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Is this still a thing being sold? Not seen any activity from the website in months.... And still no physical rulebook released? Would be a shame if it turned out they just died out ...

I see the creator posting occasionally, and while there hasn't been a lot of movement on the KS page, I have faith he'll strive to deliver what is owed. Some people have decided to change their backer rewards from outstanding items to things that have been completed, others have decided to forego receiving anything further.

Haven't been keeping tabs much on the page, but I know that shipping in multiple waves and some other matters increased costs considerably, so I believe a lot of work is being done out of pocket.

I am a backer, I like the figure I've received so far, and have waited patiently for the remainder, but my contribution was a small amount overall anyway, for full disclosure.

Pretty much dead, apparently he's moved on to create a store called Red Dog Minis.

Honestly, I did get most of my order, but I saw the writing on the wall the moment he started talking about doing 15mm and 6mm at the same time. That's dividing the player base and market, and doubling all costs to support two different scales for no reason.

The 15mm stuff I got was decent, well cast, but sparse on detail. I wonder how much it'd cost to buy the designs and cad files off him to rework it into a straight 6mm mech game.

Damn thats a shame. I nabbed some of the 6mm light mechs from the two main forces and was wanting to get my hands on the others :/

 Vertrucio wrote:
Pretty much dead, apparently he's moved on to create a store called Red Dog Minis.

Honestly, I did get most of my order, but I saw the writing on the wall the moment he started talking about doing 15mm and 6mm at the same time. That's dividing the player base and market, and doubling all costs to support two different scales for no reason.

The 15mm stuff I got was decent, well cast, but sparse on detail. I wonder how much it'd cost to buy the designs and cad files off him to rework it into a straight 6mm mech game.

To be fair, he loves 15mm but he has also worked on 6mm previously with other projects and likely had been asked for some in 6mm.

I normally don't browse this sub forum but happened to catch it (although I check the misc sci fi section periodically). There really hasn't been much progress because the costs ended up running much higher than what was budgeted for and I've been unable to cover the difference as it requires me to do it out of pocket. I'm still trying to get things done but it's proven very difficult as I've been out of work. There's been very little interest in the models post kickstarter, even though they've been available on my website I've sold less than $400 worth of them in the last year and a half which isn't enough to really put anything towards completing the other models I had planned. Most people supported the KS for the models which I've delivered about 80% of the total for the KS, however I don't think completing the rules will have a significant enough impact on post KS sales to turn anything around.

A lot of people had been asking for the models in 6mm and it made sense at the time to tie both scales together in the KS. (While my preferred scale for these is 15mm I also like 6mm stuff as Battletech is what got me into gaming) Re-scaling the models didn't take any significant amounts of time, although it had some molding and printing costs. The main attraction of the idea was that it would offer a way of making a product that didn't require me to do additional casting work, it didn't make nearly as much of a "profit" as the larger models but the trade off was that it would be largely hands off. It would have been fine if things had gone as planned...

Where the complication came in was that there's no way to gauge how much is being pledged towards each scale in the KS while it's running. It's not until the survey gets sent out after the KS ends that you get a solid breakdown of 6mm vs 15mm. I had tried to budget so that I would be able to carry the costs of printing both scales from the same pool, however the set up and production costs for the 6mm ended up being about 3-4 times what was originally anticipated. This was largely due to miscommunication when I'd gotten quotes from the spincaster he'd provided quotes based on them being single part or 2-3 part models, where my models were averaging 10-12 pieces. This doubled the required number of molds and basically tripled the cost per cast as they had to run more molds multiple times to produce the same number of models (making the labor costs higher)

Due to the massively ballooning budget I asked backers if they'd be open to resin instead and it was a pretty resounding "No". So I carried on with trying to get the 6mm done even though it was completely in the red and was also draining a huge portion of what I had allocated to the 15mm models. In hindsight it would have just been best to cut the 6mm loose and done refunds but at that point I'd already had a majority of the 3d prints done and no matter which direction I went I'd lose about $5k-$6k and I figured if I went ahead I'd at least have some items in hand that I could deliver to my backers and I could also offer on the website to help recoup some of that loss. So I went ahead with what I could and now I have a bunch of unmoving backstock and I'm unable to go forward with new models in either scale.

The KS was undertaken with the idea that it'd cover the start up costs with a very minimal amount of profit and future sales would be where the company would see a return. After a year and half of treading water while remaining in the red it's been really difficult to get any forward progress made. Between the 3d design work and all the casting work I did on the 15mm models I spent about 8 months of full time work effectively without pay and while I was able to get that done it was completely exhausting and while I haven't called things quits it's very difficult to figure out how I'm not only going to put more time into it but also put in work at another job in order to finish funding it. It is very much like having a mill stone around my neck at times.

 Vertrucio wrote:
The 15mm stuff I got was decent, well cast, but sparse on detail.

Sparse detail is somewhat subjective as most modern & near future sci fi armored vehicles are covered in large slabs of armor that doesn't offer much detail when viewed at a distance. Individual bolts and rivets don't show at a distance unless it's on 40k designs where they are comically absurd as they'd be 6-8 inches across if scaled. How the models come out largely depends on your ability to paint mechs and vehicles. These are pretty well done IMO (painted by Spaceman Spiff)

I'm really sorry to hear how off the rails things have gotten. It sounds insanely difficult to properly budget such an undertaking as a small business.

I think that entire post should be an update to the backers so everyone knows what's happening.

I posted the details a while ago, based on the replies I think there's a core group of about 7-8 people who read the updates. There's a lot of people who PM me asking what going on and when I point out that it's in the updates they are like oh yeah those all go to a email I never check. I'm not quite sure why people give inactive emails for KS projects as it can complicate things if the project creator needs to get a hold of them.

Had it just been the 15mm scale I think things would have been fine as I knew the costs and have been doing the resin process for several years so the planning and budget has been quite accurate for those. The problem you face with KS is with the unknown elements (in this case the 6mm stuff) you don't know what information you're missing until you are already dug into the trenches. The metal estimates I had were valid, but just not for a model with the complexity I'm working with. The quote was done without sending him an actual model to test a mold layout with and since it fell inline with numbers I've gotten in the past with other models/quotes I figured it was accurate and I didn't question it. It didn't occur to me that the increased part count would alter things so significantly. (it's also not the fault of the spin caster as he was only working with the info I provided him which was flawed) That's something I made a major mistake with but I had no way of knowing until after I had already printed and paid for 12 models (out of the 24), so there was no backing out at that point.

There was also some additional complications with the initial molds, all of the masters for the light mech weapons shattered during the process. They were too delicate to handle the pressure from the mold vulcanization, they created a viable set of molds but if I ever need to redo any of the molds I need to have them all reprinted. There's also no way I can make resin copies at this point without doing a reprint. I've had a few people asks if they can get resin versions but I can only provide bodies. Not a major hang up as the metal molds will last for another thousand or so casts if needed, but just more frustration that the 6mm items have added to the overall project. I thought the 6mm mechs would be a good option but they turned into a money pit with no escape.

It's stuff that I'm trying to sort through, it hasn't been progressing very quickly as I've been completely tapped out. I've discussed where the issues are with the project and where i made mistakes but I also feel that if I keep posting repetitious update after update saying the same things that it begins to come off as making excuses. I want updates to be actual content or progress milestones not just statements of things are late, blah, blah, woe is me, etc.

I'm thankful that most everyone has been taking it stride, I know that it hasn't been ideal for anyone and it really sucks to not be able to be finished with things yet. I'm very happy to have gotten the models out that I have but it's also been a hugely draining process that I want over as quickly as possible.

Are the models likely to get discontinued completely soon / are the retail 6mm ones from the store likely to be a thing you continue to do in the future?

If not, have you considered selling the designs to another miniature company? The cashflow boost could help recoup a bit and help with whatever future projects you do (as well as keeps those wonderful designs of yours on peoples tables).

Sorry to hear it was such a horrible process though, I really hope any KS you do in the future goes a LOT smoother !

I've had the models available and will continue to. It's been exceedingly slow but I'm still working towards finishing things.

If somebody were to come along and make a serious offer I might consider it, but only if it included a way to get the remaining KS elements fulfilled.

Can you buy the mech on the right on bottom in 6 mm? They look great

If it's the cougar that's pictured above it's not currently available in 6mm (I do have the 15mm verison in stock), but I will have a resin 6mm version available within the next couple of weeks.

 paulson games wrote:



If it's the cougar that's pictured above it's not currently available in 6mm (I do have the 15mm verison in stock), but I will have a resin 6mm version available within the next couple of weeks.

Are you quitting the 6mm metals entirely for resin then?