Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Why is the latest update for backers only?

I backed the last KS and will be backing this one once more info and models are shown but is this restriction deliberate?

You are by far the best company I have dealt with when it comes to communication so this seems a strange decision if it is deliberate, especially when you are asking people to get out and spread the word about this KS.

Hope this gets looked at and good luck with rest of the campaign.

Tremble

I think it's backers-only because it's asking for feedback on the kickstarter so far, etc. Kind of seems fair enough to me, you aren't missing out on much/any project info.

@Dwartist - really nice! I look forward to seeing that Diorama finished!

@Malika - sending the Wardrones to print today, so hopefully can preview some painted up before the end of the campaign!

I strongly suspect the wardrones will feature in the AI faction list when I get round to it!

@Tremble - Bull0 is correct. generally updates will be public, and we will have more renders up soon, is there anything in particular you are waiting for?

Thanks everyone,

Joel

I am waiting to see the commando assault specialists and the crane heavy infantry.

I love the look of the comandoes and the unity guard but am not sure whether to go for the set pledge or just pick a few bits out.

I am a big fan of the grenadiers from last time but was not a fan of any of the mechs.

I guess it will depend on the guys we are waiting to see and also if you are adding any freebies with the higher pledge levels.

In any kick starter I expect to get a hefty discount and at least some freebies linked to unlocks.

I know you need to make a living but we investers are the ones taking a risk with our money here.

A good example of a stalled KS is the Green Alliance from MaxiMini ending in a few days - I really want to get on board that as they have some amazing looking stuff but they are charging an arm and a leg with no free stuff offered. And they have no communication or updates - but thats another matter.

PS. the Preacher is one of the coolest looking guys I have seen in a long time, loads of character!

Tremble wrote:
I am waiting to see the commando assault specialists and the crane heavy infantry.

I love the look of the comandoes and the unity guard but am not sure whether to go for the set pledge or just pick a few bits out.

I am a big fan of the grenadiers from last time but was not a fan of any of the mechs.

I guess it will depend on the guys we are waiting to see and also if you are adding any freebies with the higher pledge levels.

In any kick starter I expect to get a hefty discount and at least some freebies linked to unlocks.

I know you need to make a living but we investers are the ones taking a risk with our money here.

A good example of a stalled KS is the Green Alliance from MaxiMini ending in a few days - I really want to get on board that as they have some amazing looking stuff but they are charging an arm and a leg with no free stuff offered. And they have no communication or updates - but thats another matter.

PS. the Preacher is one of the coolest looking guys I have seen in a long time, loads of character!

I am with you to a degree.. but really, I don't think I'd say the MaxMini is "stalled".. at least not in a way that I'd define as negative. They got their funding and then some. Their total though is lower than the total for Anvil's and they did at least offer bonus bullets so there was a little bit of incentive. I wanted to back that one but for me it was just too much like a shopping cart and no real incentives. This one is starting to look that way for me personally though I do get that some see value. I know Anvil has top notch castings and the guy from Zealot is doing his 3d prints (or so I hear) so you know what you see will be what you get. It's just a matter of what price I'm willing to get it at.

Hmm...40 high quality resin miniatures for £100 - £2.50 each - seems pretty good value to me and that's without any stretch goals. I've happily pledged!

Yeah, I have way more than enough sci-fi soldiers and am not looking to buy a mountain of them to save. I am only interested in a small collection of the more characterful models. Either I missed that awesomely discounted pledge level or the pricing for adding all of those on is incorrect on my screen, because those prices (add-on) are not that great.

Agreed. If you are able to get a large force, then the value is there.

Looking from the other point of view, people who only want a character model or two are not his target demographic here. Anvil are out to start off a new game system - and I have the greatest respect for that as it's something I wouldn't have the first clue about. But selling a couple of character models to a few people will not keep them in business, they need to get a large number of people buying the 'core box' idea to have a reasonable idea that people are going to be playing the game and not just using his (Amazing) models as proxies for other games or basis for a model they want to make.

If I was just starting out, I'd be all over this. Unfortunately it's at a time when my 28mm days are at an end, and IF I get something on that scale, it's because I want a particular model for an idea I have had, or because it's just so darn good looking I can't resist..

Wilst I currently have no plans for the former, I have also not had much overtime at work and therefore do not have enough disposable income to allow the latter.

