Kifaro

After not releasing any Limited Edition resin miniatures for nearly two months - we now have another following hot on the heels of Azumi. Kifaro is just about as different as you can get from Azumi too! A huge and hulking beast, he stands twice the height (and several times the width!) of most of the other miniatures in the range - over 65mm tall, and ten times the weight in resin of our last release.

It's a beautiful sculpt though, one of Allan Carrasco's finest I think - with a naturalness of pose and level detail that are very rare at this scale.

I had hoped to get two more new releases out before Christmas - but this will be the last. We have some great stuff coming though - for both the LE line and the Sedition Wars range, so watch out in the new year.

Just in time for Christmas, we have also added the option to buy gift certificates from the studio store - just look in the bottom right on the hame page of the store.

If you are still waiting for your castings of Azumi - don't worry they are on their way. The demand for that figure took us by surprise, and we've been struggling to keep pace with the orders. We have castings in stock though, and are working through the orders as quickly as possible - thanks for your patience!

cheers!

mike

Azumi

Well it's been quite some time since the last blog post - and quite some time since the last LE resin release, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone!

Azumi is release number 21 in the LE resin series - of course some of those are sold out (Lt Kara Black, Isabella and Ar-Fienel), and another couple are close (one very close...). We have some exciting miniatures on the way though - and if all goes to plan, we should have another two releases out before Christmas.

Azumi is available now in the Studio Store.

Azumi is one we're really pleased with - the concept she comes from was fantastic - it's another great piece from Roberto Cirillo, and I'll post it here some time soon. Yannick (again!) was the sculptor - and delivered his usual amazing work. I'll post some pictures of the resin, so you can see the mind-blowing detail he captured.

In other studio news - we have been hard at work behind the scene on the Sedition Wars - Battle for Alabaster game, so expect some updates and news on that in the new year (if not before).

cheers!

mike

Katya

I've just added the latest release in the LE resin range to the Studio Store - Katya. This is the latest in our irregular series of James Bond-inspired miniatures - no prizes for anyone who can guess which film this one is inspired by! I've had the pose for this one in the back of my mind for quite a while, and really wanted to see if we could make it work. I think the sculptor (Kev White), did a really great job of getting the balance and weight just right. It's from an original concept by Roberto Cirillo, who I have been working with quite a lot recently (he concepted all the Strain) and his work is fantastic.

It's quite a delicate piece to put together, and I plan to do a little article here on the assembly of the ropes - they just need careful handling. She's in the Studio Store now. mike

Isabella - dark

Ali has been posting pictures of two different versions of Isabella on the forums - one with a light colour scheme and one with a dark scheme. Here is the finished dark version.

Isabella was the third miniature in the range to sell out, and I think she has always held a special place in Ali's affections as she created the concept. She was supposed to be a loose cross between a Bond Girl and a character from His Dark Materials. Sounds strange, but I think it's a great miniature.

She's up on eBay for those who are interested.

Things have been pretty manic here since I got back from GenCon - I'm planning a post all about that soon, but I will say that it was a great show, and the response to the Sedition Wars - Battle for Alabaster demos was fantastic. Roll on GenCon 2012!

cheers!

mike

The Strain have been released!

The first eight Strain miniatures are in the Studio Store now!

At GenCon now and about to start demoing the Battle for Alabaster rules.

More news later!

mike

Phase 4 Heavy Exoform

Here's the big-daddy of the Strain exoforms (for now at least!) - The Grendlr. All of the sculpts for the Strain miniatures are amazing, but this one is just stunning - a sci-fi horror masterpiece by Jacques-Alexandre Gillois. The Phase 1 sculpts are all by Remy Tremblay, and the Phase 2 and 3 are by Yannick Hennebo - both have excelled themselves with these I think. Brilliant work all round.

The plan is to have all of the Strain miniatures available on the Studio Store this week - most likely Thursday. I'll send out a newsletter when they are in the store and try and post here as well. They are going to be cast in resin to start with, they may not be limited edition, but they will be available for a limited time initially - I'll post more details when I get back from GenCon. We have tried to keep the prices of the resin castings down as low as we possibly can - but it's an expensive process to produce high quality resin castings, so they will be a little more expensive than the metal Sedition Wars miniatures. The quality of casting is amazing though, and all the horrible detail really shines through!

