Resin Samples - Stretch Goals and First Color Samples
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 01:54:07 PM

Hey, choomba!

We hope you've had a wonderful start to the new year. This week, we'll round off the remaining resin samples with the stretch goals! All stretch goals will be bundled into your core box of Gangs of Night City,  including Edgerunners, a fifth playable 6th Street gang, the Delamain module, the Trauma Team module, and both V Edgerunners which also double as Opposing Edgerunners during the single-player mode. 

And if you missed and haven't checked out the rest of our resin samples up to now, you can find the links to every resin sample update below! Lots to see!

Resin Samples

• Core Box Gangs Resins
• Families and Outcasts Resins
• Motor Pool Resins
• Side Gig Resins
• Gang Wars Resins
• 3D Hideouts and Drones Resins Part 1
• 3D Hideouts and Drones Resins Part 2
• 3D Hideouts and Drones Resins Part 3

Typically, at this stage, we go through multiple revisions with our manufacturer to point out the details and adjust them to be reproduced best for plastic. This batch, barring a few touch-ups, will be close to the final versions you will eventually receive. 

With one last round of revisions and checks, resins will then be complete! What is next is preparing a master copy of each resin that will be used in the mold configuration and layout. The molds will be cast in metal, where we will finally start to see the first plastic samples!

In the meantime, the factory has sent us a bunch of 3D drone color bases to check the palette for the game. While these colors were chosen to follow the lore of the gangs, we also took into account deuteranomaly red-green color blindness when doing hue and value adjustments, trying to ensure the best contrast across the 10 gangs.

Having these samples in hand is the best way to examine each Pantone and check the colors for approval. This way, we avoid any wastage and back and forths during the plastic injection.

These are the colors for the core box of Gangs of Night City.

The Families and Outcasts expansion.

And the Gang Wars expansion.

And that's all we have for this week! Resins are shaping up well and the colors of the gangs look great! We intend to make all the changes with the manufacturers before they close for the Chinese New Year break. 

Until the next one, C-YA.

Resin Samples - 3D Hideouts and Drones Part 3
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 05:28:08 PM

Hey choomba!

The holidays are upon us in full swing. As we're winding down at the office and counting down for the new year, we'll like to close up the last resins in the 3D Hideouts and Drones pack. We've seen almost all of them now, and today we'll cover the Badlands gangs as well as the 4 drones that will come in the box.

And as usual, if you've missed any of the resin updates up till now, you can find them in the quick links below!

• Core Box Gangs Resins
• Families and Outcasts Resins
• Motor Pool Resins
• Side Gig Resins
• Gang Wars Resins
• 3D Hideouts and Drones Resins Part 1
• 3D Hideouts and Drones Resins Part 2

Aldecaldos Gang

The badlands are tricky with their vast, flat plains. Even the Aldecaldos camp in the video game was a collection of tents and vehicles, spread across an area. But CDPR had provided this great collection of assets that were not unique per se, but recognizable as a whole belonging to the Aldecaldos.

The first step, as always, is to block out the main shapes of the figure as close to the reference as possible. While we play with scales eventually to get the end result, staying true to reference scale lays out the groundwork for a realistic model.

We set it against the already completed hideouts to gauge the lineup. This helps with presence and comparing how strong the sculpt's silhouette is.

Immediately, our fears were confirmed. The Badlands proved too flat to provide a good contrast against the buildings that were the other gangs' hideouts. We set out to scale up the entire figure, looking for what to cut on the sculpt to allow for the more prominent items to stand out.

With the cliff reduced and details removed or merged, we were free to scale up and fill as much empty space on the base as physically possible. We stretched the radio tower as high as the supports allowed it, and scaled the tanker truck to about 3 times its size.

"And what happened, then? Well, in Night City they say – that the Aldecaldos' small Tanker Truck grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through!” 

As we came closer to a scale we were happy with, we added more details, slowly building up as much as we could fit it. The back of the tanker truck was even spilling out the sides of the base. 

We made some adjustments to match the scales of the details around the hideout. That included raising the height of the tent.

And with a few more iterations, we had completed the Aldecaldos hideout, which was subsequently approved! Here are its final resin! 

Wraiths Gang

Similar to the Aldecaldos, the Wraiths face a similar issue of not having a proper structure to call a hideout, considering they are a Nomad gang. We went with a similar approach, using a collection of different items that symbolized the Wraiths.

The scale was smaller than the Aldecaldos camp, making the details and block-out relatively simpler for the Wraiths. However, because there wasn't a clearly defined shape, we loosely wrapped the base around the details. That proved a problem when putting it beside squared bases like most of the rest of the gangs. 

