Mierce Miniatures Darklands Ongoing News and Rumors Thread! Darklands Rulebook ships on April 18!

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**Alpharius**

Me too!

I bought these guys based on the concept art and so far, they're the first (and only, thankfully!) to disappoint me.

I hope it is only Benoit's crappy pictures and the flat/odd studio paint job...

**Bolognesus**

It does kind of look as if someone decided to paint werewolves (canvas, resin, what's the difference, right?) and the underlying models just happened to get in the way while he was doing that. Weird.

**Bossk_Hogg**

Its because of Martin Grandbarbe's weird painting style. All his stuff has this impressionist feel, and his skin tones in general make this even more obvious.

.

BTW, does anyone have Leofwen? Is her face really that pinched up or just how it was painted?

I recognize Grandbarbe's technical skill (and he's a better painter than me for sure), but generally just don't care as much for his work as Sébastien Picque.

**GiraffeX**

I really don't like his work either Seb's is so much more natural looking.

An example from Sorn's excellent thread on Dakka of Ffion Ferddig compared to Martin Grandbarbe's version. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/542954.page

Please don't shoot me if this isn't Sebs work but I think it is, but you get the idea.

Martin Grandbarbe's version

I still have hope for Leofwen

**Bossk_Hogg**

Good, then odds are the face looks less like 90's era Renee Zellweger after sucking on the worlds most sour lemon... I really liked the concept, but was turned off by how she looked painted up. I might add Ffion after all as well.

**RiTides**

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
Good, then odds are the face looks less like 90's era Renee Zellweger after sucking on the worlds most sour lemon...

I literally lol'ed, well done

(even if it was more of a lqtm, you get the idea... verbal slippage)

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Update #107 Jan 16 2015

Trytheorn... and BaneBeasts!

Hurrah! It's Mierceday!

Today we have news of BaneBeasts: Mighty Monsters - which goes live at 3pm GMT - and a first look at Tomas Johansson's awesome ancestor, Trytheorn...

Now, as mentioned previously, Darklands: First Edition is close to fulfilment and so there won't be a great deal to show each week from here on in. Even so, there's still some cracking miniatures ahead - and there'll be plenty of painted miniatures to show, too, even after the project is fulfilled!

This week there's:
•news of our fantastic non-Darklands Kickstarter project, BaneBeasts: Mighty Monsters;
•sculpt work in progress from Juan Navarro Pérez;
•a list of the miniatures are currently being sent in Wave 3, and what will be sent in the next few waves;
•updated lists of sculptors and sculpts;
•downloadable versions of the current QuickStarter Rules, Muster Rules and Kindred Musters;

...and anything else you can expect from us over the next few months.

Here we go!

We have just the one sculpt work in progress image to show you this week, from Juan Navarro Pérez... and it's brilliant!

The fantastic Trytheorn is Tomas Johansson's ancestor, and he's looking fantastic! Juan is doing the helmed version first, but there will of course be an unhelmed version so we can see Tomas' lovely features!

Somehow Juan thought Trytheorn's drinking horn was a sword, but we'll get that changed in the final version (to the drinking horn)...

We do hope Trytheorn will be completed to meet Wave 5, but we'll see.

more news on fulfilment, the new muster lists and rules updates can be found on the update here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mierceminiatures/darklands-first-edition/posts/1109005?ref=dash

and the big news

BaneBeasts: Mighty Monsters Goes Live Today!

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, we have news of something fantastic happening today - at 3pm GMT - that is not Darklands!

That's right - the BaneBeasts are back, and this time they mean business!

What's the BaneBeasts?

For those not in the know, the BaneBeasts were some of our very first miniatures back in the day and many of them were eventually, er, transmutatemogrified into Darklands miniatures - such as Krull, and Ulmons, and the Terror of Fortriu. Some still exist as BaneBeasts, of course, such as Ophius (Ophios with wings!) and some are released erratically when we think it would be cool, such as Proteanc (Hrudinn as a Phoenix Bird).

Anyway, with Darklands now expanding nicely, we thought it would be a great idea to expand the BaneBeasts a little by reversing the process and turn some of our awesome Darklands monsters into more generic fantasy monsters for the... well, more high fantasy painters and collectors out there!

It's a Kickstarter Project?

It certainly is! It will begin today at 3pm GMT (don't worry, there's no early birds) but it will definitely end on the 9th of February at 6pm GMT. So twenty-four days of awesomeness!

