Perhaps the addition of an anti-missile system option. I know missiles can be used to counter incoming missiles, but Im thinking more of a system like the CIWS used to defend naval ships against missiles, but on a smaller scale. That way gun mechs dont have to mount missiles to defend against other missiles, and missile boat mechs dont have to expend offensive weapons to defend themselves.

In real life missiles are indeed more or less an automatic kill if used properly, but they have a few disadvantages.

1) Reaction Time: It generally takes longer to get a missile shot off rather than a gun shot. This is because the missile generally needs some time to lock on to the target that a gun does not. Of course, on the flip side, the missile is more likely to hit.

2) Interceptable: Missiles travel slower than gunfire and have a more obvious firing and flight signature making it possible to use hard-kill anti-missile systems to shoot them down before they hit. This is theoretically possible against gunfire too, but much, much harder.

3) Jammers, Decoys and Stealth (oh my!): The missile's target tracking system is vulnerable to being interfered with through jamming, decoys and stealth systems, making it much harder for a missile to score a successful hit.

4) Ammunition Capacity: Missiles are much bigger than shells of equivalent power so far fewer can typically be carried.

5) Expense: Compared to conventional shells of comparable power missiles are far more expensive.

6) Firing Signature: It is a lot easier to tell where a missile is fired from and when it is fired, giving the target a chance to seek cover or to shoot at the missile launcher. Some forms of missile guidance require the firing unit to stay still and focused on the target, so a common anti-missile tactic is to shoot the unit that fired the missile with guns and force him to duck.

If the game system accurately reflects most or all of these limitations then missiles will not become unbalancing.

Good points, but honestly Id rather not spend the majority of the game working on missile/counter missile events, but thats just my taste. Its Paulsons game, and if he wants missiles to be the big killer, so be it. Im going to be in on the KS for some mechs no matter what.

The question at this point is if the rules will be something I (and those I game with) can get behind, if they need to be modded a bit, or if a different system all together will be used.


Ill add a note of personal taste...Ive never been a fan of salvo fired missiles like in Battletech. Sure, it makes for great cinematics in film, but its really highly impractical. I far prefer to see missiles as a single shot per firing deal.

I've already got most of that covered guys, you might want to check the beta rules out. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MechaFront/

Missiles are limited in payload while other weapons are not, they can be shot down both by anti-missile systems or missiles being fired defensively. ECMS and other equipment will be in the expanded advanced rules. So take a peek at the system you just might be surprised




.

 paulson games wrote:
I've already got most of that covered guys, you might want to check the beta rules out. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MechaFront/

Missiles are limited in paylod while other weapons are not, they can be shot down both by anti-missile systems or missiles being fired defensively. ECMS and other equipment will be in the expanded advanced rules. So take a peek at the system you just might be surprised




.

I skimmed the rules, already knew about the defensive fire option.

I have the rules, and emailed a copy to my friend to print out, hopefully within the next couple weeks are going to give them a run.

To those that think missiles are that deadly...

Buddy blew all his light missiles at me. Shot them down with my missiles and machineguns. Sure, I had no actions left, but he had no weapons left.

They're not as ridiculous as you think. They're the rock to light mech's scissors, but not terribly effective against the bigger mechs with higher armor values.

As for the "which medium to use" question:

Obviously, plastic > plastic > resin > resin kits with metal weapons and detail bits > all metal.

However: customizable models and the ability to swap out weapons and equipment via magnets or some other method is far more important than the material used.

This is going to sound crazy... but would mdf/hdf kits work?

MDF mecha? Say...

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
This is going to sound crazy... but would mdf/hdf kits work?

Laser cut wood MDF?

I'm not sure how that would work.




Here's a WIP shot, not done but getting close.

Looking good! Is the CAD model of the quad walker complete?

Paulson...are you willing to reveal which mech you are having printed for the Kickstarter, or do we have to wait until it launches?

Looks like I'm in the home stretch so the new color art I have in progress and other pics I'm going to hold off on til it goes live. Its getting close

I'm not sure how it would work either, and the shapes might have to be a bit more basic, Although one set I bought from Impudent Mortal landed my two small sheets of 2mm details to add to my building which was lovely and versatile. It might be worth looking into.

