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[Quaksna]

Hi there, Bay Watchers!

In this thread, I would like to tell you about my papercrafting history. I think it's pretty interesting to look back at your artistic roots and see the evolution of your craft, so that's what I would like to do here, as well as to dive deeper into the origins of my DF +Papercrafts+ project, for it is pretty unique amidst all my work, and every single figurine there has a story behind. Let's begin!

In this post we'll map my journey from the very beginning to right before I started making DF-related papercrafts.

Spoiler: The Origin Story (click to show/hide)

The tradition of making papercrafts is rather old. I can remember having custom cutouts when I was like three years old, in a large cardboard box, now lost in time. Inspiration came mainly from magazines, often having some paper set coming part after part over multiple issues. But these pre-printed things made me often frustrated, it was too complex for me, and I hadn't the patience to bend every single piece perfectly, then carefully glue it to another in perfect angle. So I stuck to my own creations.

The Vault of ancient wisdom. Papercrafts are stored in various tea boxes, depending on the era they were created in.

I rarely thought of something original, until the conception of the frog universe. Before that, video games were the source of inspiration. My papercrafts could be divided into "eras", I was creating a set of figurines inspired by one particular game for a long period of time, using the same methods. I will go through the most lengthy and important eras here, and the oldest one I can remember were figurines based off Warcraft III. And there was a lot of them.

Some nerubians, elves, a boar and a skink, peasant and villager, and a troll witch doctor ward.

Most of the time I tried to make exact copies of the units in the game, from time to time making something unique. The greatest accomplishment from this era was a house for the villagers of Lordearon, I probably still have it somewhere. It was one room, with an openable wardrobe and few pieces of furniture, but it was a breakthrough at the time.

As you can see, they're all rather primitive, but despite that, this era brought the standard model for the figures:

Five pieces for the body - a chest, a head, legs from one piece  - cut in half all the way to the crotch, and two arms. Everything body-related was rectangular or triangular, with sharp edges - round shapes were yet to be discovered.Accessories came usually in one whole piece too, such as weapons, shields, capes, and elven ears. For some reason, I glued the weapons on the side of the arm wrist should be. Colored by crayons exclusively.

I don't remember the age of these models, I think it could be 2009-2011, or something like that. It is definitely the oldest long-running set of mine, but it's so old I can't really remember anymore. I would return to the Warcraft theme from time to time, making new sets using advanced methods, but these were very short-lived and wouldn't produce much figurines.

The next prominent era would be models based on a MMO card game Berserk: The Cataclysm I used to play on Kongregate, before it mysteriously disappeared from there. Those should be from years 2012-2015.

Unlike the other sets, this one is in a shoe box. It shares the place with DF papercrafts and fox-fluff, and... A wire? Curious.




The evolution is apparent, markers are used for coloring, the models are more detailed and tops of their heads are round.

The next era wasn't that long, but it's something I am really proud of, and it serves as a midpoint in between the longer eras. It wasn't based on anything particular, yet inspired by everything at the same time. It was a certain card game of mine, with each card having it's model to be placed onto a board.

It all fitted into a tea box, so it could be easily transported.


You can see not only figurines, but whole squads and buildings, too! There were a six factions, if I remember correctly, one with ogres and giants, one based off ancient nations, a barbarian one, wizards, and slimes, I think... I have the original drafts somewhere. My goal was of course to make each faction it's own deck, but I hadn't created enough cards and figurines to make it possible, so all the cards were divided between the two players. Yet it was always pretty balanced and playable, something I wish to recapture with my board games to this very day 

Maybe it's because it wasn't that long-lived project, I don't remember the exact ages of these models as well. They are definitely younger than the previous two, that's for sure.

The next one is the direct predecessor of the DF papercrafts, therefore a very important one. It is based on Illwinter Dominions series, strategy games depicting various cultures and mythologies fighting for their gods and spreading their faith. This one should be from years 2017-2019, and has probably the largest amounts of models from anything I've made before, for a reason you'll soon see.

Stored in a slightly larger box...


... Full of utter chaos.


The figurines here are the most detailed so far-decorated with pencil almost everywhere, with combination with markers, they're very shiny.