How Will it Work?

This project will be extremely simple - there'll be some cool monsters for you to back (all of which are based on existing miniatures in the Darklands range) and some fantastic add-ons, too, and everything will be posed at a huge discount - around 40% off the projected RRP! After all, we only have to fund the additional bits and pieces, the big stuff is already done - so we can pass on those savings to you!

At this point, it's time to give you a sneak peek of one of the stretch goals...

Rat Beast - guest designed by Wayne Kemp of Heelanhammer, drawn by Stefan Kopinski
Rat Beast - guest designed by Wayne Kemp of Heelanhammer, drawn by Stefan Kopinski

Check out the project later, when it goes live!

**zedmeister**

Wierd double post...

**Joyboozer**

How long until 3?

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

about 1 hour

**zedmeister**

Erebius on Behema complete! Brutal:

Erebius on Behema

Today is the first update for Darklands: Monstrous Mounts of 2015, so it's a resounding "Happy New Year!" from us - and to celebrate that, we have two fantastic things for you today: the completed Erebius on Behema, and news of our next project, BaneBeasts: Mighty Monsters - which goes live at 3pm GMT today!

This week we have:
sculpt work in progress updates from Dan Cockersell;
news of our fantastic non-Darklands Kickstarter project, BaneBeasts: Mighty Monsters;
a list of what miniatures should be sent in Wave 5 and later Waves, and when Wave 5 will occur;
a list of sculptors and sculpts for this project;
downloadable versions of the current QuickStarter Rules, Muster Rules and Kindred Musters;
...and anything else you can expect from us over the next few months.

Let's begin!

Erebius on Behema

The lovely Dan Cockersell has been cracking on with his latest masterpiece for Mierce Miniatures, Erebius on Behema!

The awesome Erebius on Behema is a fantastic miniature that is truly a centrepiece. It will dominate any Byzantii or Infernii host by its mere presence and effectiveness, but it will also be the centrepiece of your miniature collection or fantasy army.

It's just an amazing miniature - but don't take our word for it; check out the images below...

Here's a few close-ups so you can see the detail Dan's got in there...

Now, it takes Dan a while to get things moulded and cast for us (it's complicated, but he does the first castings over there in New Zealand) so it could be Wave 6 before we can actually send Erebius on Behema out. We do hope we can send him in Wave 5, but he's coming to you soon, either way!

**RiTides**

First, awesome to see the Erebius on Behema sculpt completed!!!

It will be a bummer if it slips to wave 6, though - that will mean that only one sculpt was shipped on time for the Monstrous Mounts campaign :-/. And it looks like everything else except one sculpt has definitely slipped to wave 6 (and none of the others are even begun being sculpted yet, according to the update).

With a backlog like this, that's why people are saying more campaigns seems like an issue... there is so much to be done already, some of which is behind schedule.

Still, very glad I pledged for that model - it is beautiful

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Darklands: First Editon 2

Update #104 Jan 16 2015

The Oghu Keepers, Oghurithne Unit are steadily edging to the half-way point with Rubeg and Lobeg completed and Bogad half-way through...

It's been a while since we've seen Lobeg - the Oghurithne herald - but he's now completed, presumably thanks to Yannick sorting out all his nativity works... don't ask.

Lobeg will be with us fairly soon!

The latest Oghurithne is Bogad, a warrior with a perfect pose for such knock-kneed

Bogad is looking great so far!

Rubeg has been completed for a while of course, but here's his parted-up shots...

We do hope that Yannick will get Bogad completed fairly quickly, but it's very unlikely he'll manage to complete the rest of the unit before Wave 5. That means the Oghu Keepers should be a Wave 6 shipment!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And the Banebeasts KS is live

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mierceminiatures/banebeasts-mighty-monsters

£5000 target, first 4 goals shown above

**MaxT**

So the rulebook slips by months due to lack of time, then a week later a new kickstarter hits? Something smells fishy to me....

