Regarding the summoning circle, that was actually mentioned while the campaign was running that a sixth side was needed. I have no idea what that means, but just pointing out- that's the same state it was in over a year ago. Obviously, sculpting should be the priority- my point was working on that rather than Beer and D6s would've been much more applicable.
The latest update is fantastic, though! Post one of those every month and you will find the perception of your campaign will drastically change (for the better ).
I agree that when you have a game, showing previews for miniatures can create a lot of buzz. Look what happens when GW pics and rules get leaked. There's endless discussion about composition and how the new figs/rules will affect play. Since I don't have rules yet for people to get excited about, I don't know if that's going to happen here.
Mierce doesn't have a game either - yet. They may have only just put out a Beta set, but they've been selling and previewing figures for a year or so now. Their proper rulebook isn't due for several more months. Tre' doesn't have a game at all. How about Reaper?
Basically, quality models sell based on their own strengths.
I think the prospect of having a game to use miniatures in certainly helps (it's one of the main drawbacks to Tre's efforts, actually, since his range only works with itself or smaller ones... which is why his next campaign will be miniatures that have their own ruleset!). It was the main thing that tempted me to go in big here.
So, I'm just pointing out that hearing that the game is at the same point as it was during the campaign is a disappointment. I.e., no progress at all because a sixth side needs to be added to the summoning circle... which is really hard to believe that that could keep any progress from being made on it behind the scenes (and what prompted that discussion is that a different game Was being made behind the scenes!).
But again, the latest update was a huge improvement! If that continues, I think folks will be satisfied in the end... but there can't be another 3.5 month span with zero updates and very little sculpting progress, is all. Continue in this new vein and the project and eventual game will have a lot more momentum when the campaign is finished, rather than crawling to the finish line and generating no further interest / sales afterwards from satisfied backers and good press.
Alpharius wrote: And nice miniatures with a ruleset sell even better?
And for all intents and purposes, Mierce's Darklands rules are pretty much out there now, and certainly have been playable for some time as well.
Do they though? I don't mean that as a challenge, I honestly don't have any idea what the numbers are. Certainly GW is the big banana in the bunch, which weights any evaluations, but a necessary problem for any conclusion is that miniatures without games will generally not receive much interest on Dakka. All that said, it is difficult to imagine a coherent line, much less several lines of miniatures being put out without at least a unifying background (see TGG, for example).
The real question to me isn't if a rule set will help models sell better, let's stipulate that it at least can do so. The question I think most important is if moving away from core competence is worth it.
Consider, for example, Studio McVey and Sedition Wars: McVey clearly has a mastery of model making, supervising artists and so on. What they didn't have was a background in game design or theory. My understanding is that this has led to all game design (including the continuing revisions to the existing game) to be contracted out to another firm, yes?
Now, that's a board game that wouldn't exist without rules. But the universe already existed, the background in which the action takes place (several characters are new versions of people that existed in the limited line, I believe). What if McVey had, as AngryNoze did, simply launched the lines of Samaritan and Plague (?) figures with the promise of a game later, but focused like a laser on the miniatures?
No one can know, except that this post got really tangential really quick...
Alpharius wrote: And nice miniatures with a ruleset sell even better?
And for all intents and purposes, Mierce's Darklands rules are pretty much out there now, and certainly have been playable for some time as well.
Of course. Well, sometimes. But my point is that previews aren't a bad thing, and that many people won't care about yet another niche fantasy skirmish ruleset, but would about the figures...
RiTides wrote: but there can't be another 3.5 month span with zero updates and very little sculpting progress, is all. Continue in this new vein and the project and eventual game will have a lot more momentum when the campaign is finished, rather than crawling to the finish line and generating no further interest / sales afterwards from satisfied backers and good press.
Let's be real here. The eventual game isn't going to do much, and will be forgotten pretty quickly, just like Tre's game, RH's game, Anvil's game and so forth - and probably MIerce's and Dreamforge's games as well - though you might get some nice art books out of those. There's only so many rulesets this industry can support in any meaningful way, and so while free PDFs will help a few people to play it (mostly the big fans of the producers), the games these models are mostly going to be used for probably still exist, and they're called 40k/D&D/WHFB/Pathfinder/etc. The way to go to help your rulesets be used is to make it a self-contained product like a boardgame - which even Mantic is figuring out.
With Warlord and FoW and SAGA and the Western games making a chunk of historicals more "mainstream", it leaves even less shelf space (and more competition) for the endless new tiny niche skirmish systems in both FLGS and etailers' inventories.
Well, substitute "game" with "miniatures line" if you like, but the gist is the same- people like a well-supported line with background and world-building to go with it, and a game helps that part. Either way, it was something he laid out before starting the project... so whenever it does happen I have some beta rules coming I guess
RiTides wrote: Well, substitute "game" with "miniatures line" if you like, but the gist is the same- people like a well-supported line with background and world-building to go with it, and a game helps that part. Either way, it was something he laid out before starting the project... so whenever it does happen I have some beta rules coming I guess
Yes, pretty much!
I know I'm looking forward to it.
I'm still waiting, and looking for, the next Confrontation after all!
Let's be real here. The eventual game isn't going to do much, and will be forgotten pretty quickly, just like Tre's game, RH's game, Anvil's game and so forth - and probably MIerce's and Dreamforge's games as well - though you might get some nice art books out of those. There's only so many rulesets this industry can support in any meaningful way, and so while free PDFs will help a few people to play it (mostly the big fans of the producers), the games these models are mostly going to be used for probably still exist, and they're called 40k/D&D/WHFB/Pathfinder/etc. The way to go to help your rulesets be used is to make it a self-contained product like a boardgame - which even Mantic is figuring out.
With Warlord and FoW and SAGA and the Western games making a chunk of historicals more "mainstream", it leaves even less shelf space (and more competition) for the endless new tiny niche skirmish systems in both FLGS and etailers' inventories.
I agree with this a lot. There's a huge amount of competition out there all competing for your time and money. Personally, I feel that the best way to capture the most support is with a full and complete set of rules, and yes, background, art, and fluff too. Some gaming related updates would certainly be helpful to those concerned with the gaming side of the project, but people definitely want their miniatures. If I release stuff piecemeal then Azazelx will almost certainly be right. The rules would probably just slide out under the radar while people are focused on the next big thing.
I look at really awesome projects like the KD game and see there's definitely something to learn from that. Adam had been hinting at a game for years. There was always that little corner on the front page with a handful of models facing off against each other and a blurb about a game in the works but that was it as far as I know. When he did release that game though, there was enough background, interest, beautiful art and models to support it that it did amazingly well in the Kick Starter.
That's definitely the right way to do things in my opinion. I'm looking at what I have available now to work with, a couple of factions, some 'ok' art work, and still a relatively small customer base and think, releasing a game, or a beta, which is still lacking so much in the face of a lot of systems that have a LOT more to work with is going to fall flat on its face. I need a completed summoning circle, stat cards, rules with preferably painted minis doing battle, and enough variety to keep the replay value high.
Alkemy was a game I enjoyed for about two weeks and then felt sad when I couldn't change up my lists or try new things.
But RiTides is right. People ARE curious, and I'll look for ways to tease you.
Right now while I'm working on this ifrit, I'm also trying to upgrade the packaging of the miniatures so that it has a clean, and professional appearance. As someone who wants to be "green" it irks me that there's so much effort put into packaging and a pretty appearance that get's thrown into the garbage, and only the miniature survives, but I need to compete on that level too. I'll show some pictures as soon as it gets in.
Absolutely - I can't imagine a case in which previews are a bad thing.
I know GW has an absolutely pants on head stupid philosophy about that, but no one else does!
True! wips are awesome. You just need to have the right timing. Show them off too soon, and people move on to whatever that thing is that has rules for the game you like I'd like to be able to show off wips, casts and then the product within a week of each other. That way you see it, get excited, and know that very soon, it will be ready to ship.
While a game may or may not stick a well thought out background for an artist/company to work in is never wasted
You can always go back to it with a different type of game (army/skirmish/duel/RPG) if the first doesn't work
and if people like your world they'll make up their own rules (or use some of the many pre-made sets)
Selling a knight as a knight will only get you that sale
Selling Sir Impressive one of three brothers in the service of King Old Bloke and his beautiful but wayward Queen will help convince folk that maybe they might need a few of the rest of the minis too (although the background will need to be better than my 30 second attempt_
Clearly the Wayward Queen is seducing Sir Impressive, whispering in his ear about his rightful place on the Rocky Throne of the Nightingale Kingdom. But before he can claim his destiny he must convert Sir Conflicted through his son, Impressive's Squire Gothos. Their third brother, Sir Stalwart the Simple (actually a master tactician), will need to be eliminated...
Here is fine, but as it is something 'new', you could certainly post in "News & Rumors" too, as that would certainly get you additional/increased exposure!
I think it could use it's own thread, personally... I can't imagine the reaction if you were to update the actual KS with news of it, rather than Imbrian
Yes and no - I mean, I'd love for this one to be 100% before hearing about some other project but, that just isn't reality anymore, usually, when it come to KS, and at least this new game will have miniatures that are useable in the eventual game here too...
The concepts / aesthetics aren't close, though, so I can't imagine the miniatures / games being a very good match.
I don't mind ideas for his next thing, but posting about it in his current, very delayed kickstarter may be a bit much!
Also, it's one thing for a company waiting on production to put the design team to work on other things... but in this case he is still sculpting, and casting himself, to fulfill this project.
No worries, I just didn't want to clutter up the forums with multiple threads about the same company.
The ifrit is coming along really nicely and will be mostly done by the end of the week. All that will be left is a lot of chain to sculpt, but It's far enough along that I'll be able to show off some good WIPS.
I think you got a little mixed up Alpharius. You can use Imbrian models in Beer and D6s, but RiTides was right, the BD6 models might be a bit too silly for the other game.
Mar 15 2014
Summoning Ifrits and casting spells.
3 comments
5 likes
A quick update on our progress this week. The ifrit is coming along nicely and I've started adding chain to it, it's almost there! Last week I was hoping to have it nearly complete by the end of this week but I managed to catch a cold and have spend the last four days as a snot walrus. But here are some WIP pics of some amazing flames that jump out of every crack in the ifrit's armor. He's a big monster as well. His body alone is around 50-54mm tall, not including the flames, which is why he's taken so long to finish. There's just a ton of detail and edges to cover and clean.
And while I've been sick for most of the week, I've been putting in some good hours on the gaming aspect of this project. When inspiration comes, it comes in floods! I have several pages worth of sketches that are being reworked, cleaned, and inked for the summoning circle. Just to reiterate, the circle contains six panels, each depicting a sign representing an aspect of fate, like a tarot card. Each warrior is also linked to a sign, similar in essence to astrology. Their personalities and traits are tied to a sign and the disposition of the bones when cast, will show you their fate. Here's a close up on the detail of the death sign.
And lastly, I have some incredibly talented friends that have contributed to the project. Jeremy Hush is an amazing artist and an incredible guy. We did some art swapping, and he created a beautiful new Certificate of Authenticity for our limited edition resins. It has some gorgeous detail.
"Within the Mare Imbrium lies the source of all the magic that remains to us. And the Imbrian Art is how we channel the energy of the god who dwells there, so that under its moon throne we can scry the fate of all men touched by the Light of Shadows."
Ok! Hmmm
Resin casting is going very well. I'm getting ready to prep the ifrit for moulding. I like to stare at it for a couple of days to make sure I'm finished with it. Sometimes after you wait a day and look at it again you notice something you missed.
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Last week I made some new blister packaging art for the miniatures so that they now have a nice professional look instead of little plastic bags, and can be sold by retailers.
I ordered a few hundred and they promptly got lost in the mail... The package was insured so I just have to go through the frustrating effort of reordering them.
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Fancy new boxes for the ifrit arrived today.
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I ordered 100 new certificates of authenticity for the ifrit and lich, professionally printed on super fine 32pt card. It's incredibly luxurious paper. Super smooth and has very vibrant colors and a deep red core. Each card costs about $2 and looks AMAZING
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Ordered a bunch of foam for the ifrit boxes. It's the kind with the little pluck n pull squares. Each box is 2" deep and will be packed wall to wall with foam so it's perfect for storage and transporting a showcase mini.
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Made a 40mm resin scenic base for the ifrit.
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This:
HA I beat you to it! I was responding whilst you were commenting.
@Ryan I can do something like that. I was pondering whether or not it might be easier to go the 3D modelling route with that one.
I will be doing a series of blogs about the dragon, the first entry should be coming in a few days. I'll be workin' through the weekend to get some stuff done and then I can set aside some free time to work and blog.