I wish this campaign all the best, and hope to pick up some retail next year.

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback,

@Tremble, the CRANE heavy infantry will be up for preview hopefully tonight, I have been struggling to get the helmet "just right" but I think I am getting there now.

The assault specialists will have very similar armour and clothing to the regular commandos, but with a couple of breaching sheilds, charges, rappel gear, shotguns, extra grenades and so on, basically guys who get the more specialist jobs on a raid.

Regarding freebies, the big pledge already represents around a 30% discount on estimated retail prices. There will be extra components and figures if we hit some stretch goals.

I am glad you like "Preacher". I am looking forward to using him and the rest of the medical team in a game, as they will have some cool special rules.


@MLaw - The "Add-On" prices are correct, and do include a discount on the eventual retail price. I think they are very fair prices for resin miniatures.

The danger, if we price everything too low, is that everyone buys all they want from the KS, we make no profit on the sales and then fewer retail sales (as everyone bought stuff at much lower KS prices) then there is nothing to cover the investment so far and no money to cover making new miniatures.

I have put a lot of thought into our pricing, and we are offering as much value as we can.


@Conrad - Yep trying to launch a new game is a lot of hard work!
The rules will be publicly available for the first time soon, which is pretty exciting

All the figures will be available at retail hopefully quite soon after we finish shipping all rewards.

While I appreciate a good deal as much as anyone, Anvil Industries is a pretty trusted name, and already delivered on a prior Kickstarter on-time and with great results, in addition to their normal releases. They do their casting in-house and there's not much risk involved compared to other campaigns. Therefore, the "deal" doesn't have to be as insane, imo- many people are fans of the work and would be buying it anyway, so this is a chance for it to be a win-win.

All that said, I am also at the hobby stage in my life where I don't need tons of minis. So, I'm just in for the add-on level to get a half dozen (or maybe a few more depending on how things look towards the end) Crane drones. At 30 pounds, it's somewhat steep, but I wouldn't expect to pay any less than 4.5 pounds apiece for a 37-39mm tall model like that cast in resin. And he's only charging 3 pounds for international shipping, which seems rather insane! So, even after shipping it only works out to be 5 pounds apiece for me to pledge for those models- not bad at all.

And of course, as mentioned, you do get a really good deal if you go in for one of the "sweet spot" pledge levels- just like most Kickstarter campaigns.

Really like the ideas for the commando specialists looking forward to seeing those.

Interesting you posted in the comments of the KS you would allow people to swap equal value pieces within the set pledges, this would be of interest to me. Maybe dropping pulse mechs and some of the characters for more commandoes and Unity guard? Only thing is it may turn into a nightmare to manage for you when everyone wants to change something!

I think I am opposite to most people in that I am more interested in the infantry than the bigger stuff!

I'm totally the same Tremble - the main reason why I'm in at addons rather than one of the shard tiers is I'm not huge on mechs either, but I love basically all of Anvil's infantry models. Likewise I also worry slightly about the extra work that is potentially required if they start letting backers swap stuff out from the reward tiers, but can't deny it's appealing.

Ok, I've backed! Wish I had opted in to the last one so much after it ended, so I was definitely going to try and get in on this one somehow. Really, really liking the technician, I can see so many uses for him in dioramas and stuff already, such a characterful set. Excellent looking models all round actually, can't wait to see the CRANE heavy infantry and the assault specialists.

Btw, you mentioned the possibility of alternate gas-mask heads for the Unity guard a few pages back, is that something we are likely to see during the Kickstarter or only during full retail?

@Tremble - swapping stuff out is an option where people really dont like something.. Generally we will probably limit it to "take one thing out - put one thing in".
It depends what the swap is though.. certain swaps are really straightforward, others more of a pain.

Because we manufacture everything in house, we can produce exactly what we need, rather than being beholden to a factory in china churning out thousands of identical reward sets.

@Haigus - thanks and welcome to the Kickstarter!

Glad you like the technician.

CRANE infantry render will be up tonight, I am onto the finishing touches.

Gasmask heads - I actually ended up doing the CRANE heavy troopers as the "sort of gas mask" troops. You will see later.

I will almost certainly do an alternative set of Unity Guard will gasmask heads at some point, but it will be at retail most likely, as its taking me much longer than I thought to get all the renders completed!

