Dînadan:
Never knew that about amphorae, will you be doing one without the point so it can be glued to a base to replicate that storage method?
And surely England and France are also contenders for the record of most wars fought against each other? 
tjub:
Impressive stuff!
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Forgefire:
Cool stuff i have totally missed this thread! Keep up the good work! 
Admiral:
@Dînadan: It’s more efficient if I only do whole vases, and then people can cut off the bottoms if they wish to. As for England and France, they are up in the top, especially if you count number of years at war (not only counting wars themselves), but in the end that pesky English Channel kept those countries not quite as much at each others’ throats as the Nordic brothers.
@tjub & Forgefire: Tack så mycket!
Tidbit: The pointy ends of amphorae was entirely a design solution for storage and shipping. Aside from sticking them in sand, you could stick them in a sort of inner hull ladder lining the walls, and stack them on top each other:
So you see, spiky bitz isn’t such a modern phenomenon after all. 
Darkmeer:
Wow. I was unaware of that aspect of the amphorae. I learned something new today. I was more familiar with paint designs on them. Thanks for the history lesson!
Admiral:
@Darkmeer: No problem, mate. Also, common cheap amphorae were many times not re-used but scrapped once emptied (there’s a whole hill of ancient waste packed high in Rome today), particularly with olive oil whose remnants turned the vases rancid. Until the Arabs came up with glazing the insides of ceramics, the porous inner walls of clay storage containers sucked up liquid and could turn nasty by time. 
First of two double-faced runestones completed, based on this and this runestone. Included, a simple globe so you can map out your fantasy world. Also, there’s a drinking cup with the very Roman motifs of war and love, because nothing screams “ancient” like gutsy 2D scenes. 
And a barrel goblin:
Darkmeer:
LOVE that globe. That is excellent, sir!
Everything is very good, but if the globe gets cast, I will definitely pick it up.
Bloodbeard:
Your brain works in wonderful ways my friend. So many original things coming out of the project. Holy smokes you’ve done a lot. I really hope you get the right compensation for this, because it’s alot of work. All these clutter pieces will sell. So make sure everything gets made!
Jackswift:
The barrel goblin is great… but the bird and the spider (that is a spider, right?) details make it awesome! I’d pick up the whole collection.
Fuggit Khan:
Beauty is in the details, and these are beautiful <3
The globe is my favorite…but I thought the world was flat?
And the drinking cup is clever :cheers
Admiral:
@Darkmeer: Thanks! Good to hear, sir. I hope the globe is still interesting with the little update.
@Bloodbeard: Thanks! We’ll start with seeing how many pieces Zealot wants to pick out, then I’ll decide whether to put out all the excess in one or two kits of my own, or sprinkle them about as extras in future kits.
@Jackswift: Thank you very much! That’s indeed a spider.
@Fuggit Khan: Thank you! Haha, so flat the dice in fact roll down on the floor from it.
Finished Dungeon Clutter Sculpts for Zealot Miniatures
It’s done, or rather, the first wave is finished. It’s possible Zealot might want some more pieces later on, such as sacks, household altar and the like. They told me they were content with the current amount so I stopped when this bunch was completed this evening.
Here is the basis reference picture as it stands, blue stars for sculpted bits:
Last batch of the lot:
Close-ups, including thin landmasses and islands added to the globe as per Zealot Miniatures’ request. These will be easy to scrape away:
Impaled Goblin, based on Assyrian reliefs:
Demonic portal:
And all the gang together, 3 months’ worth of sculpting:
Next up, Elf Archer of ancient times!
Darkmeer:
Very cool work! Looking forward to your next project!
Admiral:
@Darkmeer: Thank you kindly! Here’s the next one, probably to be done in tandem with some Elf daggers, swords and a stray axe:
Elf Archer of Ancient Times
Lower body scalemail finished.
Wildist:
Some excellent sculpts, mr. Admiral. I would love to count on them for basing purposes as a fellow user has previously stated. If this doesn’t bother you, adding some shoulderpad/head-sized bull faces would be stunning and a great way to spice some models in a dawi zharr style. Similar to the 100 skulls pack some companies offer.
Great job mate!
Nicodemus:
What are the plans for the daemonic portal? Anyone lined up to cast it and put it up for sale?
Admiral:
@Alvarok: Thank you very much! That’s a good idea. I’ll be preoccupied with Elves this summer into autumn, then it’s Zealot Miniatures dungeon sculpts again. I could see if they’re interested in such bull heads by then, elsewise it’ll have to wait until I return to evil Dwarfs.
@Nicodemus: They’re off to Zealot along with the other dungeon clutter. Either Zealot will pick and sell the portal cast, or it’ll be returned as excess overflow, in which case I’ll have it cast and sell it.
Work goes forward step by step on the monopose archer. All grey stuff areas are unfinished basis:
Wildist:
I’m not an elven fan, but I can appreciate the clean lines you apply when sculpting. It’s probably my imagination, but in the “historical” range, shapes are more ruinous (in an entirelly good way), less defined, affected by years of being buried and undiscovered I assume (that doesn’t mean a lack of detail, which is absolutely stunning). In the elven figurine it’s just the contrary, being it incomplete, it looks less baroque, more like an sports car: defined lines, clean proportion.
What I wanted to say is that you infer great personality in every set of disctinct pieces, which I personally believe is something that nowadays trademarks have forgotten. Keep on with this gorgeous work, mate.
PD: when will the historical objects be available? (I’m building an achaemenid chaos dwarf force hehehe) Are you planning to sculpt some trireme parts?
Nicodemus:
Every time I come back and look again I see some new detail or piece I didn’t notice or appreciate last time. This is so many levels of awesome!! Would love to get some of these to decorate boards, models and bases with!!
~N
Admiral:
@Wildist: Thank you kindly! I agree on styles. The Elven aesthetic is akin to a sports car, though I can but hope to reach up to it in a miniature.
Currently a couple of kits for starters are in the work by Zealot Miniatures. I’ll alert you here when they go up for sales, and shout about it. More kits of clutter pieces are to follow should they prove popular.
@Nicodemus: Thank you very much! :hat off Besides, Zealot might cast the demon portal sooner or later, since they liked the piece. Expect some waiting time, though.
The undetailed basis for the Elf’s back package is finished, and some work has gone into making the sculpt more mould-friendly with less sharp undercuts. However, when sculpting the head I’ve struck upon a problem, as amateurs are wont to do. With my poor eye-measurement, I simply cannot tell for myself, so I’d appreciate if you could help me out here:
Is the helmeted head too large?
Please keep in mind that if the body seems too thin in comparison, I can either bulk out the torso and limbs some before making their details, or allow those body parts’ details to do the bulking-out. (The helmet’s details would be done in a more delicate fashion, so as to not enlargen the headgear very much.) Is the head and body fine as is? Need the body be bulked out some? Or should the head be redone from scratch?
Advice is needed.
Dînadan:
Looks fine to me. The helm is a touch conical, but that’s fairly standard for elves, so I think it works. If you’d sculpted a bare head that shape it’d be a different matter. 