New stretch goal!!! (Just a rough sketch this time, they can't keep up!)

Stretch Goal #12 $42,000:
Carnage hound. The carnage hound is a massive bloated muscled beast. It requires a 80mm base. The creature has grown massive eating and absorbing alien DNA from many variations of creatures and the bursts of speed from the creature are surprising due to it's size. Add a carnage hound at $15. Swarm level adds a Goliath wyrm while queen levels add 2 carnage hounds!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better! Interested to see if we make it to 42k though.

Also, I never noticed that the queen level pledge gets free international shipping as well, more money to buy add ons then!

So many units. I'm more tempted to see cool alien terrain. Forge World released some stuff many years ago, but imagine your whole table covered by some sort of alien hive!

FW Tyranid terrain is OOP for years. So I second that cool Alien terrain, esp. a big hive would be nice.

Just $800 needed for the 42k !!

Now it's $490 left and 6 hours!

Couldn't resist - upgraded to Swarm.

I have a feeling that by around the middle of next year my boat will have sunk under the weight of all the KS goodies heading my way.

Surely there's someone out there who knows how to cure this hellsih addiction...

 monkeytroll wrote:
Couldn't resist - upgraded to Swarm.

International shipping is free on Queen...

Not helping his addiction right there!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Huh, there goes $42k.

One final stretch for queen guards and of course, more freebies!

Yeah, cheers Casey - I'll save myself that $10 by spending 90 more...

 monkeytroll wrote:
Yeah, cheers Casey - I'll save myself that $10 by spending 90 more...

What? That totally makes sense!

Queen Guard deploy. These are a grub body with torso of a smaller queen torso and very mobile protectors of the queen. The concept art is rough placeholder while Des works this up for all of you. I will add 2 carnage hounds to the swarm level, Queen will get 6 of the queen guard.

And there are your Raveners.

Anyone have any idea what the heck a Goliath Wyrm could be used as? Same for the Cannon Drone and Queen. They seem really large for what they could proxy as on the field for Tyranids. Not that I am complaining, I just have no idea what they could proxy as!

yup.
what's more, it looks like Ed's sculpting style here is just about a 100% match to the hideous-in-the-most-possibly-positive-sense-of-the-word chapterhouse lash whips (and boneswords!) making for some very nasty units indeed for 40k, or just generally hideous-looking units pretty much all-round

Yeah, that's the kind of sense that I normally go for

'What, this big box of models to go with all my other unpainted crap? It was on sale, I've saved £50.'

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Anyone have any idea what the heck a Goliath Wyrm could be used as? Same for the Cannon Drone and Queen. They seem really large for what they could proxy as on the field for Tyranids. Not that I am complaining, I just have no idea what they could proxy as!

Cannon drone is going to be big enough to go as a tyrannofex, queen for what I've heard would be a nice tyranid alpha.
I'd like some biovore-sized mini cannon drones, but you can't have everything.

Oi! We're getting power armoured troops!

Latest update

I just hope the design will be a bit more original from that many companies do (basically make "not-Space Marines").

That stretch goal is at 50K, so I'm not so sure we'll be getting power armored troops as part of this Kickstarter!

6k in 4 hours? Hmm...you might be right. Still very curious what Ed had in mind for the design though...

Who knows though?

This campaign has already done almost $9K today!

only just under 4K needed now, and still over 4 hours left

we can do it

Finally back from work. Too exhausted to figure out what gets me the most/best value models, just dropped $200 on Queen

Wow I go out for 3 hours and we blow through 2 more stretch goals and I now have 2 Carnage Hounds and 6 Queens Guard I wasn't expecting if we hit $50k I actually don't know what I will get with the extra $20 as I have everything I could possibly want including 111 scenic bases of various sizes and 2 Dreadnoughts. All I'm dropping from the Queen level now is the Goliath worm and a Fiend as I don't like either and they give me $60 credit for the Dreadnoughts and Eggs.

Proper Artwork for Queen Guard just in:



$1,452 to $50k looks like a done deal now.

This has gone insane! Almost 48.5K and climbing and the deals are better each time.

Fenris- For me, Goliath Wyrm as Trygon, Cannon Drone as Tyrannofex, I think.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: Hellooooooo Raveners

You know what? GW doesn't want me to buy a Megaforce through an online retailer? Fine, if they don't want my money Ed can have it. Queen level here I go.

BTW $1,270 away from $50k.

Revised Goliath Art - damn it I was going to trade this for $40 credit but I really like the new design so I'll rejuggle a bit and now I have use of the $20 bonus credit

I"m not so sold on the aliens, but I'll put in for the big hunter forces bundle, in hopes of trading in some of the basic troopers for power armor guys.

It's a freaking Hydra!!!

Less than $500 from 50K now

$50,000 is done.

Really wish I had the cash for the Queen level now, it looks so fething good!

Edit: Oh nice,

'As a bonus to everyone in the kickstarter I'll give everyone involved in a $25 level pledge or higher either 10 bases or choice of 3 alien in the 30-40mm base size range. This would include swarm adults, swarm warriors, stealth warrios, hosts, grubs, alien hunters of both type, you choose your gift. This means queen, host, and swarm also add this on top of the gifts you have. Collectors, base level pledges people combining pledges all of you, just get $25 in and your good. My thanks.'

might bulk up the number of stealth warriors, I love their art!

 ghosty wrote:

Edit: Oh nice,

'As a bonus to everyone in the kickstarter I'll give everyone involved in a $25 level pledge or higher either 10 bases or choice of 3 alien in the 30-40mm base size range. This would include swarm adults, swarm warriors, stealth warrios, hosts, grubs, alien hunters of both type, you choose your gift. This means queen, host, and swarm also add this on top of the gifts you have. Collectors, base level pledges people combining pledges all of you, just get $25 in and your good. My thanks.'

He's also adding $10 of credit to every pledge level now that we've hit $50,000.
I think that's in addition to the above anyway, might have misunderstood.

Yummy. So + 10 dollars on top of everything? How do you choose what you're getting then? I don't grasp the swapping system either, so I'm a bit in the dark on this.

Love the new hydra design! It feels great to influence Ed's work so intimately, I suggest a multiple headed alien and Bam! done. One of the reasons I love kickstarters so much!

5 min left! If it breaks 54K you get another $10 credit, going to be close!

54k, 399 backers! Well, today was certainly interesting

Extremely well done KS I thought.

Finish at $54,090 and 399 backers just scraped over the line but another $10 extra credit added to pledges and $20 for Queen pledges

Congrats Ed!

Well that was fun no doubt about it. Honesty I have lost track of all the freebies we get at queen level now. How much extra credit did we get? Was it $20 total or am I reading it wrong?

Great kickstarter. Glad I joined in despite promising that I would resist this one!

well, it **seems** queen level gets $40 credit now. We're not sure though - some of Ed's posts in the comments were rather hasty; they're not always quite as specific about... stuff

Yeah, there was the first credit, then mention of another credit - amount unspecified as far as I can see.

edit: Oh no - it does mention same amount again at the end.

Wait till the goal table gets it's final update I guess.

Definitely confusing, but hard to argue when it's a matter of how much free stuff you get

Beautiful. Now to swap out the Fiend, and make some calculations. I am so excited!

And then, of course, wait with baited breath till about April.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Yeah, there was the first credit, then mention of another credit - amount unspecified as far as I can see.

edit: Oh no - it does mention same amount again at the end.

Wait till the goal table gets it's final update I guess.

Yup, that's where I was getting confused! Like you said though, I will wait for the goal chart to be updated, just have to wait for Ed to finish running around his house in glee throwing around wads of invisible money first though.

Huh, isn't [url=https://trollforged.wordpress.com/kickstarter-stretch-goal-table/]this

And then to figure out what I actually want, probably lose a couple of the biggies, and along with the extra cash I threw in that should cover a nice selection of hunters, pa, dreads and not-preds to go with all the gribblies

edit: I last looked at the table a couple of minutes ago, and it was saying it was on the 50k goal and the heavy weapon was still locked.

Ok so on the main page it definitely mentions both the 50k and 54k stretches each coming with more credit, this means everyone gets $20 credit and Queen gets $40!

I'm tempted to use one of the ten dollar credits to buy Ed a beer. A well run kickstarter indeed.

 Bromsy wrote:
I'm tempted to use one of the ten dollar credits to buy Ed a beer. A well run kickstarter indeed.

Fantastic quote . It was indeed awesome, and it was nice to see the Queen pledge finally become REALLY worth it at the end, for those of us who had stuck with it through the campaign (and the late arrivals too, of course!)

 DaveC wrote:
Finish at $54,090 and 399 backers just scraped over the line but another $10 extra credit added to pledges and $20 for Queen pledges

Is this sort of thing (and the free bases, etc) for each pledger, or each pledge level? Like will someone with double-queen get 2x$20 credit?

That was awesome!

Those Alien Hunters and Alien Alien Hunters pulled me in this morning when there was 40 minutes left.

Admittedly I am not really sure what I am entitles to as for extras but wont argue if they want to give me more.

Scipio- The bonus credit was per person, not per pledge. Not sure about the bases. However, we got bonus credit at both 50K and 54K, so Queen level is getting $40 credit, other levels $20 credit

Vain- Awesome! Funny that it was morning for you (my friend just came back from Australia, so I realize we're on almost exact opposite sides oft he world)

My only regret was that we didn't get a 400th backer. Anonymous Dakka Reader who almost pledged but didn't, you know who you are

A fantastic campaign, I am Really psyched to get these and my Dreamforge Games models! They will be enemies, of course, and quite perfect as opponents I think.

Cool so I will be able to get the Overlord after all thanks to the credit Sweeet!

Looking forward to figuring out what each model could be used for in a Tyranid army. The grubs are a bit too big to be termagants, so might need to figure out exactly what will be what.

So we made it! Here some final artwork

Ed said he'd make 2 goliaths (hopefully the above one, which Phil modified, and the Hydra one). But things were crazy last night so we'll see

The Goliath keeps getting better and better!

This isn't technically done, right? Anyone wanting to pay via paypal (or CC through paypal) will have an opportunity to do so at some point, correct?

 frozenwastes wrote:
This isn't technically done, right? Anyone wanting to pay via paypal (or CC through paypal) will have an opportunity to do so at some point, correct?