Cheers

Joel

Ah, that's good. I eagerly await the CRANE infantry now No worries with the Unity guard heads, I was just wondering what the situation was with them.

Well here it is, Ihope you approve!

Ive gone with a theme of large, plain armour plates and trench coat - easier to paint.

oh and an M249 based Light Machine Gun, which is their main weapon, regular rifles just dont have enough Dakka for these guys.

I think I spent as long on the helmet, getting it right, as I did on the rest of the figure!

Let me know what you think, as I can still make minor changes if lots of people dont like particular elements.

Joel


Automatically Appended Next Post:
ps. sorry for the relatively low quality render - I will get some proper ones done in a day or two when the full squad is ready

I like it a lot more than the Unity Guard. That's a much more interesting helmet design. Reminds me of a Techno Viper. The bulked up arms also look a lot better.

Keeping the swaps manageable sounds smart- that's also a nice thing for you to offer for folks who really don't like one thing (like a mech). So, seems reasonable!

I do have to admit when I thought it was "full value, swap whatever you like" I instantly started adding up how many crane drones that would be . But, allowing full swaps would be a nightmare logistically and I certainly don't think you'll need to do that!

Holy drum mag, batman!

The Crane heavy infantry look pretty cool!

I kinda agree with the comments that something is a bit strange with the helmet, maybe the nose piece should be raised rather than below the level of the rest of the helmet?

I think the plate armour and trench coat look will make for a very cool faction!

When do you think we will see the commando specialists?

Yes, that image shows a lot of promise!

Hi! I just wanted to say, I was really taken with Dwartist's tracers and decided to do a head-swap on some unity council marines with the tracer heads you can buy in packs of 5. Works really well! The UCM heads are moulded into the torsos but I was able to cut it away and leave lots of collar very easily.

Well that's me backing you Anvil, keep up the great work. Every new sculpt looks fantastic

Hey Everyone,

@Tremble - I am going to try out a few helmet variations for the CRANE troopers.
I am not sure about the Republic specialists, but I will certainly have them done by the end of the KS! Thanks for your patience.

The next few days I am really busy finishing off the Rules, which are almost ready to release, and preparing to go to spend the day with Beasts of War next thursday which is hopefully a big opportunity for us and the game!

@Bull0 - really nice job there! the tracer helms are a varient of the normal marine helmet, so the swap works quite well.
three of the Marines in the unit have separate heads, so a swap with those figures would be more straight forward!

@Sierra - thanks very much!

I have backed the KS now!

I am in on just under the Shard level but will probably up that depending on later updates.

There are a few of the figures on the set packages that I am not interested in but it may make better financial sense to move to a set level especially if you will allow some form of swaps, I will have to think about it.

Keep up the good work Joel!

Ooooh:

I know that this has nothing to do with the Kickstarter, but any chance that the Pumpkin heads come back in stock?

HI joel

Lot's of really cool stuff being srayed out in the KS - great work as usual.

I have a few thoughts on this guy.



I really like the overall appearance and the idea behind the model. The idea of a different type of exoskeleton is rather cool and I really appreciate the concept of following skeletal musculature - that's a cool idea. How ever I must admit that he does look a little clumsy/chubby. Especially the forearms are bothering me. I guess you can do pretty much every thing in your 3D program, so how about trying stretching him slightly - make him just a tad taller and with long arms and legs. Another possibility would be flattening the forearm musculature.

anyways can't wait for you to get this done so we can start buying all these minis in bits

Hey Everyone,

@Masterslowpoke - Yeah sure here you go -

http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/Pumpkin-Heads



@Manus - thanks for the feedback, very useful! I see what you mean about the forearms, I can make the muscles a bit smaller compared to the upper arms, and also bring them further down from the elbow, I will also try lengthening the whole figure a bit, as I wanted to make him taller already.

In other news Dwartist, who paints a lot of stunning Afterlife miniatures, has kindly lent us his collection of painted figures so we can get some studio photos of them in action on our display board - watch this space!


KS update-

The Mauler Drill from the last KS Vanguard pack is available as an Add-on for the republic, and the Tracer Exo-Mechs are being re-done as Units of five - a recon variant with assault rifles and a few missile pods, and a "fire support" variant with Smart Grenade Launchers and possibly other weapon options at some point.

Click the image for a full size version.

Do you have plans to put the tracers backup on your site?