Weta Workshop sculptor Johnny Fraser-Allen has shared some of the latest miniatures from his ‘Gloaming Universe’ – including a grand piece of dragon temple terrain that also functions as a DnD dice tower. Fraser-Allen gives a full tour of his design in a YouTube video from Adam Savage (Mythbuster and special effects extraordinaire) on May 29.
Weta Workshop specialises in prop design and special effects, and its team has worked on some of the best movies to release recently. According to a Kickstarter crowdfunding some of Fraser-Allen’s creations, the designer began working on the world of ‘the Gloaming’ nearly 20 years ago (between projects for Peter Jackson and Stephen Spielberg). The terrain shown off in Savage’s video is the latest part of this universe.
Despite the Gloaming being its own world (as well as travelling exhibition, book series, and by the sounds of it, game system), the terrain was designed with other tabletop games in mind. Dungeons and Dragons appear to be a big focus: Fraser-Allen shows off several miniatures he says are modelled on the 13 DnD classes, and there’s the aforementioned dragon head dice tower. But the designs are all system-agnostic: you could just as easily slot them into a game of Pathfinder or Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.
Savage spends some time gleefully putting together Fraser-Allen’s terrain in the YouTube video (see above), and his enthusiasm is understandable. The miniatures are as detailed and beautiful as they are practical to play with.
While Fraser-Allen’s setup looks super professional, the Kickstarter project means anyone with spare cash and a 3D printer could set some of these miniatures up at home. Backers can choose to purchase the Wilderness set or the Swamp set of STLs at $90 NZ ($54.90 USD) – or they can grab a bundle containing both for $150 NZ ($91.50). It seems the major pieces from Savage’s video are included as stretch goals to accompany the core campaign.
Looking to design some DnD miniatures of your own? Here’s a tutorial for Hero Forge, the free visual DnD character creator. Or, if you need some help designing a character concept, here’s all you need to know about DnD races and DnD backgrounds.