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August Trailer
🕑 Added 2025-07-29 18:51:38 +0000 UTCHello Adventurers, Collectors and Merchants!
It's finally the day of the trailer for the following monthly release, arriving about day 2 of August!
Hello Adventurers, Collectors, and Merchants!
It’s finally trailer day for the upcoming monthly release, arriving around August 2nd!
Following the path of our first Adventure Set, Raid at the Temple of Ifrit , I wanted to expand the lore of the Elemental Monarchs, powerful beings who dared to challenge the Lords of Mundus in a bid for godhood. For their ambition, they were punished and sealed within ancient temples scattered across their elemental planes, bound to serve any heroes bold and skilled enough to reach their sanctuaries and defeat them.
A feat easier said than done!
This time, since Ani loves harpies, I wanted to create a set that would include them, that was the first step!
At first, I imagined them guarding an island, inspired by the tale of Ulysses, where the crew is enchanted by the song of the Sirens (who, in ancient Greek art, were actually half-woman, half-bird — not fish).
During the 3D sculpting phase , I decided I wanted the harpies to look like they came straight out of Greek mythology.
This set felt like the perfect chance to make some pirate heroes. After a few days thinking about what the harpy epic boss could be, I realized this would be the ideal set to follow up Raid at the Temple of Ifrit, turning it into Raid at the Temple of Storm — set in the Elemental Plane of Air, where Zephyra, Monarch of Storms, lies in slumber.
Look at the Zephyra sketch: it was made in just a few seconds, right after I visualized her in my mind. I had to get it down quickly, because in moments like these, the idea can fade just as fast as it appears. More detailed sketch are often counterproductive when trying to replicate what you have in your imagination.
The heroes for this set had to be planar pirates. You get to decide if they’ve teamed up with the Ifrit crew, or if they’re an entirely new band of adventurers 😉
They are regular pirates in Mundus, but their objective is to reach forgotten places where portals for the Elemental Planes reside.
The first pirate I wanted to portray was a dwarf, so I reached Zbrush and started immediately to carve out his face.
Honestly, I was extremely happy after few hours on the dwarf pirate! Tons of personality just like I needed. Dwarf pirate is not your usual combo, but it makes for a fun character.
The next member of the crew had to be a monk pirate; someone who could knock you out with the same mop they use to clean the deck.
Many of you have been asking for a monk character lately, and the theme really sparked my imagination.
I gave him a long braid and a dynamic pose that could easily work with dual blades, a bow, or even a gunpowder pistol. Isn’t he a cool character?
When I started working on Zephyra, I thought it would take me at least two weeks to complete the sculpt, and honestly, it was exactly the time I needed to bring the Elemental Monarch of Storm to life.
The pose had to match the sketch I had drawn during the concept phase, and that’s always the hardest part for me: translating the exact energy of a drawing into a 3D sculpt.
The last character of this small crew is Janessa Galeheart, but I want to keep the pinup of the month as surprise, you'll find her in the trailer ;)
This ZBrush screenshot is just to show you the impressive size of Zephyra compared to the harpies. I’ve split her body into several parts so it’ll be easy to fit your printer without issues.
This monthly release was honestly a pain to support with all those feathers.
Normally, we support feathered wings upside down, with the feathers pointing upward, that’s the cleanest and most reliable method. But since the harpies' wings are fused with their bodies, we couldn’t split them. So we had to come up with an alternative solution.
This turned out to be the perfect occasion to improve even more Runebrace, our in-house professional support software. After a week of testing harpies support, Renato decided to use Runebrace to easily navigate through the countless tiny “islands” between the feathers and support them in the best possible way. It saved us a ton of time!
Of course, this doesn’t affect how you use the files:
Unsupported STLs are included as always.
Pre-supported STLs are always the same format (stl), ready to print.
And you also get the .ags files (Runebrace files) and the software for free, in case you want to resize the models, which by the way is a breeze to do in Runebrace.
To finish the set, I wanted to include some interesting Storm Elementals, native inhabitants of this chaotic elemental plane.
Now, I thought these would be quick to sculpt… but the lack of anatomy actually made them one of the most difficult models I sculpted this month!
I'm really excited seeing the painted minis, especially the shots provided by Dave.
The harpies turned out super cool, and Brokk looks glorious in his piratesque attire.
Thanks so much if you’ve made it all the way down here the new set will be available around August 2nd!
Cheers!
Comments
Maren Foresti
Amazing and refreshing take on the same old pirate adventure = fish monsters And I really like what you've done with the harpy's anatomy, looks, as you put it, out of a greek vase! Looking forward to have these on the table
Jordan Larson
when should the files appear in our account? I thought I saw sometime on the 2nd but I haven't received anything.
Richard A Paskvan
Is it possible to have lightning effects added to the smaller harpies, and a no lighting version of the monarch??