**zedmeister**

To be fair, considering the amount of models, they're doing pretty well getting them made and dispatched. Discounting New Kindreds (73 new sculpts, ignoring the alterations) , here's the total left to do for the previous kickstarters. I've omitted completed models, these are just the pending and partially completed ones:

First Edition - 10 outstanding:
Carys - Equitus Durio on Foot - Trytheorn - Rikkard - Wolfborn, Gesith Unit (Egbert - Wulfred - Hrothgar - Wigstan) - Equitus Durio on Horse - Maximus

First Edition II - 53 outstanding:
Young Magágg - Brunchaath on Gooracx - Ravener Birna - Abhorrents of Ys (Gorz - Relguss) - Spears of Dun Durn (Brusta - Fidaich - Oinuist - Smertae ) - Oghu Keepers (Brugbad - Dungabad - Bogad) - Armoured Hrōr - Eoric's Pack (5 Warriors) - Rēoc's Pack (Rēoc - Brega - Hædo) - Geraint on Ceffyldraig - Tonsured Caedoc - Warriors of Dyngonwy, Rhyfelwyr Unit (5 Warriors) - Parawn - Quintus Crito - In III Judas (5 Warriors) - Slaughterers (3 Warriors) - Enslaved Ágriosávra - Srók - Khallas - Thórrir - Hrókr - Ax-Crom - Flesh-Scavengers (Yrag - Bil - Flesh-Pile) - Shadows of Carn Bran (5 Warriors) - Max Schüte's second Descendant

Monstrous Mounts - 6 outstanding:
Brontull - Ágriosávra on Sávrakh - Krekkek - Beb on Pig-Bog - Birna on Fellhrafn - Vaenhildr

69 total models spread over 10 - 15 sculptors.

**RiTides**

No early birds on this one. Ogre drake art looks cool, but rather different than the sculpt it is based on (lots of armor)... so that's a lot of modifications for the sculptor to make. I wonder what kind of rate Mierce gets for mods - have folks here gotten some of their modified sculpts, and were they worthwhile?

Definitely not pledging, but will keep an eye on this, of course

**Prestor Jon**

Yeah it would be nice to have the full Darklands rulebook by now and it is a little disconcerting that Mierce needs to do a not Darklands KS to move slightly altered variations of existing models to keep the KS $ coming in while the Darklands KS sculpting backlog gets worked through. If all the previous successful KS campaigns haven't made the Darklands game strong enough to make money on its own outside of KS it seems like that's going to be a constant struggle.

**RiTides**

zedmeister wrote:
To be fair, considering the amount of models, they're doing pretty well getting them made and dispatched. Discounting New Kindreds (73 new sculpts, ignoring the alterations) , here's the total left to do for the previous kickstarters.

...

69 total models spread over 10 - 15 sculptors.

How can you "discount New Kindreds", which doubles the workload?

You just listed 142 sculpts, not counting all the altered sculpts!

Hence my asking what kind of rate they get on altered sculpts...

I've only pledged for Monstrous Mounts, which only has 2 completed sculpts, and only 1 which will ship on time. Everything else will be a few months late already. The domino effect is what is worrying - their backlog and commitment level is HUGE already, but they want to commit to yet more sculpts?! In the same timeframe, to boot - this new campaign is listed for June delivery, the same date as the vast majority of the New Kindreds sculpts.

I can't see how they have any chance of getting their huge level of current commitments done by then, let alone by adding more!

**zedmeister**

RiTides wrote:
zedmeister wrote:
To be fair, considering the amount of models, they're doing pretty well getting them made and dispatched. Discounting New Kindreds (73 new sculpts, ignoring the alterations) , here's the total left to do for the previous kickstarters.

...

69 total models spread over 10 - 15 sculptors.

How can you "discount New Kindreds", which doubles the workload?

You just listed 142 sculpts, not counting all the altered sculpts! Hence my asking what kind of rate they get on altered sculpts...

I've only pledged for Monstrous Mounts, which only has 2 completed sculpts, and only 1 which will ship on time. Everything else will be a few months late already. The domino effect is what is worrying - their backlog and commitment level is HUGE already, but they want to commit to yet more sculpts?! In the same timeframe, to boot - this new campaign is listed for June delivery, so it's overlapping with the others.

I discounted new Kindreds because I didn't want to go through and count up the alteration sculpts

I seem to remember it being vastly cheaper and quicker get alterations done.

Yeah, it's a lot of work left to do, but it's not like they haven't done that amount of sculpts already. Some have slipped but some have made it through on time. Have a look at the completed sculpts so far then:

76 from World at War (I may be out by 1 or 2)
81 from First Edition
52 from First Edition II
3 from Monstrous Mounts now Behenna is complete
1 from New kindreds

213 sculpts produced so far - not bad for 2 a year run

**Bossk_Hogg**

That Erebius on Behema is badass looking, but I have no idea how those chains are going to survive much transport, particularly the dangling skulls.