Regular units were made in squads of six, all together at one sitting, commanders were made exclusively. And there were lots of squads, I tried to make six of each unit and one of each commander for every nation in the game. Maybe the great variety was why I stuck to this for so long.


As you can see, the standard structure of the figurines stayed more or less the same, the shapes were only refined a bit over the time.




Two nations I actually kinda completed as I intended - Early Ages Vanheim and Rus.

This is the set I am returning to the most, setting up battles of cataclysmic proportions when I'm bored.

Here's a comparison of all the eras we've been through, with a match and Alle Dazelosric from the DF set. All of these are supposed to be human-sized, you can see they've been shrinking across the years. That's because the smaller the humans, smaller will be also the large things, be it dragons, giants, or buildings. Therefore, I try to make human sized so that I am able to reduce the size of the larger stuff as much as I can, but I am still able to make the smallest figurine in the universe the model inhabits. In DF, this becomes extremely important, as I need to potentially create something as small as a gremlin, or as big as a full grown dragon.

That's it for this post. Hope you found this interesting, and the next time, we'll take a look at the DF related stuff. Thanks for your attention!

[King Zultan]

PTW, I've been meaning to read the papercrafts thread but I haven't got around to it, should probably move it up higher in priority than it has been.

Also those things are way smaller than I thought they were.

[Yellow Pixel]

I didn't know your papercrafting dates back to so long ago! All the time you must have devoted to it, all the efforts and just the sheer amount of figurines gathered together in those tea boxes, it's phenomenal! The way your skills evolved and improved through the years is a beautiful thing to see.

[Quaksna]

Glad you liked it. Now in this thread, we'll inevitably bump into Tales of Kudarkalur quite often, so a bit of familiarity would come in handy, but here I want to focus more on the creative process behind ToK, so it won't be a necessity, I hope.

Let's continue!

Spoiler: The Genesis of DF models (click to show/hide)

Before we get into the DF stuff, I would like to say something more about the last set, the one based on Dominions games. I don't know how well known are Illwinter games among the folk, so I'll dump some info on you just in case, it kinda ties into what I'm going to speak about.

As I've said before, it's a strategy series, really deep and intricate, with vast options and ways to play, hard to master. One rather interesting element are the battles - you don't directly control them, instead, you plan them a turn ahead. After you'll end a turn, the battle is calculated, and you can see the result in your next turn, as well as replay of how did it go, step by step. Because of this emphasis on planning everything, the games have very simple graphics, with each unit having only two frames - one base and one for attacks.

And I think all this reflected in my papercrafts somehow, as in this set, I was making the models in great numbers, on a successful day I would finish three squads and maybe some commanders, but all the figurines within the squads looked the same - that is mostly because of the nature of the source material. And I still enjoyed making them a lot, because of all the different nations, but there was almost no character in the individual models - they were simply soldiers, units.

And that's all well and good for setting up a cataclysmic battle of the ages, and I still love these, but there is something missing in them. Why am I telling you all this - DF figurines would be almost the exact opposite of this.

Dwarf Fortress is an intricate game as well, but in contrast to Dominions, almost everything there is unique. Not a single unit is the same, there is something that makes every single creature on the map stand out. Even if your civ has that poor genetic variety problem, you can still find differences among every single citizen.

And this mentality of uniqueness did surface in the DF papercrafts, I tried to make every model stand out.

My very first DF-related papercraft was Alak, and right from the start, I wanted him to be something special. I made his clothes pretty mundane, as clothes in DF go, but on top of that, I tried something new. I gave Alak his royal blue coat, and a new papercrafting technique was invented - layering.

To that day, the closest I got to intentionally stacking multiple layers of paper onto a figure were probably cloaks, which I would wrap around the neck of a figurine, or if I was creating an animal, I would make it an openable mouth. But even then - it was all a singular piece of paper per accessory, or a body part.

Openable mouths and more complex models as seen in a gryphon, some blue dragon, two argonian dudes, and cloak on Teotl of Rain. No sign of layers, though.

Alak's cloak, on the other hand, would triple the thickness of the model, making it a bit more durable, but mainly improving the look of it. From that moment on, I started creating parts from multiple layers, in DF set, things like armor, weapons, tools, or even bodies of bigger creatures would be all made from two pieces glued together. Clothing of the figurines would be glued onto the base model, creating additional layers.