Placing them in a lineup, we found the details smaller than necessary. We did multiple tests to scale various details to see what worked. We finally landed on a closer cluster of items with only one car, as below. 

While the base shape was loose, it had the same presence as the rest of the hideouts, which we were aiming for. It was a successful reproduction of the base feeling.

Once scale and size were done, it was time to hammer down the various details in the base. For example, we had left the satellite dish without its antennas up to this point as we didn't know how thick to make the rods.

And a few iterations later, we came to something we were comfortable with.

Upon discussion with CDPR and the production team, we found that the rock details were lacking. What was shown in the sculpt would end up looking melted in the resin, and even smoother as plastic. That needed to be rectified immediately. 

And with that change, the Wraiths Hideout was approved! Here are the final resins!

And those are all the 9 gang hideouts for Gangs of Night City!

The remaining items that come with the Hideouts and Drones are, of course, the drones. Compared to the hideouts, the drones did not require layout or as many design tweaks. We knew the scale of figures from the start, so we jumped straight into creating them!

Here are their final resins!

And of course, the feature of drones in the game is that they have detachable bases. With 4 drones per gang, before your games of Night City, feel free to mix and match your drone army, having 4 of a single type of your favorite drone, 1 of each, or anything in between!

The drones have pegs at their bottom to insert into the base, which is eventually colored for the player gang.

 And here is a final shot of the 4 drones together!

Lastly, some of you have asked about the scales of these figures. We'll show them here side by side. Here is the 20 mm drone base against the 30 mm Maelstrom hideout. 

And here is a 25 mm figure base, against the 20 mm drone base, against a 50 mm vehicle base.

That's it for this update. We hope you enjoyed the look at the resins. We are starting to receive mold configurations, which means plastic samples will be coming in the near future.

From all of us at CMON to each and every one of you, happy holidays, and a fantastic new year.

Until the next one, C-YA.

Resin Samples - 3D Hideouts and Drones Part 2
over 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 01:31:18 AM

Hey choomba!

We hope you're having a good week. This week, we'll continue to cover the behind-the-scenes of the 3D Hideouts and Drones Pack! As usual, we'll show the final and approved resins at the end of each section. And if you missed any of our other resin updates, please find them in the links below:

• Core Box Gangs Resins
• Families and Outcasts Resins
• Motor Pool Resins
• Side Gig Resins
• Gang Wars Resins
• 3D Hideouts and Drones Resins Part 1

This week, we'll be taking a look at some of the remaining Hideouts, starting with the Kickstarter Exclusive 6th Street Gang!

6th STREET GANG

The reference we used for the 6th Street Gang is a suburban house in Arroyo, Santo Domingo.

We felt that this represented the gang well, and stood apart from the other large hideout buildings in the line.

Our first step was to map out general shapes and structures for the hideout. We included tall palm trees and a radio tower at the back. This gave it variety in height and more features to look at.

As we included more details in the sculpt, we found that the palm trees were unstable at that height and thickness. The solution was to increase its density and clump them together. This ensured a strong, thick base for the trees, and helped with giving life to different parts of the hideout.

At the same time, we increased the tree structure strength by merging them to the side of the building. This also allowed us to increase the overall height of the palm trees.

At each step, we checked in with CDPR, who provided us with references and details to make sure they were game accurate. Eventually, we came to a nice, stage where we were content with the outcome.

However, we did feel that it needed more character to make it stand out from every other regular suburban home. We eventually came to a decision to include one of 6th Street's Iconic Weapons, Divided we Stand, into the sculpt. 

Similar to how we included the katana and mask in the Tyger Claws Hideout. We quickly sculpted a giant shotgun and arranged it in the place we thought was the most aesthetically pleasing at all angles without interrupting the landscape.

While adding more detail, we also included the 6th Street Flag on the side of the building.

It was one of those ideas that sounded great in theory but less than ideal in reality. After a brief review, it was quickly scrapped and we went back to the drawing board. However, during the process, the idea for the 6th Street Flag became a jumping pad for what we eventually landed with. 

After a few more rounds of revisions and we were off to the races! Adding yet more detail, and ensuring the thickness all the parts of the hideout were sufficient, we came up with something we were happy with. Here is the final, approved sculpt!

 And we have the final approved resin for the 6th Street Hideout!

Following that are the Hideouts from the Gang Wars Expansion! As the Scavengers do not have a hideout, we'll get to see the other 2: The Moxes and The Animals.