Yes they're working out a way for folk to buy in via paypal at the same price as the KS (this will only run for a limited time, no idea how long yet but it will probably close by the end of the year). the only thing you won't get is the ability to trade stuff and the bonuses Ed game away

this is the link showing what will be available (the paypal buttons aren't on there yet)

http://trollforged.com/kickstarter-paypal-1.html

... how did I miss this kickstarter? :(

I ended up going in for Queen + $35. Debating if I want to keep the small stuff and make an all counts-as 'nid army or trade 'em in for more big guys. Grubs-as-Gants are damn tempting considering they'll be about half the price of buying an actual GW 'gant (assuming a 20% discount online.) Con: Can't play it at GW (where I do a lot of my 40k), Pro: My friends won't give me a hard time for buying *yet another* friggen GW army.

I look forward to these going on general release and thank those that participated in this kickstarter.

Can the grubs be used as gants though? Have you seen the side by side scale shot of them with the Imperial Guard guy? Them being raised off the base makes it seem like they're a little too large to be used as termagants, sad as that is.

I'd like to see all the sculpts before making my choice for an army. Seems like I have miscalculated the size of the host miniatures as well, so need to see how it all pans out.

This is a fantastic deal though. And the best thing is that the art makes them look insectoid in nature, than just a kind of mish-mash that a lot of Tyranid ones come off as.

Fenris, I think so- assuming other things are taller, too. Some of these sculpts are going to be Monstrous!

I am very happy with my Kickstarter backing, although I'm done for the year. I love Dreamforge's armor and Trollforged organics. Best of both worlds

Same here. These will pair nicely with my Sedition Wars game, so I can run some aliens in later games if I can come up with some decent rules.

I should have really looked at the size of the grub in relation to the base it was on to determine the size first out *headsmack*.

Here is my plan for counts-as, I'm sure others may have variations but I am getting a bit of everything so if something doesn't fit I'll just adjust

Larvae Swarm = Rippers
Grub = Termagaunt
Swarm Adult = Tyrant Guard
Swarm Warrior = Hive Guard
Stealth Swarm = Tyranid Warrior

Hound = Genestealer
Sky-hunter = Shrike
Queen Guard = Ravener
LE Grub = Ravener / Zoanthrope
Wyrm = Zoanthrope
Fiend = Carnifex
Goliath Worm = Trygon
Drone = Tervigon
Cannon Drone = Tyrannofex

Overlord = Harpy / Winged Hive Tyrant
Queen = Hive Tyrant / Tyranid Prime
Carnage Hound = Hive Tyrant / Tyranid Prime
Swarm Master = Tyranid Prime / Broodlord

Host = Not used
LE Host = Not used

Wouldn't the hosts work better as genestealers?

Also, if you are looking for Zoanthropes, TFM has the trollcast Alien Brains on the website, and you can buy them with the additional $20 or $40 gift from the KS.

Personally, I love the looks of the Alien Brains, but maybe that's because of the Deathstalker books, where every alien spicies is some psychic, bio-organic monstrosity.

RiTides, what would you use as Hormagaunts? (edit: Nevermind, just re-read and you wrote Termagaunt, got it).

Also, Hosts are on a 40mm base from the pictures, so they're a little too big for genestealers.

It's all going to come down to how big the Swarm adults and the like are. I like the fact that the large expensive units are taken care of, but a lot of the cost in buying an army is the small stuff.

Will have to see how this all pans out.

I think that GW Termaguants will actually fit in OK as a minor part of a 'counts as' Tyranid army using mostly Troll Gorged figs!

I am happy with the grubs for gaunts- harder to hide, and if the provide too much cover to models behind I'll just give my opponent that easy enough to have a normal gaunt on-hand to check, too.

Stealth swarm may be a better genestealer than hound, but I think that could be confusing with the hive guard model being of similar build, so that's why I put Stealth Swarm as Tyranid Warrior.

Troll Gorged Alpharius? Well, no wonder these monsters are so big if they've been feeding off trolls.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Troll Gorged Alpharius? Well, no wonder these monsters are so big if they've been feeding off trolls.

Your posts never cease to make me laugh!

I thought about pointing that out, but let it slide given that much of my posting is now from a phone and my typos have increased

Noted, and I'll try to control any urges I get to point out your typos - phone posting is an almost acceptable excuse

 monkeytroll wrote:
Noted, and I'll try to control any urges I get to point out your typos - phone posting is an almost acceptable excuse

Yeah, that's probably a good idea.

People have been commenting on whether they want the survey now or later. Personally, I think it should come out before Christmas (Ed seems to want to do it soon). There's no way it can wait until the sculpts are all done, imo, as that will be a long time from now and people will have forgotten how much they pledged / etc etc / nightmare!

I think a manual survey is the easiest, personally, and then just go down the list packing 'em up and shipping 'em out when the time comes

If he is looking to do a survey sooner then I might ask for a sizing chart or something similar so I can guess what size things will be before making my pick.

Hopefully he leaves it open for awhile. I've got way too much gak to deal with at the moment until about new years.

I'd agree that the whole thing is so complex a simple manual survey is the best way to go

trying to program something to cope with all the trades (including those that break the rules, but which Ed allowed anyway) would take longer than pulling the data out manually

as to when, Id like it sooner, but it may make more sense for Ed to leave it till after Xmas, but it depends when he wants to get casting

Sooo...if I backed the project, but would also like to add some items using Paypal, do I pay extra shipping?
Looking like yes, but I'm hoping there's a no I haven't seen yet.

I knew that would be a "Yes" for new backers pledging only by Paypal (that and the KS-exclusive figures not being available, along with some of the stretches like the "extra trade-in credit" granted in the last few)... not sure if it applies to current backers, though.

Looks like there is going to be a decent form either from Philip (the TFM web guy) or Aaron (a backer who is helping out). Here is Philip's trade-in calculator for Queen (doesn't include any add-ons, that will be a separate page/form, or integrated along with this later). You can post feedback in the comments section on the KS page.

http://trollforged.com/kickstarter-trade-calc-queen.htm

For those wondering what each of the miniatures will be size wise, here is a listing of all the sizes by Ed in his comments, all compiled into one document.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gBuQlFU6OMKrIbHUlyFBDW3MuhN0boEAHAlQf--bw3I/edit

Question: Is a lot of what he has listed getting outside the range of being useable as Tyranid replacements? A lot of his stuff seems to be going on 80-120mm sized bases. From this list, are we still able to proxy swap a majority of GW figures for TF ones?

I am guessing he has done his homework as he does play Tyranids, but I haven't so I am asking Tyranid players if this works out or not

Nah- tervigon, trygon, even carnifex are huge. They'll work great for those

Looking to sell off a $58 pledge for this KS for $45.
Ed seems to be ok with switching info out, and the pledge manager hasn't gone out yet, do you've missed nothing afaik.
PM me if you're interested.

First update to this showing some of the Worm Grub sculpts by Ed


Update #66 · Feb. 04, 2013 · 12 comments

Thought you all might like this stuff so you can see the bodies and heads which interchange. Still minor details to add etc. but hope you like them. I am very happy with them thus far. I'm super excited and can't wait. I want a mix of all the head designs and think these are close. So I might do a few more heads but at least it is an update comments and questions please!





[img]ttps://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/362328/posts/398956/image-208275-full.jpg?1360017479[img]

Ninja'd!

Nice to see plenty of variety in the sculpts. Guess that is even better since I will be getting over 40 of the little buggers!

I'm stoked by those new heads. Love the look!! I am getting a bazillion of them so that is good!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also you missed an image tag above on this one:



Freaking sweet!

Defiance Swamp Worms, eat your hearts out!

Those are looking really good

I have changed my mind about trading some of them out for the overlord. Instead, I will send him more cash/Paypal!

New update with pictures.

Project Update #67: Update of the Fiend and a scale shot.
Posted by Edward Fortae
Ok sorry this took so long but I actually sculpted this guy twice. The first one I tried to hit the concept art as close as possible but felt looked to smooth and just not as nasty looking as I wanted so I resculpted this today. It's far from finished as of now but should be done sunday if all goes well.
The grubs are done and going into production this week for masters so I can then begin spinning lots of them as they are the highest number figure. I also decided to make 10 heads which will be variations on the basic 5 but have eyes, eyeless, and spineless variations etc. I'm also making a humanoid armature to make the hosts and other guy's faster as well.
as a final pic there is a master of the eggs in metal. I can't get the little divisions on the tendrils to show but when we pour in plastic they will pop out. I'm excited to get these all going.
The scale shot shows the progression in size and the wyrm still needs beefier tendrils yet but overall I'm very happy with the direction they are going. Thanks again and I'll send a survey out soon as the Fiend is finished at that point I think I'll have your trust.

Still love the Wyrm and Grubs, good to see some work done on the Fiend.

Looks good!

I love the body of the fiend, it reminds me of a flatworm. Really fun look to it

Oh man, I'm really loving this stuff.

These models look like they'll be a lot of fun to paint; anyone have any good ideas for a paint scheme?

My paint scheme is just going to be anything but red. I am so sick of painting red...

I'm thinking desaturated purples for the worm bodies. I think they'd look really nice muted down.

Purples could look great! I'm thinking about greens and maybe tans...

Considering the amount of grubs I'll be getting, I'm thinking figuring out something that will look good with just priming followed by a wash might be a smart move... Perhaps just white primer + a brown wash for that bony/fleshy look? Or prime white, and then wash with Recruittons purple (would that perhaps turn out pinkish?). Ah well, there'll be plenty of test figures available.

I'm going to see what you guys do, and then probably work something out from there. One thing's for sure, it'll be something that's simple and easy to do but looks decently organic.

Great update!

Alien Wyrm Resculpted and some armatures

Ok sorry for lack of updates but I'm on a roll with a few of the bigger critters so want to get these done before you see any infantry but next on the plate after the fiend is the alien troops, several. I have a real problem with wanting to get perfect armatures which has been a big problem in the past so I sculpted some you see here for casting and sculpting much, much faster.

The alien wyrm is to me perfect now. I tried to give the head a bit more beetle look and the only thing I need to do are the legs on the very bottom front and the slits for the tubes on it's side. 2 are on as you can see. The new change lets you put those tendrils in different directions and get better posses for them if you have more than one.

We are planning to move April but as always with being new to business I have had 3 other things get in the way and we are also working to get Impacts kickstarter 100% finished in April. The Big Mythos Foundry project starts this month as well. This means I'll be sculpting but a bit quite as I'm unsure when I'll have time to do all this and keep you updated.

Next bit of info, the store we are moving into will be a retail shop as well for those who might be in our area and could drop by and get some items early or as they are molded. I have no problem with that. I know a few people here are in the Missouri area.

Thanks again and pictures next. I'll get the survey out soon to those who have fewer items and those who have lots, like the swarm, host, and queen are going to be sent when more of the items are finished for you to see as usual.

Thanks Ed

That wyrm looks perfect,

really looking forward to 'finalising' my pledge (and, of cource, adding more!)

It *is* a rather lovely sculpt, true
However, I'm going to insert a bit of negativity here: he's now through with, what? 10% of total sculpts? this thing isn't going t be delivered before new years' eve 2014 at this rate.
Now I don't mind, I have waaaay to much minis en route anyway so it's fine by me - but it doesn't help my confidence in TFM's business plans/insights to see this go off track to this degree.

Still, it's going to be a pretty lovely bunch of minis and Ed will deliver in the end, so no problem as far as I'm concerned

I just wish he wasn't taking on so many other tasks while doing his own stuff. Seems like the second he has finished one project he has another two to deal with!

Anyway, wyrm is looking super, can't wait to get some paint on that beast!

I am glad the Wyrm was resculpted. The other sculpt really didn't do the concept art justice.

Not so hot about the tentacles though, a little bit too wrinkly for me. Shouldn't be too hard to modify though.

Yeah, I do think he may have bitten off more than he can chew. I went into the Imbrian Arts kickstarter which *was* going to go TF for plastics, but TF is so backed up IA is going to end up going metal instead of plastic. On the upside, it's turning into a free resin upgrade for me for the big stuff (for IA.) I have plenty of patience for the stuff though, so that's good.

 Bolognesus wrote:
It *is* a rather lovely sculpt, true
However, I'm going to insert a bit of negativity here: he's now through with, what? 10% of total sculpts? this thing isn't going t be delivered before new years' eve 2014 at this rate.
Now I don't mind, I have waaaay to much minis en route anyway so it's fine by me - but it doesn't help my confidence in TFM's business plans/insights to see this go off track to this degree.

Still, it's going to be a pretty lovely bunch of minis and Ed will deliver in the end, so no problem as far as I'm concerned

Bolognesus, I'm right there with you! I think it's a bummer that more progress hasn't been made, BUT he's had tons going on and I've absolutely LOVED what I've seen! My thought has been New Years 2014 as well any later than that would be a shame, I think.

He has had a lot going on and is Finally going to get into his new shop, though! Also, as for new work it looks like he's not going to be working with RBG or Imbrian Arts, so that frees him up more to do his own stuff

Fenriswulf, I'm not totally satisfied with the tentacles either, but they're separate parts and I love the rest. As you say, easy to modify that part

Overall, I am still super stoked about Ed's material and his sculpts! It's a shame it didn't work out with RBG and Imbrian Arts, but you learn from it and move on, focusing on the projects it works well for (Impact is Extremely happy with his work, and he's on schedule. And of course needs to focus on his own KS sculpts and casting them, after setting up the new shop).

 Bolognesus wrote:
It *is* a rather lovely sculpt, true
However, I'm going to insert a bit of negativity here: he's now through with, what? 10% of total sculpts? this thing isn't going t be delivered before new years' eve 2014 at this rate.
Now I don't mind, I have waaaay to much minis en route anyway so it's fine by me - but it doesn't help my confidence in TFM's business plans/insights to see this go off track to this degree.

Still, it's going to be a pretty lovely bunch of minis and Ed will deliver in the end, so no problem as far as I'm concerned

It is disappointing how long this is taking. There's also been no bases shown since the kickstarter ended. To be fair...it was pretty obvious all along that this would be a hobby project. The other projects in the queue took precedence and have been delayed to some extent. I'm sure that experience will be helpful for the sculpts going forward, and at least when this KS is done, it'll have a full army and a half produced already.

Have a look at this video from Brian Gregory (who works for Ed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuPmB1TExRw

the bases are at about 7:40 ish to about 12:40 ish

EDIT - Ed has left a comment on his own KS comments.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/131182444/assimilation-alien-host/comments

Or they can all just drop it and move on . As much as I'd be fascinated by juicy details, I love ALL these companies and want them ALL to succeed. But yeah, the fact that Impact is having success with Trollforged gives me great hope. I'm super stoked for the material! And will likely still support both Imbrian and RBG in metal.

But absolutely cannot wait for my plesin/restic alien horde in the Trollforged material

Yeah actually your right take the high road and move on continue to build the brand using established partners let the miniatures do the speaking.

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:Have a look at this video from Brian Gregory (who works for Ed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuPmB1TExRw

the bases are at about 7:40 ish to about 12:40 ish

Thanks! Those look great. Still interested in seeing what they do with the forest bases, but if not, the flagstone bases look great. If they can keep these low cost and get them distributed, trollforged stands a very good chance of taking over the premade base market.

DaveC wrote:I think this comment is worth posting given some of what has being going on today and the last few weeks.

Thanks for posting that. Tough situation, and basically an extension of what pushed Ed to want to do his own thing for the kickstarter. Trollforged is in both a great and terrible position, having a unique technology that others want to use, but having to learn with it and facing the limit of only having 1-2 people who can work with it. I think hearing of all the projects lining up for it, and all the delays those are creating makes this apparent.

 DaveC wrote:
...

Creator Edward Fortae about 3 hours ago

...I have had one project that has been a nightmare half way through and another I dropped. We are getting a reputation because of waiting for other people to get us sculpts, numbers of casts they need, etc. Not to mention trying to get paid etc. I've decided I'm going to be cutting production casting out of my life for most people and sticking to those who can organize like Impact, Raging Heros, and Kingdom Death. The main problem I've found is that the initial jobs were under estimated as well but not having sound numbers does not help us either....

This meshes up rather interestingly with comments made by Impact! on the Reaper boards discussion about the Trollcast issues (money quotes start around page 6), with the key statement appearing to be "It would be amazing how differently folks would think if Tre and Jody were being completely honest."

The Impact! poster mentions the fallout from the RBG campaign a few times, and it would seem to explain something that has struck me as odd: the intensely negative feeling Tre seems to have to the impact of his first campaign.

This meshes up rather interestingly with comments made by Impact! on the Reaper boards discussion about the Trollcast issues (money quotes start around page 6), with the key statement appearing to be "It would be amazing how differently folks would think if Tre and Jody were being completely honest."

Oh really? I am not being honest am I?? I have damned near bitten my tongue in half over all of this but I am wondering now if the only way to salvage my reputation here si to just come right out and make a statement.

 tre manor wrote:

This meshes up rather interestingly with comments made by Impact! on the Reaper boards discussion about the Trollcast issues (money quotes start around page 6), with the key statement appearing to be "It would be amazing how differently folks would think if Tre and Jody were being completely honest."

Oh really? I am not being honest am I?? I have damned near bitten my tongue in half over all of this but I am wondering now if the only way to salvage my reputation here si to just come right out and make a statement.

The more I listen about all these the more I know honest people should stay away from net fights and concentrate on what they do best.... So my friend Tre please do not enter mudslinging contests and just sculpt your lovely minis and keep on entertaining us as one of the best sculptors around matey...

I have not read Impact statement and I'm not a bit curious about anything they say to be honest... Let the dogs bark and continue your way mate.

believe me that the LAST thing I want to do is for things to get ugly, but I am feeling more and more like I am being pushed to defend myself.

Looks like those posts were removed. I think it was a low blow. That guy Tom even admitted he was Ed friends so he is hardly a non bias opinion and on top of it he provides no info. Basically he called people a liar with no info to back it up. That is worse then a liar.

Honestly I think the biggest fail(Truth) of this whole situation is 2 full time employees working out of a guys small basement. This guy is going to work on the KD account? I wonder what Adam is thinking.

 tre manor wrote:
believe me that the LAST thing I want to do is for things to get ugly, but I am feeling more and more like I am being pushed to defend myself.

I understand that but think on the bigger picture here, your sculpts rock, your product is original, your client service always helpful, you always deliver the product... Anyone in this industry knows what the KS volumes are doing to the small companies ( its just to much volume to handle in such tight timings) and by god any client should be aware that preorders and KS's are flexible and some extra waiting is part of the game sometimes...

So leave the others with shady agendas to choke on their own poison... Ignore them and concentrate on your minis and clients... Sometimes the best defense is keeping your focus sharp and dodge the trap.

Damn the more I hear about KS's the more I hate them.

When I read the Impact update, I think I got a sense of what's been going on.

You've got one company that's been working very closely with Trollforged and basically micromanaging the process. Unsurprisingly, they are getting what they wanted. Also unsurprisingly, the companies that are not working so closely with TF to manage the casting process are getting less attention.

It's unfortunate, but no one's really done anything malicious. Impact saw the need to manage the casting process very closely, so that's what they're doing. Trollforged only have so much time and a huge queue, so they're working on what's easiest to get done. And Red Box/Imbrian/whoever else are feeling let down since they were promised X date or Y dollars and things are slipping.

The only answer is for Trollforged to outsource their process to tons of other casters for a decent licensing fee

I don't want to draw any negativity but I'm a little bummed that Imbrian Arts is moving away from this. Still, I would really like to get my hands on some Troll Forge products in the future. Seeing the Kingdom Death preacher pinup and the detail captured was great. I hope all things work out for Ed and the business.

So Tre and Ed aren't working together anymore? *confused*

 Malika2 wrote:
So Tre and Ed aren't working together anymore? *confused*

I don't believe that is the case: Tre and Ed (RBG and TFG) are still working together, the news today was that Imbrian Arts (Jody Segal) is not going to be using Trollcast for their main pledge levels.