All the Strain miniatures will be available as metal castings at GenCon at the Coll Mini or Not booth - 849 (along with me!)

Off to GenCon today, in a few hours in fact. Please do come along and try out the game if you are there - it's a very early version of the rules, so you'll be doing us a favour by helping out with the play-testing! We are going to have some really nice posters to give away (with a play surface/map on them) if you buy miniatures or try the game. We'll also have all the Studio McVey painted miniatures there on display.

cheers!

mike

Phase 3 Exoforms

Here are the two Phase 3 Strain Exoforms we'll be pre-releasing this week - there are larger pictures over on the Sedition Wars site. The Scythe Witch is a whirl of blades and death, and Brimstone is a walking heavy weapons platform. They will be on sale at both GenCon (booth 849) and in the Studio Store. Tomorrow we'll be showing the painted Phase 4 heavy Exoform - The Grendlr.

Phase 2 Protoform

Following on from the pictures of the Phase 1 Necroforms, here are the images of the painted Phase 2 Strain miniatures. These troopers are created when the Strain nano virus infects a living victim. As the virus takes over the host, it starts to shed away unwanted organic material and begins to form into a different, more deadly construct.

More soon!

mike

Phase 1 Necroforms

Here are the final painted images on the Strain Phase 1 Necroforms - pretty nasty stuff! The rest of the phases are well under way and I might even be posting the painted phase 2 miniatures later today.

These (and all the others) will be pre-releasing at GenCon 2011 this coming week (4th - 7th August). We will also have them for sale at the same time in the Studio Store.

cheers!

mike

Phase 4

This is the final preview of the current Strain line - the big-daddy Phase 4 Grendlr. Ali showed a sneak peak of the painting of this over on the Facebook page - it's quite a beast. Really amazing sculpt (as they all are!) - and Beasts of War guys will be showing an exclusive preview of all the sculpts and original concept some time today.

Just a few days left to go before GenCon - we'll be showing the painted miniatures between now and then and giving all the details of the game preview. Still lots to do!

cheers

mike

Brimstone

Phase 3 Strain Exoforms come in many different forms - they vary from the fast and agile 'Scythe Witch' we showed yesterday, to the fully weaponised construct that is 'Brimstone'. Heavily armoured and capable of devastating dark matter attacks.

Check back here tomorrow when we reveal the terrifying Phase 4 Heavy Exoform.

mike

Phase 3

Here is the first of the Phase 3 Strain we'll be releasing - The Scythe Witch. At this point the Exoform is fully developed into is target manifestation, and the cellular material of the original host has been combined with none-organic materials to create a deadly killing machine.

Phase three Strain can develop into many and varied exoforms, and tomorrow we'll be showing another example.

mike

Phase 2

It's been longer than I planned since I posted the last of these, so I'm going to have to pack the updates in this week. Just 10 days to go until GenCon and still so much left to do....

Check back here and on the forums regularly!

cheers

mike

The Dark Emissary

I'm a few days late with posting news on the new release on the blog - but things are pretty busy right now. There's only three weeks to go to GenCon and the amount of preparation still to do is frightening - we're very excited about showing off the new miniatures and previewing the game though.

Anyway - back to The Dark Emissary! Ali and I both really love this piece. It's from a Sam Wood concept and is yet another stunning sculpt from Yannick Hennebo - his eighth for the Limited Edition resin range (with more to come!). We wanted to have something really dark and brooding in the line - and this one has that in spades. It comes complete with two head and weapon variant parts - and I can't decide if I like the bare head or helmet best. I liked the non-helmet better when the sculpt came in. but now it's painted I think I like the helmet version better.

Available now in the Studio Store.

It's the biggest piece we've done so far too - towering over everything else - even Ruby. He's just over 60mm tall (without the base).

Coolminiornot

Lots of updates to come in the coming weeks - more concepts for the Strain first, then pictures of the sculpts - and finally the painted versions. We're really happy with how they are coming out and can't wait to share them with you.

cheers!

mike

The Strain

I've been talking about this a little on the Studio McVey forums, but I thought I would show the latest concept preview here (as well as the first two).

