Spotlight: Westwood Woodworks Kickstarter

Regular readers will remember my reviews a while back of some great pieces of hobby kit from Westwood Woodworks; namely the Malifaux Mover tray, Tournament Tray and the Illumistation.

Since then the Illumistation 2.0 has been released into the world, a good friend of mine was given one as a birthday prez from his Girlfriend earlier in the year and they look really good! A couple of improvements have been implemented with some feedback from existing customers such as myself and others to help refine the product.

Now Andrew has big plans and needs our help to realise them so he's coming to kickstarter on Friday 23rd October:

From the KS Draft:

How did the Illumistation come about? Well, I'd not long taken up Modelling and was beginning to get quite a collection of paints, brushes, models - all of which had taken up permanent residence on the kitchen table, which my girlfriend was none too happy about!

I'd had a brief look on the net for some kind of storage but it was well out of my price range! So, i decided to make something myself. I do woodwork for a living after all!

The first Illumistation, I made for myself, out of MDF. It did it's job but it was very heavy and the light i'd used just got in the way while i was (trying) to paint. My girlfriend was happy because my 'stuff' was no longer taking over the kitchen! but I knew I could do better.

And so the Illumistation 2.0 was born! Made from Redwood Pine, it is much lighter then it's predecessor. It has 6 adjustable shelves, a 2 draw unit made from MDF, with curved edges, which is removable. A piano hinge ensures the drop down front is stably attached to the main body as this houses the removable Painting Pallet. The Painting Pallet is made from MDF and has 2 rows of round 34mm cut outs that can hold paint or models, there are 2 larger cut outs to hold water pots etc. Attached to the painting pallet is a daylight, 30 LED, foldable lamp. This has 3 brightness levels and comes with a UK plug - however European and American plugs can be ordered. A chrome carrying handle finishes off this beautifully, hand-crafted, case perfectly.

The Illumistation 2.0 has been BETA tested by several modelling enthusiasts as well as myself!

Illumistation Specifications.

The Illumistation is 390mm high x 515mm wide x 120mm deep.

490mm deep open.

So why do I need your Pledges?

I am raising funds to allow me to rent out a unit to create and store the Illumistations - I'm currently working from my Workshop in the garden and definitely need more space! This will then allow me to branch out into other areas of gaming accessories. I would also like to get my brand more widely known so would like to be able to advertise worldwide. Dream big, as they say!

There are a limited number of early bird pledges available for a sizable discount on the Illumistation!

So there we have it, Westwood Woodworks has outgrown the garden shed and needs our help to raise funds for setting up in a warehouse unit and expanding the business. Andrews products are top class, every model you have seen on my blog painted this year (All 666 of therm!) were painted on my Illuimstation... which is now lovingly covered in hundreds of hours of paint splatter haha. Every tourney i attend i use either my Warmachine Tray or my Malifaux (Bushido) Mover to safely move my forces around the venue. I cant vouch for these enough, they are Fanplastic Approved!

Friday, 1pm, jobs a good'en

Infinity: Yu Jing Commission

Bit of a delayed start on this, ive been feeling proper rough the last few days with some viral bug thing and the last thing i wanted to do was sit and paint!

O-Yoroi Drones

Shang Ji

Zhan Shi

The  job is the original starter set, an O-Yoroi TAG and a couple of add on guys to make a roughly 300pt standard force... i think?? Ive only played it the one before back in 2012 haha. I have the USAriadna starter box to paint up at some point for myself too!

Beauty and the Bowman

A couple of quickies whilst im sorting the Infinity stuff out:

Tamotsu - The Ito Clan (Bushido)

Con Exclusive Blindwater Babe (Gatormans)

Had these lying around part painted for a couple of months so finished them off as the nuln oil drys on the Infinity guys haha

Spotlight: CaesarMagnus Miniatures by Fanplastic Little Men

Yes you read that right... Little men from Fanplastic Little Men!

Over the last few years i have slowly begun the process of creating my own line of miniatures from scratch. Now i am no sculptor or Artist so i knew i was going to require some outside help to turn my flight of fantasy into a reality.

Luckily for me i am in a fortunate position where i could employ some of the best in the business to put my initial ideas into something workable. When i began in 2012 i asked for some advice from Gavin Moorcroft from Tor Gaming on concept artists and he readily recommended Christian Schwager who produces the mad designs for Relics.

After some discussion back and forth we had a number of concepts ready, and below is the one i have chosen to begin the miniature making process with:

In the fluff that surrounds this line, Trajan Hesk is an Eradicator-Cleric, a high ranking field operative for The Order, a sort of Knights Templar meets Equilibrium!


The process of finding a sculptor was extensive but i feel worth it as the end results speak for themselves. Ben Calvert-Lee of Mastercrafted Minis has been great to work with and has produced some amazing mins, some such as the Masons Guildball team can be seen elsewhere on this blog too.


1) First up is some initial work to create a human figure with clothing that can be worked on further:

2) The digital sculpt is nearly complete, just some fine detailing required now:

3) The digital sculpt is complete and looks amazing!

4)The finished sculpt was then sent to be 3D printed. Here Ben's work can be seen in detail and it really shows how great a sculptor he is!

Hot of the press today is the first cast of Trajan Hesk:

So there we have it, the first of my range from my brain via an Artist in New Zealand to a Sculptor on the south coast haha, truly a global endeavor and one i feel fortunate to be able to undertake.

Trajan Hesk and more from the CaesarMagnus line will be available via Mastercrafted Minis and Cymbeline Games in the near future.