Switch Theme:

Product Review: Skullcrafts  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


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.




Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

A guy at the FLGS posted links to Skullcraft's website on our local forums, showing off some of the more unique colors and types of flock they have. A bunch of people were interested in it, because a lot of it looks cool, and I was the first one to order some of it so I was told I had to give my opinion of it after it was delivered.

Right out of the gate, I dislike the Paypal shopping cart they use. I already had a Paypal account, so that itself wasn't so bad for me, but I could see that being a hassle for those who don't. In addition, there was apparently some screw up at Paypal because Skullcrafts did not receive a copy of my order from Paypal until a week after I had ordered it and been charged for it, so I ended up with a 10 day delivery time rather than the advertised 5-7 day. James O'Brien at Skullcrafts did apologize for that and threw in a couple extra baggies of Ballast, Balsa Wood and Plasticard, so I'm not really bothered myself by the delay there.

The products I ordered were a tin of Poison Mix Leaf Scatter and Poison Mix Static Grass. The leaves are good quality, not too fragile or crumbled up at all for something made from dried plant material. I've found the larger size of a leave compared to the static grass I've used in the past makes them a bit harder to get onto a base and not fall off. Normally I just swish a base covered in glue around inside a bucket of static grass, tap some of the excess off, rinse/repeat a few times, and then hold the base upside down and give it a series of good taps, and you end up with a base fully covered in grass, much of which is standing up. When I tried that with the leaves, you very few of them are able to really stick on, and even less then adhere after the glue dries. Trick I found for those was to use a bit more glue than I normally would, pile a bunch on, mat them down a bit, and let them soak in some glue some 5-10 minutes, then mat them down more and knock off the excess. That gave me good coverage in the areas I wanted then, and flattened them out like I would expect a pile of fallen leaves to look. So good quality, but you can't use it the same way as static grass. Speaking of which...

The static grass I got was pretty good quality. It's softer than GW's, and the individual blades of grass are on the average shorter, but not by a lot. The stuff wants to form large clumps inside the tin, and pack itself in, but it quickly and easily breaks up unlike the hard little balls that GW's grass likes to form into. I can use it the same way I use my normal method of static grass that I listed above just fine with no problems.

Now, with all this said on the good physical quality of Skullcraft's product, I have to come down to the bad part. The color. The stuff I got is not nearly as good of color as what is pictured on the website. The leaves are still purple, but a much darker shade than what is pictured. I can live with that one, and in the end the darker color probably looks better on what I used it for. The static grass on the other hand is abysmal. On the website it's pictured ad a bright purple color, but what I got was a dark green, with a little bit of dark purple mixed in. My email to James and his reply on that issue did not nearly satisfy me as his handling of the delay on shipping did;

It does appear that there are discrepancies with colors on the website. Thank you for the heads up. It may be due to the black backgrounds we use when photographing the products. I will get together with my photo-man and see if we can correct this.


So in the end, they have a really good quality of product, but what you order is not necessarily what you are going to get in terms of color, so beware.
[Thumb - IMG_1195.JPG]

[Thumb - IMG_1196.JPG]

[Thumb - IMG_1199.JPG]

[Thumb - IMG_1200.JPG]

[Thumb - Static Grass Color Comparison.jpg]


 
   
Made in gb
Noble of the Alter Kindred




United Kingdom

Leaf scatter looks ace!
just the sort of scatter I could use but is a tad expensive for my pocket sadly

 
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

The leaves are on the expensive side yeah, but they pack that grass in there, so it's actually a rather good price, which makes the color discrepancy kind of sad.

 
   
Made in us
Last Remaining Whole C'Tan






Pleasant Valley, Iowa

On a semi-unrelated note, that Necron Lord conversion is completely ace.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.

 Flinty wrote:
The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
GW Public Relations Manager (Privateer Press Mole)







That leaf scatter looks awesome.

Adepticon TT 2009---Best Heretical Force
Adepticon 2010---Best Appearance Warhammer Fantasy Warbands
Adepticon 2011---Best Team Display
 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

Aduro wrote:Right out of the gate, I dislike the Paypal shopping cart they use. I already had a Paypal account, so that itself wasn't so bad for me, but I could see that being a hassle for those who don't.


You don't actually need a Paypal account to pay through the Paypal shopping cart. When you go to the checkout screen, it gives you the option of signing in, creating a Paypal account, or paying by credit card without a Paypal account. That's a standard Paypal cart set-up.

 
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

I did not know that. I saw Paypal and immediately just assumed I needed to use my account. Thanks for clearing that bit up Insaniak.

P.S. That's not a Necron Lord, that's a Bane Thrall.

 
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

Alright, update time. After some talks with a guy at the FLGS and having James chime in on the Review Thread On The Privateer Press Forums I got my hands on a new tin of the Poison Mix Static Grass. James said the grass had been mixed with the wrong ratios of colors, and thus my dark green rather than bright purple. With the new tin in hand, I'm more happy. It's still not the same level of bright purple that's shown on the website photo, but this mix is more noticeably purple. It's in line with the leaves I got being purple, but not as bright a purple as the website. The grass is Purple, just not Bright Purple. It's more purple than it appears in my photo, where the green wants to wash it out some because the green is a bit brighter than the purple.

"Final" verdict? Extremely Awesome top notch physical quality of the product, Pretty Excellent customer service, but the colors you order are not as Bright as the pictures on the website.
[Thumb - Static Grass Color Comparison.jpg]
What I ordered, wrong color mix, corrected color mix.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/11/02 03:21:53


 
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

Want to update this to add that he took his webstore down for over a month, but now it's back. He's redone all the photos of everything, and the pictures he's got on his website now indeed look like the stuff I got from him. I would happily say that Skullcrafts would be a top notch place to order from, with Excellent quality, Excellent Customer Service, and yes, the colors you see on the website are the colors you get in your hand when the stuff arrives.

 
   
Made in se
Watches History Channel





I agree completely with your review, me and some friends ordered during the summer and everything went perfect. An excellent company with superb products. I have nothing negative to say about them from my experience.
   
Made in ca
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator






Thats a neat product. You might want to post that link in the modelling resource thread.

Thanks for the review.

A lot. 5K +
DH: 750
3K
800

Back to 40K after a 6 year absence. Grey Knights and a new SM Army planned.
4 Sucessful Trades! TY Swap Shop!

My Project Log: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/329618.page

 
   
Made in us
Prescient Cryptek of Eternity





Mayhem Comics in Des Moines, Iowa

Just checked, and Skullcrafts already has a link in the resource thread from Killkrazy.

 
   
 
Forum Index » Painting & Modeling
Go to: