surface layers of blue styrofoam are built up. If you plan better you might only need one layer.
I forgot to photograph between stages here but in the picture I have used a plane, chisels and belt sander to reduce the height of the two lengths of wood that form the internal section of the frame. When I add the next layer of styrofoam they should be fairly flush with the playing surface, only needing a little work to disguise (that's the plan at least!)


For added stability at the edges I've inserted short lengths of cut down cocktail stick, the theory is that they should help reduce the compression that could occur from knocks or leaning players!





The last layer of styrofoam went on and to my relief is pretty flush with the internal frame edges (the filler isn't as caked on as it looks, it's filler is B&Q brand flexible filler to try to avoid cracking.) All of the paved areas are Wills plastic sheets and there's some other dressed stone plastic sheeting on the walls that I picked up from 4D models but didn't notice the brand name.
You can't see well in the photos but one recess is the collapsed basement and one is a sewer (it looks a bit like it is purposely open rather than collapsed but it will look better painted).
Next up I've got some basketball textured fabric to make cobbles, loads of putty work to blend and edge the paving and some grit to glue on!


The red area is suede "basketball" textured fabric, it looks just like cobbles when it's painted. I glued it down with a thin layer of PVA, there may be a better adhesive solution however as I had a lot of annoyance with it wrinkling unevenly when it absorbed the moisture. A coat of thinned glue to seal it and a few hours in the sun got it tight as a drum again. The brown areas are dry soil, collected from the garden and sieved to remove pebbles etc. Again I used PVA to glue and seal it, brused at the edges to feather it out a bit.







And now for the "baffles" 2mm plasticard that will be covered with the same textures as the board to eliminate the built in terrain features, to give more flexibility for gaming as you can see below:





I covered the 2mm plasticard with some Wills sheeting, "basketball" fabric, a little dry soil, some cut card flagstones and sculpted some curbstones with "greenstuff" putty.



A coat of primer followed by a couple of layers of ink washes was drybrushed grey. I used watered down Talens acrylic ink for the washes, mainly black but a little brown/green/sepia for tonal variety. Some cheap acrylic craft paint did fine for the drybrushing, a thin wash of ink over that helped finish it off.


Here's the finished article, A coat of matt varnish has been applied.


Afterwards I glued a sheet of 2mm neoprene foam fabric to the underside to protect the tabletop and help it sit nicely on any slightly uneven surface.

The finishing stages were fairly straight forward. The rest of the tabletop was finished in the same manner as the earlier stages with the exception that I found sculpting curbs monumentally tedious and I ended up using lengths of styrene and card to edge whole sections of paving. It's not turned out to be to bad of a compromise, once plenty of cut card flagstones were scattered around it all blended together nicely.




Next up I covered the board with an outrageous amount of grey spray primer and panted the frame in black acrylic. This was followed by the same wash and drybrush technique as on the test baffles. The finished effect has proved devilishly hard to capture using my feeble photography skills! Hopefully the close up images posted previously will display the effect better than the shots of the whole board.




Next I finished the rest of the baffles, moving these around the tabletop when I set up the board should provide some nice variation to gameplay.



And here's a shot of the board with all of the baffles in place and that's the table complete. 

I'm very happy with the final product, despite my bad photography! Maybe if I had painted the board a little lighter it would show the final effect better but you can see it all well in the close ups that i posted before. :)

Please feel free to ask questions in the comments.