Online Store: Star Hat Miniatures (https://starhatminiatures.com/).
Heroic scale fantasy miniatures, sculpted by hand and cast in metal, for your roleplaying and tabletop games.
Yesterday a small and unassuming parcel arrived from Macrocosm with some resin dungeon terrain for me to paint. I really enjoyed giving the Throne of Bones a quack paint job. This is probably my favourite terrain skull-pture to date - it has plenty of detail and took paint from the brush beautifully. I am sure you will think of some humerus puns while painting to tickle the funny bones of your players when you bring it to your gaming table.
By The Power of Greyduck!
Mordux on the Throne of Bones!
The metal Mordux sits comfortably on the resin throne of bones, but you could glue his butt to the seat if you like. I am leaving mine unglued for those times when Mordux is out and about.
Mordux was made available thanks to backers of the DuckQuest Kickstarter and is available for preorder (last week!) on Backerkit.
I asked Steve Crompton if I could share this with you. The impact Rick Loomis has had on the world of gaming can not be understated. -----------------------------
Rick Loomis at Gencon several years ago. He was a fixture at many conventions and people expected to see him year after year.
By Steve Crompton
Loss of our friend: By now many of you may have heard the sad news that Rick Loomis, President of Flying Buffalo and a gaming industry legend, passed away on Aug 23rd, just a few hours before his 72nd birthday. Rick created and ran Flying Buffalo for almost 50 years, and was also President of GAMA (Gaming Manufacturers of America) on several occasions. Rick's loss leaves a huge hole in our hearts and Flying Buffalo. Rick was our mentor, our friend (a brother for his sisters) and the intermediary between the high-flying goals of the creative team and the real world. He helped us stay on track and reminded us of the limits of our budgets. Rick also made sure that whatever we created would be something that players would want. And many, many times he made suggestions that made a game more playable or an adventure more usable. We will miss Rick every single day, and we plan to honor his wishes and hopes for the future of Flying Buffalo going forward. SoWhat Happens now?: While Rick was fighting cancer and was unable to attend to his work on processing the Kickstarter orders, he did manage to teach me how to do that, and I have been doing so since early July. (Rick did everything before then.) Rick's sisters and the entire Buffalo team are committed to continuing to process and ship out your Kickstarter orders. In fact just today I did another 25 orders and they are now in shipping, ready to be packaged up. And tomorrow we'll be taking 40 finished orders to the post office. As of now, we only have about MSPE 175 orders left to ship out of the original 675 we started with. And we will continue to ship out your orders until all of them have gone out. We have everything in from the printers and everything that Mike was supposed to sign has been signed, so its just a matter of continuing until we are done. Down the road there will also be new products for T&T, MSPE, Nuclear War, and Catalyst books like new Traps and Citybooks. They may not come as quickly as we'd like right now, as there is a lot to do in regards to taking care of Rick's estate and Flying Buffalo. But rest assured, we are soldiering onward. That's what Rick wanted us to do - and we plan to do just that. So you don't need to worry - your items will be shipped out. Please feel free to post you comments below and if you want to contribute to help with Rick's Medial bills, funeral arrangements and other outstanding bills that have accrued due to Rick's illness you can contribute to his Gofundme campaign.
Thank you all for your concern, your patience and your belief in Rick's dream - Flying Buffalo.
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In Memory of Rick Loomis
In January 2017 I sculpted a miniature for Rick Loomis. We never did get around to creating the whole Tunnels and Trolls miniatures box set but his gentle manner, advice and encouragement left a lasting impression on me. I would like to offer Buffalorick to all miniature pledge backers as a special gift in memory of Rick.
Rick Loomis (August 24, 1946 – August 23, 2019). *FREE to all miniature pledge backers.
Romilly Brown painted the miniature in the photo above. There are many details here; The Boojum Sword (named after the backyard Boojum tree that Rick was fond of), a cup of mountain dew, "as I am seldom seen around the office without a mug of mountain dew", The Carving Knife of Destiny - for carving out your destiny, Angelica the cat at his side and the wizard hat with "a wide brim like Gandalf." The horns were an unusual idea that hit me while I was running my dog. When I sculpted them, I almost chickened out. It seemed weird. I'd never seen buffalo horns on a wizard's hat before but it seemed too cool not to try. I am glad I kept them. Rick's response was, "I wondered why the horns. I didn't like them at first, but they seem to be growing on me. (Pun intended)." There is also a Bundle of Holding that features a great collection of Buffalo's Catalyst supplements that work with any fantasy RPG. Please check it out also.