I am going to be at GenCon this year (August 4th to 7th) previewing the first Sedition Wars game - Battle for Alabaster. It's going to be a very early version of the rules, and the plan is to release them online for download and open up a section of the forums for people to give their feedback and get involved. We want to make sure that we are totally happy with the rules before we publish the finished game - the last thing we want to do it release rules that people don't like.

Sedition Wars - Battle for Alabaster is going to be a tile based board game, quick and bloody to play, and hopefully exciting and fun. It features a battle between the Colonial Vanguard and a totally new faction - The Strain. We'll be talking more about the Strain in the next few weeks in the run up to GenCon - they are a constantly evolving robotic nano virus who's only objective seems to be to replicate and spread across the galaxy.

The Phase one exoforms (shown below) are where the virus has colonised an already dead host, so the use of the vessel is limited to hunting down and infecting new hosts. The Phase two exoform is an early evolution of a living host - The Strain has started to re-purpose both cellular and non-organic material to evolve into a more useful and deadly form.

We'll be revealing what happens with the Phase three and Phase four exoforms in the next few weeks.

We are going to have a lot of previews during July - and then in early August we will have preview copies of the miniatures (in resin) available in the studio store, to coincide with the release of the alpha version of the rules.

cheers!

mike

New painted miniature available

Ali has just finished this piece - it's a version on Captain Kara Black with a alternate colour scheme uniform. I think it came out great. I particularly like the face.

She's available now in the Studio Store!

mike

Battle for Alabaster

I have been talking about this a little on the forums, so I thought I would show the first of The Strain concepts here too. There will be lots more to come in the next few weeks!

mike

New tutorial video

We just added the latest painting tutorial video to our YouTube channel. In case you haven't been following this, it's related to a thread on the Studio McVey forums where we have been running a little follow-along tutorial on one of the Sedition Wars miniatures.

Initially we were just going to post a quick video to explain the way we blend - but that went down so well, we thought we add some more videos for some of the other techniques used on painting this miniature.



Enjoy!

mike

Kara's last stand

I've just added the new version of Lt. Kara Black to the Studio Store. We previewed her to the mailing list yesterday and the response has been fantastic so far. The original version of Kara was one of our most popular LE miniatures - surpassed only by Ar-Fienel, so it's nice to have her back in the range again. We're limiting this miniature to 400, rather than the normal 750 - so I'm not sure how long it will last.

Lots of other things going on in the studio at the moment - the next in line for the LE range is nearing completion, and that's looking really nice (quite large too...). I also have a slightly larger piece for The Firebrand in the works which I'm very excited about. We've also been working very hard on another project, and we're getting pretty close to the time we'll be able to announce that - stay tuned!

cheers

mike

Rumble in the Jungle

Just a quick post to show some pictures of Ali's latest creation. We've been talking about doing a Jungle-style base for Kara for ages - I originally intended to do that for the Kara I'm painting (and have been since she released) - but it was fairly obvious that wasn't going to happen any time soon!

I like her painting on this one even better than the original - the face in particular is just amazing.

Here's her cmon posting.

Up on eBay for those who are interested!

I have also just added a new product to the Store. I've had the Firebrand bases set ready to go for quite a while, but have only just got round to officially releasing it. Really nice detail and casting on these.

I did hope to release the new LE Kara this week, but we had a minor production hiccup, so she'll be on sale next week.

cheers!

mike

Triples

This weekend (21st and 22nd of May) is Triples, and as we actually live in Sheffield we thought it made good sense to go along as a trader. I've never been to Triples before, but have heard great things about it from lots of people. We'll be taking the full range on Studio McVey LE resins and the Sedition Wars ranges - we are also going to have some preview copies of the new LE miniature we hoped to have ready for Salute.

It's called Kara's Last Stand and is a conversion of the original miniature that spawned the entire Sedition Wars range. It shows Kara in the same fight as the first version, but looking even more bruised and battered. She's out of ammo for the heavy SMG and is down to knife and pistol to finish-off her unseen opponent.