MOXES

The place to find the Moxes can only be at the one and only Lizzie's Bar in Watson. As Lizzie's Bar is mostly an internal setting, there was the option to include the basketball court at the top of it.

The first step was to block out the main features of the building. At this stage, while we wanted to include the neon girl sign, we didn't really know how to incorporate the Lizzie's Bar sign into the front of the building as it was thin and far too complex.

We closely examined Lizzie's Bar logo and worked to modify the scales to fit the sculpt better. For example, the skull had to be increased in size to simply be readable that tiny.

We also enlarged the neon sign at the left to make it more of a feature piece for the hideout.

At this stage, we noticed that the basketball court, while ideal, in theory, did not come across very well. The walls had to be ultra-thin to be viable. With some back and forth, we decided to remove it entirely due to needing to increase the wall thickness to include it.  

We swapped the space to include more vents, adding pipes and other details in the place of the previous basketball court.

As we continued to add detail, we also ensured that the thickness of all the shapes, especially the left neon sign, was at a nice production thickness. 

While the front was shaping up well, there needed to be more detail around the rest of the building, so we looked for inspiration to see what else we could add.

And here, we can see the final sculpt for the Moxes Hideout.

And here you can see the final resin for the Moxes Hideout!

ANIMALS

Right off the bat, the obvious choice for the Animals would be the Grand Imperial Mall, where many of the quests in the video game take place and where we encounter the Animals.

The first step to creating the hideout is to map the shape and silhouette of the building into the size that we want. 

In large brushstrokes, we get a sense of the building and its sense of presence. Below, we match it beside the Maelstrom Hideout, which we previously showed.

Immediately, we noticed that the Grand Imperial Mall is MUCH larger and we needed to find a way to maximize the footprint. Our solution here was to remove redundant ground to be able to enlarge the central building. This way, we manage to maximize the space available to us.

We then start laying out the details for the mall, paying close attention to the triangle head and the roller coasters. You'll also notice we attempted to sculpt the bikes from the reference. A bold choice, as you'll soon see. 

When molding at this scale, it was important to have the planes and angles stick to each other for better support. The Pacifica billboard, for example, will do poorly at a micrometer thickness.

However, we felt that the sign was an important feature of the mall. Hence, we worked to fit the sign in, increasing its readability and keeping its original angle. Concessions had to be made for this to work, and the thickness of the billboard needed to increase, as well as fill the gaps behind it.

It was also important to highlight other details of the models, to really emphasize the key elements of the building. 

 And finally, we achieved the approved resin below!

And here's a little fun comparison of the bikes we have. The Yaiba ASMX Kusanagi comes in at a little over 42mm (1.65") in length while the bike around the Tyger Claws Hideout is about 12mm (0.47").

And the epic-ly tiny bike beside the Grand Imperial Mall stands at a tenth of that, around 4mm (0.15"). This bike is officially the smallest-scaled object in this entire project! 

And that's all we have for this week. We hope you enjoyed the peek behind the scenes at more of the hideouts. Let us know which hideout has been your favorite so far.

Until the next one, C-YA.

Resin Samples - 3D Hideouts and Drones Part 1
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 06:12:16 PM

Hey choomba!

We hope you're doing well. This week, we'll be taking a look behind the scenes at how we created the 3D hideouts for Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City. You'll get to see some never before shown work-in-progress images, as well as how CDPR helped pave the way to the cool resins we're going to show you today!

And if you've missed out on any of the previous resin updates, or would like to get caught up to this point, you may find the updates in the links here:

• Core Box Gangs Resins
• Families and Outcasts Resins
• Motor Pool Resins
• Side Gig Resins
• Gang Wars Resins

We had conversations early with CDPR about doing the 3D gang hideouts and wanted each hideout to faithfully represent their gang on the board. We asked if they could provide scenes or iconic features of each gang to be interpreted into plastic figures.

The main challenge here was attempting to translate an ultra-high-resolution render made with video game assets into a 25mm scale format. Not only were we trying to create a landscape with an immense amount of detail, but we were also trying to compress it into something smaller than the size of our standard miniatures!

This meant that we had to focus on retaining the basic shapes and silhouettes of the terrain. Not only did the simple shapes need to be readable, but they also needed to visually stand apart from each other and convey the uniqueness of the gang through the sculpt.

MAELSTROM

This was one of the first hideouts that we started on, and the moment we saw the giant Spiderbot climbing atop a factory, we knew it had to go into the sculpt. 

