Tag Archives: colony 87

Colony 87 – Attack of the Amphirans

Crooked Dice Games have released a couple of images with miniatures based on my concepts, sculpted by the talented Ari Neilsson. They are a selection of Amphirans (a race of frog-like amphibious aliens) that you might encounter exploring Colony 87.

Here’s an amphiran water trader. He’s chewing some leaves whilst he travels the wastelands. Apparently frogs don’t get their water from drinking (they absorb water through their skin (osmosis)) but Amphirans obviously do. He has a moisture suit to keep his skin damp and lots of gear for repairs. I’ve also designed some water trading company logos too.

This is a Colony 87 medic team; three paramedics, one who is a bodyguard and ambunaut (flying ambulance) pilot too and one who is an Amphiran. Certain frogs have anti-bacterial substances on their skin which I thought would be very useful for an Amphiran. He wears a human hat to feel more like a member of the team.

Who doesn’t need a lovable rogue antiques dealer and his strange expert friend for their tabletop? Here’s my concept drawing of an older Amphiran expert on valuables and artefacts.

And finally some more Amphirans, a couple of youths, an Amphiran space suit and a bloated merchant prince. He’s a combination of a couple of fictional Barons, see if you can tell which they are!

None of these are available to buy yet.

Related Images:

Colony 87 Rides Along

In case you thought this website wasn’t still active, don’t worry, it is! I’ve just been very busy working on various projects; particularly on illustrations for Colony 87.

On that subject I noticed on Facebook a couple of my concepts for jet-bikes have made it into miniature form. Here are the original concept drawings:

Colony 87 Bounty Hunter 1 on Jet-bike
Colony 87 Bounty Hunter 1 on Jetbike.jpg
Colony 87 Bounty Hunter 1 on Jet-bike side and top views
Colony 87 Bounty Hunter 1 on Jetbike – side and top views
Colony 87 Bounty Hunter 2 on Jet-bike
Colony 87 Bounty Hunter 2 on Jetbike

They were for a homage to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza but in a science fiction setting and these were the jet bike versions of Rocinante and Sancho’s mule (which I think in the story didn’t have a name).

The Bounty Hunters you may have seen on their jet-bikes on these sketchbook pages: https://www.willbeck.com/artblog/2021/03/colony-87-rides-again/

Here are the jet bikes on Crooked Dice Games site:

Colony 87 range – Jet Bike 1

Colony 87 range – Jet Bike 2

Though if you wanted to re-create my concepts in miniature form then you’d have to do a bit of converting! Here are links to those as well:

Colony 87 range – Bounty Hunter

Colony 87 range – Squire Sanchos

Related Images:

Happy New Year! More Colony 87 too.

Colony 87 Anti-grav rickshaw ideas
Colony 87 – Sketchbook Oct2022 Colony 87 Anti-grav rickshaw ideas

Happy New Year everyone who looks at my art and this blog! Here’s a miniature that has taken ages to get a sculpt, it’s based on various sketches of mine that go back a few years. I think it was Jon, the originator of the Colony 87 range of miniatures, who wanted an anti-gravity rickshaw, with the weight of the miniature on the beast. Above sketches are me working out how to achieve this with options for various drivers.

Sketchbook Oct2022 – Colony 87 Outland Farmers ideas

Above is some ideas for Outland farmers travelling into Vandestad to sell their produce or buy something for their farms. I’ve changed my eel-lion into a pet eel-cat for the female farmer to be looking after.

Sketchbook Oct2022 – Colony 87 Hover-rickshaw plan and Outland farmer

And here I’m refining the design, with a mini-fusion generator on the back fuelled by hydrogen-bricks powering the anti-grav generator on the underside of the cabin.

You can purchase one or just admire the sculpting and painting here:

Colony 87 range – Hover Rickshaw

Related Images:

Colony 87 Report

It’s been ages since I put anything online (I recently moved house which is very stressful). I’m working as a freelance concept artist for Crooked Dice Games and much of what I’ve created whilst in the game development phase is secret. However the beast in this illustration has been released as a miniature (sculpted by the talented Andrew May).