As it's a conversion of the original, we thought it right to reduce the the Limited Edition run to 400, rather than the normal 750. She'll go on general release either next week, or early in June - depending on how production goes. We'll have a limited number of castings available at Triples, so if you're there and want one - come and see us early.

In other news, the second part of the blending video tutorial we put together is up - check it out.

Cheers!

mike

Blending tutorial video

Ali has been running a little project over on the Studio McVey forums for the past week - painting the same miniature as one of our members so she can demonstrate how we paint. It will mainly be illustrated with stage-by-stage photos, but we thought we would take the opportunity to do something we have been thinking about for quite a while now - shoot some video.

You can see the original thread here, and the video itself is embedded below.



This is an ongoing project for us - but we're reasonably pleased with the results. There are still quite a few technical problems to iron out - but we have some exciting plans for the future - stay tuned!

mike

The Blight Witch

We previewed this miniature ay Salute a couple of weeks ago, and she proved to be very popular - she is now on general release in the Studio Store!

As I mentioned in the previous post - this miniature is from an original concept by Shannon Tindle. As Shannon works as a character designer in the animation industry, we wanted to draw on some of the themes and design ideas that you might come across in that field. So drawing on some of the dramatic theatricality you might see in early Disney films, he came up with this. I'm going to be painting a version of this miniature myself and will be sharing a little painting diary here (and on the forums) in the coming weeks.

I think JAG has done an amazing job of capturing the slightly stylised nature of the concept while still retaining his realistic rendering - I'll be showing Shannon's concept art here shortly so you can judge for yourselves.

cheers!

mike

Salute 2011

This Saturday is Salute 2011 at the Excel Center in London. Last year was our first show as Studio McVey and we had a great time - Ali even managed to win best in show at the painting Competition with her Ar-Fienel. Things have been so busy lately that she hasn't had the chance to put another entry together, but we will have some new and exciting miniatures there for you to buy.

First up is the Blight Witch. This is going to release properly next week, but we are going to have castings to sell at the show. This is yet another great sculpt from Jacques-Alexandre Gillois, this time from a concept by Shannon Tindle. Shannon is one of the genius character designers who worked on Coraline (amongst other things), but he's a miniatures guy too, and it was a real pleasure to work with him on this one. I'm quite sure it won't be the last piece he'll do for Studio McVey. I'll be showing his beautiful concept here when the Blight Witch officially releases next week. JAG and Thomas David (who sculpted Vitharr and Sharro for us) will actually be in the booth right next to ours at Salute.

We will also have two new Limited Edition Resin miniatures from the Sedition Wars line. We have previewed Vokker here recently, but we will also have a Vanguard male trooper on sale. Both these miniatures will be available in strictly limited numbers though - the full LE resin runs will only be between 50 and 75 copies of each. After that they will only be available as metal castings.

Speaking of Sedition Wars - we will be releasing the metal castings of the first five Firebrand rebel miniatures at Salute, I'm not sure how many of each will will have though. Up until now, these have only been available as Limited Edition resins, but from now on they will be available as unlimited metal castings.

There is one final thing - but as I'm not 100% sure we'll have it ready in time, I'm going to keep it as a surprise. If we do have castings there - they will be in very limited quantity, so you'd better come and see us early just in case...!

So lots of new stuff! The really good news is that we will be running special Salute only prices - and almost everything in the Studio McVey ranges will be included.

We are also going to have Daral from ElodieMae with us - and will be selling his miniatures and bases on our stand.

We're at stand TG03 (right next to the painting comp stage) hope to see you there!

mike

Ar-Fiach Concept

Just a really quick post to show the original concept for Ar-Fiach - another really nice piece from Steve Tappin. Beautifully brought to life by Yannick Hennebo and available now in the Studio Store. Steve also concepted the first group of Firebrand miniatures - and they are currently away being mastered for metal - we hope to have the castings ready in the next couple of weeks - in time for Salute.

Salute is only a few weeks away and we're starting to get everything ready - we'll have all our miniatures on sale there, and hopefully a couple of new releases. One of those is being mastered for resin at the moment, and another just needs a few tweaks to be perfect. We're really looking forward to Salute again this year, so if your going to be there, please pop along and say hello.