The coat gave the model a completely new feel.

It was a simple change, but a revolutionary discovery at the same time. To make Alak stand out, I colored his hair red, made it long, alongside with a nice thrice-braided dwarven beard. Another change was how I drew eyes, from then one all eyes looked like actual eyes instead of lines.

Alak Zilirdular, truly a harbinger of a new era. He'll always mean a lot to me. I would shape his personality later, at the time I focused more on making him look "cool", groomed and noble.

At that point I hadn't really clear vision on what I would like to make next, so I went with a another dwarf. And the second one to be made was Urnût.

I guess I tried to make him different from Alak, haven't got that strong memories of his conception. I gave him a tan skin color, dwarfs in DF tend to be rather colourful, so why not. In combination with green eyes and short blonde hair, with short beard but rather long sideburns, he also felt like a completely unique creation. There was something very magical about this process, unlike with the Dominions set, I had no plan, I would just sit, and think of something at the spot, yet the result felt to be so unique from anything I've done before.

Now having two dwarves, I started almost intuitively thinking of relations between them, and who they are. So I thought of Alak as a bold dwarf, who wants to create a great new fortress, but needs supporters, and Urnût as a very humble miner who offered to join him. I also made Urnût a copper pickaxe, but didn't glue it to his hand just yet. At the time, none of them had any names, I thought those up when actually started writing Tales of Kudarkalur.

The third figurine was Kin. A bit skinnier, with a vest and a cap, short dark hair, and a long braided moustache, I thought of him as a woodcutter, and gave him a copper axe, he would be the second one to join Alak.

The next models were not dwarves, but three elves, if I remember correctly. I gave all of them tan skins and green clothes, making them a prototype of some unified faction.

Could not find the third one - it's the one with javelins and a buckler, if you stumble over him in ToK.

I remember doing my younger siblings a sort of puppet-theatre play with these few models, about the dwarves trying to craft an embark wagon, and the elves getting mad at them and chasing them throughout a forest. These plays actually became basis of some of the shenanigans in the first chapter of Kudarkalur.

Next dwarf for the caravan did not come alone, but with a fellow - Ermis and Olmul. I can't honestly remember which I made first, but maybe that says something. Olmul was supposed to be a confident free-spirited dwarf, with adventuring roots - he had this unusual bright red hood and cloak, as well as a shortsword and a wooden shield, but aside his adventures he's a soapmaker, I made him a wooden ladle and some buckets. Ermis had a very mundane look, but her age made her stood out, and despite her disgruntled behaviour, she's a kind and well-meaning grandma. She and Olmul were supposed to have a quick banter with each other, all these ideas would be later developed in ToK.

Next models were three goblin warriors, a troll and Omot, alongside with some accessories, like a cage. Omot was supposed to be the leader of the goblins, so I gave him a band and a cape. With the rest of the goblins I had a lot of fun - I tried to recapture their usual gear in DF, random pieces of leather/metal armor, also their weapons and shields made of different matterials. To see their original gear, look up ToK, as they've been reused multiple times with different armor and weapons. I actually felt kinda guilty of reusing these "characters", such strong was the feel of uniqueness this DF set had. You can see I tried to make each one different with various skin tones and hair as well.

I made the troll based on some Bay 12 art, but later I felt I should've interpreted the DF monsters in my own way, so I didn't use this one in ToK (Now looking back, he actually looks better than the ones I actually used  ). He was in the plays I made for my siblings though, he and the goblins captured Olmul and Ermis, Alak saved them, and they offered to join him. I didn't use this in ToK, but Omot would go from a bandit leader to one of the more prominent villains.

I worked on the wagon in between each figurine, too. The finished model had axles made out of skewers, so the wheels are rotating and you can move it, it rides. This was invaluable when setting up the scenes of ToK, as for each shot I would just move it a bit without having to pick it up, risking to drop everything loaded each time it would have to move.

Next dwarf for the party would be Breath. She was originally some sort of  an adventurer/wanderer the dwarves just found randomly, later I would work on her backstory more. I made her a copper spear and a large dagger, of course, and a green cloak, to support his idea of an adventurer.