Hi all, while I'm waiting around for the first ifrit resin to cure, I figured I'd upload some pictures of my most recent Work in progress. I had received a few queries about the dragon, how it was going, how big it would be etc. and many of you requested WIP photos and step by steps so I thought the dragon would be a great project to blog about because it's a big model and a big project and a lot of different techniques would be involved in creating it. I'm calling it "The Biggest WIP".
It's not the how to of how to's by any means, but it highlights the thought process going into each stage of the project. Read on!
When I first considered creating a dragon I wanted to do something different and try to reimagine the typical dragon. There are a wide range of dragons already available, all lizardy with great bat wings and spikey heads, but really they're variations on the same thing, just in different poses and with a wide variety of skill levels being employed. I'm not trying to knock the winged komodo crocs, there's some really excellent ones out there! But when I mess around with clay, I like to think about what I could do differently, and what I like about dragons, and what I don't like!
Inspiration is important! My first dragon sketches all revolved around the idea of a sea dragon resembling a great serpent with the spines and wings of a lion fish. I love the colouring and shapes of lion fish but we can't really see their scales and the smoothish fish skin might not translate well on a model. So i had to consider how to tackle flesh and form to make it visually appealing from afar and close up.
Often times, real life can be the best source of inspiration and when I'm working I'll collect all sorts of pictures of interesting animals and spread them out over my desk top so I can refer to them as I work. So after considering the various animals and sea creatures that might blend well with a dragon with these sorts of wings, I was really inspired by sea horses and turtles! Wait, turtles? YES! They're reptiles and their skin has scales on it but it's a much softer looking sort of scales, and a great sea dragon might have something very similar to that if it spends so much of it's time living under water. Perhaps it relies more on its size and thick muscle and hide to absorb blows rather than deflect them with hard scales... There's also some beautiful patterns created by all of the loose skin they have, creating lots of folds and intricacies.
When I see other sculptors (both traditional and miniature) incorporate folds of skin into their work it always impresses me and it's something that I'm not seeing enough of in a lot of dragon miniatures. This extra detail really helps create a more convincingly realistic sculpture! There are some really cool dragons here in Philadelphia that demonstrate how amazing a dragon can look without the use of big scaly pieces and focusing on muscle form, shapes. See how the skin moves?
So I'm going to try and incorporate all of this into my work here. In this piece I'm doing a few things differently from the get go so I'm learning some things as I go. With sculptures of this size we're not using the normal method of attaching clay to the armature with green stuff. Instead we're using the traditional method, which is using aluminium wire for the armature and wrapping a smaller copper wire around it for the clay to grip. This will keep it from sliding around. Green stuff does the same thing on smaller pieces. If you're interested in a tutorial on armatures check this out http://www.instructables.com/id/CREATING-A-FIGURE-ARMATURE-FOR-SCULPTURE/
Now that we have an armature that's ready for clay the first step was to bulk out the shape of the dragon. For this project I wanted to try a new material and I'd heard that premo, which is a sculpey product was much stronger and more break resistant than normal sculpey. So far my thoughts on it are that it is not a great material for large work! Normally I mix equal parts sculpey firm into my clay to give them some strength but I went straight premo this time and I find that when it comes to trying to make large shapes in clay it's not as good as the firm mix I was using. It will probably perform better when it comes to details however. Making the bulk of the sculpture can be a tricky step, almost as tricky as the armature, and very important. The dragon needs to look natural from all sides and not unbalanced. There also needs to be enough clay to really emphasise the shapes of the body, and it doesn't hurt to exaggerate those shapes and then take a step back to look at what you've done overall. This is how it was looking on the first day after laying out the shapes.
Now that there's clay on the armature we can see that the right leg is somewhat oddly turned in toward the body. Aluminium armatures are very easy to manipulate and modify while you're sculpting so the positioning of the legs can easily be adjusted, but for the time being we're going to focus on the torso and neck area and get the tail size and muscles sorted out. Then we can go back and revisit legs.
After the shapes are all set I went about starting to form muscle groups. This process will take a little bit of time because all the shapes of these muscles are dependent upon each other and to get the right look you have to create a little bit of one section, then start to create the muscles around it which connect to it and then go back to the original muscle group and make adjustments. I started in the chest area because on most animals these muscle groups are very similar. I also exaggerated the hump on the dragon's back even further and shortened the neck a little and made it a bit bulkier. Because we are working with "fantasy anatomy" I added an extra set of pectoral muscles behind the main ones. You need pectorals to move your arms back and forth. Every vertebrate with arms has them so why we don't see them in european style dragons I have no idea! Another extra is a second set of ribs underneath the first, since this creature has a very long and muscular torso and it helps us make sense of the hump on the dragon's back.
You can see the muscles really taking shape. Remember that at this stage smoothness and detail are not important. We're just creating the topography upon which we'll add the skin, scales, and other details so you'll be seeing a sea of rippling muscle underneath scales and leathery skin!
On a large miniature with very defined muscles I'm taking extra care to give the illusion that the creature is anatomically complete, and trying to show not just the muscles on the surface but the layers of muscles underneath them and the connecting muscles between bones that are creating vague shadows. You can see this starting to become more visible on the neck.
Once the muscles are looking roughly the way they're supposed to, I can start adding some of the surface shapes. These are not details yet, but rather changes to the shape of the body that lay on the top of the muscle like the folds of skin caused by the contortion of the limbs and torso and the "seahorse ridges" that give the body structure but are nevertheless superficial, since they lay on top of the muscle and underneath the skin and don't really anchor to the bones except on the spine and rib cage.
That's all for now! Here are a few more shots from different angles. Next time we'll work on the other side of the figure where we'll be working on a lot of folds and squashed muscles. In a few days I'll be back with pics of the resin ifrit casts and our new packaging!
P.S. Here's a quick pic of a 40mm resin base I made for the Ifrit.
Slowly but surely, all the pieces to the ifrit are coming together. There are just two pieces on their way over from the printers but I am just too excited to wait for them before I show you how the package is looking. Your resin miniatures are now safe from all the hazards of travel, and with 2" of foam layering and plenty of space all around to spare, it will make a great transport once you've painted and based your miniature.
These certificates are simply awesome! The paper is so smooth and it contains a thick red core in the center. There are also accompanying cards (still in the mail system) that will have matching serial numbers.
That's all for now! I'm aiming to have resin the lich mastered in resin for your viewing pleasure next week.
Yeah, was just looking and in late February he posted there were 11 weeks of sculpting and 13 figures left. Obviously doesn't count casting time.
In late March, said Ifrit was getting ready to be prepped for molding.
Last week, said Ifrit wasn't in production yet in resin due to casting difficulties, and not yet communicated to valiant about casting the metals of it.
That said, the updates in April were such an improvement! And the Lich sculpt was shown, too, so that is good.
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There is also an Instagram feed on the home page of Imbrian Arts, just scroll down:
About half the pics are of the Beer and D6s game, which are shown well packaged and cast in resin. I hope it isn't Jody casting and packing them himself......... but at least some of that seems likely.
Hey! I'll be doing an update tomorrow but since I came across this I thought I'd share this with you now and also comment about the resin.
I do indeed do all of my own resin casting now! If I'm going to ask $12 or $14 (in some cases a lot more) for a resin figure it has to be damn good, and I wasn't getting that feeling from the resins that I was getting made for me. I'll dig up some of them and give you a side by side comparison.
You get this incredibly guilty feeling when you consider sticking a miniature with bad mould lines in the mail to send off to someone who likes your work enough to pay money for it. It's like you're cheating them. I want the product they get to look just as good as the pics you see in the shop, so you throw it away (bye bye money) and look in the bag for another cast that looks better. Casting resin is pretty tricky and can be a bit of a challenge, that's why most people would rather pay someone else to do it. This way I only have to spend money on the materials, and I don't have to pay for stock that may or may not sell well and eat up funds. But the most important thing is that the difference in quality is huge. I'm proud to sell it and I'm proud that I made it.
I do a lot of the packaging myself. Sometimes I get help, but I'd rather be there to get that one last look at the miniature to make sure it's good before sticking it in the packaging.
I've worked out the casting issues with the ifrit. He's casting up just fine and the resin version is available in the shop. The Lich casts are coming out beautifully as well. I'm currently stocking up on the Lich casts while I wait for the cards to arrive. Recently a few friends of mine convinced me to cast up an old sculpture that I made for GW as a test sculpt. A few years back they asked me to sculpt an empire soldier as part of a job interview. Since it wasn't my style I just stuck it in a box and forgot about it. So there's that too! I'm aiming to have a summoning circle ready by the end of the month. From there we can work on card design for the beta rules and get some rules out for testing. I really really don't want to stick pictures of unpainted miniatures on cards. It's not a good look! Maybe we'll use some of the concept art, or start setting aside time for painting.
Thanks for hanging in, and seriously, if you have any questions feel free to message me.
Hey! Another quick update for you on our progress.
We had some casting issues with the censers on the ifrit so we separated them and now the casts are coming out great and we released it on Friday.
The resin copies of the Lich are currently in production and should be ready by the time all of the pieces for the package arrive which should be at the end of this month.
Work on the summoning circle is continuing. I'd like to have a working version ready to show you by the end of the month, and give you another run down on how it works with the bones. Once the circle is done we'll focus on cards, rules, and getting models painted.
That's all! Our next update should have a summoning circle preview and casts of the zombies!
-Jody
Nice to see some progress - and those two miniatures do look very good indeed!
Some big personal happenings for him, and while congrats are due, it is strongly hinted/implied that we won't be seeing much progress here for quite some time.
Possibly towards the end of this year, or later.
Ugh.
Estimated delivery was FEBRUARY 2013.
This one has every indication of shipping 2 years late - or later.
Yeah, I had a comment here last night that I deleted, too. I posted above that he commented in February of this year on the Kickstarter page that there were 11 weeks of sculpting left, comprising 13 figures.
A due date for his family of this coming December should really not have affected anything. And it still really shouldn't, if progress were being made at any reasonable pace... but as I said before, I think his taking on casting in-house has massively increased the workload that he will be required to do himself. It allows him to get the models made much cheaper, which sounds like it's important right now... but if everything had gone ahead like it should have, the money would have been spent paying a caster and this would be over with and he could easily move on to commission work.
I actually just went and looked at my metal goblins from this Kickstarter this morning. They are absolutely lovely. It's a shame he couldn't make more progress on the things that were not already sculpted when this began... I'm just glad that I stuck to pledging for what was already done and just needed to be cast.
Edit: From the KS comments:
zoroaster100 about 1 hour ago
That last update was worrying. I understand life happens, we are all human, and delays can occur, but we already seemed pretty far behind on getting our stuff. Jody, I hope you can find a way to fit your obligations to your backers into your now more difficult schedule to keep things moving forward, even if at a slower pace than before. If you plan to launch Kickstarters in the future, you could be shooting yourself in the foot if you treat your backers as lowest priority just because you already have our money. It could hurt your credibility on future Kickstarters if you delay delivery too long.
I once again deleted a comment here because in the end, it's true, casting in metal is expensive. But a lot of campaigns do not lock things down with their casters regarding volume and lead time before launching, and when they hit stretch goals, don't re-verify these things... there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes but I think it's reasonable to say that this campaign did not verify that this volume would be doable with several other campaigns already queued in front of it for casting. So, the switch to metal was unfortunate if the cost wasn't factored in, but honestly not entirely unpredictable.
In the end, casting the resin rewards in-house should make up for a large part of that extra metal cost for the normal rewards, but obviously adds tons of work and time to the campaign... which I think is what we're seeing now.
That last update was worrying. I understand life happens, we are all human, and delays can occur, but we already seemed pretty far behind on getting our stuff. Jody, I hope you can find a way to fit your obligations to your backers into your now more difficult schedule to keep things moving forward, even if at a slower pace than before. If you plan to launch Kickstarters in the future, you could be shooting yourself in the foot if you treat your backers as lowest priority just because you already have our money. It could hurt your credibility on future Kickstarters if you delay delivery too long.
So, in all seriousness, has anyone received anything yet? I'm just wondering if I should have received any of my figures from the KS yet, the ones that are already for sale on the Imbrian website?
I really don't remember the what the shipping details were.
Two of the minis that I pledged for haven't even been sculpted yet, so assuming that everything is shipped in one batch I will probably receive them all at some point in 2020.
I've gone from being excited about this project, to disappointed about the delays, to practically writing the whole thing off. At least I'm now starting to see the funny side, I wonder what Jody's next excuse for delays will be?
COMPLETE IMBRIAN COLLECTOR PACKAGE- get every single imbrian arts figure sculpted from 01 Jan 2013 - 01 Jan 2014. Including every miniature shown in this kick starter, except the goblin set, cast in resin along with concept art cards, and certificates of authenticity. Miniatures will be mailed to you as they are completed. Due to the time it takes to put a miniature into production, you can expect to have miniatures sent to you well in to 2014. It's a HUGE deal.