I'm currently working hard on a project that won't see the light of day until later this year - but Ali and I are already pretty excited about it. Stay tuned for news on that (but don't hold your breath just yet...).

Cheers!

mike

Ar-Fiach

All the news seems to have been about the Sedition Wars range recently - so I thought we'd better put something out for the Limited Edition resin range!

Ar-Fiach is another in our irregular series of Faerie miniatures - so far we have Ar-Fienel (now all sold out) and Al-Vianna on one side, and Y'Sala and Y'Sydira on the other. Ar-Fiach tips things back into the light, but maybe not for too long...

The others are available in the Studio Store.

This one is another fantastic sculpt from Yannick, and based on a concept by Stephen Tappin (site under construction). It's a really beautifully detailed, evocative piece. I'll post the concept here soon, along with some more pictures of the resin casting.

In Sedition Wars news, I am expecting the first batch of Vokker resins soon, so we should be releasing the limited run of that soon - possibly even next week. Ali is hard at work painting it as I type, and it's looking really nice. The first batch of Firebrand miniatures are away being mastered in metal at the moment, and I hope to have those on sale in time for Salute next month - more news on that soon. I recently added the resin Vanguard base set to the Studio Store.

cheers!

mike

Firebrand preview - Vokker Dargu

Just got the first resins of this miniature, so I wanted to give a quick preview of him. He'll be available as a very limited resin run shortly over on the main website, then he'll be off to be mastered in metal. In the mean time, here's some background.

All the other Sedition Wars miniatures are available in the Store.
-------------------------------------

Conscript Vokker Dargu
Height: 1.95 meters
Weight: 92 kilograms
Eyes: Cybernetic implants – no retinal imprint
Hair: Black
Gene-Index: Human/ Pre-augment Conscript
Inception Date: 201.10.4036 Solar Reckoning
Augments:
· Kyoshi Heavy Industries AG field generator
· Omnium Systems Meta-Cortical implant
· Kyoshi Heavy Industries Integrated Control Optics

Profile:
Corporate insubordination charges led to Vokker Dargu’s downgrade from Full Citizen to Conscript Servile as an industrial technician third class. Due to an aptitude with gravity manipulators and a bio-signature with a low rejection threshold to cybernetic implantation, he was involuntarily augmented and promoted to industrial technician first class. After serving in this capacity on good behaviour for thirteen years, his conscription restraints and cortical clamp were removed, and he was granted Provisional Release autonomy.

During a warranty based upgrade to his meta-cortical implant an unclassified code-entity breached his cortical firewall. The entity obliterated AI personality controls designed to keep his mind in check. System upgrade records indicate that the entity transferred in during an allegedly secure software upgrade. Without AI fail-safes in place, Vokker was free to act without worry of personality suppression.

His escape resulted in the deaths of twenty-eight medical and sixteen security personnel.
As per Rogue Conscript Protocol a warrant for Terminal Reclamation was issued 028.23.4039.1
Traceback disable commands to his cybernetics have failed and his whereabouts were unknown until the Conscript insurrection on Achilles.

Vanguard intelligence analysis indicates that his systems have been modified beyond current specifications, and he has been altered cosmetically to conceal his identity. His bio-signature was present during the co-ordinated attack on the Vanguard Bastion Arms of Sorrow, in which four hundred and seventy three Vanguard troopers and twenty four SDG elite were slain before the Arms of Sorrow could repel the six thousand attacking Conscripts. He was not among the casualties of that battle.

It is likely Vokker is serving as a combat co-ordinator in the Conscript uprising – Using tactical systems and precognition to lead pro-active counter-attacks on Vanguard forces. To date his bio-signs have been detected in fifty seven combat incidents with Vanguard troops.
He remains at large.

Capabilities:
Qualified for a Master level license with an AG generator, Vokker is an expert with kinetic fields and gravity suppression. His AG implant is capable of shifting a hundred kilograms of mass without strain. For manipulating larger masses he must be coupled with an external power supply. Even without external power, he can strike with kinetics to inflict lethal blows to anything within range of his AG field effectors.

