Kali Yuga: The Age of Conflict

The research goes on for relevant minis to use and there are successes and short comings. I’ll begin with the crap and work my way out of the funk.

Tiger riding Sikhs still elude AI. It’s getting better (I think?)

I have, unfortunately, managed to track down quite a number of figures made for 15mm which are way too small for my painting aim of adding Maiden Guard. As previously mentioned there were 28mm figures made for a medieval Indian army line that ended up being split between companies. I have, however, met with success in getting an answer from Thistle&Rose about the Vendel Ancients and they have them as selection AI11 Warrior Maidens. I will have them added asap.

I apologise as these images are horrible and I am ashamed of the ai image generation. I jumped onto Craiyon as a quick generator and threw in the text “Sikh warrior carrying a talwar in right hand while riding on the back of a charging tiger”.

These were the most promising of the returns after a few dozen attempts. The rough ideas have potential but I think I’d have better luck in future with a real human being to tweak things for a 3D models for a special tiger riding unit. It seems that tigers seem to elude AI like the additional eyes and fingers.

If possible, funding being the problem, I will definitely be tossing images of real tigers and Sikh warriors at a sculptor who could do the job for this creation. There are plenty of tiger models out there that fit the bill but properly positioned and outfitted riders will be the issue. The creativity will continue to bubble.

I’ll be painting up a monster other than the wonderful Kali statue in future and it will be a huge Indian cobra (aka. Spectacled Cobra ; Naja naja) for the way I can play with visual interest. Going from dusty tan and grey I’ll be able to introduce yellows, brown and white to grab the eyes with neutral tones far from the loud clash of colors I hope to bring troops. It reminds me of the story of Rikki-tikki-tavi and will be a good counterpart to the future of the Cococucqui Amazons I’ll paint.

I’ve seen the Studio Tomahawk release for Age of Hannibal and I thought it might be time to just dump this upon you lot as Dropapu might enrich the earth. I won’t be picking up that book but seeing the minis for the release means I’m likely on the right track for the lines I’ve selected.

Gerry won’t be the only one to enjoy this privately and it might be a point of discussion on the UHH as Giftmas comes in part for Tim.

As a consolidation of projects I am cancelling a previous one and bringing content here. I believe that having the figure on hand, as I still observe my ‘No New Mini Purchases’ policy until next year, is quite handy.

Seeing such an interesting model made me think that there needed to be just as interesting a base of I were to make a display piece. I envisioned an opening lotus blossom with a mandala under the feet of the figure. Thus I began my search for both to incorporate into the desired item. Initially I was going to have someone 3D sculpt this but AI will fill that need. I could probably handle the minor lift modifications for printing.

It would need to be pretty large as the base supplied with the resin is about 50mm in diameter. That being said I think something around 15mm (maybe more) in height would be right and end up making the petals stubby. Here I’d also remove the lid to this incense burner to make it an inset mandala. The entire figure would be done up in muted colors/pastels according to Indian art.

Overall its more exercise in creativity and help inspire the force build on a motif.

What’s Age of Magic without a mage? Just another historical game per my mind. So, to address this I’ve considered the magic of India. I was not well versed in any particular tradition as it seems that the folk magic and miracles seem to be the realm of saddhus (holy men) or other hedge mages. In that regard I’ve gone to research again and found that the Aghori fit in the best for what I think visually would be useful to gameplay.

Philosophically I’m at a loss to imprint reality on tiny fighting men but its been a wild ride to read about their radical rejection of the material world and practices.

As devotees to a philosophy of all things being equal, anything “good” or “bad” is no better in the material world, that are known to carry human skulls for drinking vessels/begging bowls who sometimes eat the flesh of the dead yet are thought to be great healers. I may reconsider my battleboard for what magic they have use of but I’ll stick with The Horde as a starting point.

I gathered some images to start my creativity, should I need to do conversions, and dredged up Indus miniatures with their lot of saddhus

Having seen smilodon riding barbarians I turned the creativity aim at tiger riding specialty troops.

I pulled images as reference from the internet that will be fed to the AI and play around with. I’ll put some design time to develop the concept sketches and models when I can sit and devote real brain time to it. My intent is to hand over the final ideas to Blitzkrieg as to include them in their line of work. If it goes anywhere, great. If I get a small amount of money, that’d be great. In the event I get recognized for the help and got a few figures, that’d be great too. Honestly, I believe this idea is too good to pass up.

With thoughts of future monstering for a moment I dug around for some good images to reference in the creation of the Kali statue. I did my 180 on the AI creation tool after considering where I could utilize the sculpting program in order to recreate the digital model for printing. Given that it is a licensed work I have no intent to sell or distribute the information beyond my own personal use as an homage to the work of a special effects legend.