What was the outcome of this pledge level in the end? Was there one?
I think that's way too early, personally. If he doesn't finish before having a baby, those in for later miniatures could be waiting a long, long time. I'd be swapping to already completed ones right now if I were in that position... it's worked well for me on other Kickstarters that are encountering difficulty, and I still have yet to get completely stiffed on a campaign because of it (although I've been a part of a few that went south, I just cashed out before they hit bottom).
Not a bad idea, but I really don't think he's got all that much finished yet, outside of the Forest/Jungle/Whatever Goblins - of which I have no interest in.
You're probably right though - Feb. 2015 is a bit too optimistic on t his one.
I really should just forget about it until/if it ever ships.
I'm not in this one for too much - and I really love his sculpting style and much of what he's already completed.
But given all that he's got going on now, I wouldn't be shocked if this one goes well into 2015, and I also wouldn't be surprised if it turns into so much vapor either.
zoroaster100 1 day ago
@Jody: Do you plan to do any more work on this Kickstarter's miniatures in the next three months?
CrazyBaldHead 1 day ago
Any chance of an official update? Perhaps containing a list of what's left and it's order in the rotation?
Creator Jody Siegel about 19 hours ago
Yes absolutely! Right now everything is packed up and in storage. The property manager at our new place had to delay our move in to spray for bugs and replace the carpets which has delayed our move in by two weeks. So we get to move in mid August and from there it will be back to work on Imbrian stuff. I don't believe we'll have to do any more commissions until the baby is here. I'm just guessing here but as long as there are no more hold ups I can probably sculpt and master at least 6 more miniatures before the baby arrives.
Hey guys! We finally got our internet up! Moving was rough! Everything was loaded and unloaded twice since it had to go into storage while we waited for our place to be carpeted and painted.
Hmm You're right about the website. I'll fix it asap.
Next up is the death knight and a commission (because I need a new alternator) Tim, so far we've been able to get by these last couple of months without my gal working. If she's home and not working then I don't think the baby will interrupt the sculpting too much. I should still be able to get in a full day's work and raise a kid, it's not like I'm a single parent
He would've been better off by not telling us any of that, but points for honesty, I guess.
At this point, I think it is 50/50 on whether or not most of these models ever get made.
I should stop checking the comments section there for updates, and then either be pleasantly surprised when something shows up, eventually, or I just end up forgetting about it completely.
. If she's home and not working then I don't think the baby will interrupt the sculpting too much. I should still be able to get in a full day's work and raise a kid, it's not like I'm a single parent
Bwahahahahahahahahahah! I think I burst a ventricle laughing.
Someone sort of reminded me to check on this one, so I did...
Creator Jody Siegel 4 days ago
Sorry about the lack of communication the last few weeks guys. It's been very hard to get buy the last few months. The fiancee had lost her job and as you can imagine, nobody really wants to hire a pregnant woman so I've had to work to cover her share of bills. I know you already know that a good chunk of funds set aside to pay for living expenses during this kickstarter are instead going toward paying for metal so it would have been impossible to feed and shelter the two of us on just my kickstarter budget.
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I know it sucks and it's only added to these horrendous delays. At the end of the month it looks like we'll be able to support ourselves again and that means I can set aside most of my commission work.
I am really going to try hard to forget all about this one now.
Just switch to completed sculpts, imo. That's my go to method for getting something, rather than nothing, out of troubled campaigns- cash out with whatever they've done. They'll almost always work with you on it, and the shrikes and fungiens I received from this are absolutely great!
As he says, it's clear much of the funds here went to cover his living expenses, and I wish he would've worked more diligently on This project while he still had funds. But that's water under the bridge now, so best to cash out while you still can! Again, I really think he'd work with you on it if you message him (I made a small swap with my pledge when he fulfilled it, and it was no problem).
Alpharius wrote: Someone sort of reminded me to check on this one, so I did...
Creator Jody Siegel 4 days ago
Sorry about the lack of communication the last few weeks guys. It's been very hard to get buy the last few months. The fiancee had lost her job and as you can imagine, nobody really wants to hire a pregnant woman so I've had to work to cover her share of bills. I know you already know that a good chunk of funds set aside to pay for living expenses during this kickstarter are instead going toward paying for metal so it would have been impossible to feed and shelter the two of us on just my kickstarter budget.
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I know it sucks and it's only added to these horrendous delays. At the end of the month it looks like we'll be able to support ourselves again and that means I can set aside most of my commission work.
I am really going to try hard to forget all about this one now.
I'm currently working on the death knight so that leaves about ten miniatures left to complete. Time frame wise it's very hard to guess. While I don't need to do commissions anymore I've got about 8 weeks left until I become a dad and then things will change again once my gal is ready to go back to work so life is very unpredictable at the moment. But I can say at the very least that I should have this death knight done in a couple weeks and perhaps enough progress for some wips early next week.
Was considering 'upping' my pledge to resin a few months ago, because, at this point, why not?
Then I realised that I couldn't even remember what miniatures I'd pledged for and that this whole thing was a bit of a joke at this point.
Plastictrees and Joyboozer - After I'd asked about folks swapping for completed minis and a few folks had chimed in, he posted this:
Jody Siegel wrote:Creator Jody Siegel on October 1
Sure guys, anyone is welcome to change up their order if they want. Just shoot me a message.
I highly recommend swapping out for completed items well before his significant other's baby is due (8 weeks from now as stated in his latest comment). A few backers are trying to list all the unfinished sculpts in the comments- I'm not sure what they are as I stopped tracking this closely after receiving my (excellently sculpted) goblins long ago. But it should give you an idea of what's available that you can swap to.
I already tried but had no idea what was/ is available and he put me off by saying the stuff I was waiting on was almost done. FFS, how hard is it to put up a fething list of where he's fething up to? The guys a complete fething slow! Then has the fall to pimp a new fething game then feth off again!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Lay down and have a rest, swear filter, you've earned it.
Try finding the list RT references in the comments, or asking there. I agree it's more fething about than you should need to do, but if it'll actually get you some of your stuff. I wouldn't put too much stock in Jody saying that something's "almost done" at this stage - and there's always retail if he actually produces some "must-have" stuff.
I get the feeling that aside from a few star fethers, and "he's an artist, and you can't rush art" types, Jody's done his dash in terms of running his own business or KSing as opposed to commission work.
Jodi's son was born just the other day.
Came into the world in the usual way,
But there were models to sculpt and shipping to pay.
He learned to walk while Jodi was away.
Yeah, you get where I'm going. Excuse me while I wipe my eyes.
Jodi's son was born just the other day.
Came into the world in the usual way,
But there were models to sculpt and shipping to pay.
He learned to walk while Jodi was away.
Ha! That had me literally laughing out loud, have an exalt.
Alpharius wrote:
plastictrees wrote: Yeah, the money is gone as far as I'm concerned, if I get anything at all I'd rather it be the minis I wanted.
That's where I'm at too.
I don't want anything else - I want what I pledged for, and what I paid for.
"Righteous anger" aside, it would make sense (simply from a financial point of view) to get some of the minis you wanted while available - if, for instance, only one or two of the ones you wanted aren't sculpted yet.
You have every right to go down with the ship... but personally I'd get on the life raft
An analogous situation I just experienced in another campaign - the creator ran out of funds to ship all the rewards, and posted up saying as much. He gave people the option - pay for shipping, or choose to wait until he could try to get the funds together to ship (which may be never). Mine came out to $7 to ship my pledge... so, I paid another $7, and got my items a few days later. Call it protecting the original investment, I guess, but I have found that it makes sense to get out while the getting is good! Campaigns like this tend to be never heard from again after a while...
Yeah, I hope he doesn't have any more problems with his car too.
Or any more bouts of colds or 'flu.
Or problem with his apartment.
Or any more random pregnancies.
And I sure as hell hope that he doesn't spend any more time sculpting mediocre Beer & D6 figures, or doing commissions, until his KS obligations are fulfilled.
Regarding the whole "cashing out" issue, I understand RiTides point perfectly; it's better to have something than nothing at all. Despite this obvious logic, I will continue to wait, at least until the Death Knight is completed. Partially because I am stubborn, partially because I feel that cashing out would somehow absolve Jody of his sins, or in some way validate this whole experience.
I'm waiting because, as far as I can tell, the Death Knight (currently being worked on!) is the last miniature that needs to be done before my order can be sent!
The Lich and zombies are sculpted. I'm currently casting up liches and working on getting a batch ready for release while I'm sculpting. As far as zombies go, I don't want to release them until the special models for the undead are done. Models like the lich, death knight, and piper would be much more in demand as resin figures than three zombies so for me it makes the most sense to spend my casting and sculpting time on getting them done so we can earn money for nicer packaging, cards, breast pumps, prams, etc.
Jody's logic seems to be a tad flawed; surely he would have more money for breast pumps and prams if he released miniatures for sale as quickly as possible, rather than focusing solely on sculpting?
Unless, of course, it's just another empty, meaningless excuse for yet another month of no tangible progress.
I think at this stage we can safely say that Jody isn't one that's much for planning ahead properly or having any kind of effective long-term (or even medium-term) plan.
Sculpting miniatures requires more time (and he's not fast) and probably gets him a nice paycheck pretty quickly ($1k a figure or however much it is for sculpting) while finishing this project would require him to sculpt, cast, send out models before he can then open them to retail and make $10-20 a pop on the models.
As a short-term thing, some sculpting for hire is a much better way to bring in some cash. The problem is that he hasn't done much of a job on the long-term of setting himself up his own business. And frankly, he seems the type that really shouldn't be doing so, since he's clearly not really up to it.
I agree with just about everything you've written there...
Also:
Jody Siegel 2 days ago
Yes the death knight is currently in progress. I can't say when I'll be done with resin casting yet zoroaster. Since offering trades on people's pledges I've been hit with a bunch of requests so I've had to spend my casting time working on getting enough bones made to fulfil orders and it's slowed down the release of the Lich. This week I'm going to make some extra bone molds so I can produce them a bit faster and have some left over just in case more backers decide they want to change their pledge.
Once we have enough masters done to go on a single master mould then we'll have them mastered in metal. Usually you don't waste an entire mould just to get one mini made. You either share a mould with other people so you can fit as many miniatures on it as possible (saving costs) or you put everything you need mastered onto the mould. I don't like sharing mould space because you have zero control over how many times your master mould gets used. So once we have enough undead figures to fill up a mould we'll try to fit the ifrit in there and get them all mastered and then have production moulds made off the masters.
I've got to be honest here - I thought The Baby had already arrived...
Update #57
Nov 23 2014
Post move update
Comment
2 likes
Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to update you on how things are going now that we've moved and it's been a couple of months and we're all settled in. Casting is all set up and running normally though the focus right now is getting miniatures sculpted.
I'm currently working on the Death Knight as well as a couple of commissions. I figured I'd be done with commissions for a while but as the due date for our baby closes in we've had to pick up LOTS of baby stuff. You guys who have little ones know, it's not something you usually budget for and it's ALL necessary. So I'm less than three weeks away from having a new little boy. Once mom is ready to go back to work I'll be able to devote more of my time towards sculpting for myself and less time toward covering our bills. Being the sole provider for the last few months has really slowed things down and I'm very sorry that this got in the way of working on our miniatures.
With all that said, I'm very happy to be working on the Death Knight again and also very excited to be a father.
Also, if you've recently moved be sure to let me know. I've gotten a few emails lately and people are wondering if it's going to mess anything up or be a pain. Don't worry! Updating your address is easy and only takes a minute.
Thanks very much for your support, and all of the baby advice I've received from your comments and messages.
Jody
This campaign certainly looks to be at least two years late...
After his kid graduates college and gets a job. Jody needs to do some more commission work for all of the life events in between, but he's really set on finishing up the KS before the next turn of the century.
He will have to hand down his ancient sculpting techniques to his scion. This will be a legacy kickstarter.
I can just see the family crest now... An armature lion rampant on a field barwise split with blue over yellow and the motto "Commit Thy Work to the Backers."
Does anyone know anything new? I have been quite positive (not without effort though) about this spectacle but after the last update it's hard to find something to be positive about. Sure it's nice he managed to propagate and all but given the pace of this project this far, I'd be surprised if he vill be finished in 2016... This must surely be some kind of record. Does anyone actually believe all miniatures plus the game itself will be a reality?
Yes - 'eventually'. Could easily stretch into late 2015 though...
Game?
Unlikely.
But wait!
From the comments section!
Creator Jody Siegel 3 days ago
The only thing that's changed since the last update is that we had a baby last week. Mom is recovering and we're spending most of our time feeding and changing and doing the laundry and not very much of it sleeping. Until she's back on her feet and able to get work, It's only me working to take care of the three of us.