Time to explore Duckwyrld... where four valiant Heroes of Quackmoor have been summoned by Mandrake, founder of the Guild of Delvers, to do battle with the nefarious Mordux and his evil minions. Seated upon the legendary Throne of Bones, the power of the Duck Lord grows with each passing night. You must boldly descend into the darkest dungeons of Castle Greyduck, defeat the Champions of Chaos and end the wicked rule of Mordux! What's this you ask? More ducks?! Yes!! My latest range of miniatures will now have their very own game. A couple of years ago I sculpted my first duck knight, Sir Drake. That diminutive miniature took me on the journey of a lifetime. A noble crested duck (and the small party that followed him) brought me to the attention of duck-loving gamers around the world. In particular, legendary (Hall of Fame) game designer and artist, Jennell Jaquays. Together we worked on Quack Keep and the small party of ducks grew to a village of quacky characters, Reedy Bend.
Yes, you can paint and play with these miniatures in your own quest games (and especially with settings like Quack Keep!) but after multiple messages asking for more information about Duckwyrld, Quackmoorand Greyduck... I have brought a personal project to this campaign.
It's the thought that came with that original duck knight. What if the ducks of a fantasy world were the main characters? It's what made Quack Keep unique. I called the original party of five "Duck Quest". Like the nursery rhyme; five little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away. That's a quest, right? Unlike other games where ducks are relegated as side-kicks or comic relief, imagine they're the star players; the heroic explorers on an epic adventure.
It's an idea that didn't go away. The more I looked around, the more I noticed that ducks got a raw deal. Something had to be done. So combining the need for ducks to be represented in a better light and a lifelong dream of writing my own fantasy heartbreaker RPG. I took the plunge and dived in! This is the cover to DuckQuest, with gratitude to Jon Hodgeson for his stunning illustration and Rom Brown (Whippersnapper Artworkz) for the brilliant logo design and layout.
What will be beyond the cover? As much as we can pack into it! This is the opportunity to indulge in a world that takes nothing too seriously but delivers on high adventure and the occasional fowl pun. But wait, there's more...
Magic Mushrooms!
Mercenaries!
Minions!
Crows!
Turtle Warriors!
So what are you waiting for? Come join in the DuckQuest!
Greetings Delvers!
I am very excited about this! It may have been something you are following already but I thought I should mention a project begun here in New Zealand that has just launched on Kickstarter. Hagglethorn Hollow is the lovingly designed, sculpted by hand, terrain set by Johnny Fraser-Allen.
In the video above (shot by Steve Unwin), Adam Savage talks with Johnny about the full project but for the moment, the Labyrinth and Buildings that are on offer. All of it is modular, and can be mixed and matched in an incredibly organic way.
Hagglethorn Hollow Full-Pledge
Because Johnny also works for Weta, it has a real film-set model level of detail. I can't wait to have Hagglethorn Hollow on my gaming table! He talks more about his background here in an interview with Beasts of War:
So, where do these ideas come from? How does a mermaid fit into the Dungeons of Doom underworld and the Star Hat Universe? Well, I could tell you...
...but why do your imagining for you?
Seriously though, I often let the putty do the storytelling, as I sculpt. Sometimes I am surprised by the results! There is definitely a Polynesian feel to this piece. The broken pearl necklace was a last moment addition which brought a big smile to my dial.
Now it’s off to John Popson (Effin Cool, US), then Chris Nicholls (Macrocosm, UK), for mould making and casting in resin.
I am not sure I could be having more fun than I am right now. Thanks for backing Law Vs Chaos! What, you didn't back the Kickstarter? Get ye to BackerKit :)
Here is a heavy piece of (resin) terrain for your next dungeon crawl. There are times in a sculptor’s life when they do something completely different. I blame Murray. Functions as a temple entrance (Dagon or Cthulhu?), or the throne room of a benthic king, or the janitor’s closet at Star Hat University, or as an inter-planetary gate. Travis loves the versatility.
“The Double Doors of Doom,” Nika whispered in hushed tones, “you open them.” Nanook stared up at the ornate doors with an uneasy feeling, “It’s your turn.” “What, again?” “Yeah, I opened the chest in the last room,” he said. Nika coughed abruptly, “chests don’t count.” “I think we’re being watched,” he said quietly, “and not in a good way…” “Is there ever a good way?” “It’s moving!”
