Unleash the Beast

The Lord of Lies was a Forces of the Abyss unit from second edition Kings of War, and he's now returned bigger, badder, and better than ever - and needed a suitably impressive centrepiece miniature to match both the new vision and his upcoming part in Pannithor's story...

Catching up with sculpting co-ordinator Dave, he always had a very clear idea of how the new miniature would look. He describes the character's look as ‘a better class of demon: standing taller than other archfiends with an intelligent grin, baroque armour, and carrying a huge symbol of power – Oskan’s Black Axe.’

Dave then creates a very detailed briefing document for the sculptor, in this case the talented Herman Serrano, and concepts begin to fly back and forward until we settle on the exact look we're after. Below you can see an early version of the miniature's head, before we decided to add details such as his battle-damaged horn, and turn the reinforced sections of his face from horn into an alternative, helmeted, head.

It's easily possible to add too much at this stage, so we have to decide which details and textures are important to keep, and which might add unnecessary 'clutter' for most hobbyists when building and painting the miniature.

Our Mould Makers now also get involved to work out the best way to 'split' the miniature, looking for natural lines and joins that will offer good surface area for hobbyists to glue, while remaining as subtle and hidden as possible.

Over to the Mould Makers

Ricky and Richard will then take the correctly split-down initial sculpt, a master-quality 3D print (from a very high-specification machine), which is meticulously cleaned and worked on to ensure that it is perfect for making the very first mould.

The cleaned parts are attached to small rods, which will become the 'feeds' for resin to pour into the part mould area itself. The large block at the bottom is called the 'well', and it receives a serial number that can be checked when assembling kits, or for customers to reference should they ever need to contact us with an issue.

Additional support 'tabs' are also added at this stage where required to support and protect smaller details during packing and transit.

From these parts, the master mould is then created. In the below image, you can see the master moulds for the miniature's head and axe. The shape you see is actually empty space, and the perfect inverse of the part itself!

We keep all the original parts and first moulds, which are considered 'masters' and 'submasters'. These can be used to reproduce future moulds, as each one has only about 30 uses before it needs to be re-made.

Finally, we are ready to begin making the miniature itself, which takes place in an area with both special casting and ventilation equipment. Below you can see some of the very first production parts, fresh from being hand-cast!

The Lord of Lies Revealed

And finally, here he is - in all his huge, devious, axe-wielding glory.

There are of course plenty of other people also involved in the production and launch of any miniature: from painters (in this case Mr Angel Giraldez) and rules designers, to Ben our photographer, almost everyone will be involved in some way to help bring each vision to life!

A fantastic project for hobbyists, painters, gamers and collectors - have you pre-ordered the Lord of Lies yet?