The last dwarf of the seven settlers was Vúsh. I made her tan, the idea of a nation of tribesmen of humans, dwarves and elves alike was slowly forming in my head. Her design is rather simple, but again, completely different from the others, I don't know what to say, honestly . Her beef with Zeg originated from the puppet plays, she was meant to have problems with her tribal authorities.

Could not find Vúsh, but wanted to show her here - she is the rightmost dwarf in this shot.

I did make some models and accessories in between those, but I don't remember the order on which they came. So let's just quickly go through all those from this beginning era of DF papercrafts that couldn't be put in a timeline:

Unnos and Razes, the two cows that pulled the wagons. They hadn't names, were made as beasts of burdens for the dwarves, and that's pretty much it. I would shape them out more later.

Ongongera, aka Limulsheget. I wanted to create a DF deity, that had the appearance of some procedurally generated big thing, like a Titan or FB, it resulted in a lamia-like creature. At the time, I thought of him assisting the dwarves somehow, he would evolve into a much more prominent character later. His design inspired elder races of the ToK universe, which ties in with him in a funny way I don't want to spoil just yet.

The five Lords of Alsmustspås. They had to be created some time after Limulsheget, as I remember the whole Alsmustspås event occurring in the proto-ToK puppet play. Regardless of that, I made them bodies like goblins have, but covered in divine material clothing and armor. They had set spheres, but hadn't much personality, only Ongnguutgub was supposed to be vain right from the offset. Alongside them, I made three Ngorubnestro, too, other servants would came later, when I needed them in ToK.

Iguana men. Not very different from each other except very slightly in proportions, but I'm still pretty proud of them. They are smaller than dwarves, yet I managed to create them these very detailed heads, like those with openable mouths I've shown before. (Little did Q'uaksna know, he would have to later do the same with crundles...  )

Couldn't find Ibon.

The human tribesmen that were to trade with the dwarves. I remember the original ones were one of the Koseasi, Ibon, Udma, and Sutad, probably the llamas, too, and the butler of lord Alle, which was meant to be a tribesman originally (and he still kinda is, the tan skin and everything), but later I assigned him to Copnutgashi, he seemed a bit odd among the others. Sutad was the merchant, do I gave him expensive-looking garments - fuchsia cloak and black trousers, whereas his two guard would have furs and brown cloth. The caravan bodyguards were interesting to create, as they would represent the warrior "classes" of the tribesmen. This isn't that apparent in ToK, but it was fun creating various ranks and professions in these different cultures and organizations.

The bodyguards of Alle and Rane are from this time period too.

There were also some old models that were not ever used in ToK, such as this knight person, supposed to be deity of humans, and serpent-like FB, which I think was too small to be an actual FB, which in hindsight seems like a pretty silly reason to not utilize it.



That would be it for the earliest DF papercrafts. Next part, we'll take a look at what came after these, and beginnings of ToK itself.

If you had anything that you're interested in or you would like to take a closer look on something particular, let me know! I'll gladly show you more.

[King Zultan]

They are quite impressive and very detailed especially when you show how small they are.

How many of these things do you think you've made from the very beginning to now?

[Quaksna]

They are quite impressive and very detailed especially when you show how small they are.

How many of these things do you think you've made from the very beginning to now?

Uncountable. I have absolutely no idea, but it's a lot. The Dominions set alone might have more than hundred models... I never counted them overall, just within the sets I was doing at the moment, and they are some sets in the Ancient Vault I've already forgotten about and rediscovered yesterday 

I would like to go more or less my whole DF set here, so we can count along the way. And oh boy, if you think this is well detailed for its miniscule size, wait till we get to crundles!

[Yellow Pixel]

It's nice to see that the uniqueness of DF nourished your creative spirit when you made the characters for ToK. It encouraged you to enhance their look with paper clothes, beards and weapons, but it also incited you to flesh out the characters' psychology, their roles and the relations between them. It added layers to everything!

Also, now I wonder: what was your trick to make the rugged cape of Oströtakåtôz? Did you glue tiny bits of paper together? And what is the backstory of the amphibian men and plump helmet men who fought Tarmid, the scissors FB, at the very beginning of ToK?

[Quaksna]

Oströtakåtôz's coat is made out of three pieces like thr basic coat model Alak has (one for torso, bend inwards on the sides, two symmetricall for the arms that would be bend in half and glued together), but they were cut out in a very jagged manner, that's pretty much it. I don't remember why I gave him a ragged-looking cloak, but it kinda suits him. As for the Tarmid fight, you're going to find out soon!

Maybe it's because of the fact I'm not working on ToK anymore, but I couldn't, eh, locate quite a number of models. So rather than to write down every missing one each time, I am telling you right now - the images won't always have all the figurines spoken about in the text present. It was inevitable.

Spoiler: Papercrafts on Bay 12 (click to show/hide)

Before the idea of posting a papercraft story onto forums occurred to me, I kept expanding the DF set with new models. So here's a few of them, that are, while younger than those before, still made independently of ToK.

A minotaur with an axe, a palisade that was never used, and two frogos, some sort of domestic frog/reptile creatures I remember being the first creature I ever modded into DF, don't have the raws anymore.

Some statues I didn't use, probably because I've forgotten about them, quite a pity honestly.

The ogre, Ebeca, dwarven king, Stukos and some dwarven axeman. The king's crown wasn't glued on him and could be taken off, that's probably why he hasn't it anymore 

Lolor Kitïgzilir. He's actually the only character based off a citizen from one of my old fortresses, where I had a manager called Lolor I once drew based on his description. His papercraft counterpart looks exactly like him, except his hair is a lot darker. Lolor was made simultaneously with his two colleagues, Ziril and Keshan, and as they belong to the same group, they all have red clothing decorated with gold. Lolor is the only character that appeared in ToK I can think of with this dark skin color, hinting that he is from another dwarven nation.

Lord Alle Dazelosric, Len and Lord Oli (not the original model, that one was lost unfortunately, here's recreation of it) . I remember thinking of Mozart when I was creating Alle, don't know why, but that's probably how he got his attire, also made number of books for him. Len was supposed to be a warrior, hence his bracers and hood.

First Kudarkalur furniture, and a procedurally generated monster - a rock salt boulder with wings, that actually existed in one of my DF worlds, and I thought it was hilarious so I recreated it.

Bunch of cavern creatures - few kobolds, Deilik, three amphibian men, Wõrv, and plump helmet man if I remember correctly. The robed kobold at the far left wasn't used in the end.

Those were all made before the conception of ToK, and my account on Bay 12 Forums.


I did visit the forums as a guest way before my account was a thing, and what I especially enjoyed were the legendary stories and webcomics, like The Littlest Cheesemaker. I hadn't been around here yet at that time, but I could see all the responses and masses of people invested in these projects and having fun together, and I remember feeling quite sad that the forums had such a glorious history, but at the time in 2019, I felt things went a bit downhill, the golden ages have left Bay 12 a long time ago. And I felt this strange urge to go and contribute to the forums, in order to bring the good ol' days.

So I was thinking of what would my project be. And the first thing that occurred to me...

Was actually a webcomic starring Deilik, with drawings. I even drew some frames of it, and wrote some intro script, set up to start it off... But I didn't. I don't remember exactly why, but I think I thought it might've been too ambitious for a first project on a new account. So I decided to bet on something safer, and I've decided to share my DF papercrafts with the forums. So I created an account.

Now if you're a hardcore Q'uaksna veteran (aka Superdorf), you may actually remember when Dwarf Fortress +Papercrafts+ was a small thread in the Creative Projects section, and the first thing I posted was this short sequence of the three amphibian men fighting off my scissors. Heh, I remember reading the very first response I got, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. This was pretty much my first time showcasing my creations publicly, and I got rather excited. I began working relentlessly on the project.

I started creating names for the characters, and writing scripts while on my way home in the public transport. I remember trying to catch a public Wi-Fi during a single minute of respite in the town centre to load a single page I got bookmarked - Dwarf Fortress wiki: Language, so that I could draw from it during the subway ride. When I got home, I would set up a scene, take pictures, upload them, and post. I was so invested in it back then, wish I would have the passion now.

