Tavern WIP

I have been steadily working on a big giant tavern project, here are some Work in Progress pics. Most miniatures gamers who like fantasy stuff will at some point desire a tavern for tavern bralws. This piece started as a facade for a table edge, almost dollhouse style, and has since developed in to a 3 piece behemoth.

The Tavern has been designed in 3 sections: a facade, an open floor, and a single top piece to combine them. The Final part of the which tavern is pictured here, is designed to be a self standing piece as well. Both the facade and the top piece are made so that they can be used as table edge terrain.

More to come when time allows, also keep an eye on my the Valley of Isk Facebook page for more pics:

Villa Giovanzana

Welcome to the Villa Giovanzana! This is home to one of Ravenswood's wealthy noblemen, who's family vineyards are well known throughout the Reikland.

The Villa evolved from two projects; a hill with Gazebo attached was combined with the beginning of a timberframe house. This was also my first experiment using single sided corrugated cardboard to create a pantile roof effect. As I recently purchased a 25' roll of the stuff, you will be seeing a lot more pantile roofs (not to mention my recent forays in to Rennaisance Venice via Assassin's Creed).

I you are interested in seeing more pics, head on over to my facebook page: faceboook.com/valleyofisk

Incidentally this piece is also for sale through my webstore: valleyofisk.com

Tell all your friends!!! :)

~Niko

War Torn Ruins

Welcome back to the Valley of Isk Project Blog!! After a great deal of thought and some testing of the blog on my web store, I have decided to KEEP this blog after all, as blogger has some great features that are missing in Wordpress.

It has been a loooooooong time since my last post. During this time away there has been lots of stuff going on, and stuff always has a way of distracting us from posting to our blogs. I have a new web store up, a facebook page and lots of stuff in the works!

Hopefully I can get a post up here per week or so. Also keep an eye on my Valley of Isk Facebook page and the Vallley of Isk website for more cool projects.

Up today are a few pics of the War Torn Ruins I have been working on. These started out their lives as quick and dirty ruins for a few games of Mordheim and later evolved in to something a bit more elaborate. I will be adding a lot more pictures, including "work in progress" pics to the Valley of Isk facebook page.

During the course of working on them I developed several new techniques, including the use of a new material for making shingles. The shingles were cut from a thin sheet of wood which gives them a lot more depth than heavy card and makes them easier to custom size; you can ealisy snap a wood shingle in half to fill smaller spaces when necessary.

I also perfected the use of a hot tool plugged in to a dimmer switch for controlling the heat setting, and used it to create the stonework at the base of these pieces. This method is pretty quick and creates deeper grooves between the stones than using the ball point pen on foam method.

Valley of Isk Website is Live!!

I am happy to announce that the Valley of Isk now has a new web store!
Valley of Isk Miniatures

The store currently features scratch built products and examples of past custom orders.

Customers can select items to place in their cart and pay for the order securely via Paypal.

The Valley of Isk Blog has been moved over to the new site and I will be continuin to post blog entries from there. All of the content from this site (blogger) has been transferred over and I plan to shut down my blogger site in the near future; perhaps at the start of 2011.

I'll be contacting my blog followers to invite them to follow the new blog and would love to hear feedback, questions or comments about the site and Valley of Isk in general.

Thanks very much for everyone who has followed this blog and I hope to see you at the new blog site soon!

Valley of Isk is also on Facebook

Sneak Peek at the New Website!!

My web designer has been working hard to get my new site up and running, which will feature a web store!!! No more backbreaking ebay fees!!! Yaaaayyy! So here is a sneak peek at the site in progress from about 2 weeks ago; since these pics were sent to me there has been even more design work created. We hope to have the site up by... third week in November... maybe! Then it will be time to fill it up with scratch built goodies for the holiday shoppin'.

More soon!
-Niko

Valley of Isk on Facebook

Valley of Isk on Facebook

Howdy to All!

A few weeks ago I created a new Facebook page for Valley of Isk Miniatures.

I have been teaching a class at the Community School of Music and Arts on "Making Scenes in Miniature", and am posting pics of the student projects as we progress. The class runs through mid November.

In other news, I have a web designer creating the new site for Valley of Isk, which is set to launch before the end of October, and will feature a web-store with scratch built items available. This will be a great expansion of my little business, and allow me to close the Ebay store (which takes a BIG bite out of one's profits).

I have had quite a bit on my schedule lately and have been unable to get in to the workshop, but hope to be back on track sometime later this week, with some pics of works in progress, so stay tuned and I will see y'all soon!

-Nikolai

Valley of Isk Miniatures: New Ebay Store

I am starting phase one of a long term plan to expand my scenic business: an Ebay store. Phase one will consist of scratch built items, many of which are coming from my personal collection. Phase two will introduce a standardized catalog of pieces, and will begin to incorporate some cast bits in resin and plaster. Phase three will be the unveiling of a product line of cast scenic items for a variety of genres.

Here is the url for the Valley of Isk ebay Store:
Valley of Isk Miniatures on Ebay