I've found out that having a baby is like playing 40k. You drop a ton of money on an army initially and then you realise your army would be better with xyz instead of abc. With a baby you prepare as best you can and then you realise he pisses himself 6 times a day and they don't coincide with his bowel movements so you buy more cloth diapers, more wipes, diaper rash cream, thermometers, hand sanitiser, etc.
But all of that will pass. Mom will get better and get to work, and I won't have to cover all our expenses forever. But I can't put a time on that. She'll be ready when she's ready. I can't tell you how long it will take for her to be healthy enough for work or when she'll get a job offer. As it is, I count myself lucky that there is enough demand for sculptors to allow me to support three people. We take it one day at a time right now, but we will finish the project.
Ecthelion 3 days ago
Which basically means I don't care about the fact I took your money 2 years ago as my life is just more important than yours right now...Amazing.
I have no idea what is finished & what is still coming, only that my 153 dollars pledge is by far not fulfilled. I think I have 4 miniatures at home right now.
Creator Jody Siegel 3 days ago
I do care about finishing this project, but please understand that loosing half our combined income means not having enough money to pay rent, utilities, and food for three. There's really no way for us to get around that. How many employers out there want to hire a pregnant woman? That's what we've been dealing with for the past 7 months. If I don't get the bills paid we don't have a home. Please do not think that I don't care about this project. This is my dream and I'd much rather be sculpting what i love rather than working on someone else's project.
It is a bit annoying that Jody ignores the whole 'near two years late' thing.
I'm not sure why he couldn't get more done before the birth of his baby a few weeks ago, but it certainly doesn't seem like he won't be getting much done here for quite some time now...
It's pretty clear the funds have been used up on Jody's life - his spouse hasn't been working for months already, and I see no reason for that to change with a baby to take care of. And he wonders why people were upset about his "Beer and D6s" project early in the year...
For the past 6 months, he's been using preparing for the baby as an excuse, and there's no way there's going to be forward progress now. The funds are so totally gone here... he'll probably try to stretch things out, and as he's doing casting himself now it's basically free except for time, but I just can't see this project ever fully "finishing". People were crazy not to cash out on what they could, imo... it's different to me when creators are behind but diligently working on their project. That is obviously not the case here.
What is really grating is seeing things from him months ago about working "for free" on this project to keep his reputation. There's nothing free about it, he was paid very well and upfront! But, that does not work well as a motivator for some people, and clearly Jody is one of them.
What is really grating is seeing things from him months ago about working "for free" on this project to keep his reputation. There's nothing free about it, he was paid very well and upfront! But, that does not work well as a motivator for some people, and clearly Jody is one of them.
Exactly!
The fact that he continues to ignore the fact that he already made $60K on this project and then failed to deliver on it while using up all that money is...fething annoying.
It's a joke really. I assume he's still getting commission work or just has another job, anyone seen his name referenced as a sculptor on any recent projects?
I'm guessing that many sculptors would be overjoyed to be paid 60k for a years work. To blow that time and goodwill is crazy to me.
Also, at least have the courtesy to send out updates with information to ALL your backers. Comments are ridiculous 2 years in to a project.
Having a one year old myself I'm quite sceptical about this "hobby project" of his (it seems to me that is how Jody view things and not as work, which it's actually is) ever being finished, especially considering the pace he kept this far along with all the excuses.
I'm afraid that what we have seen this far is all we will see for a long long time.
RiTides wrote: For the past 6 months, he's been using preparing for the baby as an excuse, and there's no way there's going to be forward progress now. The funds are so totally gone here... he'll probably try to stretch things out, and as he's doing casting himself now it's basically free except for time, but I just can't see this project ever fully "finishing". People were crazy not to cash out on what they could, imo... it's different to me when creators are behind but diligently working on their project.
This is just how I feel! And as a side note, sure preparing for baby is a long process but it does not take 6 months of full time work! I'd like an honest answer from him what he actually have been doing all this time! But as you wrote RiTides, if he couldn't work on the project for six months due to preparations for the baby, when will he ever have time to work on the project now? When the bills piles up, this will be the last thing he'll spend time on.
Unfotunately I had too much trust in Jody (I have "too much" trust in most people, which usually works just fine) so I didn't cash out when I was given the opportunity which is something I bitterly regret by now!
The time-consuming part of preparing for a baby imo is supporting your partner who is carrying the baby. Most of the other stuff comes after. Of course it's too late anyway since he won't get anything done with a newborn!
Markus there are definitely several areas I could have done better in hindsight. I can only imagine how things would have turned out if I had waited two months to run the campaign. For starters the issues RBG was having with Troll Forged didn't come about until after my campaign was done. I initially chose Troll forged based on the recommendation of Tre at RBG. He couldn't speak highly enough of Ed and he sent me samples of the plastics which were great. Now if I had waited a month or two longer, I would have gotten a completely different report from Tre, but there's really nothing I can do about it except say "what if" I can't go back in time and change that and at the time it seemed like such a great opportunity that I'm sure most people in my shoes would have done the same thing.
The end result though was where it really hurt. As you know, I based the goals off of the initial estimates I was given for plastic figures. When I started working with Valiant the metal turned out to be much more expensive, which dug into living expenses. If I use KS funds to do things like pay the rent, move, or buy ANYTHING for my child (because no single guy ever budgets for a kid and a fiance he doesn't have yet) then there wouldn't be enough to pay for the more costly material and shipping, which is why I find myself doing commission work now. Conversely, If I spent my time sculpting to finish the project sooner, I would have a whole bunch of finished miniatures to ship but how would I pay the rent? Being able to sculpt, and having the money to produce a range, but being evicted before I can finish is not going to make for a successful project under any circumstance. So I am TEMPORARILY doing commissions, until my fiance is back on her feet. In this scenario, nobody is homeless, and my kid's needs are met.
Again, in hindsight it might have been better to produce just the initial miniatures from the kickstarter, reassess the costs, refund and relaunch. But at the time, we were already a few months into production and I had several figures done and in progress and my focus was on getting EVERY completed piece off to Valiant so that we could all see progress being made.
We also saw a lot of delays in the production because of the back and forth of masters between Valiant and I. I spoke before about how I delayed in sharing that information because I didn't want to give backers the idea that Valiant wasn't doing a stellar job. After my issues with Troll Forged, I don't ever want to have to talk badly about, or give the impression that I was criticising another company in the miniature industry. That of course was a mistake. The guys at Valiant are totally understanding and they agreed, you have to keep your backers filled in, even when there's problems. Valiant of course, will fix it until it's good. It just took a lot of time.
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Kara, back when I sent out surveys I offered to ship miniatures out as they came, or on demand and I still do. I frequently get requests to change orders and have available minis shipped and it's never a problem. So this is a happy reminder for anyone who wants to switch, or get some minis shipped out to them, send me a message!
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Markus, I'd love to do more updates but they really should be meaningful and pertain to progress with the project. If I spend two weeks on a commission for someone's top secret project so that I can afford a new transmission or more baby stuff, it would be an awfully depressing thing to read, and frustrating because most clients want their work kept hush hush until they're ready to unveil it themselves. Progress wise on at a personal level. Mom is doing ok but she's still bleeding after the birth. She can get up and walk around but it's painful. I wouldn't want her out and about doing busy work for at least another month and an okay from a doctor. I'll have a week or two in January to work on the Death knight, and then I'll have to get another commission done in Feb.
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Sorry for the long post. Have a great New Year and DRINK! but don't drive
c0un7_z3r0 wrote: Sure it's nice he managed to propagate and all but given the pace of this project this far, I'd be surprised if he vill be finished in 2016... This must surely be some kind of record. Does anyone actually believe all miniatures plus the game itself will be a reality?
Condolences on you not getting your stuff after 2+ years, but Steve Jackson Games Ogre DE funded in May of 2012, and they have a *TON* of ambitious stretch goals that are going to take at least 2 more years to fulfill.
More than 2 years late, SJG still owes us:
- 30 minutes of music
- Steve's scenarios
- fan scenarios
SJG also promised things to various backer segments:
- Car Wars Kickstarter
- Ogre Miniatures 2nd Ed (print *and PDF versions to be available)
- Ogre expansion
- Ogre computer game
Now maybe you're satisfied with Wave 1, that's great. Some backed for the promise of being able to buy an updated Ogre Miniatures rulebook. Others backed for the promise of a new Car Wars edition. And I'm sure someone backed for the notion of an Ogre game with better than 8-bit graphics.
In my case, I only backed for higher-quality Ogre Miniatures maps. My tokens and overlays are still in shrink, unpunched. I dunno, maybe I'll ebay them or something. I've been waiting a long time for the 2nd Ed Ogre Minis rulebook, and suspect it will be quite a wait further.
There is still quite a lot to do, and when we're talking about delayed delivery, Ogre DE is pretty far out there.
So, he has gone back to his first excuse - Trollforged. Nevermind that he hasn't sculpted hardly anything lol. Comparing them is like night and day - Ed at TF had to cancel taking Jody's project, sure (and he cancelled, not the other way around!) due to other commitments, including finishing the aforementioned RBG campaign. But he Did finish it, and continues to work like crazy to keep his operation going and to finish his own campaign. It's the exact opposite - late, but regularly updating and doing all he can to work towards completion.
Jody is just rehashing blaming everyone but himself: TF, Valiant, wife, baby, car... and he's blamed all of these for months, so much so that he has cycled back around to the first.
He neglected to mention that by doing resin casting himself, he's saving tons. I think it's obvious he's spent the money on "living expenses" as he calls it, and is just going to continue parading out the same tired excuses for ZERO progress in months. If he wanted to be done, he could sculpt a tiny bit in the darn evenings! I was getting texts from Ed at TF at 11pm last night regarding dreadnought printing/casting. The comparison does Jody no favors, that's for sure, and I'm tired of him using TF (or Valiant, life, etc) a pinata to cover his own laziness.
Didnt we see WIP pics of the sea dragon eons ago and nothing about it since? I pledged mostly for the elves and crew Jody was planning to create. No work has happened on any of those at all. I feel slightly heartened that Jody's still active on the KS page but im getting ever more skeptical i will ever see those elves and my money.
RiTides wrote: So, he has gone back to his first excuse - Trollforged. Nevermind that he hasn't sculpted hardly anything lol. Comparing them is like night and day - Ed at TF had to cancel taking Jody's project, sure (and he cancelled, not the other way around!) due to other commitments, including finishing the aforementioned RBG campaign. But he Did finish it, and continues to work like crazy to keep his operation going and to finish his own campaign. It's the exact opposite - late, but regularly updating and doing all he can to work towards completion.
I am really tired of people blaming TF. Ed got a little too enthusiastic just like everyone else, but he hasn't made any excuses, went above and beyond on working with certain sculptors, and is doggedly toiling away on a kick starter that has been (I'm sure) the opposite of a financial windfall.
Same tired excuses for months: TF, Valiant, wife, upcoming baby, car. I can't see why this would change now, you've literally said all the same things for SIX MONTHS pre-baby, with ZERO progress.
Why haven't you shipped Beagle's pledge? I think it's obvious you blew the funds on "living expenses" long ago, and are just going to stretch this out as long as you can.
If you wanted to be done, sculpt in the darn evenings! That what Ed at TF, who you love to blame, is doing. Works all day to pay the bills, comes home and texts me at 11pm to work out printing/casting details of a sculpt he's working on. In other words, working his butt off, and updating regularly to boot.
You showed signs of hope in April or so, then just gave up. Maybe you should try working on this an hour a day, updating regularly, and you'll see how backers would flock to support you. Instead, it seems you're literally doing nothing on this, and using the same excuses over and over for, as I said, six months now with no progress.
RiTides of 3DG on January 5
I think the most frustrating part is, we all want the same thing, for Jody to be successful. But by refusing to take responsibility, update, or show/make any progress on the remaining sculpts, of course he has alienated the backers, and ruined his reputation for any solo venture in the future.
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Simple steps to start to change all that:
1. Respond here to Beagle, who asked in October for you to ship him existing sculpts.
2. Make an update showing progress.
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I say you haven't since April, because that is when we were asking you for more updates on Dakka, and you showed the Lich, Sea Dragon WIP, and accessories. Since then, the only new sculpt shown was a rough WIP of the Death Knight. One WIP in 9 months!! And that is Before you had a baby. You need to commit to slowly and steadily work on this, and to update to hold yourself accountable, to have any chance at making forward progress / one day finishing. In the past, you estimated something like 11-13 weeks to finish remaining sculpts. If you just work an hour a day, you could get through that easily. Whether or not that's your normal process, at this point it seems to be the only way to get this moving / one day done.