The second sequence I posted was of the dwarven settlers, introducing them. And from there, Tales of Kudarkalur arose. The original idea wasn't of the settlers taking the spotlight almost immediately, but rather showcasing the various models. Yet, they did. I think it might've been of that puppet-plays I did for my siblings, I had some preexisting material to work with. I decided to move the thread to DF Community Games and Stories, as we would focus on Alak and his band from now on, telling their story. Then the infamous event happened - me accidentally putting in into the official DF announcements section, so I had to PM Toady himself... I remember freaking out for the whole day, but Toady, being the coolest of men like he is, fixed it soon enough so I hadn't fallen into the tantrum spiral.

Toady One raw adamantine memorial

From this moment on, I would create new papercrafts as the story would need them.

First off, Luslemnod the toad. Having a frog character in a story is pretty much a Q'uaksna trademark, so of course I had to make one here.

Creatures of the desert, a vulture, giant kingsnake, giant gila and three regular gilas, some carps, terrors of inland waters. Also a little dragon, who could actually be older than ToK, I'm not sure.

The creatures of Alsmustspås, bogeymen, heralds of night and Aslezslagka, also Aspdosusmat, and some scenery stuff - the statue and table seen in chapter 5. Oh, and Töboggosma, of course. Asleslagka ain't that interesting, I treated them more like the Dominions models, but bogeymen were fun - I could create multiple versions of them, so some have single eye, horns, wings, tails...

While creating Aspdosusmat, I remember actually studying canine teeth, that was fun too.

Some more tribesmen, that is rest of their caravan - Duto, three women, and their stand, probably some boxes too and cloth inside them. If the llamas weren't already existing, they've must been added at this point. At the beginning Duto hadn't his beard, but there's a point in ToK where he stops shaving and you can see his beard growing each episode after.

And finally, the first migrant wave - dwarven tribesmen led by Zeg, the three militia dwarves, Lolor, Muz, Nakuth and Urist. The three militia dwarves were originally beast hunters and mercenaries, so I made them colorful gear like the goblins had. Muz was inspired by Catweazle, and I thought of him being some country sorcerer, but later I sticked to him being just a simple farmer. As with Urist, I think I subconsciously tried him to be linked to Lolor and Alak, via the overall appearance (but mostly the coat), yet making him more humble - his coat has this more natural color. It looks like black because it's very dark, but it's actually a mixture of brown/grey.

Alongside with the new dwarves would come some livestock, too. Two cats, geese, a black hen, a bull and an ox.

I remember the geese and cats were pretty tough to get done, but here we are.



That's it for this post! Next time we'll look at the new models brought by chapter two of ToK.

[King Zultan]

Now I feel like I've missed out not reading that thread.

[Quaksna]

Now I feel like I've missed out not reading that thread.

I don't think you missed that much honestly  ToK is still very important to me, but it certainly isn't a masterpiece of any kind, and nowadays I can see all the flaws more clearly, but hey, it is what it is and I'm glad I could make it for the Bay.

Also, over the time I would stop being so keen about it, and by the time -Drawings- took off ToK basically became a dump for exposition about the world  There are lots of episodes I call "incessant babbling", so brace yourself if you're gonna read it.

But we'll get to that in due time, I hope.

[Yellow Pixel]

I agree that ToK has not achieved its full potential and that the story has some flaws, but TBH, looking a second time at these Papercrafts brings me very good memories. I had a lot of fun reading it!

[Quaksna]

I agree that ToK has not achieved its full potential and that the story has some flaws, but TBH, looking a second time at these Papercrafts brings me very good memories. I had a lot of fun reading it!

Did its job, then.

Spoiler: ToK:Chapter Two (click to show/hide)

My DF set and Tales of Kudarkalur soon became synonymous. All new figurines were to be integrated the story, and what I didn't need, I didn't make, for the most part. But there's was already a lot to work with, many characters to sustain multiple episodes ahead, and the production of new papercrafts slowed down.