His meta-cortex implant is a moderate grade cyber-brain. Vokker’s mind may house one or more expert systems capable of serving as tactical analysis and intelligence gathering meta-routines. Note that the Omnium implant allows limited quantum prediction, granting Vokker low grade precognitive ability and enhanced predictive instinct. Combined with his proficiency in AG field manipulation, he may be capable of deflecting directed projectile weapons fire. His sixth sense will be able to detect dangerous situations with a moderate degree of certainty. This is probably why he has avoided Reclamation for so long.

The Kyoshi Control Optics suite linked to his meta-cortex allows Vokker to index and co-ordinate the efforts of several other conscripts through remote communication. This system no doubt aids him in tactical unit co-ordination.

All of these systems are well concealed. Vokker can easily pass for a full citizen - albeit augmented - as long as his conscription transponder is suppressed and his conscript ID tattoo remains concealed. Assuming that these safeguards have not been removed already.
This combination of systems and his inconspicuous appearance makes Vokker effectively a sleeper agent capable of sensing events minutes before they occur and fading away from danger undetected. In addition, the rogue electronic entity that is currently installed within his cortex may have further capabilities that enhance him beyond his current specifications. His termination is a high priority, and reclamation of his systems vital to understanding the threat facing the Vanguard and the Solar Conglomerate.

Brute bodyguard

I've just added a new miniature to the Sedition Wars website, and the Studio Store. This is the Limited Edition resin version of the Jaggernat Heavy - and it is a very limited run. We're only going to cast 75 of them in resin and when they are gone, it won't be available again until the metal version launches in the coming months (not quite sure when this one will be out, but it wont be for a little while).

It's a brute of a miniature - standing 45mm tall and very nearly as wide. He comes with a 40mm scenic resin base - and that will be available separately in resin when the metal Jaggernat launches.

Quick update on the metal range - It's looking like the very end of this month or the very beginning of march for the first group of Vanguard castings.

cheers!

mike

Firebrand concepts and metal update

I've been meaning to post these Firebrand concepts for quite a while now - great drawings by Steve Tappin. He's concepts a couple more too - one of which is sculpted and awaiting painting, the other is currently being sculpted.

Finally some news on the metal release. The first batch of Vanguard miniatures (which are currently only available in resin) are currently being cast and I should be releasing them in the next two week - might even be sooner. The casting quality looks great and we're just working out the pricing.

The resin stocks are also getting low in the store for the Vanguard LE resin miniatures, here's what we have left in the store (after which they will only be available in metal). I'm taking the resin range out of the store once the metals are available - if we have any left we'll probably just sell them at conventions.

Captain Kara Black - 18
Morgan Vade - 4 - EDIT - this is now out of stock and won't be available until the metal range launches.
Akosha Nama - 14
Barker Zosa (he will be available in two different configurations in metal, one with each weapon variant) - 16
Trooper with Las Carbine - 14
Trooper with Multi Launcher - 14

The same will be true of the Firebrand resins - once the metals are available, I'll take the resins out of the store. They won't be in metal for at least six weeks though.

cheers!

mike

TGN awards and shipping news

I just wanted to post quickly about the Tabletop Gaming New awards. Studio McVey managed to snag a first place and a runner-up in The Reader's Choice section, and three first places and a runner up in the Editor's Choice! Needless to say, we're absolutely delighted!

Many thanks to all who voted for us - I can't begin to tell you how much it means to us.

I also wanted to warn people who have ordered Ruby recently, that the packages are very slow going out at the moment. It's been a bit of a catalogue of disasters with the production vendor since mid December - heavy snow falls, missing deliveries, failed moulds, family tragedies - they've had it all. All those things coupled with the normal Christmas postal madness have hit our production schedule very hard. Things do seem to be back to normal now though and we are starting to produce decent numbers of castings every day. It is going to take some time to get caught up though - she has been very popular...

If you are thoroughly sick of waiting, I am more than happy to fully refund your order - just email me (address on the main website). If you can be patient with us a little longer it would be appreciated - it's been quite a testing few weeks.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

mike

Edit - I have just posted an update on this in the Forums, and will be posting all future updates there.