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I mean this to be constructive, I hope it is. You need to show signs of progress, one WIP in 9 months even before a big life change is just impossibly slow, it would take you a decade finish if the rate does not improve.
zoroaster100 5 days ago
I sent a PM to Jody requesting a partial refund for the miniatures I have not received, since I am growing concerned about ever receiving them. I left it up to him to propose the amount. Unfortunately he advised that I cannot get a refund until after the project is complete. I don't understand the reasoning why that would be. I grow concerned this is turning out to be another situation like I had on the Center Stage Miniatures' Kickstarters I backed. In those Kickstarters, Center Stage Miniatures ran out of funds without fulfilling the Kickstarter. I don't know if that has happened here, but I am growing concerned. At least I did receive some miniatures I this Kickstarter, maybe half of what I pledged for, while a lot of people who pledged for Center Stage Miniatures' Tome of Horrors received nothing for their pledge. But still, $350 was a large chunk to put down for this. In the future, I will be a lot more cautious about backing any solo artist doing large projects on Kickstarter on their own, and probably just back such projects for a small amount I can consider more of a donation rather than a significant miniature purchase.
Creator Jody Siegel 5 days ago
Zoroaster, I've explained the refund policy before, back in March. In addition, I take the time to write it out again to each person who messages me about it, every time. I stand committed to fulfilling this kick starter and providing refunds when able to do so. That is beyond what's required by kickstarter. You also have the option of changing your order and subbing out miniatures that are available now, which you can do whatever you like with. I'm trying to be as flexible as I can given the circumstances while still trying to complete the project.
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RITides, I messaged Beagle days ago within minutes of seeing his post but I respond to most customer service requests via private message because it's up to the backer whether or not he/she wants to share information about their pledge, and it reduces the amount of email notifications people receive about issues that don't affect them.
As for an update showing progress. I'd love to, and as soon as possible. I'm sure you're already aware of the extra financial responsibilities i've been handed so I won't keep repeating them, but as soon as I get a chance I will. I've been seriously considering whether or not it's worth the time/money investment to start sculpting with zbrush due to the speed which people claim you can sculpt, since lately more things are demanding my time and I need to create more time in the day or become more efficient with what time I can get.
Kara Nash 2 days ago
I'd be concerned that your style would change in Zbrush due to the change in materials.
Gniknok 3 days ago
Jody I just want to say that I support you and the difficult decisions you are making, but I backed you specifically because I liked your sculpting. I have worked with people learning z brush and while it is efficient, there is still a steep learning curve. Not to mention the learning curve associated with 3d printing. Stick to what you know and do very well.
Oh boy...
Got to agree with Kara and Gniknok - I don't think I'd want his zbrush minis...
Got to agree with Kara and Gniknok - I don't think I'd want his zbrush minis...
Agreed.
I have to wonder if Jody is trolling the KS backers now, he can't honestly believe that the project would be finished faster if he changed to an entirely new way of sculpting, one which presumably he has no experience with?
The weirdest thing of all is that if he does switch to Z-brush he's then going to be on the hook for some significant expenses for printing the final figures out,
probably a lot more than if he just sculpted and did resin casts
(unless he has a friend with a reasonably expensive 3D printer)
and he's already admitted the money is at best 'limited' (if not gone
It is...odd that he continues to refuse to address the fact that all the time leading up to the 'loss of work' due to his wife's pregnancy seems to have been relatively 'inactive' in terms of sculpting for this Kickstarter.
I think it's an artist thing, at least the kind of artist who has no interest in establishing deadlines, let alone trying to meet them. It think that's what happened with this kickstarter. Reminds me of Arena Rex and MIKH. There have been enough comments about hangovers and alcohol too that I wonder if that has been a contributing factor (as in too much partying, not an accusation of anything more serious). What's funny is that Jody now seems to be trying to buckle down since the birth of his son. Unfortunately, by Jody's own admission, none of this new-found sense of personal responsibility is been directed at bringing the kickstarter any closer to completion.
I am a fairly open minded, easy going and understanding person probably more so than the average person but that is mostly because I've been in those difficult situations. However there are some things that don't make sense based on what was said and overall just some poor decisions made. I completely understand the strain that goes into starting a new family, it became even more difficult for my wife and I when later our son was diagnosed with Autism. It also why when working with Kickstarters I never stopped working my full time job, even when I'm doing paid work for companies like CZE and Blizzard because the money that comes from that doesn't pay my bills... it allows me to continue doing what I enjoy but it isn't where my security for my family comes from. Also the funds from that are completely seperate from my actual job.
I know when times get rough it can be tempting to pull money from something I'd have access too but the extra financial burden, should have had no impact on the funds he already obtained to pay for the work he was supposed to do. If every time it got tight I pulled money from my childrens college fund, on the premise I'd pay it back (lets be real, it never gets paid back), then my kids wouldn't have any money in their funds. The way he says there is extra expenses makes it seem like the money from the KS was spent on non-KS items. In which case he should of already been paid for his commission time to sculpt... now if he undersold the amount of time it was going to cost that is a different thing, but it doesn't mean you just stop working.
I won't even go into the baby being a baby is the best time to get work done. Sure there is feeding and changing but most of the baby play doesn't revolve around crawling or walking. You don't have to worry about the baby getting into things and there strollers, rocking chairs, and bouncers the baby sits in for most of the day. I found I got the most work done when the baby was sleeping, which was quite a bit.
I get bothered about things like this because being someone when he does a KS, is basically a one guy show... it makes it hard on people like us. We'll have to deal with the questions, concerns about how the project is ran (which is fine) but moreso because of situations like this. When in reality it was just poor business decisions at the end of the day which led to the situation.
Thanks guys. I'm going to talk to my clients and see if I can push things back a little. With tax time approaching the refund should cover us for a couple of months. I think by then my gal should be well enough to get back in the job market. I'll finish up what I'm on now and then get then complete the death knight. So I think we should have an update with pics by the end of the month.
@Paul, the easy answer is what you see on the website, plus I have a few more sculpts done and mastered in resin but as yet unreleased.
Moving forward I'd like to try and stick with a bi monthly update system. I should be able to complete 1-2 pieces a month, around what we were able to do when the project first started. Casting of resins and releases will depend on how quickly I can get them done with the set up we have now. I'd like to continue doing the casting, since I have much more control over the quality of the casts, but we have less space than before, so If I can't release miniatures regularly, we'll look for a really top notch resin casting service. I have also been unable to keep up with the demand for bones, so we may ask Valiant to do those again, and that will give me more time for sculpting, and casting the collector's pieces.
Thank you so much for being tolerant and understanding of the circumstances for the past 10 months. It's been really crappy for you, and for me too, having the business stalled out because of real life situations.
PS. I have a bunch of resin zombies that I have not yet released because they don't have cards yet. If you're interested in an early set without the cards, send me a message!
That is not really close to my experience. For one thing, I had to stroll my son for hours because that was the only way to get him to nap. Hours. Walking in a big circuit. When he was awake, he required mental stimulation. If I wanted to get anything done, I had to wear him so he felt secure. Feeding him was also time intensive since I couldn't nurse him.
Some babies are more needy than others, but unless one is using the old "let him cry it out" method, one is not going to have very much time at all to do fine, delicate work with blades or resins that can't be near a baby, especially when one does not get to sleep at night uninterrupted. Keep in mind Jodi expects to finish one or two models a month when he works at his good pace. This guy's got a crippling case of Tortoise Nervosa.
I believe that Jodi is saying that now that his wife can work, he will no longer have to put aside the work that he's already been paid for (the Kickstarter campaign) and by all appearances spent all the money from and can now work on finishing up sculpting and casting the miniatures that are now over two years late.
Aside from finishing up the miniature commissions that he did take on to help pay the bills while his wife couldn't work.
JohnHwangDD wrote: I know that, but I'm otherwise at a loss to explain the thought process behind being able to sculpt full/part time while mom is working.
The same kind of thought process he has displayed throughout the last 11 months, apparently? And even a few hours before that.
1-2 pieces a month? That's a pretty low bar to set. Like really low. Might be possible. I count at least 9 minis, some of the more complex (dragon), that are left to be finished. That'll only take another 5 months!
Alpharius wrote: I believe that Jodi is saying that now that his wife can work, he will no longer have to put aside the work that he's already been paid for (the Kickstarter campaign) and by all appearances spent all the money from and can now work on finishing up sculpting and casting the miniatures that are now over two years late.
Aside from finishing up the miniature commissions that he did take on to help pay the bills while his wife couldn't work.
I would love to see the process map for this.
It just seems like he's hoping for the best but anticipating the best. "No way anything can go wrong in this economy. Dealing with an infant and a postpartum working spouse can't be that difficult."
Automatically Appended Next Post: I just realized Jodi's job is basically "make choking hazards look interesting."
Hello Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I will have a long overdue progress update for you this weekend.
Normally I'm pretty quick to respond to emails and I do pay attention to the comments. I realise that this long of an absence would be cause for concern. On top of my computer issues (logic board needed replacing) I was hit by a car while on my motorcycle and following the accident I've had so much stuff demanding my attention that I let the update get pushed back.
In case you're curious, I was riding my bike and I stopped for a school bus that had turned on its flashers. The car behind me wasn't paying attention, or thought I was going to blow by the bus and ran right into me. My leg got crushed between the car and the bike. I was hit hard enough that the car ripped off the saddle bag on the left side and threw it (I think it hit me in the leg too) about 50 feet down the road. Amazingly, I have no broken bones, but my left leg got thrashed pretty good. I've spent nearly every day in the last two weeks dealing with lawyers, doctors, the other guy's insurance company, and the repair shop.
I have still been able to get sculpting done, so now that we have a working computer and most of accident issues are resolved, I will be responding to your emails and comments as speedily as possible and we'll stick to the update schedule previously mentioned.
Is it worth me being a total a**hole about this in the kickstarter comments and raising the fact that whether or not this accident truly happened has no bearing on the current or previous lack of progress on this campaign? When i read the update i just wanted to pull my hair out. Seriously... does he think this should minimize his responsibility for the state of things? Im tired of BS excuses. Im tired of the drama. Just get the work done. End of story.
greywulf wrote: And that doesn't minimize his responsibility. A little victim blaming, maybe?
Maybe. I've noticed that Dakka backers tend to repeat mistakes in KS because they're not acknowledging the behavior of KS and repeat the same-old same-old behavior.
So far, this falls into several patterns:
Dakka backer calls KS a pre-order and refuses to acknowledge that KS isn't a pre-order.
Project is delayed or fails to deliver.
Backer gets upset that the KS project is not behaving like a pre-order.
International Dakka backer is upset that a KS project isn't fulfilling his pledge like a domestic backer.
International Dakka backer backs another KS project that's not domestic.
Project does not fulfill international pledges like domestic ones.
International Dakka backer gets upset.
Dakka backer says they have consumer rights or a project must fulfill its obligations, and refuses to acknowledge that, in practice, this means nothing.
Dakka backer gets upset.
It shouldn't be news that a "first time" KS project by a "one man shop" fails to deliver or is severely delayed. I back such projects, both accepting the risk, and reducing it by not backing it with much money (eg. $10 or $25).
What I'm not seeing are posts which attempt not to repeat this cycle. Will backers of this project find themselves in a similar situation in a later project? Will history be repeating itself?
Beyond Dakka, I follow BGG, and am noticing that, for CMON, the cycle is being repeated. CMON has a clear history of its treatment of backers (eg. shipping costs, no communication, etc.) yet the same complaints appear post-funding.
Could be, however, that these complaints are made by new backers, while those who have experienced these problems have moved on. However, that doesn't mean anyone new to KS doesn't have a wealth of information to research KS from previous forum posts on various boards.
Not me, I've stopped backing kickstarters, gave up on this one. So, stick that in your pipe and smoke mr high and mighty I'm to good to complain about kickstarters.
Alpharius wrote: Hard to see how Jody doesn't deserve the OCCASIONAL criticisms/pokes he gets on this one.
I would agree with this sentiment. It's not like the guy is providing regular weekly progress updates like Soda Pop, Conan or Dream Pod 9.
SPM ran late on SDE, but they were consistent in showing where the money went, and what they were doing with it. They were clear and direct about problems. NAS is getting similar weekly updates, following the excellent precedent in the SDEKS. .
Conan is following the same path, demonstrating professional management and transparency with backer money.
The Pod always has something to say each week, even when 80% of the time they're just holding out their hand to ask for more money.
If he were showing actual WIP that demonstrated actual weekly progress, I think he might deserve a little slack. Rather than a parade of excuses for showing zero progress over months.
Maybe. I've noticed that Dakka backers tend to repeat mistakes in KS because they're not acknowledging the behavior of KS and repeat the same-old same-old behavior.
So far, this falls into several patterns:
Dakka backer calls KS a pre-order and refuses to acknowledge that KS isn't a pre-order.