Good thing about the size of the models is, the background object didn't necessarily need to be papercrafts as well, there was plenty of stuff to use for the scenes. You can see pebbles scattered around, grass or sand can be made with sheets of cloth, artificial floor is just the kitchen floor... It was fun coming up with objects that could be used, and I think I did pull out some interesting ideas, but when I got to make background papercrafts, that wasn't so great. I made only three trees, two pretty small ones and a bigger one later, and three or so grass/weed like plants being reused over and over, feel I could've done better in that department. But it would get better over time, and more varied environments would be introduced later.

Also this was problem just with paper plants, as artificial items were plenty - I've created quite a number of boxes, barrels, sacks... Guess trees were just a bit too complex to get right.

Some prop models and huts


The better of the two trees, and some tents.


Wearing ridges of Imkegethonol/Kudarkalurian cave walls, also there's sand of Stothoaslud in the backround


Pebble Vault.

Enough scenery talk, let's get to new characters! There wasn't that many new figurines needed, as stated before, but we got some new additions in Chapter two development.

First, I expanded the night creature library, added some werebeasts and night trolls. These were basically just enemy monsters, not very interesting for their personality, but I did play around with the designs a bit.

But the much more interesting part were the Udirizden. A completely new group of dwarves, this squad's story would be followed from then on alongside that one of Kudarkalur settlers. I don't remember why I felt the needed to add some other dwarves, but these turned out rather well, compared to some other additions. They were all being created simultaneously, but unlike the larger soldier bands before, each one of these would have a character. Their designs differ greatly one from another, I'm quite proud of them. I think this is a good opportunity to talk about how I craft armors from this set - they're multi-layered pieces, glued on top of the body below, but in such a way that they can be potentially removed if needed, a very useful feature. Neth has an actual face, he's not just the helmet

Their appearance has changed over time, so here's shot of them in their original gear.

Otad (the veteran one) was created alongside them as well, despite not being seen together in the story. He belongs to them regardless, afterall.

Otad wasn't found, so here's a scene from ToK. He's the one-armed dwarf next to the cat, which I couldn't find last time, too.

Neth has a face, but you know who doesn't have a face? The count of Mountainhome, he's basically a prop. A living cape with a circlet. I don't remember exactly why I made him this way, possibly because I don't want to damage the figurines so I hadn't had the heart to make him one (I'm quite fond of these). Well, later in the story people would get decapitated, guess I got over these feels after some time.

He ain't even colored on one side...

Wálim and Elêri are also from this time period, but I don't want to show these here, I think they appearance alone is some hidden fun stuff better not to spoil.

Cinnabar crafts were created a while before I needed them, could be actually similarly old to the statues I've shown before, not sure.

Nel, Nirmek and Solon. They do belong to the same faction as Lolor and his friends, but have lower ranks - I made their clothes more mundane, but still with prominent red areas.

Finally, some new elves were made. In spirit of the three old ones, I expanded their warrior ranks, with a shortbow archer, a sniper, some veiled one with +grown wooden glaive+, and a praetorian guard. If I remember correctly, he was supposed to ride on some beast, that's why he has the spear so long, not sure why he didn't in the end.


That's it for the second chapter, stay tuned for the next post!

[King Zultan]

How long do you think it takes you to make one of these figures the armour it wears?

[Quaksna]

How long do you think it takes you to make one of these figures the armour it wears?

Not that long, it's basically like making another figure but with two layers, and then just placing it over. But I do like to play around with the armor pieces a little bit more.

I never really timed how fast a model is made, but to make a nice one usually takes about 20 minutes. First cutting out the pieces, then coloring them, then putting it all together, considering they are this small. Bigger models usually take more time, it's harder to overall plan them, it takes longer to color the large pieces, and I prefer making anything bigger than a human two layers on their base body, so they're sturdier.

With the DF and Dominions set I was often creating multiple models simultaneously, which does save time considerably. It adds some time, but ultimately it's far far faster than making them one after the other. So it's not really about how much am I doing per sitting, but how many times and for how long do I get myself to sit down and work on these, and what plans do I have.

The models are of course very fragile and need gentle handling, but that is countered by the very easy maintenance.

[Yellow Pixel]

I find that the use of real cloth, pebbles and floor tiles only adds charm to ToK. Also, the Udirizden members are some of my favorite characters. Their outfits are cool and I remember that their conversations always made me smile.