Having got my hands on some of the production (I think) models for the LOAD Kickstarter, I thought I’d put up some more pics of UniCast in action before it finished.
LOAD is a full game using UniCast to make dozens of models. They’ve been designed with this material in mind, so they make the best use of its ability to largely ignore things like undercuts. They’re nicely three-dimensional, and highly detailed.
Rather than tell you what you can see for yourself, I’ll just show some pics and keep my comments to a minimum. On the whole, it’s more of what I’ve already discussed in previous posts: models with loads of detail in poses you couldn’t possibly cast in one piece in any other medium. Most pics should click to enlarge.
Note the tiny fishing pole among the baggage, above 🙂
How?
One thing which differs between these LOAD figures and the previous UniCast models I’ve seen is the level of detail on the bases. I’ve picked an extreme example here, but many of the models have tufts of grass modelled on. And I don’t mean a texture on the base, I mean blades of grass sticking up. You can see these on the “demon” and the “foot knight” above. The tree-thing model above has stuff sticking out in every direction, and is still a single piece.
The German site brueckenkopf has loads more pics and a nice review (in German) of this set of figures. They agree about the process being impressive overall, though they do flag up mould alignment as a potential issue. I have to say I’m not very concerned myself. Looking at their pictures and the samples I was sent, there are indeed a few models with imperfect alignment (see the pics below). However, we’re talking fractions of a millimetre here, and nothing I haven’t seen in metal, plastic, resin, restic, HIPS, etc – in fact, anything that is produced in multi-part moulds. It’s a function of that process, not the material you pour into it, and is something I would expect to see in here too because UniCast is moulded.What seems strange about it here is that it appears only on part of the model rather than all over, which is usual in metal, for example. Overall, I can’t see this being a surprise or a real problem for anyone who’s prepared models before.
Brueckenkopf suggests that the very flexibility of the moulds that allows for such insane undercuts in the first place, may also allow for more slippage, and that is a very good point. Only time will tell. However, so far, I’m just not seeing it.
So, in summary, another set of models that would simply not be possible to make in single pieces by other traditional means*. As a process, it’s got a lot of promise.
*Thinking about it, I suppose that you could theoretically make a steel mould with multiple, interlocking slides, that got similar results. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that for single figures though, and I can’t see if being anything other than prohibitively time-consuming and expensive.
Feeling a bit jet-lagged this morning after a marathon train journey back from the con. Very happy with going though – I’d not miss it. My head’s still buzzing with all the stuff I saw, all the people I spoke to, and all the new games I played, rummaged through, bought, and planned myself (worked out the bones of 3 new dice games on the way home). Lots of cool stuff and interesting ideas.
If any of the squares a model covers are in the area marked in front then it counts as being in front of the target.
If you’ve not been before and are at all interested in games, I’d recommend you try to pop along at some point this weekend. You can get a ticket on the day, it’s very family friendly, and it has a very high female/child count (for a game show) – almost as if gamers were part of the real world!
This year I’m wandering about like the penguins, above. I’ve been on trade stands before, and next year I have possibly 3 different stands I might have to flit between, but this year I’m just drifting about, seeking things to amaze and amuse myself. That means that I get to play some of the many games on offer, and I expect there to be a great many to choose from. Ice Cool (above) is one I’m looking forward to trying my hand at, but there will be loads more – way more than I can fit in during a mere 3 days. Calling the main space the Trade Hall makes it sounds like a big shop, and there will doubtless be plenty to buy. However, there’s always a bewildering array of games to play as well, and hundreds of people who would just love to run you through a demonstration of their latest masterpiece. Some of these will be buyable on the day, but increasingly there are people previewing early copies of things that are set of Kickstarter or Indiegogo. A sign of the times.
The Troll counts as being in the Hero’s front arc here:
And here:
And in the rear arc here:
So, if any of the squares occupied by the base of the Large or Huge model are in the front arc of the target, then it is in the target’s front arc.
As I mentioned at the end of last week, I’m going to go through some of the DS FAQ this week. Rather than just dump it into the file, I’m going to post these additions up as discussion articles for a few days first. This is partly because I like discussing stuff with you guys, but mostly because I’ve not played a lot of DS from the printed rules, and it’s the printed rules we need to check rather than what I remember or might have written in one of the many pre-production versions.
Quirkworthy 