Hey! It's Something New

Hey Everyone! Gonna try my hand at doing updates at the start of every new month. The goal will be to summarizes what was created the previous month, give you updates on on-going projects/news, and provide some previews for what to expect going into the new month.

August 2018 was a big month for me. I officially quit my day job which I'd been working at for the past 11 years (since July of 2007!) to start working on PrintableHeroes full time. This was/is a huge life change for me and it is only possible because of the amazing support of all of you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm still wrapping up some lingering freelance work and trying to figure out what all is possible now that I have the weight of day light hours to throw at PrintableHeroes, but I wanted to kick things off with the addition of these monthly updates, so lets dive in!

August 2018 

Quick summary of what you might have missed in August 2018.

• Kicked off August with the release of the long awaited Grassland Rock props, available on the website here. These surprised me by being a big community favorite so I plan on doing more prop pieces / sets in the future.

• This Bearded Devil was released, and is available on the website here. The release of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes got me pretty excited about the Blood War between devils and demons so I'll be looking for excuses to do more devils/demons in the future >:)

• While not completely new, I did take some time to update/rework some of the art for the set of Animated Objects and with the re-release of them they now have Studio cut files support. They're available on the website here.

• While I didn't adjust the art I did go through and re-release the old Goblins with Studio Cut files and the current PDF format. They're also available on the website here.

• As part of my effort to support the community's interest in scenery / props minis I'd added some new Goal Rewards to fill the dead zones between the bigger reward milestones. This Ruined Stone Wall was the first of those Reward which I'm excited to say has already been released. It's available on the website here.

• The next Goal Reward is this Ruined Archway prop, which just needs a few alternate color options and the final formatting.

• I went through and re-released these old Awakened Shrubs with Studio cut files and updated them with the current PDF format. They're available as a set on the website here.

• I got a bit side tracked when I decided to make a new character for my weekly D&D game (Duskin Dankil Ironhaul, said in the meanest cowboy drawl you can manage) at the same time PrintableHeroes hit 3000 patrons. The result was the release of this Duergar Ranger complete with an Enlarged version both available on the website here.

• I included some regular dwarf alternate color options for Tier 3+ Patrons.

• My Council Patrons selected a Troll for August's Council mini. I decided to do an alternate Venom Troll (also inspired by Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes). The Troll is available on the website here, while the Venom alternate is available for Tier 2+ Patrons on the website here.
• The new poll / suggestion thread for this month's Council Miniature is up and Tier 5+ Patrons can check it out here.

Looking Forward

Here are a few things that have been in the works.

• Work on the Website Catalog continues. Alex is currently updating our backup systems and revamping the database and filter/tags. I'll be continuing to go through and updating older miniatures with back views, the latest PDF formatting, Studio cut files, and art revamps when I'm not making new minis.

• Wizard's of the Coast's Dragon Heist will be coming out this Month and I'll be working this week to get this Xanathar paper miniature released as PWYW on the DM's Guild.

• As part of my efforts to update older minis with new art & unique back views I've started reworking this old female elf ranger. Still very much a work in progress, but should have her wrapped up later this month.

• Been steadily working on these Sea Reavers - I decided to do a few more variants working off of the same base pose. I have a Sea Priestess to go along with these as well, though she maybe released separately so as not to delay the release of these guys. We'll see.

• MapHammer recently released this wonderful Mystical Grove battle map which reminded me of a Dryad mini I'd started awhile ago. Feeling inspired I finished up the design and just need to wrap up the back view. I wanna see about maybe making a tree prop to go along with her, but that will likely depend on whether or not Dragon Heist sidetracks me with other miniature ideas and/or if the community seems excited about it.

Patreon News

Patreon is still having issues with payment declines, it appears to only be effecting about 3% of the PrintableHeroes community, and Patreon should have already sent out emails to those of you who might be effected.

To learn more about it you can check out the blog post from Tyler, Patreon's VP of Operations here.

If you are having any trouble here's what Patreon recommends:

If your bank suspects that the Patreon payment is fraudulent, you can call up your bank to confirm the payment is yours and genuine.

If you payment failed, you can follow these steps or switch to a different payment method.

You can reach out to the Patreon support team to get account specific help.

In Other News

Assorted news from around the Tabletop/RPG Community and recommendations/links to great creators I follow.

• There is lots of official D&D content getting released in the next couple months, with both Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage coming out soon, and WotC's first D&D / Magic the Gathering crossover, Guide to Ravnica schedule for late November. I am so excited to see these new adventures and I'm really looking forward to what inspiration they bring.
• The amazing Kev from Papercraft Dungeon just released an incredibly detailed Graveyard Set and a set of PWYW Hero paper miniatures.
• The wonderful Trash Mob Minis recently released some more of his fantastic 2.5D monster paper minis.
• The talented folks at PaperForge have been working on an awesome set of werewolf paper minis.
• The ever inspiring 2-Minute Table Top recently did these amazingly cool top down hero tokens.
• As I mentioned earlier, my good friend MapHammer recently created this beautiful Mystical Grove battle map.
• Right before I went to Alaska I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Jared Blando who has illustrated so many of the gorgeous maps in official WotC adventures. He's recently kicked off his own Patreon page here, where he's created new large encounter maps. We don't have anything planned yet, but I'm hoping we can find time to do a collaboration at some point in the future :D
• Chris from PapierSchnitzel has been going HAM on a series of feudal Japan paper craft buildings that continually blow me away.
• Cardboard-Warriors recently held their annual Papercut Awards. You can check out this years entries and snag a bunch of free miniatures, tile sets, and vote for this years winners here :D

I'm sure there's more cool stuff I'm forgetting, but that's a good chunk of what's been going on lately.

Thanks as always to my incredible Patrons who make this all possible! 

Okay, back to work drawing minis ;)

- Marshall