This is a bit of daydreaming, inspired by discussions on Otterman's Ghost's GTKY thread, and elsewhere.

There seems to be plenty of appetite for SF miniatures with an aesthetic which is compatible with that of Warhammer 40,000. Part of that desire is satisfied by many fine companies (of which there are too many for me to mention without unavoidable omissions) many of whom are represented by members of this forum.

However, it does seem that inspiration is perhaps a bit hard to come by: we (as a community) want infantry, tanks, walkers, etc which would work in games of Epic, but we also want to avoid getting in trouble for infringement of copyright and trade mark.

So, here's the idea: we club together, possibly using Kickstarter or Indiegogo, to commission artists to create concept art for miniatures, that are aesthetically grimdark but emphatically not derivative of 40K, that can be licensed at no cost to anyone who wants to turn said concept art into toy soldiers for us to play with.

Could it work?

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NetEpic Necron Army Book

[ jodrell.org | @j_plays_games | @jodrellplaysgames ]

An interesting proposal, lets see what others think.

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Vanguard Miniatures

Link, http://vanguardminiatures.co.uk/

Stockist of:

Vanguard Miniatures
BattleGroup Helios
Onslaught Miniatures
Pyrkol Gaming Markers
Gregster's Lab
Microworld Games
Troublemaker Games

I would gladly put painting and modeling to the side to devote what little personal time I have on a project like this.

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

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To start the ball rolling on listing things that would be nice to have that are at the same time free from IP:

land transporters - we need a 40k-style 2 1/2 ton truck equivalent for the LatD list and SoB list (for redemptionists). Since there is absolutely no equivalent from you know who, it would be in the clear with respect to IP. Someone just needs to draw one up and have us all criticize it for being completely wrong.

Also, here is a bunch of stuff I've linked to before for use by anyone who is interested in making tanks for space dwarves.

Yes a 40k type guard truck, good idea.

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Vanguard Miniatures

Link, http://vanguardminiatures.co.uk/

Stockist of:

Vanguard Miniatures
BattleGroup Helios
Onslaught Miniatures
Pyrkol Gaming Markers
Gregster's Lab
Microworld Games
Troublemaker Games

Possible concept artist: Mike Doscher, http://www.doscher-design.com/

We have a soft top Hoplon sculpted and on it's way to be cast if that helps?

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Tom Webb
Author Page: http://www.newtonwebb.com
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render?



Holy crap are those Space Dwarf spaceships you've added there on Pg3????

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

Alas no - it's half CAD and half traditional sculpting. The soft top canvas was deemed to look better made from green stuff.

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Tom Webb
Author Page: http://www.newtonwebb.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/thewebb
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A bit more thinking.

As semajnollissor suggests, first we come up with a wish list of items that we as a community would like.

Next, we approach a bunch of artists with an RFP. We then select one or more artists to do the work, based on their past portfolio, cost, etc.

To clarify, these people would not be sculptors, but artists and illustrators. The terms of the RFP would grant "us" (specific entity to be determined later) copyright on their work so we can use it as we see fit.

We then take the individual projects to a crowdsourcing venue such as Kickstarter. If/when the project has earned enough to cover the artists' fees, they are then commissioned to complete the work (to our satisfaction).

Once completed, anyone can request a license from "us" to create sculpts based on the concept art. The license would be pretty open, as we want lots of people to participate in creating models. Let the market pick the best ones!

We could even create an online store which would retail the models from the various manufacturers. Any profits could be reinvested in new projects.

_________________
NetEpic Necron Army Book

[ jodrell.org | @j_plays_games | @jodrellplaysgames ]

This is starting to sound very interesting. And Toddermans artist has some very fine work indeed. I wonder how time consuming and expensive an adequately detaled illustration of, say, a truck would be.

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Nitpicks Knapsack (Scratchbuilding and 3D designing and printing and painting)

I could be wrong here but we don't always need super detailed pics to go off of I expect. They are great if we got them but I bet say we started with something at this level (which I think any of us could probably do) we should be able to begin iterating design and discussions with CAD gurus.



Just thinking that enough to start working on progressively getting more and more detailed is something doable. I think that the more people coming up with ideas the better (The Cathedral and the Bazaar concept).

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

Do we need to commission an artist for designs when we have a very talented group of CAD designers with a lot of experiance already here.

A list of wanted models is a very good idea IMHO.

_________________
Vanguard Miniatures

Link, http://vanguardminiatures.co.uk/

Stockist of:

Vanguard Miniatures
BattleGroup Helios
Onslaught Miniatures
Pyrkol Gaming Markers
Gregster's Lab
Microworld Games
Troublemaker Games

From what I understand, 3D skills do not necessarily equate design skill as in novel and aesthetically pleasing concept artwork. There are loads and loads of very talented scifi oriented artists that could help providing that. I could probably scribble something that would look sort of like a truck of Gothique lineage, but others would do it so very very much better.

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Nitpicks Knapsack (Scratchbuilding and 3D designing and printing and painting)

Agreed. I am just saying that just because you are not Ralph McQuarrie doesn't mean that you shouldn't put sketches out there. Worse case no one uses it. More likely it will inspire an idea with someone. Best case, it's run with and it's turned into a product! The take away is: PARTICIPATE

_________________
He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!