April 2023 Patreon Release

Hey there! Welcome to this month's Patreon release - this month we have giant robot heads, giant floaty tentacle robots, small floaty tentacle cyborgs, a full terrain set, slightly freaky infantry, very freaky characters, and a tank trio!

Well, before we get into the nitty-gritty, if you're new here, you'll receive your files via MyMiniFactory, either through an email invitation to redeem your files through their site, or if you already have an account, it'll get added to your library automatically - don't worry if you don't get your files right away, however, as it might take me a little while to issue them, as it's a manual process. In addition, on the store page you can see all the previous releases of models - if you've missed out on something and want to get your hands on it, fear not, for as a Patron, you can use a discount code (check the post after this one for it!) to get 15% off all your digital purchases from the Solwyte Studio store!

Alright, enough with that shameless self-promotion. Let's get onto the stuff you get this month! In addition, this month includes one model presupported in the initial release - I had planned to get more done, but unfortunately due to unpredictable changes in my schedule, I didn't have quite the time I had hoped to allocate to them, but I'll rectify that in short order through the month. 

So, let's start with the smallest part of the biggest release!

This month sees the release of the next entry in the Kaliakos Anathema Construct: the Hystarii-Omega Helm! Truthfully, I find making heads the most challenging part of any model, so whilst I've been designing this on and off all month, it only clicked what would work in the last few days. Those of you who have been here a while will also notice something familiar about this head now: I've long known that the Asamus has been the most popular of my creations, and that is in large part due to its rather iconic head, so with that in mind, I opted to go for something reminiscent of that, but wearing more crown-like armour across its brow.

Next up, let's get weird up in here!

Say hello to the newest addition to the Covenants of Astyri, as part of the House Phykon Ascendancy! In a similar fashion to the previously announced Phykon Revenants resculpts, the Phykonite Interrogator is a betentacled monstrosity, standing (or rather hovering at) a total height of 162mm. This does not yet come with any ranged weapons yet, but between its eight huge arms able to grasp and crush anything in their vicinity, I don't think it'll need them. In addition, this comes with an extra straight tentacle, so if you want to make your own arms in a digital 3D package, you're welcome to play with this!

The Phykonite Ascendancy is a sub-faction to the Covenants of Astyri I hope to explore with future releases, as they have a shared aesthetic of serpentine and octopean shapes. Previously to now, I spent time advancing the Hyperion Legacy with the Hyperion Armour, Kastellites and Hyperionite Heavy Destroyer Construct, and now it's time to play with the weird and wonderful world of the almost-alien House Phykon.

Speaking of which, accompanying the new Phykonite Interrogator are the new Phykon Revenants, which retain most of the aesthetics of their predecessors, but are proportionally correct to newer models in the Covenants of Astyri range (ie. torso scaling, upper arm lengths, etc), and are printable without a fuss. Of particular importance is the change to the tentacles to make them much thicker than before and separate from the lower body for ease of printing - meaning no awkward placement of supports, or painful extracting them from those supports when they're printed. In addition, this kit comes with three weapon options - rotary saws like those on the Kyporii kits but extended slightly, the original Phykon sawblades from the original kit, and, pictured here, the new up-detailed and longer-bladed chainsaws.

Next up, something you guys haven't seen for a long while - terrain!

I've wanted to do a terrain set for a while - more specifically, terrain that reflects specific factions' attributes - and I thought that now was as good a time to do that as any. You can now get your hands on the Skjalos Defences, a modular set of walls high enough to fire from behind safety, and wide enough to walk along. Befitting the rough aesthetic of the Skjalos Guard, each part of the wall and each wall hub is constructed from huge heavy bricks, and reinforced by heavy steel banding and plating. In addition, it includes optional rails, fabric-covered rails and armoured rails, also a full set of ten wall side options, ladders, stairs, culverts, and both metal and slate wall topper options. Each wall locks together with a pair of cylindrical keys to match together each side, making construction easy, and the variants include plastered walls, decaying plaster and brick options. In addition, all the railings included are entirely optional, and attach easily to the wall and corner toppers, and they're thick enough to prevent warping or snapping while you're removing them from their supports.

I hope that this will be the first in a number of entries for different interchangeable terrain sets, though that does of course depend on how well they are received. Before we worry about that, however, let's start a new faction!

April brings the first of a new range of miniatures - the mystic legions of the shattered Kingdoms of Mikaelhelde! Composite warrior mages and monstrous creations make up their forces, and so their four-armed Acolyte footsoldiers are the mainstay of most of their battle companies in the Promised Land. In terms of models, which I can imagine will interest more of you, these guys will come as a set of five different body poses, with Acolyte heads pictured above, and an option for a Judge Aspirant - with a distinctly mutated head. Whilst these are not multi-pose models beyond their heads, with simple flipping of the models in your slicing package and alternative head rotations, you can make quite a diverse force even before new Acolyte models are released!

But cmon, I did promise freaky, and yeah, these guys are just four-armed soldiers - not enough for you, huh? Well, how's this:

The Cardinals of Ruin are among the greatest devotees of the great Dæmon Strattenheim, horrifying ancient avatars of mystic power who function as both a theological teacher and priest to members of the Kingdoms and a warrior in their own right - albeit waging war a world apart from by conventional means. Casting aside their enemies with a flick of a finger, severing bones from living flesh with simply a nod of their head, summoning aetheric fire from the unknown beyond with rituals and leaving in their wake unfathomable desolation are the hallmarks of a Cardinal's presence, and for this their are known widely, but known only as a voidborn nightmare - few think to suspect that they once were human, but so much time and magic has flowed through their souls that little of that remains - little but the ever-present will of a blood-hungry Dæmon.

Well, it's a fairly big model - at nearly 60mm tall, it makes for a fairly intimidating model on the battlefield - I can't wait to see what you guys do with it, and it comes presupported too!

And lastly, here's one for new subscribers - as with last month's Conquest Covenant for the Covenants of Astyri, this month's release includes a bundle for the Skjalos Guard's reserve armoury, a Sykaran Trident, including the Nyoma-Mjalken Tank Hunter and it's colossal siege and plasma bombards, the Njassa Assault Tank for fighting at speed with a choice of eight different turrets, and the leader of the pack, the Onokya Super-Heavy Battle Tank - for when that thing over there really, really needs to die.

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If you actually managed to read this far (thank you!), I'll be posting up the discount codes in the next couple of days, along with plans for March's modelling! In addition, though of course not all of this stuff is presupported, those will follow closer towards the end of this month!

In addition, I've noticed (as I'm sure you have too) that the MyMiniFactory site, for all the good it does, leaves something to be desired for actually navigating products properly. I'm hoping either this or next month to set up a new dedicated website which will serve as a catalogue, organising all of my models in a manner that actually makes sense, that will give proper descriptions for everything I've made and how it fits into the world - and which also links to their respective pages on MyMiniFactory. More on this later, but hopefully this will also serve as a better way of presenting the dimensions list, too!

You've got a whole bunch of new stuff to print, and I can't wait to see them - if you want to show off your finished prints and models, feel free to post them up in #my-solwyte in my Discord! Finally, If you haven't received an email invitation in a few minutes please send me a message via Patreon or Discord and I'll manually issue you one when I'm back awake!

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your support, everyone!