Project is delayed or fails to deliver.
Backer gets upset that the KS project is not behaving like a pre-order.
International Dakka backer is upset that a KS project isn't fulfilling his pledge like a domestic backer.
International Dakka backer backs another KS project that's not domestic.
Project does not fulfill international pledges like domestic ones.
International Dakka backer gets upset.
Dakka backer says they have consumer rights or a project must fulfill its obligations, and refuses to acknowledge that, in practice, this means nothing.
Dakka backer gets upset.
It shouldn't be news that a "first time" KS project by a "one man shop" fails to deliver or is severely delayed. I back such projects, both accepting the risk, and reducing it by not backing it with much money (eg. $10 or $25).
What I'm not seeing are posts which attempt not to repeat this cycle. Will backers of this project find themselves in a similar situation in a later project? Will history be repeating itself?
Beyond Dakka, I follow BGG, and am noticing that, for CMON, the cycle is being repeated. CMON has a clear history of its treatment of backers (eg. shipping costs, no communication, etc.) yet the same complaints appear post-funding.
Could be, however, that these complaints are made by new backers, while those who have experienced these problems have moved on. However, that doesn't mean anyone new to KS doesn't have a wealth of information to research KS from previous forum posts on various boards.
There's a few things here that are off:
Projects fail to deliver. That's a possibility for many projects.
However, there are several aspects to this:
1. Many of the projects that fail are generally started in the concept phase. Looking at Clang's failure, that KS was started in order to develop the technology for that type of game. Outside of miniatures, the factors of Kickstarter failures are much higher. Miniatures however are incredibly simple in the concept to production phase process. Whether is is done via digitally, or physically sculpted, miniatures follow a very basic path: Concept > Sculpting > Masters > Mold production > Production Mini's.
2. Failed Kickstarters also must disclose how the funds were used. Having that documentation can show where funding ran out, and make sure that it wasn't just some big fraud. Again, mini's have a very straight forward set of objectives that need to be funded. While they can have some problems in design when it comes to making the masters, there isn't nearly as risky as something like a software development. That's the reason why for any game I kickstart, I only put in for $10-$25.
As for delays, at this point everyone should expect kickstarters to be delayed. The big difference in delays however is for there to be clear signs of progress. Communication is a very big part of this. If a project is far behind schedule, but regularly posting updates showing progress, people are generally fine with it. It's when there is a distinct lack of shown progress that things have problems.
The attitude of backers usually reflects upon how the creator acts. Looking at other kickstarters in comparison it's easy to see why there seems to be such animosity with this kickstarter.
1. The Troll Forged Assimilation Aline Host. This is another long delayed kickstarter, which is now 2 years past it's projected delivery date. And much like Imbrian's project, people have received some miniatures. However, Ed over for TF has been very open with communication, has been showing his progress, and has been producing the mini's to be ready for shipping. He's also been very open with that the KS was a bit too much and it would take more time due to the increase in models and running his company, producing other companies's models. People seem to have some unhappiness over the delay, but due to the shown progress, there is a general "We will get it eventually". With the Imbrian's there is considerable doubt that everything will even get finished. There is little communication beyond "Oh X problem has happened. I haven't been able to work on this"
2. Troll Outpost Miniatures. This was a smaller kickstarter that funded last summer. For something that was supposed to primarily fund the productions of old and already completed sculpts, the project went several month past due. Mixed with the poor communication from the creator, several half truths and potential lies, there were many backers getting rightfully upset with the project. Now there there seems to be a stream of backers confirming delivery, myself included, the project has a much better light to it. Are there still some issues with the campaign? Yes, but people are now getting their models, and it shows that money was not run off with or wasted.
The International Backer getting upset bit is fine
Software games are inherently risky, which is why I simply won't back them. The problem is that it can appear to be done, but be very far from it.
Miniatures show very clearly how far any given object is from completion. Some of the stuff is binary (e.g. tool cut; all minis produced), so there's no question about completion status.
Delays are very common, far too common and accepted, IMO. What is good is that we are starting to see more professional management, as I noted above. That is going to make a big difference if KS games are going to sustain after the initial surge of 2013.
Backer attitude ties very much to creator action, and justly so.
Kingdom Death is something I backed a very long time ago, and it looks to run about a year and a half late; however, the scope is enormous, and real progress has been shown. Also, uncompromising, masterwork quality. I'm not much bothered by the lateness, thinking it's hurt Adam more than me. The awesomeness is covering for the lateness.
So how do you *avoid* getting in a situation where you're making an angry comment? I doubt a creator who mismanages a project will read these comments, so they won't improve their behavior.
So how do you *avoid* getting in a situation where you're making an angry comment? I doubt a creator who mismanages a project will read these comments, so they won't improve their behavior.
I find the best thing is to try and act professionally/like an adult when commenting. Well laid out criticisms usually get a response, at least the first few times. If a creator is so far in the hole, such as this KS, comments usually do nothing except inform other people to stay away.
Joyboozer wrote:Posting angry comments gives anyone who tries to do a search when checking out a creator before backing future projects something to go by.
Yeah, after a while it becomes less a point to try and get a response from the creator and more to make sure other people know to stay away.
With his latest update we now know theres been progress since he last showed us the Death Knight 6 months ago. It's almost mind boggling how little progress that is, but at least theres some.
May 9 2015
The Bimonthly Progress Report
5 Comments
6 likes
Alright! I've made some good progress on the Death Knight. I redid the entire stomach section to make the ringmail cleaner. The most challenging part of this model has been symmetry and resisting the urge to go full steam ahead and laying on the details. A mistake would mean having to remove the fine detail to get the shape identical on both sides. It's a lot harder than sculpting cloth or muscle!
I also had the pleasure of getting a fantastic artist to work his magic on the Lich for the "box art". Jaime De Garnica sent over some photos of the lich I gave him and it's just awesome. I'll be looking forward to what he does with the rest
And lastly, I've been researching witchcraft, Wicca, and Norse runes for new insights and ideas to incorporate into the rules and the bone reading mechanic. One element of Wicca that I think would lend itself well to a game of magic and summoning is the idea of waxing and waning powers. Certain creatures might be stronger in one phase than in others and it would lend an extra element of complexity to combats and warband construction. Sound fun?
The inventory on the Beer & D6's and ifrit has taken a good beating lately so I'll be spending some time replenishing stock and getting some more resins done and up in the shop.
This is why Imbrian arts is so money while Reaper is in the poorhouse; one company just keeps pumping out decent product while the other takes their time to do it right, no wait, now it's right, nope, start again, better slow down here.
3DG, I switched to completed sculpts years ago. Never recieved an answer or minis.
Creator Jody Siegel on July 19
Hey Tim! If you were expecting a package you should not have waited this long! Message me what you want.
Alpharius 5 days ago
Well, we've all been expecting a package for some time now...
Creator Jody Siegel 4 days ago
Hehe, but seriously guys, if you requested finished models be sent to you, don't wait six months and not follow up. I'm still waiting for Tim to get back to me on his order. If I don't give you a shipping confirmation and it's been more than a week, ask again.
Updatewise, I had one of my clients come back to me in need of some alterations/repairs so I'll try and have it done asap so I can get back to the death knight.
Atomic facepalm!
So yeah, this campaign's money is long gone, and the only way for stuff to happen here is if Jody makes more money...somewhere else.
And before Rhode Island's First Son chimes in, I don't want any stupid little fething mushroom men!!!
Hehe, but seriously guys, if you requested finished models be sent to you, don't wait six months and not follow up. I'm still waiting for Tim to get back to me on his order. If I don't give you a shipping confirmation and it's been more than a week, ask again.
Updatewise, I had one of my clients come back to me in need of some alterations/repairs so I'll try and have it done asap so I can get back to the death knight.
Atomic facepalm!
So yeah, this campaign's money is long gone, and the only way for stuff to happen here is if Jody makes more money...somewhere else.
And before Rhode Island's First Son chimes in, I don't want any stupid little fething mushroom men!!!
That Death Knight is totally worth the wait. It's at least--at least--15% more finely detailed than Reaper Bones' Mangu Timur, Anti Paladin, or Malek minis.
Hey all,
I wanted to give you a quick update on what I'm doing and also provide you with a timeline for the next release plus some updates about solutions I've been thinking about to make the business better and get miniatures not just sculpted, but ready to play with faster. A lot of these points are related so please bear with me.
Why is it taking so long?
Asside from the life problems like getting hit by cars, seeing doctors, making appointments and the stupid things in life that keep me from work. The main problem slowing down the release of several miniatures is the need to not be wasteful with how I use the kickstarter funds. This is a big problem! As you know I have a number of sculptures done but not released and a number of released miniatures in metal that are not on sale right now as a resin.
Resin is awesome
When I first had the resin miniatures for the desert set made we only had enough cast to take care of the backers that requested the resins plus a few extra. I didn't want to have funds tied up in stock and I didn't know how long they would sit for before being sold. I also really wanted to give the packaging the update that the Ifrit got. But what I've seen from the Beer and D6's sales (which are doing much better than the metal miniatures for a few reasons) is that I should be selling hundreds of collector's minis. Remember back when I said I didn't like resin because I prefered the more resilient metal miniatures for gaming purposes? It seems my opinion has nothing to do with a what a large number of people actually buy them for.
Getting these miniatures cast and in the shop will allow me to get metal miniatures into production as they're completed rather than collecting a few to master on a single mould. Having to collect miniatures has been killing me. People need to see releases in order to know that you're still alive and in business, not dying a painfully slow death. So holding back may have looked neccessary during those months when I my gal was pregnant and out of work, but it was probably a stupid decision in terms of growth and the long run.
"I want to see painted miniatures"
I lot of you, including stockists have asked for or commented that seeing painted versions of the minis would be really great. I totally agree with you. Painted miniatures help inspire and give people ideas to work with. It's helped a lot with Beer and D6's, and since I'd like to release rules and start including cards with the miniatures as they're released, it's going to happen starting with the Death Knight.
Pricing
The last time I looked at what people were charging for miniatures was probably 4 or 5 years ago. Recently I was checking out some figures I liked and was really surprised with how much the cost of figures has gone up or how inaccurately I valued my own goods. Most indy companies don't sell miniatures in huge quantities or require large investments to use their products so they need to find that right balance between competative, and making enough for each figure to justify the effort. So as a pricing experiment it's been interesting to note that selling miniatures at 25-40% less than some of the other shops has not increased sales when it comes to such a specialised product. Or at least no one has written to me thanking me for making highly detailed figures at a reasonable price.
Since we'll be including cards with the miniatures in the future, now is a good time to reevalute the cost of each figure and account for inflation and increased costs to the product and packaging so no more $10 flat rate. I tend to always land on the side of what I think is a good deal though, so don't worry!
Timeline
As you might have guessed, including color game cards with the Death Knight means that we have to get him painted, and that we also need to have the basic rules for the game complete and the summoning circle ready, and tested.
Summoning Circle
The Summoning Circle has been under way now and the pencil draft should be done this week. I'm currently waiting on a set of ultra fine technical pens to arrive to ink it in. Then we'll scan it onto the computer and if there are any edits that need to be made we'll get those done. This should only take a couple of weeks, and I'm really excited about it so as soon as it's done I'll be sharing it with you along with a description of how to use it and what everything means.
Rules
Basic rules will be finished in text format before the cards can be made so that we can test the game out. It will take some time to create graphics to explain the game and demonstrate battles, movement, etc. but with basic rules in text it gives us a reference so that we can get cards with creature stats and spells made and inlcuded with the miniature. My target for the rules will be the end of the month. If I can get the summoning circle done within two weeks, we'll be on track with the rules.
Painted Death knight.
I'd also like to have the death knight ready and cast, ready for painting by the end of the month. Depending on the schedule of my painter, he may be able to do it, but if not I'll do it so that we can have it done asap and get on to the next step. For this, please assume a reasonable amount of time for a skilled painter to paint a mini plus shipping times.
If I'm not doing the painting, I will be making resin moulds for about a week. Once the moulds are done I should be making at least 100 miniatures per week, until the moulds are exhausted and we have 200-300 resins ready for packaging.
Cards
The cards will be a beta version but I want us to be able to test the game thoroughly the way it's meant to be played and give you an opportunity to try it out and report back. If we end up making changes to the cards you'll be able to get replacements at cost. I'll make them available for download too. Once we have a painted miniature, we just need to insert it into a card template and then send the cards, certificate out to get printed. Printing done in the US takes only a few days. The cards that have to be made overseas take a little longer so we should assume around two weeks for this step.