We got straight into sculpting, mapping out the basic shapes and structure of the hideout. We referenced the Blood Rage Pillage token as a reference to the hideout's final size and space. Knowing our final dimensions meant we also knew how fine the details could go at that scale. Too fine, and the details would be lost during molding.

It was also an interesting challenge based on the size constraint to scale certain items bigger or smaller based on what we wanted to show off more. With the main shapes and sizes blocked out, we started to add more detail, slowly building up to the final model you'll see. 

And with multiple iterations later, we landed with something we were all happy with. 

 And here is the final approved resin for the Maelstrom Hideout.

VALENTINOS

With the Valentinos, there's nothing more fitting than the basketball court in The Glen. And a nod to one of the side quests from the video game with that car parked in the middle of it.

We found that when we scaled the scene down to 25mm, replicating the basketball court was difficult as it requires a lot more empty space to visually register as a court. The fences around the court needed to be higher, but with the buildings shrunk, making the fence any higher would look weird.

We eventually made do without the fence and focused on the car. We also found the building looked better taller and worked to stretch it to give it more height.

We also worked to make the rooftops more interesting by bringing out details like billboards, satellite dishes, and containers. And here with have the resin of Valentinos Hideout.

VOODOO BOYS

 For the Voodoo Boys, we were presented with the abandoned Maglev Tunnel. For many, this is an instantly recognizable scene from the video game with the Voodoo Boys. 

We focused on recreating the scene faithfully into a scaled-down form, making sure to pay close attention to the Netrunning chairs and the maglev train itself. 

And of course, sometimes we get too carried away with adding detail. At a 25mm scale, cables and wires cannot be as thin as they were. We had to scale them up to make sure they were thick enough for plastic production.

With a few more iterations, we brought more detail to the Netrunning chairs, making sure they felt true to scale beside the train, yet beefy enough to feel like those encountered in the video game.

And here is the final resin for the Voodoo Boys Hideout. 

TYGER CLAWS    

The Tyger Claws hideout had the Kabuki Roundabout as the core of its structure. Owing to the various added details we could use like the Torii gate, katana, shophouses, advertisement tower, water tower, and bikes, the Tyger Claws Hideout must've been the one that went through the most revisions to its final form.

We started out with the advertisement ring with a giant YAIBA at the top. We'd soon find it look like a weird platter and scrapped the idea. But we kept the bike and katana. Those were way too cool to be passed on. 

We swapped the giant YAIBA sign with the water tower and mask. This looked much better and we knew we were heading in the right direction.

It also didn't make sense for the tower to protrude so far. The water tower was supplementing the mask, which should be the main focus of the piece. We enlarged it as much as we could, bringing it into focus.

With more details added to the bike and the sword, we were almost there!

And while we could've stopped there, we found that the katana, which we wanted to show from the very start, was just lying on the ground. We looked to find the coolest way to place it on the model, and ended up with the following. 

It also meant we could scale the entire sculpt up to fit the ring, as there was now space left after moving away the katana. This brings us to the final version, the final and approved resin for the Tyger Claws Hideout. 

We hope that you enjoyed that sneak peek into the sculpting process behind these hideouts. We'll explore the rest of the Hideouts in the next update!

Until then, C-YA!

Resin Samples - Gang Wars Expansion
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Nov 18, 2022 at 10:29:14 PM

Hey choomba!

We hope you're having a good week. For this update, we'll take a look at the approved resins for the Gang War Expansion for Gangs of Night City. If you like to see more about this expansion, read the gangs' bios and abilities, and marvel at the amazing painted miniatures by Bigchild Creatives, you can find them in this update.

And if you like to see the rest of the approved resins up to this point, you may find them all here:

• Core Box Gangs Resins
• Families and Outcasts Resins
• Motor Pool Resins
• Side Gig Resins

As per the rest of our figures, we go through a few iterations of improvement to make sure our figures are up to scratch for plastic molding and tooling. We look out for things like:

• Sharp and clean edges
• Strong and prominent detail separation
• Thick joints for better structure during plastic production

Particularly because what is sculpted or made into resin is not necessarily what is best for plastic production. Minute details will not be reflected in plastic, and thin joints end up brittle and easy to break. We make sure to find a good balance between creating high-detailed miniatures and miniatures that can be handled safely during gameplay.

THE MOXES GANG 

THE ANIMALS GANG

Please note that the Animals Netrunner should be on a square base, and not the Techie's octagonal base. We have sent the feedback for change, but the figure and its details are otherwise the final approved version.

THE SCAVENGERS GANG

And that's all we have for this week. Which Gang in this expansion are you the most excited to try?

Until the next one, C-YA.