That is some sage advice, Navarro! Seriously.

Never helps to throw anyone under the bus. You just get dragged under, too. Listen to Navarro, the man speaks wisdom...

 Buzzsaw wrote:

 Malika2 wrote:
So Tre and Ed aren't working together anymore? *confused*

I don't believe that is the case: Tre and Ed (RBG and TFG) are still working together, the news today was that Imbrian Arts (Jody Segal) is not going to be using Trollcast for their main pledge levels.

Well, we all know that Ed is bad at keeping deadlines. And 2-3 major kickstarters plus potentially Defiance games and others will keep him rather occupied for a while. If Ed gives a timeline of August 2013 for delivery, it will be 2014 or 2015 ... more or less. I am still waiting for the release of a model that is on his shelves for more than 3 years.

 Buzzsaw wrote:

 Malika2 wrote:
So Tre and Ed aren't working together anymore? *confused*

I don't believe that is the case: Tre and Ed (RBG and TFG) are still working together, the news today was that Imbrian Arts (Jody Segal) is not going to be using Trollcast for their main pledge levels.

From comments on his forum, it appears that Tre' is not going to be using Trollforged all that much for the foreseeable future. It appears to be implied but is slightly unclear as to whether he will be continuing to use the moulds made by Ed for the KS-figures or if they will be re-moulded in metal. It appears that Tre' and Ed will be parting ways. Hopefully it can be done amicably, or at least with a public show of same, regardless of the exact details and feelings. Those might be entertaining for many to read, but it's not really necessary.

RBG Tre
Re: When will KS 2.2 start?
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2013, 12:27:21 PM »

well actually I did not profit $80,000.00....... If I went through the actual numbers it woudl make you puke....it did me. :/

At the end of the day this KS has been a disaster. I have ruined my reputation, increased my work burden decreased the amount fo profit made per part and jumped up in tax brackets in the process. A nice little kicker is that I cannot claim the postage expense of fulfilling the KS as an expense right off on my taxes. So not only am I paying doubel the expected postage costs I am also paying taxes on the cost to boot!

And then the real disaster is that the KS parts might never see retail release. The backers may be the only people ever to get most of this stuff unless I retool back to metal!!

I LOVE the product but this has NOT worked out at all. From the rate of delivery to the price per part, nothing about this has gone according to plan. Now I am not sure that I can get restocks within a reasonable amount of time which was originally part of the reason I wanted switch over to trollcast.

===========
RBG Tre
Re: When will KS 2.2 start?
« Reply #26 on: March 07, 2013, 09:22:00 AM »
Quote
the actual production would be cheap as chips and that was the point of retooling.


...... that WAS the idea, but it did not turn out that way. In metal I can manage my costs FAR better than I can with Ed'd plastic. BUT I have to control the production myself in order to do so.

Quote
Or is Ed just so swamped with work that he can not work RBG stuff as much as you would like to?

Yep. They just have too much on their plate and I cannot sit idle waiting for them to clear it all.

Quotes taken from here:
http://red-box-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=181.0

Azazelx wrote:From comments on his forum, it appears that Tre' is not going to be using Trollforged all that much for the foreseeable future. It appears to be implied but is slightly unclear as to whether he will be continuing to use the moulds made by Ed for the KS-figures or if they will be re-moulded in metal. It appears that Tre' and Ed will be parting ways. Hopefully it can be done amicably, or at least with a public show of same, regardless of the exact details and feelings. Those might be entertaining for many to read, but it's not really necessary.

Yes, he's definitely moving back to metal it seems. As is Jody of Imbrian Arts.

Personally, I didn't like the fact that Tre continually implied there was "more than meets the eye" going on with Ed and Trollforged . Even on the last page when he says he had to "almost bite his tongue off"! Ed had made no such comments at all, the "worst" being his most recent "I may need to make a post about this".

Seriously guys, act like adults, move on in business relationships if you need to, don't slam the other guys! I have supported ALL 3 of you, and plan to continue to do so.

CLEARLY, in many ways Trollforged is awesome. Impact is a Very satisfied customer. Red Box Games is not. You can't win them all, you learn from it and move on.

Hopefully, this thread can get back to talking about awesome Alien Assimilation sculpts now and we can put this episode behind us

 RiTides wrote:

Azazelx wrote:From comments on his forum, it appears that Tre' is not going to be using Trollforged all that much for the foreseeable future. It appears to be implied but is slightly unclear as to whether he will be continuing to use the moulds made by Ed for the KS-figures or if they will be re-moulded in metal. It appears that Tre' and Ed will be parting ways. Hopefully it can be done amicably, or at least with a public show of same, regardless of the exact details and feelings. Those might be entertaining for many to read, but it's not really necessary.

Yes, he's definitely moving back to metal it seems. As is Jody of Imbrian Arts.

Personally, I didn't like the fact that Tre continually implied there was "more than meets the eye" going on with Ed and Trollforged . Even on the last page when he says he had to "almost bite his tongue off"! Ed had made no such comments at all, the "worst" being his most recent "I may need to make a post about this".

Seriously guys, act like adults, move on in business relationships if you need to, don't slam the other guys! I have supported ALL 3 of you, and plan to continue to do so.

CLEARLY, in many ways Trollforged is awesome. Impact is a Very satisfied customer. Red Box Games is not. You can't win them all, you learn from it and move on.

Hopefully, this thread can get back to talking about awesome Alien Assimilation sculpts now and we can put this episode behind us

Tre was responding to the Impact miniatures guy saying that him and Jody weren't being honest about the situation on the Reaper forum, and then Bugswarm essentially saying "that makes sense" here.

As much as part of me would love to know all the details, I don't think delving in to this makes anyone look good. I just hope everyone can continue to grow their businesses and give us more great minis.

I just want RBG and Trollforged to both be sucessful. It's a shame they couldn't be sucessful together, but I hope they can just part ways and be done with it and move on if that's what needs to happen.

Clearly it's all Ed's sick landlord's fault. I bet if we pulled his mask off, we'd see that he's really Old Man Reidy.

And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!

 bbb wrote:
I just want RBG and Trollforged to both be sucessful. It's a shame they couldn't be sucessful together, but I hope they can just part ways and be done with it and move on if that's what needs to happen.

QFT!!!

Here are some of the alien hunters by Ian Mountain.

Update on the Fiend:

I'm getting more and more excited for this. First and Only kickstarted I've ever funded, and it looks to be turning out a treat! I love the fiend!

Fiend is disgusting. And that is a very, very good thing; I'm really excited about this stuff!

The alien hunters are... OK, I guess. I had pledged for the big set of 40 of these guys (in general, I went slightly crazy on this Kickstarter), but I'm kind of thinking I might want to scale that down and double up on some bugs instead. I don't know, there's just something about their proportions that seems just slightly off to me, and makes me not super excited. What do you guys think of them?

Several of the hunters are... decent. Not a huge fan of them, but they aren't a huge part of my pledge. I'll be getting about 15 of the standard guys, so I'm not too upset. The guy with his hand out behind him just looks off, though.

I'm in agreement with you. There's something about them I'm not so happy about. I didn't pledge for any of them because I didn't see the need for more human soldiers. They aren't bad, but I've not been a fan of trollforgeds 'human' sculpts, just not my aesthetic taste personally

I think for me, the necks seem a tad too long, and the hands seem quite simply sculpted.

Here are some more pictures of those Alien Hunters.

Given that the pledge manager still hasn't been needed to be submitted, people can change what they'd like to get. Personally, I'm after Ed's alien sculpts and not the alien hunters (which are done by someone else).

The WIP fiend is absolutely amazing. I am hoping to receive some trollcast models this week or early next (not the aliens yet of course) and if so I'll post them up so folks can see the material.

Impact also posted some pics of their trollcast casts from AdeptiCon. They look fantastic!

Wow, that Impact stuff is looking pretty damn crisp, thanks for posting!

Bare in mind as well that Tom did very little prep work on the Impact! Stuff he had very little time so most were put together without any clean up. I have the Hydra and I'm very impressed with the trollcast material very easy to clean up holds the detail well and there's very little weight to it even less so than styrene plastic

That's fantastic to hear . With Ed sculpting again, and trollcast models getting delivered for other campaigns, I'm excited about this project once again! Although in my head, the delivery date is the end of the year, which really is fair enough given how far it went past the initial funding goal. Creators are forced to list a delivery month with the pledge levels, but for things like this when more and more gets added and now it's an entire Army of sculpts to be done, there's not much chance of meeting the original deadline. Plus, this is kickstarter, what do we expect

If he keeps showing awesome sculpts on a regular basis like the above, I will be Very pleased

 recruittons wrote:
Several of the hunters are... decent. Not a huge fan of them, but they aren't a huge part of my pledge. I'll be getting about 15 of the standard guys, so I'm not too upset. The guy with his hand out behind him just looks off, though.

Nod. I was originally planning to add a bunch, but now I'm happy I don't have any. They're not bad per se, but they're not exciting or what I'd go out of my way to purchase either.

Actually really dig the hunters and the fiend -- nice to have some sci-fi choice that isn't sort of stunted or super grim dark.

But I'm also a low-tier pledge, so not much skin off my back however it shakes out.

Great looking fiend! Nice to see that we are finally making some progress. Now I just need to paint some of the things I already have to make room for them...

I like the feel to these ailens (on page 1) I like the sculpts .

It was nice to see another alien update. Really digging the new sculpt, and I'm glad putting the original pincers and tendrils on it are an option.

I'll be interesting to see how these things look standing next to some GW 'nids, since if I ever put these things on the table for a game the two sets will probably get mixed. It'll be Hive Fleet Eclectic.

Some more views of the Fiend: http://trollforged.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/fiend-wip/

Thanks, Malika!

This just occurred to me- are you Philip Sibbering on Kickstarter? He said he was the Trollforged "web guy", so just seeing if that is also you, or if you are distinct people

 ghosty wrote:
I'm in agreement with you. There's something about them I'm not so happy about. I didn't pledge for any of them because I didn't see the need for more human soldiers. They aren't bad, but I've not been a fan of trollforgeds 'human' sculpts, just not my aesthetic taste personally

I think for me, the necks seem a tad too long, and the hands seem quite simply sculpted.

They remind me of the Vendel (now Sgt Major Miniatures) sculpt style. I like 'em a lot (hell I have a whole Greek army made of only Vendel figures). I can definitely see how others wouldn't like them, but there's something about them that I like a lot.

 RiTides wrote:
Thanks, Malika!

This just occurred to me- are you Philip Sibbering on Kickstarter? He said he was the Trollforged "web guy", so just seeing if that is also you, or if you are distinct people

Haha, now there's a first timer! Never been mistaken for Philip before. Philip isn't on DakkaDakka, I know he's on several other forums though, but there he operated under the username "Philip S".

Small update on what's happening.

This part of the update concerns me

As to bases, I have to start all over on them as Brian is gone but that will not take me long to do so I'll send a survey for bases which will request the style most people want and the style and I'll work out from that direction.

So Brian has left (and it's implied but not written that he's taken his bases with him) but it is just added as a footnote to the update. The bases were a large part of the reason I backed this project and information like that deserves it's own update plus they are now a man down.

Did you also post this as a comment on the update itself? Maybe Ed can clear stuff up for you then.

Yep I've added it to the update comments

Cool, hopefully it will be sorted out then!

Philip has confirmed in the comments that Brian has left and taken all his designs with him so Ed has to start the bases from scratch. I've pointed out that I think that should have been it's own update and not a footnote on another one.

Without getting into rumourmongering and speculation, Brian was the person who was publically "getting into it" with Tre' so we have a natural narrative path.

I'd also like to introduce our new series of bases during this Kickstarter, below are several painted bases which will be lower level pledge ranges. These are cast in Trollcast and created by one of the team members from Troll Forged Miniatures. Bases are supplied unpainted.

The KS says they were created by one of the team members, and so assuming they were Brian's work, he's obviously retained all rights to them when he left. Still, the bases shown aren't especially complex (if I could do it, they're not that complex) and so the skill is in the casting, which obviously requires a touch more work, but seems like the kind of thing it'd be perfect for the new trainee to be doing.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
whups. looks like DaveC's post that I was replying to was a page old...

Wasn't that old, he posted about it today.

Wait...why has this thread been removed from the rumours section?

Because it's a "waiting for kickstarter" thread now.

Erm, but didn't the Kickstarter finish already and is Ed busy with actually producing the stuff? How is this "waiting for kickstarter"?

I think he means it's now waiting for news, delivery, etc. The KS project is now done, so it gets removed from News and Rumors. It's Dakka policy. It just takes a long time for it to happen, most times.

Yeah, I lost track of it down here, too, since it was delayed for a while before it was actually moved.

The reason is, otherwise the News & Rumors forum is full of threads sometimes a hundred pages long, so it's hard for folks just coming into things to catch up on news or rumors.

When Ed starts shipping stuff, even just Wave 1, and there's a chance of it being offered up for sale soon, a new thread should be made in the News & Rumors section so folks can see it there

I like the sculpts he's been doing and hopefully he can continue to progress... he mentioned already having a replacement for Brian, I believe. Like any employer, I believe he has to be mum on why he was let go.

Hopefully the train is finally righted now! I am a huge fan of trollforged and trollcast, if he can finish the sculpts and get casting on wave 1, and shipping it out, that will really go a long way. However, I also pledged for a ton of bases... just wanting the basic rock/slate ones, so I believe he'd need to do those too for folks who got bases with their pledges.

Well, the Pledge Manager never saw the light of day, so there's that as well. I guess he might be waiting until he has all the sculpts done. Either way, this looks like another "hopefully by Christmas" Kickstarter when it comes to fulfilment now.

Between the problems with his landlord, the hassle with Defiance and his drama with Tre and Imbrian, I almost wouldn't be surprised if Ed quietly disappeared and dissolved Trollforged in whatever quasi-legal manner he could. His finances must have taken a pretty big hit from all the delays and bad press, and his only employee seems to have ditched the sinking ship.

I sure hope his next Kickstarter is for a docudrama based on the results of his first Kickstarter.

To be fair, he's now moved into the new shop, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the reasoning behind Brian's departure would be the public drama-fest that Brian had a very active role in. He also seems to be doing a lot of sculpting now, so there's been more updates recently than we saw for quite some time before.

Yes, he is a workaholic but he seems to be casting his butt off to finish RBG, and in his other time, sculpting the items he will then start casting to finish his own KS.

Selfishly, I wish he'd just send Tre exactly what is needed to fulfill his RBG KS pledges, and no extras, and then move on to his own KS... as there's quite a bit more outstanding for his own KS now.

But, I appreciate his work ethic and believe, as you indicate, that things might not have turned quite as sour without Brian's involvement.

The problem with Ed is that he just takes it in the teeth, though. The fact that he's counting things before he sends them now is a pretty good indication that he wants this to be Done, and previously the counts got messed up because maybe Tre is chucking tons of sculpts that are "miscast" . I got horses that he was unhappy with, and I'm thrilled with them...

Anyway, long story short, looks like he's finishing RBG casting while sculpting his own stuff. I've got to believe he's planning to have RBG squared away this month or next... he really needs to turn the page and move on to his own stuff. There's no way he got paid enough to warrant how many man-hours have gone into this! But it is admirable that he's trying to fulfill his end of the bargain... I just think at this point the minimum necessary to satisfy the RBG backers is all that should be done, and no more.

Anyway, love the WIP sculpts and will content myself with them for now

Don't forget he is also still finishing up Impacts stuff as well orders with Type 2 (large miniatures) have not been fulfilled yet as they are still being molded and cast. That said Ed is doing everything he can to get this done ASAP , Mike's wife even did a 600 mile round trip to make a delivery to Impact to keep things on track. From what I've heard he made a loss on RBGs stuff but he has an entirely new pricing system in place to prevent this happening in future.

I think Ed just took to much on at the one time he's going to limit the work he takes on in future. I have no doubt he will finish and deliver on his own KS no matter the cost Ed's that type of person he'll deliver no matter what it just might take 6 months or longer more than he planned. My main concern was with the loss of the bases - I'm getting a lot of them but the miniatures I was getting them for have also been delayed by 6 months - hopefully Ed can make another sets as good as or better than the first lot but it's another distraction he didn't need.

Update...

Looks very nice!

When was this all supposed to ship again?

Yeah, I love the revised Queen!

Surveys are finally about to go out, and he is going to do wave shipping. The Queen may even make it into Wave 1

Alpharius- Yeah it's behind schedule but he has 4 employees now, a new shop set up, and sculpting has increased dramatically. I feel like he must have landed a big external job, but haven't heard anything about such yet.

But for the last 2 months he has shown regular sculpting updates and things finally seem to be on track after the long delay fulfilling the RBG campaign (which is still in it's final phases, but due to the fragility of Tre's models and his quality expectations, has to be cast by Ed and only his best employee. Ed posted 2 comment updates on it on Tre's older KS in the latest update, if anyone is curious).

Trollforged are just finishing up Impacts! KS now that over ran by about 3 months due to the work involved there's still a few bits left to fulfill there. In fairness Trollforged went out of there way to ensure that one got finished even doing round trips to make deliveries to Tom while he was ill.

I think Trollforged just took on to much in one go and got a bit overwhelmed by it all. I'd say wave 1 will deliver in the next month or 2 (or 3) he might get wave 2 in this year but I expect wave 3 to go into next year. I hope the bases turn out good now that they had to completely redo them I wanted a lot of the earth/rock type bases for various projects (but none of those KS have delivered yet either )

I can't even remember properly what's in this one. I do remember some kind souls pointed out what it would take to make a nice tyranid swarm out of them, though.

With the new tyranid 'dex coming out in November, the timing for Wave 1 releases could be very good! Hopefully, he can fully ship Wave 1 before the end of the year, and then be able to sell some of it.

DaveC, I agree with your assessment, although I think Wave 1 delivering in a month is optimistic... 3 is a better bet. As long as everyone gets their Wave 1 models in 2013, I'd say it's back on the right track . Sculpting looks to be going extremely well, it's just the casting that I'm wondering about given the volume required.

I won't want to build it until the new 'dex hits anyway, since it's coming so soon... so again, the timing could work out very well!

Little update:

Those cast grubs look fantastic

Those vaguely make me wish I had gone forward on this kickstarter. Especially as it looks like Nids might be getting an updated codex from GW soon. Oh well, they look awesome.

I like this stuff this could fit in well with a sci-fi skirmish game im currently working on

Ready to master:

He posted that he's modifying the hand / claws in the comments section, which is good because that's the only part I didn't like about this beast

Update from the Troll Forged Kickstarter: Swarm Adults!

I was going to skip the adults, but I actually really like them now! Although a few could use a loincloth or something

Yep, these models are going to be sweet and the progress updates lately have been really good!

Has anyone taken then up on their refund-swap-o-mart? I haven't seen any updates about that.


There will be a pledge manager thingy at some point, right? I might actually put more money into this when I see all the finished sculpts.

The orifice on that big Swarm creatures' body looks disturbingly...human.

~Tim?

 RiTides wrote:
I was going to skip the adults, but I actually really like them now! Although a few could use a loincloth or something

Loincloths would look silly. Just file, scalpel and putty over their not-nads and make them smooth like Ken & Barbie...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:
The orifice on that big Swarm creatures' body looks disturbingly...human.

~Tim?

I reckon the paint people choose to use will be what makes them stand out or blend in...

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Has anyone taken then up on their refund-swap-o-mart? I haven't seen any updates about that.


There will be a pledge manager thingy at some point, right? I might actually put more money into this when I see all the finished sculpts.

I've done the reverse, buying out someone's pledge . Hopefully, those who don't want to wait further can sell, those who are willing to can buy, and everyone can be happy . The updates the last few weeks after the crisis with his daughter was over have been stellar.

Regarding the Pledge Market, it has been set in motion. You can check it out [urll=http://trollforged.com/kickstarter-1/pledge-market.html]here[/url]!

More information about the Pledge Market can be found in the following update.

But besides the Pledge Market, there have been some other updates as well!

WIP bases (click link for additional pictures)




And here the blogpost about the metal master of the Fiend I've posted previously.

