Last Few Hours For Aetherium Kickstarter

It's been quite a journey so far for Aetherium and the guys at Anvil Eight Games.

Their Aetherium Kickstarter finishes in the early hours so if you've got an itching to get some of these lovely models, or the full game itself, your time is limited.

As you may know, my involvement started nearly 9 months ago with the visualisation of the game itself, creating a logo and branding style, as well as all the game components. Thanks to the wonderful artists involved this was a dream job.

The Kickstarter has given me some respite from the long hours involved in producing a project of this scale. But now things are coming to a close, pledgers will be wanting their goodies and that means getting everything polished and ready for the printers.

There will no doubt be changes to the rulebook, with rumours there will be even more pages added so that stories can be fleshed out and rules explained as comprehensively as possible. This should make the game even easier to understand and play.

Of course we also have to finalise the rules and visuals for the third faction – House Ikaru. They have not really featured up to this point for me, but they made such an impact with Kickstarter viewers that we need to press ahead and get them a faction logo and some cards.

All good stuff and very exciting, especially if you've pledged. Delivery date is estimated at November this year so not long to wait.

Have a look at the Kickstarter page; there's lots of web links, videos to be seen and podcasts to listen to. This really is a unique game at a time where such things are rare or the big guns are getting greedy with re-releases and price hikes.

Have a look – I dare you!

Forest Rangers

These guys are part of my secret project and fit my needs perfectly. They are Lord of the Rings Rangers of Middle-Earth and are really quite good. The fact that they are one-piece plastics is a bit of a bonus, and cost about £1 per model.

I stuck them onto square plastic bases, kindly donated by Bull, and added an obligatory penny underneath for weight. I wanted to try something a bit different for these woodland dwellers, so started by adding a bit of green stuff around the base for texture.

Rather than adding my traditional sand mix to the base, I stepped out of my comfort zone with a purchase of red Oxide Paste. Sand is great for most things, but for 28mm figures it represents rather large stones so looks a bit out of place. The paste is lightly textured so works perfectly (hopefully) in representing less difficult pathways and ground.

It went on easily enough with an old paintbrush – any mistakes where I caught the model only enhances the idea that these guys are running around forest, river and bog land getting covered in all sorts of muck.

I also purchased the LotR The Three Hunters set in order to get hold of this rather fetching Aragorn model, to lead my rangers. Needless to say he didn't cost £1, and is made from the infamous Finecast material with the accompanying bubbles (you may be able to spot them on the top of his outstretched arm). I wouldn't normally have been so extravagant but the sculpt did match my vision and I couldn't find anything close elsewhere.

These are ready now to be undercoated, and with the Saxon hovel I built last week have somewhere to live! There are more models waiting for some oxide paste before they can join this band but that's for another day.

Last weekend we went to Hothfield heathlands near Ashford to get some inspiration for this little project – I need to resurrect my gaming board – and here are some of the things we saw…

Saxon Hovel Kit

Whilst at Awdry Towers last weekend for our game of Blood Bowl, Michael showed me some of his 4Ground buildings that he had picked up at Salute the previous week.

I have to say that I'm not normally taken by the laser cut MDF terrain that's all the rage at the moment (just doesn't look real enough for me) but the saxon hovel that he had, made me take a closer look. No sooner had I returned home than I was straight online ordering one for myself.

It arrived next day and in thirty minutes it was built – albeit the thatched roof looked like something from the Muppets. However, I maintained restraint and followed the instructions, allowing 24 hours to pass before caking the fluff in watered-down glue.

Again, it took another 24 hours to dry properly, but not one to be that patient I set to adding the first of my bonus bits – magnets!

I think the kit is great, but I wanted the roof to stay in place a little more securely than it does. I drilled holes in the top of the double-width walls (no probs). When it came to the roof I had to add an extra bit of ply from the sprue to make the walls wider.

It didn't take too long to dry and get all four magnets in place (and the right way round!).

Inspired by An Evil Giraffe blog and what he managed to achieve with the same kit, I intend to add some balsa wood to the walls to make them a little more three dimensional before I start painting. It will be perfect for my new side project – I just need to build a few more to make a village!