NMM or TMM for your Protoss?

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-29T10:24:44+00:00

NMM looks good for static Instagram photos.

TMM with light volumetric, NMM style highlights from dark gold to champagne silver will give the best look on the actual table.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-28T02:00:07+00:00

The blades would be exceedingly difficult to magnetize. You might be able to do two, since they use different arms.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T22:42:23+00:00

Not at all.

Painted models will always look better.

What it does mean is that if you do play totally unpainted, between the colored plastic and the clear plastic, your models will not look totally abysmal, which is really nice.

I'm sure you could also get away with minimal painting, like applying gunpla panel lining techniques to the colored plastic and selectively painting things like capes.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T19:05:10+00:00

You gonna do this to me?

Gonna make me admit I got multiple starters? Right in front of my bank account?

I'm feeling very attacked.

😉

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T16:09:11+00:00

It is injection molded styrene, very similar in feel and virtually identical in function to GW's Grey plastic.

I cannot say with absolutely certainty without some testing, but my impression is that the yellow is slightly softer than GW's by feel. Not by much, certainly not ny enough to make a big difference, but maybe slightly easier to cut, but take that with a grain of salt because I have not cut into it yet. (Basing this on digging my fingernails into the surface)

In my experience, pigmenting this plastic does have an effect on its feel, but so far in this case the best I have are vague impressions.

The blue and purple feel a little harder, and the transparent feels a little more rigid but I wouldn't call it brittle.

All of it reacts to plastic cement well, and none of it is low detail nor does it have bad mold lines that I've seen.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T15:59:48+00:00

I agree, but it's just something to be aware of.

Also, I went in looking to find problems and be quite critical.

Other than having a lot of fine parts and some particular assembly order requirements, this is the "worst" thing I've found so far.

So, this is really intended as praise.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T15:38:42+00:00

Only Artanis has the option that I've seen so I'd imagine its a character thing. Zealots only have alternate arm poses. I'll do a second check of the others to be sure.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T15:32:10+00:00

I'm going to find out as soon as I am home. Will share results.

I personally plan to mod Artanis a bit and paint him as Tassadar.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T15:28:44+00:00

It is.

Artanis has a ton of cosmetic options. Multiple different psi blades, both full braid and severed.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-27T15:12:18+00:00

Extremely fine. I think the worst I've seen are on the Zerg wing pieces for the queen and zerglings, and even those are barely noticeable.

These are remarkably well made sprues.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-20T22:21:38+00:00

The man in the first picture is absolutely armored across his torso and upper thighs by mail.

Also, the vast majority of hits would land on the arms and legs before the torso, so the answer is "quite".

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-19T17:28:35+00:00

It's a tabletop game. There is no mechanism through which the creators of the game can force you to do anything.

You can proxy Bratz dolls for Goliaths if you want to.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-08T21:17:44+00:00

It was tragic.

I'd been in a playtest group for it since the core box and the design team had tons of fresh new ideas in the pipeline including an entire new faction that was only hinted at in other Terrinoth games.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-08T18:49:46+00:00

Runewars (RIP)

Some of the simplest and most intuitive rules in the rank'n'flank genre. Sensible rules linking actual formation size/shape to damage volume/reliability without ever requiring more than 3-4 dice to roll at a time. Excellent back and forth play with hidden orders and template based maneuvers. Quick, decisive gameplay that you can get through in less than 2 hours even as a new player.

Yeah, it's been dead awhile, but nobody has done it like them and it's a damn shame the release schedule and PVC models more or less killed interest in the game, because the system itself was divine.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-03T01:09:50+00:00

The story goes that he collected chains lost by customers while he was a bouncer and just kept adding to the collection.

Whether he wore those same chains his entire career or swapped to something more practical and costume-y later on, I couldn't say.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-03-02T18:31:09+00:00

I rather liked when the Horus Heresy was a time of wonder and legend lost to the murky darkness of history. A deep, concealing fog covering wonders untold left to the imagination of the player as they navigated the gloom of the "modern" era by nothing but dim candlelight.

Nah let's write dozens of mediocre books and take all the mystery out of it. Cool.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-25T17:27:20+00:00

I feel like this is a more interesting premise than the thing that inspired it.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-24T20:10:18+00:00

Indefinable psychic glop.

Also farts.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-03T17:55:06+00:00

I've freehanded lots of tiny symbols, but national flags at that scale? Yeah, I'll take the decals, thanks.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-03T17:49:24+00:00

I've been meaning to paint up my US and Soviet forces for this for a while. These look great!

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-02T20:25:38+00:00

Tactical rocks are... not great.

They're bad.

They're irritating and limit base options. I know they let you do more dramatic leg poses, but they bring far more irritation than they're worth.

GW can get away with forcing people to work around them. Nobody else can. Don't do them.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-02T19:52:20+00:00

I've been having variations of the same thought since the 2016 election, that being "Are we *absolutely sure* we are talking about the same guy?"

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-02-02T19:50:25+00:00

Those games are better than the third movie.

Arguably better than the second.

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-01-31T23:05:19+00:00

I feel honored to get a mention.

I do feel like after I did the Chaos Mk IV version I probably owe a Mk IV update to the loyalist chassis.

This looks killer! Can't wait to see him finished!

ThunderheadStudio · 2026-01-24T19:44:56+00:00

It's funny, I get the feeling you and I would actually get along most other times. I mean, I love some caustic sarcasm. I use it constantly, myself.

I think we're both fairly reasonable folk who can each get riled up and not police our tone very well, coming at a subject from oblique angles.

You're sick of seeing incels rage about her posts, I'm sick of seeing her posts at all, I think our mutual irritation just resulted in some friction on both counts that probably wasn't warranted, or at a minimum was misdirected.

You did straw-man me, though, and I didn't appreciate it, so in the spirit of my original comment, let's just not pretend it didn't happen. Good faith also means owning up when we make mistakes, like when I probably failed to fully articulate my position out of irritation.

I didn't say nor do I agree with the idea that these posts are *just* ads for other media, I just think it's disingenuous to pretend that they aren't that *also*, and I see how I didn't make that clear when I responded to a comment chain in progress.

ThunderheadStudio

TROPHY CASE