How a Bronze Figure is Born

The Limited Edition World of Warcraft bronze figures, like the golems crafted deep in Blackrock Depths, are the result of a long and intricate design process. Unlike those golems, they are not engines of war and destruction (at least, they're not INTENDED as such). They are works of art, and the process of their construction reflects this. At every step of the design, every decision was made to make these figures the best possible representations of World of Warcraft heroes.

Humble Beginnings
The story ultimately begins at Blizzard. In order for the World of Warcraft Limited Edition Bronze Figures to have a distinctive look and style, first World of Warcraft had to have a distinctive look and style, and before that came Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and so on.

When it came time to start design on the heroes for World of Warcraft: The Board Game, it was the artistic vision of World of Warcraft (the online game) that became our starting point. Blizzard sent us CD after CD crammed full of gorgeous artwork, ranging from painted vistas of Stranglethorn Vale to digital 3D models of ghouls and worgen.

The most important images in the pedigree of the bronze figures were the character reference models. We had a variety of these to work from, each showing a different race and/or class, each attempting to be the quintessential version of that character class. As you'll see, sometimes the transition from this initial screen version went very smoothly ... and other times not so much ...

From Screen to Paper
The first step in this process - the first step in making any model - is the sketch. We have extremely talented sculptors that make models for our games at Fantasy Flight, but before they work their magic, they have to know what they're making. The screen-shot images that Blizzard provided for us were a godsend. Since they were three-dimensional, communicating what we wanted to our sculptors was easier than ever. However, these computer-generated models were all presented at rest. This was great for seeing the fine detail on armor and equipment, but we wanted our final models to have dynamic and exciting poses.

As you can see, our sketch artists remained very faithful to the screenshots that we received in terms of details like weapons and armor. They took the models that we were given and brought them to life!

Also as you can see, some of these sketches do not reflect the finished product ...

From Paper to Putty
The next step is doubtlessly the hardest from FFG's point of view. We do not have any in-house sculptors, so this part of the process consists of exchanged e-mails with attached digital photos of the works in progress. When you can't see the process happening, and have to simply wait for results, it doesn't matter how fast your sculptors are: They're still too slow.

When the results finally do come back in, though, the excitement really starts.

Sometimes the artist nails it on the first try. That's it, we're done. Note the knives - our sculptors often use materials other than putty for hard, straight objects in these sculpts - such as weapons.

Sometimes (in fact, in our happy circumstance, most of the time) the first sculpt is about 80-90% exactly what we wanted. The only differences here between our Paladin and this Paladin are the exact angle and size of the hammer (which changed slightly for logistical reasons having to do with the nature of the mold).

Sometimes we have something that looks really, really, really cool ... and still somehow doesn't do what we need it to do. In this case, we took the initial orc reference material, gave her a dynamic and exciting pose, and cranked out a truly sweet model. However, on reflection, this savage orc woman is not instantly recognizable as a shaman. A fun and exciting model this may be, but looking at her, you can't tell if she's a shaman, a hunter, or a warrior. There will have to be revisions.

That's better. This shaman has the same feral energy, the same strength and beauty, but now she looks more like a shaman! The addition of a kilt made her earlier splayed-leg posture a bit ridiculous, so that was changed. The mace was a more recognizably Shaman weapon, so that was added. Now our Orc Shaman is standing tall, proud, fierce, an inspiration to the entire Horde - just as a good Orc spiritual leader should be.

Now that we have a new sketch, the only question is will the sculpt do it justice?

In this case, it's safe to say "yes!"

This is actually one of the interesting success stories. As you can see, this model is a faithful recreation of the initial sketch, and yet it rather fails to be ... exciting. All the elements are there, but they fall rather flat. After some back and forth struggles, the Night Elf warrior wasn't getting much better - the problem wasn't with the sculptors, it was that no one quite "got it" when it came to this character. We had to step back and take an entirely fresh look.

This is where the very talented Jesper Ejsing came onto the scene. Fans of FFG games might recognize Jesper's art from Runebound and Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Our initial sketches and attempts at a sculpt for our Night Elf warrior were technically accurate, but failed to capture what made the character work - it wasn't enough that all the pieces were there, they had to come alive. Jesper's first, effortlessly-casual sketch, captured what we were looking for. Shailara Witherblade (as she came to be called) isn't just a supremely competent Warrior - she smirks, she is languid, catlike. She knows more than we do, is utterly relaxed, and can still kill you. She is, after all, from a race of immortals.

This Night Elf had all the grace and elegance that was lacking in previous attempts. As you can see, it didn't take long for our sculptors to seize on what Jesper had found in the character, and the evolution of her look from that point on was rapid.

So close. The ears aren't quite there, and at this point the sketch has lost the headgear.

Perfect!

From Putty to Paint

Believe it or not, there was another step in the evolution of the game figures - it's not directly relevant to the discussion of the Limited Edition Bronze Figures, but it does give us a chance to show off Jesper's incredible artwork one more time.

Now that we had sketches and sculpts of all these figures, Jesper gave them color and depth to decorate our board game with.

Alert viewers may notice that here, our Paladin is garbed in red and gold, just as the reference material Blizzard provided suggests. However, as board game graphic design got under way, the color red was used to signify the Horde, whereas blue was used for the Alliance. The Paladin was therefore recolored in Alliance blue and silver for the purposes of the board game.

And Finally to Bronze

Now these epic characters have finally come to life in bronze. It was a long and somewhat twisty road, as you can see, but the end result is well worth it. All sixteen of the World of Warcraft: The Board Game heroes will be available in bronze and the first set of eight is available now!

Look for the other eight, including three of the figures featured here, to be available soon!