I may end up having to spring for Kull. He's one of the few big critters I don't have, and that's a great price on his alt (and I like his weapons better).

**RiTides**

213 sculpts done in 2 years is impressive...

But my point is, there's a domino effect - they're committed to finish somewhere close to 150 more sculpts within 5 months from now, not counting all the alterations!

I'm not sure of the exact number as a few things are projected out beyond Wave 7 (June), but the vast majority of things (including New Kindreds) are projected for Wave 7 (June) or earlier.

And now they're adding to that total, for completion within the same timeframe...

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

I don't think this is going to cause (much) slippage in the rulebook, as Tim is going to be pretty much running this

but sculpting could (although it depends whether or not the manage to pick up some new sculptors, or some of their older ones like they got Aragorn Marks for New Kindreds)

**zedmeister**

Granted, though to be fair, some of the New Kindred stuff is scheduled for October delivery. I think we'll see a lot of juggling of release over the coming months as sculpts are completed.

**RivenSkull**

So from the looks of it, only 2 of the new sculpts from Mounts are done, the other 4 not even started.

I would like to see them take a break from the kickstarters so they can actually get those out. And that the new KS is just a few modifications to existing models makes it seem like a small cash grab.

A bit worried here

**RiTides**

I count 22 models listed as beyond wave 7.

So, that puts the total at 120 sculpts to complete by June. That's quite a lot to do in 5 months...

Using your prior number of 213 sculpts completed in 2 years, they have been producing at a rate of 8.9 sculpts per month. They would need to almost triple that number, to 24 sculpts a month, in order to finish their current commitments on time.

And again, that doesn't even count the altered sculpts in the total!

**Pete Melvin**

RivenSkull wrote:
So from the looks of it, only 2 of the new sculpts from Mounts are done, the other 4 not even started.

I would like to see them take a break from the kickstarters so they can actually get those out. And that the new KS is just a few modifications to existing models makes it seem like a small cash grab.

A bit worried here

Can they though? Are they bringing in enough cash outside of the kickstarters to slow them down a bit? Or are they already getting 90% + of their potential market in on the kickstarters and only selling a small number of minis at full price and are thus caught in a perpetual kickstarter loop?

**highlord tamburlaine**

I'm really torn.

I like these new variants they've shown, and I'm sure I can find some use for them.

I've got enough that I've pledged for in the pipeline though, and I'm not even sure when any of it's supposed to ship at this point. I think I've paid for shipping on figures that missed their ship date- what happens with that shipping credit? I should check in to that.

Been a while since there's been any Khthon sculpts being shown too...

**GiraffeX**

I really like the Ogre Drake but I'm not sure if this is going to hit £20,000 to be honest.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

If you paid for a wave and ended up with Nothing shipping in it I'm sure Rob would refund/let you switch it to a later wave

(although my most recent shipment just had fewer minis than I originally expected in, so hopefully a later shipment will balance it out with more than expected)

Looking at how many sculpts still to be done (for the existing KS), may seem somewhat daunting, but it looks like they've now got about 18-20 regular sculptors on the books (plus some like Daniel Cockersell who can only do the occasional one around their real jobs)

so there's plenty of scope for things to start moving fast when they get down to it, and while those doing stuff for First Edition II should be well into their stride, those working on First Edition may well have had jobs for other people to finish first (like Valentin Zac whose just finished a sculpt for Infamy).

Tim books them well in advance so no progress on Darklands stuff does not mean they are doing nothing (or are just slow), it may well mean the were never expected to start till jan/feb/march etc this year

**RiTides**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Tim books them well in advance so no progress on Darklands stuff does not mean they are doing nothing (or are just slow), it may well mean the were never expected to start till jan/feb/march etc this year

I know they are booked in advance, but the idea that they weren't expected to start until now would be more feasible if the entire Monstrous Mounts campaign wasn't supposed to be done next month (except one sculpt).

What has gotten companies in the most trouble on Kickstarter is chaining multiple unfulfilled campaigns together, and although Monstrous Mounts was supposed to be done when this one ends, fulfillment of it will barely have begun, and fulfillment of New Kindreds will not have even started. It's just a dangerous path to tread, and one that (imo) will not be sustainable indefinitely, which is why I've been hoping Mierce will plan for other avenues of release / more ways of generating income.