Spelljammer Test Prints (Patreon)

Since people seemed to enjoy my previous process update I thought I'd share the latest round of test prints I did.


The Finch

Pretty happy with how this one came out, kind of your basic starter level Spelljammer with room for a couple ballista. Might try to fit a skull and crossbows on the wings for one of the color variations to make a ship fit for some Space Pirates.

The Moon Moth

This one feels like the bell of the ball, just lots of fun colors and shapes on it. I need to print out another Ballista for the aft. Other then that this baby is good to go, on ward to color variations.

Astral Elves

These ones were pretty fun, very theatrical outfits that feel straight out of Flash Gordon. For these I adapted the designs for the Astral Elf Warriors and Commanders from Boo's Astral Menagerie that were done by Zuzanna Wuzyk and Julio Reyna and fitted them over one of the Elven Ranger minis I'd done previously. Sometimes I can recycle elements of existing miniatures, but in this case since the outfits were so distinct and wonderful the only thing I wanted to repurpose was the pose itself.

These Astral Elves are a good example of when I'm leveraging existing Wizards of the Coast IP and making use of their Fan Content Policy. Most of the time I just want to do my own take on things, but sometimes when I dig a design (especially when I plan on running the campaign myself) I'll heavily reference their official art. In those cases, where I'm intentionally referencing official art or a named character I'll release the miniatures for free to align with the Fan Content Policy. Baba Lysaga, these City Watch or this Slaad are good examples of when I've done that in the past.

Fan Art for miniature creators can be a bit of a trade off, on one side it's getting to use a cool design, stay consistent with the look of an official adventure, and giving the community something that exactly fits an official adventure. On the other side it's something creators sink time in creating but can't really leverage financially - it's made freely available and can't ever be used in any other project with third parties for any type of compensation (like the partnership I had with Geektank Games for example).

I consider myself extremely fortunate and it's all thanks to the amazing support of my patrons that I can indulge in these Fan Art miniatures and honestly it feels rather utopian to be able to do so; all you wonderful patrons make it possible for me to occasionally make stuff and just put it out there for free for the everyone in TTRPG community to use - that is so incredibly cool.

Seems like a good spot to stop. Let me know if you're enjoying these kind of process/updates; if people are digging them then I'll continue to make time for 'em.

Cheers everyone!
-Marshall