A further quick note on Steam & Aether.

For those that have not read the background story or followed my project, the miniatures that I've spent so long making and developing are designed to represent the first two opposing sides for the ruleset and world setting that I've been working on for that past year or so, the eponymous "Steam and Aether".

 For a tabletop wargame I've always wanted a set of rules that are simple to learn yet aren't boring or too generic and so that's what I've set out to create. The game will be powered by  just a couple of easy mechanics allowing you to focus on play and narrative.  I'm currently playtesting the rules but I hope to release a "beta" version within 6 months for anyone interested. Mark Latham will be on board to help me develop the rules further and set them out the way a veteran games developer knows best. I intend to make the rules freely available in PDF form to everyone once they're ready and have an online "living rulebook" incorporating player feedback where suitable. I'm not going to give much more away at the moment but stay tuned, I'll be keeping you all up to date.

Kickstarter figures rebased.

Now that 99% of the Meridian Miniatures KS is done with and shipped I've been able to sit down and continue work on the Steam & Aether ruleset, miniatures and setting again. 

For those of you that don't know, I work as a full time miniatures sculptor so I have to try to balance my schedule to include personal work alongside the bread as butter of paid commissions. Over the last couple of days I've made time to rebase the painted figures that I used to promote the Meridian Miniatures KS. 

The Steam and Aether setting wasn't fully set in stone when I painted them so I stuck with my default basing scheme. I've chosen to refinish the bases to represent the post catastrophe landscape of industrial France. I've simply removed the grass tufts and added (overscaled) miniature bricks and tiny cogs (both from eBay) with some pieces of card create nice bits of loose paving. This all received a coat of dark grey plus a black wash, then a little brass and brick red to pick out the details. Next came a light grey drybrush plus some orange on the bricks and the odd patch of ground. A little chestnut ink was added to shade the brass. I hope you'll agree that they've turned out to be very effective and evocative of the setting for relatively quick jobs.

The next sets that get painted will be experiments with speed painting, that won't be for a little while though I'm afraid. Plenty more to share with you in the meantime though.