Once the Death Knight is released, we'll repeat this process with the rest of the undead and desert set. If I can find a really good resin caster then I will be able to hand off the casting and painting jobs to others so that I can focus on sculpting and fulfilling orders. In the end, we won't have to wait for a complete undead set before you guys can get those miniatures which are already done like the lich, zombies, and ifrit. And you'll also be able to give the game a spin much sooner.
My goal is to have the summoning circle, basic rules, creature card, and casting all done before the end of September.
Automatically Appended Next Post: So....emphasis seems to be on the stuff I'm quite convinced that no-one really cares about except Jody at this point.
Game mat and stat cards for a game that was, at best, a vaguely interesting freebie to be included with the miniatures, and is now another rock to hit in the endless tumble down a cliff face that this KS has become.
No mention of sculpting other than finishing the long suffering Death Knight within the next two months. Lots of talk about price points, casting materials blah blah blah.
Get sculpting, update us with pictures of the miniatures we paid for being sculpted, not your attempt at a business plan that none of us have the good will left to care about.
but generally they are the ones with real dedicated fans built up through positive interaction and communication with the fan base
I certainly think charging actual shipping costs would not be unreasonable (although I'm pretty sure he did to international buyers anyway),
but as for an across the board rise.... not convinced
Edit: and as for resin, if he can cast it himself fair enough, but LOTS of resin casting is time intensive and expensive (as you end up QCing and remaking moulds all the time), it's also not something I'd fancy doing at home with a young baby around unless I had dedicated air flow cabinets to make certain none of the fumes went wandering.... and if you contract out your resin casting it's not cheap, not cheap at all so the margins are often worse than metal
He's casting resin in-house afaik, which basically means it's really cheap to do since he is already set up for... just takes time. It seems he's motivated to do that since he will sell them in his shop (which is another thing in the update) - but not motivated enough to sculpt the remaining items. It's possible we'll hit a one-year anniversary of his working on a single sculpt.
It's a shame because I think his work is amazing. I would gladly buy it in his online shop, since it's easy to file a claim if he didn't ship (and I believe he would ship)... but getting all the money upfront has been really bad for his motivation to work on anything that he's already been paid for.
He is probably fine because his work is so good I'm sure companies are willing to pay him to sculpt freelance, but he's dropped the ball on fulfillment worse than all but one other campaign that I've backed (out of 170).
Sorry for the slow response, I've had some annoying things pop up. The apartment complex posted notices on everyone's doors saying that all our vehicles needed to registered and operational or they would be towed. I had to call them up, explain my situation and promise to get it sorted out asap.
Leg still hurts every day but it's manageable as long as I don't lift heavy stuff. I'll get an update out soon! Let me finish up this Death Knight first
Does Jody sculpted with his toes (regarding the leg comment)
Death Knight is going to be a solid calendar year of work... if by work, you mean sitting on the shelf with a post every few months about a random thing that would have taken 5 minutes to sort out but somehow took up the entire few months.
"My goal is to have the summoning circle, basic rules, creature card, and casting all done before the end of September."
OK - September is gone! How'd you do?
Also, how's the Death Knight coming along?
Creator Jody Siegel 6 days ago
Welp, I am getting married in 8 days. When I laid out my timeline the wedding was far enough out that I hadn't even considered it. Usually us guys just have make sure we show up on the day... So I will have the death knight done before the wedding, but I've had no time to do the rules write up. It's looking more realistic to save rules for the next miniature since I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in family and wedding preperations just prior to the wedding.
Well, that is great news for him personally! I hope with that out of the way, he'll make a commitment to getting the sculpts done - it's hard to hold out much hope for that at this point, but with no progress in a year, it will kind of be now or never come the end of this year to see if he plans to push to finish the project, or let it fade away incomplete until folks forget about it.
I thought he was already married... Did he have a child, a divorce, a car accident, and a new engagement since the kickstarter ended? It's like Days of Our Lives with him.
Have we all prepared our 3 year anniversary gifts?
Leather is traditional, but I don't think Jody is a stickler for tradition.
Three years tomorrow since this debacle began.
If Jody ever happens upon this thread he should really read the first few pages to get a sense of how much good will and genuine excitement he squandered.
Either he doesn't care at all, or he actually believes all of the bs excuses that he writes, and genuinely thinks that he is the victim of circumstance.
Sometimes I think that he does intend to fulfill his obligations at some point, but then i come to my senses and laugh at my own stupidity.
Undead_Love-Machine wrote: Either he doesn't care at all, or he actually believes all of the bs excuses that he writes, and genuinely thinks that he is the victim of circumstance.
Why can't it be both?
At this point, I don't think many (any?) of us will be seeing what we paid for...
Jody really seems to have just "run out the clock" on this campaign (which is the smarter way to not fulfill things, than admitting that you won't =/). There has been absolutely no progress for the last full year. It's a shame, because the models I got early on this campaign (from those that were already sculpted at the beginning and available in metal, thank goodness!) are just plain awesome. A wasted opportunity, and a waste of his name! It seems like he is having no problem getting commission work behind the scenes, but obviously will never be trusted by people to run his own Kickstarter again. Shame on you, Jody =(
This is in contrast to folks who I've seen struggle to fulfill their campaigns, but try very hard, keep their backers updated, and continually put their nose to the grindstone. Jody has sculpted nothing for an entire year, so obviously this is not true in his case... I feel bad for those of you who trusted him to make a large pledge and have gotten literally nothing back! Not even an attempt at working on the project this year... might be worth reporting this to Kickstarter guys (you can do so with the button at the bottom of the campaign page, noting that there are "post-funding issues" (the creator is not communicating), or by selecting one of the other options and typing in what the issue is).
Definitely worth reporting the campaign for those who would at least like to see him communicate:
Undead_Love-Machine wrote: Either he doesn't care at all, or he actually believes all of the bs excuses that he writes, and genuinely thinks that he is the victim of circumstance.
Why can't it be both?
At this point, I don't think many (any?) of us will be seeing what we paid for...
True, the two are not mutually exclusive. Maybe I was prepared to give him a pass if he was actually insane? Actually, that's nonsense; why would I ever give him a pass?
The sad truth is that I've totally lost interest in the models that I pledged for (and will never receive), I think that maybe this whole experience has somehow tainted them for me.
*
RiTides, that post that you quoted sums up the situation pretty well I think. Maybe it is time to report Jody, even though I can't see what good it will do.
You can report him but, judging from the Robotech Kickstarter that is pretty much in the same position (no real progress for the past year) and had multiple reports earlier this year by backers both about unrelated spam updates and no progress/no real communication, it is likely that Kickstarter will just send the creator an email politely asking him very gently to communicate with backers... and that is it. There is no harm in reporting him but the likelihood of it having a practical effect is very low.
I've seen it work before to get creators to communicate - but that is only when they are more egregiously absent.
I.e. no update at all for a year, progress not close to finished... with Jody having shipped some items last year and having made an update about 4 months ago, this probably wouldn't be to the level where Kickstarter would do anything insistent...
That's why I mentioned Jody "running out the clock" - unfortunately, in order to keep Kickstarter off his back all he has to do is update very occasionally that he's still trying... and eventually he could just say he was unable to finish and list out how he spent the funds. It's unfortunate, and the deterrent to this is that your name is on the line - but that doesn't seem to matter in Jody's case since he is still able to get commission work, just not direct-to-customer sales (although he is probably even getting some of those from the website).
For me this is in stark contrast to a project like Trollforged's... that is extremely late, but you can see the creator spending their blood, sweat, and tears trying to claw their way through it. It's always tough to see a project struggle to complete, but if I can see the creator is working their darndest, it makes all the difference!
Alpharius wrote: I'd be interested to read how Jody spent all the funds here on THIS project without even coming close to sculpting the minis required...
Unless KS lets him 'get away' with using it for living expenses?
Some kickstarter do include either full or partial salaries and business expenses in their funding description. Heavy Gear did that for example although it wasn't a prominent notification but rather squirreled in there as a single sentence. I have no idea if this ks did that.
My wife was in a car accident and our house flooded in the same month. We moved everything out, had the place replumbed and moved everything back in. We really need a second car now. It's winter and I only have my motorcycle so we can't go anywhere and if I need to do something with my kid, it has to wait. I am trying to fix my car myself because that's what I can afford. I have repaired the framehead, chassis and left side. All I have left to do is put the engine back and wire it up. To me this doesn't warrant an update.
I am very much still at work. If you have any questions, or you need to contact me about your order, feel free to message or email me.
Alpharius just now
Alternatively, you should just send out an update...updating all the backers on the progress you've made since the last update.
Is this a new incident - the wife's car accident?
And the house flood?
I admit to losing track of all the various...reasons that the delay has stretched into year 3 now.
The tried and true Palladium excuses of internal treachery and just loving you (backers) too much so trying to constantly improve it aren't on there. I suppose in the modern age that list wouldn't be complete without blaming Obama (+- care), Chinese Communist hackers, and Muslim Terrorists.
warboss wrote:Is there such a thing as non-goofy mushroom men?
The tried and true Palladium excuses of internal treachery and just loving you (backers) too much so trying to constantly improve it aren't on there. I suppose in the modern age that list wouldn't be complete without blaming Obama (+- care), Chinese Communist hackers, and Muslim Terrorists.
I KNEW I was missing out on some good ones!
Amended list!
So, since this project closed, some three years ago, we've got:
Pregnancy
Wife Unemployed
Marriage
Honeymoon
Car Broken Down
House Flooded
Most likely upcoming reasons for delays/no updates/no progress:
Dog Ate Homework
Abducted By Aliens
Republicans In The White House
Obama and/or Obamacare
Chinese Communist hackers
Terrorists
Mushroom Men Plot
Caring Too Much
Don't Want To Rush Things/Perfectionism
Too Busy Trying To Come Up With Excuses For Why Nothing's Happening Here
It sounds like you've officially put more effort into the project now due to that post than the creator in the last month. Sad, huh? From the pics you posted, is the only difference a newly sculpted sash?
I disagreed with yak and lego about kickstarter fatigue affecting ME's bottom line but I'm slowly coming around to agreeing with. Maybe it's my own personal preferences but I'm seeing alot more mediocre (mantic) to bad (palladium) efforts at fulfillment than good.
There is still time for the delay of a vital engine part by Chinese New Year to prevent him from driving out to restock on greenstuff.
warboss: There are a lot of smaller KSs quietly fulfilling and/or competently managing delays, so it's unfortunate that some of the more visible projects might be souring people on them.
In general I've had few bad experiences based on a hundred or so kickstarters. The only crowdfunding project I've backed that's close to as delayed as this is an IndieGoGo terrain project; and technically Trollforged's alien things; but I sold that pledge a few years ago.
plastictrees wrote: There is still time for the delay of a vital engine part by Chinese New Year to prevent him from driving out to restock on greenstuff.
I forgot about Chinese New Year - add it to the list!
Alpharius wrote: There isn't much left on the "Classics" list, is there?
Did you not back RRT? Go through their Updates, and it's one fething excuse after another.
I did not, luckily.
My childhood nostalgia runs a bit earlier to Gaiking, Getter Robo and UFO Robot Grendizer - if there's ever a KS for that type of miniature game, I'm in trouble!
There are about 5 or 6 of you who are waiting for the resin lich casts before your orders are complete. Normally it only takes 24hrs for the silicone mould to cure but it was still sticky so I let it set for another week and then contacted smooth-on afterwards to report the situation. It seems the be the result of the silicone separating into layers so the material at the bottom of the container isn't quite the same mixture as what's at the top. Their solution was to put some heat lamps on it for a few days and that has had a pretty good effect. I would like to let it sit over with weekend and then we'll pull the master out and see how the casts turn out. Right now the surface has some slight tack to it like masking tape but it's firm like it should be. As soon as it's lost it's tack I'll pull it out and run a few casts through it.
It is now Feb. 26.
I'm sure many of you are surprised to hear that Jody hasn't updated us on how the 'over the weekend' test worked out.
Over two weekends ago.
Also:
Creator Jody Siegel on February 6
Hey Patrick! Yes the Asura and Gnoll are available but not the wild elf and the piper. The wild elf won't be started until I've finished with the undead set. As for the piper, It'll either be next or after the corpse knight depending on what I'm in the mood for.
I'm kind of in the mood for getting the miniatures I paid for and that were to be delivered...three years ago.
COMPLETE IMBRIAN PACKAGE- get every single imbrian arts figure sculpted from 01 Jan 2013 - 01 Jan 2014.Including every miniature shown in this kick starter. Miniatures will be mailed to you as they are completed. Due to the time it takes to put a miniature into production, you can expect to have miniatures sent to you well in to 2014.It's a HUGE deal.