More bases!





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Metal masters of the limited edition Host:

Update on the Troll Forged Miniatures Kickstarter:

I love those hound casts... cannot fething wait! He also posted pics of the sculpt of the LE grub, which I believe is the last sculpt going in Wave 1. He said it should be finished this week, so then it's just casting the heck out of everything.

But the casts shown so far (grub worms, adult warriors, and hounds) have all looked fantastic.

Another update: LINK

Another little update from the TFM Facebook page:

Production cast of the alien wyrm assembled to show off the kit design.

Not sure what the heck is up with those 2 legs on the bottom, this is a worm! I'll just leave those off though

Yeah I was thinking the same. In the context of the miniature, it would make it much harder to move than it would if they weren't there. I'd much prefer having those legs where it's tentacles are. Would make a lot more sense to me.

Response from Ed regarding the legs:

“I left the arms longer for you to be able to cut them down or you could put them in the torso area and tendrils below. More variety and easy changes that way. I know most of you have multiple kits and I’m working to make things interchange where possible.”

Another update from the Kickstarter...looking good!

That pic totally wasn't in an update, where did you find it? Looks Awesome!

It was on Ed's personal Facebook page. I guess it will be in an official update in the coming days?

Here some production samples, taken from the TFM Facebook page.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And here an official update: http://trollforged.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/ks-trollcast-fiend-and-other-gribblies/

Those models are beautiful, absolutely cannot wait to get them! And those are actual casts... so awesome. Now he just needs to crank up the production and get a ton of them cast up!

The thing I love about these miniatures is that they look genuinely horrific. Like if you were having to fight these things you're likely to crap yourself when you first see them.

I think it plays on our unconscious where we have seen small insects and sometimes are freaked out about them, but here it is on a bigger scale. And it's got legs, tentacles and a maw and... oh god!

I think it's a great theme to play on, as our unconscious fear reinforces the kind of weirdness and grotesque nature of them, and that's something I have never had from GW Tyranid miniatures. Those kind of look like people trying to do not-Aliens and making the big ones look like semi-insect dinosaurish looking things, and I don't think it comes together as well as these do. These are visceral and in your face.

Tyranids are cute. These things are terrifying. I love them.

I love the look and the concept artist wouldn't happen to be the guy who worked on dead space 3 would it? I recognized the same style as the alien race from DS3 which is a good thing because thats dudes designs always kick ass.

When will we be able to purchase these models?

Adult warrior WIPS

When Bigfoot and Pinhead got together to make a baby...

My hope is the head will get a lot bigger (it's WIP).

Hoping to hear more about shipping on wave 1, which is all being cast, soon.

Here are the Alien Hunters:




And some more pics, including some figs by other companies for scale:

We convinced Ed that it might need a bit of resculpting, and the Swarm Warriors should look more like the original artwork for them. So the above Swarm Warrior is now going to be cut down a little and put with the Swarm Adults as a leader.

This is cool and shows Ed actually listens to us which is excellent. Looking forward to the more insect like Swarm Warriors. Man I am excited to see how this KS all pans out!

Also, thinking that Mashaaf and the Filth Beast from the Bones KS will fit in nicely with these miniatures. As what I am not exactly sure.

Thank you for talking with him. I'm looking forward to seeing the revisions.


Man, I'm going to be delaying my pledge manager until he finishes not-Cthulhu, which might be sometime around when the real Cthulhu wakes up.

Hahah lol!

Eh, I don't mind. I don't know what Mantic's plans are for Warpath, whether they're going to have an insect kind of race or not. If not I can always use these as not-tyranids for 40k, though I loathe to play GW games now.

Nice, Fenriswulf! He has shown that he is open to feedback. I just need some wave 1 models by end of February... really hoping to see Host pledges going out soon.

Yeah, nice job, FW. My eyes usually just glaze over at this point when I get Ed's updates (much like Tre's updates) but I felt a need to say something about that sculpt, because the proportions just looked awful. After seeing the concept art you linked and realising that's what it was supposed to be, I'm both grateful to you and at Ed.

I'm not a huge of any of the humanoids, but the wyrms and hounds are incredibly awesome. Can't wait until I get these some time next year.

So, what are people going to be using their miniatures as? I have just checked the Tyranid thread and I am curious what people will be making their Troll Forged miniatures proxy for. There are a lot of large beasties coming out, and it looks like a lot of this kickstarter should take care of proxying for them. The Harpy/Crone for sure. Any other ideas?

Monopoly and Sorry! pieces.

You got it, nids

I am not 100% sure of what the exact kinds of Nids are going to be out there. Not exactly sure what miniatures I am going to use for each.

Grubs for Termigants, Hounds for Hormagaunts, Swarm Adults for Genestealers maybe? I dunno. Then I kind of trail off...

I think the Cannon Drone is likely to be Exocrine sized? Haruspex might be proxied by the Carnage Hound.
Swarm Masters are probably Tyranid Prime.
Overlord can make a Harpy/Crone.
Drone proxies as Tervigon.
Stealth Swarm Adult might be Lictor sized, but I am not so sure...
Swarm base are Ripper Swarms.
Swarm Warrior I hope are good enough to be Tyranid Warriors, though I don't think they'll be big enough.
Alien Wyrm is a Venomthrope? Maybe? I dunno.
Queen is a Hive Tyrant?
Sky Hunter could also be used as a Harpy or Crone?

I don't have a clue what else there is which needs to be fit in. I am hoping Mashaaf from the Bones II kickstarter will go in nicely as a Tyrannofex or something similar. Filth Beast is something else which would be proxied well, depending on how big it is. I am hoping it's Carnifex sized personally, but we'll see how we go.

Still excited about this KS. And really glad Ed is open to feedback. If Mantic has of been the same for the KoW one we could have got some really well done pieces. As it was, I sold most of it off.

New pictures are up!







As you can see, a marked improvement. Looks really good, and very insectoid in nature. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. As I thought, I knew Ed could get these down from the concept art to reality and have them look good. Now I just need to figure out what the heck I will be using them for...

Much better than the previous one - which despite being nicely sculpted on a technical level - was awful.

And yeah, probably 'Nids. There was a thread when this was still an active KS with people working out what kind of an army you could get for the Queen level, etc. Of course, by the time these come out there'll be a new Tyranid book anyway...

Agreed, looks much cooler for warriors!

You have a Zarg in Here??




Needless to say, I like the changes.

I hope the Swarm Warriors turn out to be Tyranid Warrior sized. That'd be excellent. And yeah, I think the whole piece comes together much better.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
From Ed's facebook page -

Ed Fortae wrote:I reculpted the warrior thinner as requested by backers. I'm going to make the heads and arms socket. He is big close to 40mm at shoulder pads.

Awesome. Tyranid Warrior replacements here we come!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
New photo's!






Looks good!

Another little update:

Looking good! I am wondering what the old abdomen is going to be used for though. I think he was talking about another model or something being used with it, I don't know. In any case, loving the different heads you can get for it! Might extend the claw or scythe parts on the arms a bit though, to give it extra range.

New update of a master cast of the Queen... looks awesome!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/131182444/assimilation-alien-host/posts/711255?at=BAh7CDoMcG9zdF9pZGkDV9oKSSIIdWlkBjoGRVRpA9U7KEkiC2V4cGlyeQY7BlRJIhgyMDE0LTAyLTA0IDE3OjI5OjExBjsGVA%3D%3D--72df783e8e98294e2636856aa13ecdc773be52fd#comments

Note in the first pic below the zoanthrope looking model and the grub are not part of this campaign, just models he had in there to help show scale. The sprayed black Fiend behind it is a part of this campaign, of course!

That figure's not really doing much for me. Luckily Ed seems to be pretty good about trading in models for others, so I'll swap it out for something of equivalent value.

I like it, looks all alien and gribbly. Could even turn them around to be more ant looking if you wanted. I think there are some great conversion options for this model.

Didn't realise the bigger grubs are ones which were already on the store, knew the Zoanthrope version was up there.

There is something about the queen that doesn't quite sit right with me either, but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe the legs?

I am kind of wondering wether it balancing on those tiny spikes for the feet isn't all that great, but I don't mind it that much for it to be a problem.

I am wondering if I should go for a lower torso, turn it around and have it more like an ant as I said above. I think that could work quite nicely. Would also fit on a 50mm base, so easily made into a carnifex style creature. I'll have to have a think about that one.

I thought of that, but the thorax section makes it look like way too much work to do so.

Hrmm. In that case I could always either remove a few sections from that part to shorten it, or make some kind of new fiendish creation using other parts from the miniatures that get made.

The good thing about all of these creatures is that they'll be highly modifiable, while still looking creepy. I'm going to have to wait and see exactly how it all turns out before I can adequately determine what will be used for what exactly.

I also now see the problem with the legs. The original artwork had them being more articulated to move in the direction the abdomen is facing. These are more ant-like, which is fine but don't look like they are made to move in the specific direction the creature is facing. Might need a re-modelling from me. I am tempted to see if I can sculpt the bottom chitinous type ribcage the artwork has, and change the legs to the original style, as well as have long stabby insect arms. The worry then though is how much do I need to do for everything to get it how I want it to look. I will need to check them when they come in and decide then what the best course of action is.

If they're the same "price class" or whatever, I'll "fix" mine by swapping out for another one of the ones that are primed black in this pic.

This is crazy talk, I absolutely love the queen!

But it should be easy to swap- you do so via credit. The queen is $15, the fiend (primed black) is $20. So not hard to make work, just swap something else out with it when the time comes to submit the pledge manager for your pledge level.

Sounds good. I'll sort out the details in October or so when this thing will finally be wrapping up...

New update is up!

Here are the new pics of what work has been progressed;






It's not what I had hoped out of the arms and head to be honest. Here is the original artwork;



I prefer the artwork for reasons I stated on the kickstarter page -

"The reason the artwork works so well is that the gun is part of the forearm, which would make it easy to shoot in a from the hip stance. The long insectoid left arm also works really well, as the spike is an extension of the forearm, which would easily be able to be extended to skewer enemies, while having a small grasping hand part along the length. The other excellent part is that the head, rather than being positioned above the shoulders like a human's, is telescoped forwards, and looks very Mantid in appearance, which again lends itself to a more alien look. If you brought some of the boney back plates forward like in the picture, I think it could work quite well."