Colony 87 range – Sandtreader

Colony 87 jet bikes and beast riders

This creature (called a Sand Treader in the Colony 87 game) evolved from a sketch on these sketchbook pages from 2020 I drew for the Colony 87 project. (We’ve also got some Pale alien race ideas, my two bounty hunters on their jetbikes, a nomad on his domesticated giant bird, a Colony Police person on a jetbike, a wasteland scrap merchant on her dinosauroid, a raider type on his camel-lizard, some portraits of raiders, the hover-rickshaw and the beast that Karl at Crooked Dice liked, at the base some more colony cops on their bikes!)

Related Images:

To Colony 87 and beyond!

I’m still working on Colony 87 but much of it is top secret. Occasionally I find a sketch or concept drawing that has been sculpted (this time by the talented sculptor Andrew May) and released.

This page contains four new characters; a woman who repairs robots, often cobbling them together to sell, the itinerant lawyer helping the poor, a sinister alien artefact trader and a lone, aged colonist unable to walk but who drives around the market on his custom kart.

Colony 87 Market characters

You can purchase them here:

Colony 87 range – Bot Trader

Colony 87 range – Street Lawyer

Colony 87 range – Artefact Trader

Colony 87 range – Rolling Messiah

Related Images:

Colony 87 Prospects

More of my images from the Colony 87 setting, this guy is a prospector with his survey drone.

This chap evolved from a sketch of a sauroid beast of burden with prospecting gear so I had to give the beast an owner. He has all the equipment a prospector would need in the wastelands: A new survey drone, core samples, geo-sampler and respirator. The drone re-charges on his arm, I imagined it would operate like a tame hawk in desert, though this would seek and analyse the area whilst broadcasting the information back to the prospector.

He has a power pick and trowel when he needs to get his hands dirty. I drew him to look a bit like all-round acting legend James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Bladerunner (1982) amongst many others). His padded coat resembles the rock strata of his profession and he has a corporate logo on his backpack.

You can purchase a miniature of him here if you like:

Crooked Dice – Games Colony 87 range – Prospector

And his drone is amongst these:

Crooked Dice – Games Colony 87 range – Sci fi loot objectives

Related Images:

The Wrath of Colony 87

Here is the robot in all his (its?) industrial orange glory. I wanted to keep a few shapes from the original 1960’s series so he has tracked feet but then so does 2000AD ABC Warriors’ Hammerstein. I imagined his extra arms could pop out from his belly like R2D2 in Star Wars.

ABC Warriors on Wikipedia

Related Images:

Colony 87 – A new hope

Finally, after much work, Colony 87 Wave 4 Kickstarter is here and going very well. The image above is of an idea for a more working class Space Family Robinson, I was inspired to create these after watching and enjoying the Lost In Space reboot. The father has an extra augmetic arm to help him dismantle space craft and his daughter is responsible for making the deals with customers and fixers.

Here’s a link to the Kickstarter as well as more of my art work you can see great photos of expertly painted miniatures sculpted by the talented miniature sculptors Andrew May and James Sheriff:

Colony 87 Wave 4 Kickstarter

If you’re interested then do click my Facebook link on the right to look at more of my artwork.

Related Images:

Colony 87 rides again

Last year, I sent this page to Karl at Crooked Dice Games as he’d asked for ideas for jetbikes and beasts with their riders. Following this he asked me to work up the guy on the dino-bird (amongst others) at the bottom left.

Here’s the refinment of the designs. I had a good look at ostrich riders in the middle east for the position of the rider and ostriches themselves. I based the riders’ hats a little on the late John Mollo’s costume designs for the Rebels on Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back (1977) and I looked at comics genius Alex Raymond’s Frigia Lancers (from his 1930’s comic Flash Gordon) for inspiration too.

John Mollo on Wikipedia

Alex Raymond on Wikipedia

I worked it up in Manga (Clip) Studio and Painter with a bit of Photoshop as well. The outrider has an option for hands without a his laser rifle (he’s whittling a Chirroc bird from a piece of wood) and there are a few alternative heads.

A link to the post on Crooked Dice Games’ facebook page:

Crooked Dice Games on facebook

Related Images: