New Minis and Scenery for the Nekroplanet

January is almost over and it’s been quiet here on the blog. I've been very busy behind the scenes, though. Let’s have a look at new scenery and kitbashes I’ve made for Nekroplanet Grob since we entered 2024.

THE SPHERES

Strange half-buried black spheres litter the surface of Grob. I had a bunch of small ones already, but now I've added a few massive specimens to the collection. The size variety will allow for pleasant arrangements in photos. They were made using styrofoam balls, and you can see the steps below.

THE PLATFORMS

I've also been working on Nekroplanet’s burial architecture. I’ve built three platforms that are the beginning of a tomb complex table. I have the procedure for these figured out now, so I'll be able to finish off the rest in the second wave. They’re messy and time-consuming to make but it’ll pay off in the end I’m sure. I used foam, air dry clay, plaster, and spackle. You can see the building process below.

KITBASHED GROBNIKS

There is quite a bit of variety among Grobniks. From mass produced series to completely unique finely crafted designs, they were made and deployed over centuries to guard the new tombs and burial sites popping up on the Nekroplanet. You’ve already seen some slightly converted ones, and my growing collection of custom toy-bashed Annihilators. I made four new guys this month. two Bulwarks, an Assassin, and an Enforcer. It’s so fun to kitbash these!

Most of the bits came from my Grobniks available from Ramshackle Games: Bulwark, Enforcer, and Sentry. The fourth body donor is The Madman, a sculpt I did for Rotten Factory’s catalogue.

NEW PHOTO STUFF

I tried a couple new ideas I had for photographing minis.

Shooting groups of figures with a plain black backdrop has always been a bit of a pain to me. Especially since I regularly display them on Instagram, where 1:1 aspect ratio is the norm. So I thought of a possible solution for such square compositions: a set of blocks I can set up to make modular platforms for figures in the back to stand on. So far I think it’s doing the job (look at the group shot earlier in the post).

The second new element for my shots comes in the form of beads. I often wished I had some kind of small doodads to fill the space in between figures when I set them up on a plain backdrop. I have these now. They are meant to add a bit of visual interest, while not distracting from the figures. I like the effect. I got a few colours so I can match the colour scheme of the figure I’m shooting. Now that I know this works I’ll expand my palette. If you’re curious, they’re called caviar beads. Unlike beads meant for stringing, these don’t come with a hole through them. You can find different sizes, colours, and finishes.

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