I'd rather he follow the artwork closer than improvise, as the sculpts begin to deviate a little too much from what was originally offered as a concept. He's great at sculpting (the head might need a little work), but the original designs are just fantastic, and the closer we can get to that the happier I will definitely be.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
With the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Tyranid thread, I am not so sure I want these guys for 40k any more. I think I will hope that Mantic makes an alien bug type list I can shoe-horn these guys into. In any case, the delays to these miniatures isn't so bad if the Tyranid list is so poor no one wants to play it.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that one (but loved the art). Hope he reworks it like he did the other one people weren't thrilled with... if you have any sway on this and feel the same way make sure to let him know!

That's just an awful model. I made sure to communicate that with Ed as well. Looks like I best start paying attention to his updates to feed back that this kind of sculpt is sub-par.

It seems that most people are on the same line when it comes to the model, and that is staying as close to the original artwork as possible.

I don't know whether or not the mandibles on the head he showed were the final product or not, but they were less defined than I would like or expect (they looked like they were just cut from the blob of greenstuff used to sculpt the head with less other work).

I do hope he follows through as closely to the art as possible. I dread having to try to make my own versions which match the art, I would rather it be done right the first time. Which is why I was so disappointed with the Kings of War kickstarter, the art provided did not match nearly close enough to the end result.

Some of the sculpting is technically fine to an extent, but it seems that what I suspected initially quite awhile back might be true - that Ed can't actually sculpt very well, and gets around it by sculpting gribbly creatures that still look good, and don't have all of that annoying "proportion" stuff to worry about. For example - in my youth I knew an older Warhammer player who played Orcs and Goblins because in his own words "I can't paint human skin - it always looks awful, but painting goblins with green skin it always looks fine."

Now the worms still look pretty good, but these humanoids aren't exactly lighting my world on fire...

Yeah, I think a few of the parts, such as the heads and arms, really need to be detailed better. The artwork head is absolutely spectacular, but I have a feeling we aren't likely to see the kind of detail it has for the main miniatures themselves. I am hoping we eventually get there, but I don't know.

So... okay...



Ummm... Yeah.

Not impressed with the way the bipedal sculpts are turning out the big gribbly stuff turned out far better I hope Ed is fully focused on them and isn't just trying to get them done no matter the result and move on.

I hope they turn out okay if for no other reason than I'm putting the lot (queen pledge) on ebay as soon as I get them for whatever they fetch the project hasn't turned out how I hoped even the bases I wnated ran into problems.

That said I supported and funded Trollforged because I believed in them and still believe in trollcast I've have lots of it from other projects and it's a great material so I hope Ed put the funding to good use and can grow his casting and molding business in future. I'd never look for anything back from him in that regard I don't believe in this whole demanding refunds on KS business (I'm talking KS in general here) I back projects knowing the risks I'll take the hit on it and move on.

I agree that the gribbly ones are the best, but those are the ones I'm here for so it works out.

I also agree about supporting Kickstarters- Ed is working very hard to fulfill this, and although it's obviously very late, I don't think it's for lack of trying! That's what I really look for in Kickstarters that I back. I'm taking a risk to help them launch a project, and I know it won't always turn out exactly how they envisioned. I'm very hopeful that the end result of this one will make the vast majority of backers very happy, though.

So, speaking of Trollcast, is there a list somewhere of what companies have had models cast in that medium? I'd be interested to hear more about other minis that have been done and how the material performed.

I know of 3

Red Box Games for their KS, the figures I got were excellent

(although there were clearly issues with the casting of the some of the very fine stuff Tre sculpts ending up too fragile)

Impact miniatures for their Chibi KS, casting was good on mine

(some complaints about texture on the minis, but that must have been down to the 3D printed masters as the RBG casts are super smooth)

Impact miniatures on a fair number of their existing fantasy sport minis, I've no personal experience of these but they seem to be popular based on the increased sales numbers Impact have mentioned

The material works well but is not going to be good for anything that is 'difficult' to cast,

in metal it's not a huge issue if half the minis you cast end up back in the melting pot just spin it twice as many times

(not the ideal situation but the mould would still be useable although you might chose to do a resculpt to fix the problem if the line was selling well enough)

but with trollcast the faulty figures are waste that cost you money. It would not be commercially viable to use the mould, you have to redo the sculpt, you have to redo the master casts, you have to remake the mould and all before you have anything to sell

Well, I now know I will be trading out a few more of the swarm warriors! Ed has really been off his groove on these.

 DaveC wrote:
I don't believe in this whole demanding refunds on KS business (I'm talking KS in general here) I back projects knowing the risks I'll take the hit on it and move on.

You better believe it, because it's a reality!

For me it really depends on how much bs we're fed before and then after the campaigns, as well as to the quality and transparency of the communication. Neither "Suck it up and like it." nor "We got your money, now you'll get whatever we happen to give you whenever it happens." or "We're 95% done" being revised into "Sorry, we meant 95% to go!" are acceptable, and in those cases I have no qualms about asking for a refund (though I've only asked for and gotten partial money back for one wave of one project). RTT might be next. If I'd backed Relic Knights, I might be going for a refund there as well, admittedly.

New photos are up!



















I don't mind this miniature too much, though I wouldn't mind clearer shots of the head. It's not as bent over as the artwork, but it's better than what it was before.

Maybe he should sculpt a grub first, then add arms and legs...

Hmm, tweak the position of the arms a bit and it's pretty awesome I think. I imagined Ed picked this pose because it would be easier to cast? (correct me if I'm wrong here). But making the arms and head separate would add a lot more possibilities for these guys.

Hey guys,

Ed was a miracle worker and sent me the models I will need for my AdeptiCon army so that I can push to have the army done for the event (which I've already registered and paid for). This will be a wyrm-themed army, so it only uses the Fiend, Wyrm, LE grub, and grubs.

If you want to follow my progress, I'll be posting about it over in the P&M section:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/575283.page

No pics of my own models yet, but I haven't got long to get it all done so hopefully there will be a lot of progress soon!

 Fenriswulf wrote:
New photos are up!



I don't mind this miniature too much, though I wouldn't mind clearer shots of the head. It's not as bent over as the artwork, but it's better than what it was before.

It's still awful though. It looks slightly more like the artwork, but still doesn't look like the artwork. He needs to scrap the whole model and start again, getting the proper proportions instead of tweaking the same badly-proportioned sculpt.

Realistically, it looks like I'm going to end up with an absolute gakload of grubs.

I'm willing to see how they turn out in the end, and attempt to influence as much as I can.

I am really interested to see how the bigger bugs turn out. I so hope the Drone turns out well, that would be an absolute score if done exactly to the artwork. After that it's the Cannon Drone, Carnage Hound, Goliath Wyrm and Overlord I am most interested in, although if he can make the others look good then I won't begrudge that either. But as you say, it's likely a crap load of grubs and bigger creatures otherwise

I wonder what swap-out ratio they will allow from warriors to alien hunters. Those actually look good.

You can swap a warrior for $3 credit alien hunters are $3 each so 1 for 1 swap. You get 15 hunters for $29 and 30 for $40. Queen level has 15 warriors so that's $45 credit if you swap all of them that's 30 alien hunters plus $5 credit. Credit swaps are capped at $100

I'm waiting for an overlord sculpt before I decide anything...but I may have to send them more money in the end.

The warrior sculpt is surprisingly weak, though, so I'm going to be swapping them out.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
I'm willing to see how they turn out in the end, and attempt to influence as much as I can.

I am really interested to see how the bigger bugs turn out. I so hope the Drone turns out well, that would be an absolute score if done exactly to the artwork. After that it's the Cannon Drone, Carnage Hound, Goliath Wyrm and Overlord I am most interested in, although if he can make the others look good then I won't begrudge that either. But as you say, it's likely a crap load of grubs and bigger creatures otherwise

Yeah. I offered a gentler set of suggestions/criticism over in the comments while being a bit more blunt about my disappointment here.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I'm waiting for an overlord sculpt before I decide anything...but I may have to send them more money in the end.

The warrior sculpt is surprisingly weak, though, so I'm going to be swapping them out.

Let him know in the comments, Bob. There's at least a chance he'll start again.

Out of interest, has Curtis sculpted anything previous to this KS besides grubs, worms, and not-tyranid gribblies?

I'm sure he spent his high school years sculpting the female form...

What? Like you didn't try?

Who is Curtis?

Here a little update on the Alien Hunters:

Some of these guys look like they must be those long necked pinheads from Kamino in the star wars prequels under that armour....

Sooooooooooo glad I sold my pledge for this.

Well, the worms and the bigger worms still look good. I'm sure they'll also be easy to paint when I eventually get them in November 2017.

Another update:

That looks pretty damn cool I have to say. Really digging it's style.

I am not so concerned about delivery, as 40k has pretty much borked the Tyranids from what I've heard and that was the system I was going to run them in. Unless I can use them for Warpath I don't exactly know what I will get them for.

I really like those bounty hunter dudes. They look like they'd be in the background of Star Wars or Star Trek DS9 or as some random civilization encountered on Star Trek Enterprise. Might get some to use for sci fi skirmish gaming

That goliath wyrm!!! So awesome

 judgedoug wrote:
I really like those bounty hunter dudes. They look like they'd be in the background of Star Wars or Star Trek DS9 or as some random civilization encountered on Star Trek Enterprise. Might get some to use for sci fi skirmish gaming

They make me think of Critters. Kill Crites!


Also, love the Darth Vader pants on the third one.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
That looks pretty damn cool I have to say. Really digging it's style.

I am not so concerned about delivery, as 40k has pretty much borked the Tyranids from what I've heard and that was the system I was going to run them in. Unless I can use them for Warpath I don't exactly know what I will get them for.

I'd like to get them sooner rather than later. Because, you know, I paid for them. And also because if/when the proposed harsh changes to importing and GST come in, I don't want to pay more for them.

Another update:

 Malika2 wrote:
Another update:

Wow....those cast up so nicely. I wasn't hot on the concept, but I'm loving how they came together.