Pledge $550 or more
20 backers Limited (80 left of 100)
COMPLETE IMBRIAN COLLECTOR PACKAGE- get every single imbrian arts figure sculpted from 01 Jan 2013 - 01 Jan 2014. Including every miniature shown in this kick starter, except the goblin set, cast in resin along with concept art cards, and certificates of authenticity. Miniatures will be mailed to you as they are completed. Due to the time it takes to put a miniature into production, you can expect to have miniatures sent to you well in to 2014.It's a HUGE deal.
Outside of maybe some Robotech RPG Tactics backers (!), are there 81 more pissed off people who Kickstarted Tabletop Gaming projects?
COMPLETE IMBRIAN PACKAGE- get every single imbrian arts figure sculpted from 01 Jan 2013 - 01 Jan 2014.Including every miniature shown in this kick starter. Miniatures will be mailed to you as they are completed. Due to the time it takes to put a miniature into production, you can expect to have miniatures sent to you well in to 2014.It's a HUGE deal.
Short of backers whose projected went belly up prior to delivering anything or were likely scams to begin with, those guys got the shortest end of the shortest stick in the forest. I'm surprised they bid without a minimum sculpt guarantee. Were alot of sculpts shown during the ks that would be included?
Force Majeures seem to be invariably attracted to Kickstarter creators just like illness/deaths in the family/car accidents/freak weather incidents are to swap shop traders who are very late on their ends of trades.
If they had 20+ already shown that were included then it's a bit more reasonable then. I was a bit worried (for them) that it was purely a speculative pledge like just a half done butt plate 70's pornstache model shown and nothing else for a big project but without a minimum guarantee for their $350. It's still not great that he apparently didn't do much afterwards but at least they have a minimum amount that theoretically they might see before the sun burns itself out.
I have to concur with Andrew P - I swapped out any pending minis for ones that had already been produced, and everything has now arrived to my satisfaction. I found Jody's communication (on a one-to-one basis) to be fine. He's obviously just one guy with a number of responsibilities in his life, and so he takes a couple of days to respond to PMs, but he responded professionally and politely to everything I asked him about, and now I have the minis in hand I'm very happy with them. To be honest, long (looooong) KS time notwithstanding, I reckon Jody's OK. Unlucky, sure, disorganised, absolutely, but not a bad guy. Waiting indefinitely for outstanding minis to be produced is likely to give you nothing but frustration. Like many folks I didnt get exactly what I wanted from this KS, but at the end of the day, I have to say, them's the breaks. Backing Kickstarters is a risk. Sometimes they come through and you get a great deal at cheap prices. Sometimes things happen and they can't be fulfilled as expected. In such situations, you kinda have to be flexible and work things out with the folks running the campaign. If that's not something you're able or willing to do, then KS is simply not the way to buy your minis. I hope everyone is able to get an equivalent value in minis to the cash they've pledged, and that everyone moves on and is, if not happy, at least satisfied with the resolution to this KS experience.
Creator Jody Siegel about 21 hours ago
I will do everything I can for guys like me_in_japan and Ryan Blackstock (yes, I did assemble miniatures for him and gave him a free resin). I replaced another backer's figures at cost because he lost them in a fire. I'm incredibly sorry for how long this has taken me and what a disaster it's been, but I try to make it up to good people.
I'm pretty sure he's obligated to 'make it up' (i.e., deliver everything that everyone paid for) to ALL the people (i.e. backers) but then that hasn't looked likely in...a few years now.
I've already wrote off ever receiving any more of my 'complete package' pledge, but being told to basically suck it up because Jody is a good guy who has had a hard time and sometimes life just isn't fair, has made me a lot angrier than I want to be first thing in the morning.
Unbearably passive aggressive. He's spent time assembling people's miniatures?
Jody is a buffoon. As long as he has a couple of guys with incredibly low expectations I guess he can keep pretending he isn't completely incompetent.
Nauseating passive aggression Jody, thanks.
Maybe get back to sculpting instead of telling us how amazingly generous you've been to two guys that would apparently accept anything you have lying around en lieu of what they actually pledged for.
Creator Jody Siegel about 1 hour ago
Sorry, Neil. I genuinely didn't think that my statement would be interpreted as passive aggressive and it wasn't my intent. Someone said in the past that there was no way I would assemble figures for Ryan when he asked. I guess I was trying to illustrate that I'm not some scumbag who's run off with your money, I like you guys and I help when I can. I just wanted to say something on Me_in Japan's behalf because he got some flak for saying something positive. If you guys want to be critical of me by all means, make it constructive, send me a message and I'll learn from it and we can have a conversation if you want to offer some suggestion that might help. But please be good to each other. That's all I'm asking.
Fair enough, I suppose - but Jody REALLY just needs to be a lot more transparent and communicate just where EVERYTHING is in terms of sculpting and shipping.
Neil is me fyi.
The fact that he felt the need to defend a backer who had received ONE vaguely negative response to his clearly intentionally inflammatory tirade is mind boggling.
I can not believe that anyone can be as oblivious to his communication failings as Jody is being.
He needs to break out of the 'I'll just get a little more done this week and then I'll have something to show them!' Cycle that he's been in for 4 years.
Jodys apartment has flooded again....so he's moving.
Apparently that gave him enough time to tell us that but not an additional 2 minutes to tell us what's sculpted.
Surely it's still interesting, in the same way that watching a train wreck is interesting. A train wreck that was carrying experimental bioweapons that have now unleashed a pus-ridden zombie plague. Fighting a giant wereshark with a switchblade. It's interesting in the same way that watching that would be interesting, as long as you were at a safe distance. Only it turns out that the whole thing is actually a soap opera and the wereshark is constantly making excuses for why he's not yet managed to defeat the plague zombies, and the excuses all revolve around trivial nonsense. "Well I was gonna eat some zombies today but I remembered I had run out of floss."
plastictrees wrote: Another comments update, his wife's car broke down but they have moved!
I'm not sure why I'm still paying attention to this anymore honestly.
...
I think you're probably like me - you're paying attention because you still want to get the miniatures you pledged for.
You know, the same miniatures that, if they weren't in the campaign, well, you probably wouldn't have pledged anything at all.
So, now we have:
Moving Expenses
Car Repairs
Which, when added up, equals:
No Chance of Getting Any Miniatures in 2016
Great.
Anyway, here they are:
Creator Jody Siegel 5 days ago
Sorry for the delay in getting back to this, it's definitely a conversation that I want to be more involved in. I'm just checking in mid move (our apartment flooded two more times so we are outta there)
Takapa, I haven't forgotten about you.
He just appears to have forgotten about the rest of us?
and
Creator Jody Siegel 1 day ago
Hey guys, another update- just finished unloading the truck yesterday. This has been the most difficult move ever. The transmission in my wife's car went south midway so we lost a whole day and ended up sending her car to the junkyard. We are wall to wall boxes now but it should only be three or four days before we are unpacked and get the internet back on.
Well since he ran the KS as himself (as opposed to as Imbrian Arts) I guess he's at risk of being smacked by anybody with access to a cheap lawyer (or who is one)
but even then the best that would do is get a refund (for that backer) rather than the minis they backed for
so it's wait and hope, see if you can cash out with minis you don't want or write it all off as a bad experience (and boycott companies that use him in the future)
Thanks for your patience. After surviving an assault from a cat and a move, I've come to a point where I'm happy to show you the Death Knight. I may still make some changes to the miniature and I welcome your critiques on the progress thus far. For me something about it could be a little better.
I'll also be creating a resin base for the kit this week, like the ifrit and lich. If we're all happy with the figure I'll bake it and call it done!
In the interest of maximising time for artistic work and getting as much sculpting done as possible this time I'll be sending the figure off for casting after I've made my own resin masters.
On the game front, I'm working on commissioning one of my favourite artists for the summoning circle. All of my efforts to force myself into a different style have been somewhat of a let down and a frustrating waste, it's taking up a lot of time I could have spent sculpting (something I know at least I can do well at)
I'll update you again in two weeks, after I've had a chance to gather everyone's input and finalise the sculpture and have it cast.
Anyway, the pose looks a little off balance to me, although the armor itself is great. Now, if he'll just cast it in some kind of plastic and add three or four options, I'd be quite willing to spend $20 for a box of five.
Urgh. 18 months to go from 15% done to 90% done. On one mini.
Let's see if he keeps updating, vanishes for months again, or updates in the comments with "Oh no, a family of bears have moved in to our apartment! My escalating berry costs have really cut in to my sculpting time".
What he REALLY needs to update with is a plan and some sort of realistic timeline for fulfillment. REALLY realistic even if it looks horrible.
This is a quick update to let you know the Death Knight had to go back in the mould. One of the spikey bits broke off in the silicone and had to get resculpted. I should have the second mould done this weekend and we'll see how it turns out Monday.
Yup.
The mold didn't explode, forcing Jody to move; or make him realise that actually he should learn how to mine for his own raw materials.
Best update in two years?
One of the spikey bits broke off in the silicone and had to get resculpted.
That's... odd. Unless it broke off during pouring the silicon, it shouldn't be a problem. Things break all the time when taking the master out of the mold, but that doesn't matter for the mold as the silicon is already set and ready to go. If it broke off before or during pouring, ok, but how did that happen? I can imagine it happening I guess, but that's some slack pouring. Is a toddler doing it? Preschool manufacturing company to save money?
Hey all. I'm posting a quick update to let you know we've been having internet problems for the last two weeks. Comcast has been out to our place twice and apparently they have to lay new cable but both techs they sent out cant do that for some reason. We have Verizon coming on Tuesday to hook us up on their network. Until then, you can still get a hold of me through email or Facebook which I can get from my phone.
The first cast of the deathknight is looking ok. All the detail seems to be good but the resin quality is poor, most likely due to the temperature and humidity. If we get some good casts today I will find a wifi spot and upload pics for you.
It really sounds like he has done this in the wrong order. Surely you get your life together first, then learn to cast, then do the KS? Rather than using the KS to fund your failures in getting your life together, and your failures in learning to cast?
Sorry for the delay, I had to post this update twice. The first time around I tried to send some quick pics via my phone of an assembled Death knight but the submit post button is right next to the back button on android phones. Not good.
I'm pretty happy with how the resin Death Knight looks! There are two quality issues that I want to take care of before sending it to the caster.
First, I'd like the horns to be very pointy on the finished model. Sometimes it's easier to sculpt a model with not so sharp horns and then sharpen up the resin version than try to do the same thing with soft or hard clay which is more likely to not stay up if soft, or break off if hardened.
Second, I found fitting the left arm to the body was not easily done and took a little fiddling for the parts to match up correctly so the version sent to the caster will have a block and a cavity that match up so the mini goes together easily.
News wise, I should be updating the website soon with new prices and unreleased resin figures. I'll be sending the Lich for casting together with the Death Knight so hopefully we can have two resin releases around Oct/Nov.
The Death Knight is the last miniature I'm waiting for.
So hopefully, come Oct/Nov, I'll get a shipment of Asura and Gnoll, Ifrit, Basilisk and the Death Knight...
Hey everyone. Just a quick update to keep you up to speed on what I've been working on.
Last weekend I got some excellent casts of the Death Knight. The weather right now is perfect for casting and I'm going to be cranking them out as much as I can before winter comes and ruins it. I'm going to create a sword variant for the model and then it's off to the casters.
I've also spent the last few weeks upgrading the website so that it can be navigated on mobile devices and finally doing a price adjustment on some miniatures. One of the things that's been bugging me for years and probably frustrating a lot of visitors was how badly the site was displayed if you were visiting from facebook or a forum on your phone.
I'm not sure how much forums are used these days to get miniature news or view new products. I suspect a lot more info is being shared through social media which I'm pretty bad at staying on top of, so I'm trying to catch up. But before I start posting and sharing wips of painted minis and sculptures I thought I'd better make the site viewable first.
If you're on your phone now and you'd like to check it out and provide feedback that would be great! imbrianarts.com
I also raised the prices on some miniatures. I'm one of those artists who's not the shrewdest business person when it comes to pricing and knowing how to market your products so I've neglected pricing for years. After a lot of looking around at what miniatures are being sold for elsewhere I adjusted some of the prices. It's still nowwhere near what GW is charging but closer to prices of minis if you're shopping with euros (since I'm not seeing a lot of american miniature manufacturers)
Neither of these will have any affect on backers' pledges but it was boring gruelling tedious work that was long overdue.
I hope you have a great weekend! I will be spending mine experimenting with some new paints that I received and hopefully putting out some WIPS of painted minis and if they look like they're turning out well, and if there's any interest, I'll do a step by step.
So fixing the website was the excuse for no progress on the sculpting front this time, now it sounds more like the Imbrian Arts updates I've come to know and love.
Basically, he's actually going to put some serious effort into sculpting the outstanding Kickstarter minis, BUT, he's also going to start re-sculpting some of the finished minis that haven't sold too well in his webstore.
).
I'd like to be able to show off 
(regarding the leg comment)