Agreed, those host casts are creepy

I'm still stoked about that Goliath Wyrm! Ed sure can sculpt wyrms . I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Queen Guard turn out, since they're kind of a hybrid between the warriors and wyrms/grubs (but a bit bigger, I believe).

Proportions are still messed up on that Warrior (compared to the artwork). It'll be unfortunate, but I'm likely going to have to trade them out for worms and hosts - at least the hosts came out well.

Just want to be clear - hosts are listed as 40-45mm tall, but those are 25mm bases they're on, right?



I'm thinking of buying a huge pile of them to use as plaguebearers. Can't complain at $1 per mini.

Decker, yep! And I agree, they're fantastic for plague bearers... although might be a little more than $1 post-KS (but still a very good deal compared to other similar models).

Post-KS?

I don't understand the term.

 Azazelx wrote:
Post-KS?

I don't understand the term.

The idea of a Post-KS exists in every ancient religion.

"And behold: the pledge manger sundered the seventh veil; and the sun became as sackcloth; and the moon became as blood; and the dead rose from the grave; and all mortal rewards delivered in a wave of shipping."

Some bases:

Those are looking good. If you get Queen + Bases, do you get to choose which bases you want to receive?

Yeah - that looks just awesome.

I'm drooling over that thing! Also, I think it will look really good with some horns mixed in when assembling instead of all tentacles- these are actually being cast along with it and people can assemble it either way (or with a mix!) I believe

Looks great! But this KS has taken so long now I don't really have a game to use it in since I am getting rid of all my GW stuff. I'll have to hope something comes along by the time I get my pledge!

At this stage I just want the bases (and even then Ed hasn't started the round lip bases) I put extra money in for the bases and I'll trade $100 worth in for bases and the rest is going for trade/ebay I've lost all interest in it.

Thing is I've received loads of Trollcast minis and I really like the material - just not from Ed's own project - this could run on for the rest of this year!

EDIT:

As far as I can tell the following have yet to be started 15 months after the projects end

Sky Hunter
Dreadnought (arm done)
Larva Swarm
The Drone
"Alien" Alien Hunters
Overlord
Swarm master
Cannon Drone
Hydra type Goliath Worm
Carnage Hound
Queen Guard

Ugh, the list you've posted has the majority of stuff I am interested in... Maybe I should just chuck it in and see about selling my pledge. This is going to take forever.

Yeah I know I'm going to be selling my pledge when the Queen level finally starts to ship. While the models are still excellent I have no enthusiasm for this project whatsoever.

Originally I only pledged for the alien hunters but got caught up in the ks frenzy. I already have far too many gribbly alien stuff to paint already so I know for a fact the everything will just end up in a box if I keep the stuff. Still, the pledge is worth quite a bit of money so it should be an easy sell later on...

 DaveC wrote:
At this stage I just want the bases (and even then Ed hasn't started the round lip bases) I put extra money in for the bases and I'll trade $100 worth in for bases and the rest is going for trade/ebay I've lost all interest in it.

Thing is I've received loads of Trollcast minis and I really like the material - just not from Ed's own project - this could run on for the rest of this year!

EDIT:

As far as I can tell the following have yet to be started 15 months after the projects end

Sky Hunter
Dreadnought (arm done)
Larva Swarm
The Drone
"Alien" Alien Hunters
Overlord
Swarm master
Cannon Drone
Hydra type Goliath Worm
Carnage Hound
Queen Guard

I'm considering paying the extra for wave shipping once the goliath wyrm, hosts and square bases are ready to go. That covers most of what I really like, and I can just hold off for the rest of it.

I think Ed just needs to send out a survey that lets people rank which of the remaining sculpts they are most looking forward to, hurry and finish the top 3, give people a credit, ship out everything that is ready, and declare the project done.

At this point, I think most people would be happy to just make the best of what is available, get a ton of free grubs or Troll forged store credit, and call it a day. That dreadnaught isn't going to show up for ages. I mean we are rapidly approaching a year late for shipping and the sculptor has just roughed out two of the arms in Z-brush?

Shipping costs have increased substantially since this project was started, and it is clear that Ed got a little caught up in the moment, and over promised. The appeal of these models as alternative nids dropped right along with the meta-game perception of nids, so finishing up the range won't exaclty have a huge pay-off for TF as hoped.

You ship what you've got, roll with the refund request punches, and everyboy but a couple of people end up happier, and Ed can get back to working on things that will actually bring in money.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Looks great! But this KS has taken so long now I don't really have a game to use it in since I am getting rid of all my GW stuff. I'll have to hope something comes along by the time I get my pledge!

Sedition Wars?

Or Deadzone?

I know--Kings of War, counts-as Basileans.

Hah, an army of grubs as Basileans. Regular grubs for MAA, ones with an open maw to use as crossbows, armoured ones for paladins. Grubs riding panthers. Grubs in chariots. Winged grubs for Elohi.

I'd use them for Sedition Wars, but the game has turned out to be a complete disappointment.

 DaveC wrote:
At this stage I just want the bases (and even then Ed hasn't started the round lip bases) I put extra money in for the bases and I'll trade $100 worth in for bases and the rest is going for trade/ebay I've lost all interest in it.

Thing is I've received loads of Trollcast minis and I really like the material - just not from Ed's own project - this could run on for the rest of this year!

EDIT:

As far as I can tell the following have yet to be started 15 months after the projects end

Sky Hunter
Dreadnought (arm done)
Larva Swarm
The Drone
"Alien" Alien Hunters
Overlord
Swarm master
Cannon Drone
Hydra type Goliath Worm
Carnage Hound
Queen Guard

Whoa! I didn't realise there were so many still to be sculpted. This is clearly a 2015 delivery project at best.

Well, remember- if, like me, you need your models sooner than that, you can contact Ed for split shipping of what is available now.

For example, at least I believe these are available:

Grubs
Hosts
Adults
Warriors
Hounds
Wyrms
Fiends
Queens
Very-soon-to-come: Goliath Wyrms

That's not a bad range, and if you want to cash out with just those items I am pretty sure Ed would accomodate you. Or, if you still wanted to wait for the really big models coming later that you are due, you could get split shipping (for $10) and get all of these models now, and then just the big ones later. And if you're waiting on bases before cashing out, those are imminent- already being cast, I believe.

Also, I think the current Goliath Wyrm is going to be both variants in one- there are horns to assemble it with instead of all the arms, and I believe the arms are the "hydra" version... while that might not be 100% "hydra", I think it's enough variability to allow you to build it 2 radically different ways (horns or really long tentacles) and are all included so you can build it either way.

The leaves the following to be sculpted by Ed:

Big stuff
Overlord
Drone (standard and cannon variants)
Carnage Hound

Small stuff
Sky Hunter (almost done)
Swarm Master
Queen Guard
Larvae Swarm

So, I think that's just 6 sculpts left for Ed to complete since he is almost done with the Sky Hunter (although no pics yet). The Dreadnought and Alien Hunters were being done by someone else and unfortunately, if it was me I'd just swap to something else instead of those. But as for Ed's sculpts, he actually is going to be done sculpting by late summer, I'd guess, and then it's just a matter of getting it all cast.

Sorry for the book, but all that to say I just want to stress that Ed is willing to work with folks and let you cash out with what's available if you wish to do so, or pay $10 and get what's available now shipped to you, with the rest coming later.

I'd rather wait and get everything in one go with a Queen pledge I'm waiting on everything bar the Goliath worm which I'm trading out and the bevellled bases are no good to me I need round lip given I have about $150 of credit/pledge money to go on bases I won't be happy if it becomes bevelled only.

Late summer suggests August that's still 5 months away - 1 and a bit minis per month then they have to be molded cast and shipped.

I can undertsand people taking the cash out option but it looks I'm in this to the end.

I'm really not sure if any more bases are coming, DaveC, so you might want to check with Ed about that.

This update has gotten a lot of interested responses... heck, even I'm interested in this model, and I'm not getting any with "legs"

Update #144 Mar 15 2014
Alien Behemoth?

Hi all,

Daviuss asked us if Bock's Alien Behemoth could be a special add-on for this Kickstarter:



Alien Behemoth - 72mm tall - sculpted by Bocks
I asked Ed and he says it basically ready to go, but that the Kickstarter takes priority. Which is understandable. However he also said I could ask you all what you thought. I'm hoping that if there is enough interest Ed will squeeze it in (at the end of fulfilment).

If Ed gives the green light: it would be a special add-on, Trollcast, a kind of 'pre-order' only open to our backers. It would be slightly discounted, but nothing like the rest of the miniatures in this Kickstarter!

I really like this miniature, always have. I curious what you guys think?

Philip
On behalf of Ed

Note that that picture is actually of a model in trollcast!! At least, according to the caption on the blog post by Philip (linked to at the top of the update above).

It looks pretty darn sweet and I think I might like a couple just to use for some other project (as others have said this probably depends on cost, but Philip was just gauging interest with this post).

Have they listed a price? Also, will we be able to use credit from our pledges? At this point, I don't really want any of his bipedal swarm creatures.

But this I want.

 RiTides wrote:
I'm really not sure if any more bases are coming, DaveC, so you might want to check with Ed about that.

I hope not round lip bases were part of the KS as far back as update #4 and that's what I pledged for. If he cannot supply round lip bases I will be asking for a refund for that part of my pledge money that is for bases only as he cannot fulfill that part of my order. I don't think I have much chance of getting it but it's the principle of it.

But this is all speculation for now Ed assured me when the new bevelled bases were shown off that he would work on round lip later guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Yeah, I just meant it might be worth checking with him again about it... I'm really not sure about any of that, as I decided not to go for bases when I realized the grubs were already tall for what I planned to use them for, and so went with the basic plastic bases (which I believe are a bit lower than scenic bases, and I'm adding my own slate around the base of the grubs).

Yeah, I think you're a little ...hopeful if you think all that will be finished by August. I think December 2014/Feb/March 2015 is more likely.

I meant just the sculpting, not the casting (just in case that wasn't clear) by labor day (Sept 1st in the US). May be a little hopeful, but I think Ed has been on a roll sculpting lately and sounded confident about getting through the last 6 sculpts remaining for him to do.