Dammit Paulson, I'm a (teacher) not an engineer!

I'm an engineer, and would like to request that the words "laser cut" and "MDF" not be uttered in this thread again .

You Could try something like that, but there are so many kickstarters for that type of thing bow, and these mechs will look so much better being cast in 3D, rather than cut from 2D pieces and assembled together. I even have a laser cutter at work and operate it at times... Great for some things, and not for others. This is one of the "others"

 RiTides wrote:
I'm an engineer, and would like to request that the words "laser cut" and "MDF" not be uttered in this thread again .

You Could try something like that, but there are so many kickstarters for that type of thing bow, and these mechs will look so much better being cast in 3D, rather than cut from 2D pieces and assembled together. I even have a laser cutter at work and operate it at times... Great for some things, and not for others. This is one of the "others"

I will agree completely. Just the sound of it is a huge turn-off. Id say if things are as close as Paulson says, we can leave the material debate behind as its already been chosen. Now its just time to get ready for the Kickstarter.

Any news for us?

Yes, we got now news this past Monday... would love an update even if it's "still going"

Still working on stuff, nothing pic worthy as most of it has been on the second edit of the rules.

Oh dear, someone editing their rules to make sure they are a good system?

And before you tell me I haven't given you feedback, I know. I've been swamped with work and school, playing has taken a distant last position on my "to do" list.

Thoughts, comments?








WIP thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/511518.page

Looks good, as usual.

Looks nice. It reminds me alot of one of the German Dust mechs though.

I really like that model a lot. I think the bulk of the torso and weapons all close together makes it look like it means business. The feet could probably stand to be a little bit bigger; it looks 'wrong' for something so large to have such a little footprint.

Yeah, the footpads could be a bit bigger, but I love the ankle details.

Rather than post a whole new pic I updated the link. Foot size was increased slightly and I added further modifications to the leg armor.

Scrolling up and...

nice.

Subtle change, but I think it makes the legs look better.

1.) I think the second render, the feet look better.

2.) I think the torso guns seem a little undersized, depending. Are they anti-mech weapons? If so I think they're a little too small. If they're anti-infantry lasers or MG's, though, they're probably about right. And of course i they're modular; then it doesn't matter 100% how it scales to each specific mech chassis.

The guns look perfectly sized for some sort of laser or autocannon. Think about just how tall the mech is and figure out the calibre of the guns. They're pretty huge.

Also, the bore size of a gun doesn't necessarily indicate it's role.

I'd like a few, please!

 frozenwastes wrote:
The guns look perfectly sized for some sort of laser or autocannon. Think about just how tall the mech is and figure out the calibre of the guns. They're pretty huge.

Also, the bore size of a gun doesn't necessarily indicate it's role.

This.

Id like to not have the typical oversized guns that dominate gaming. Its nice to see weapons represented properly in scale.

Dead sexy.

I'd like to see a larger "toe", or even the rear "toe", to help with stabilizing.

Love the size of the guns, and I'm a big fan of 'mechs that don't have arms. They don't need to type or brush their teeth, no sense in adding weak points like elbows and shoulders to the weapons. These keep them in the heaviest armoured areas.

Can't wait to see more.

I'd like to see something with less symmetry, but that might just be me.

I assume symmetry makes moving around easier on the gyro. Or some such technobabble.

Although if the weight is properly distributed, then an assymetrical loadout could look nice indeed.

I like the symmetry...and the lack of arms.

The more I see of the Paulson mecha designs the more I like them. Games have gotten way ridiculous with the oversized weapons. Dont even get me started on the "heroic" scale junk. Even as cool as the Dreamforge Leviathan Crusader is...anytime I look at mine I cant help noting how stupidly out of proportion the gatling gun is.

Other than needing a small touch up on the thigh plate the 3d model is finished

I really love the.... things inside the feet, that look sort of like radiation symbols. It's a little detail but I think it's my favorite part.

Sexy hi-res renders to show off the details better.

Model measures 65mm tall, and the feet run edge to edge on a 60mm round base.

Awesome!

Excited that the "light" mechs turn out so big after all is said and done.

Let me give you my money. It's waiting patiently... I'm not.

I like the pose of the middle model in the top most picture. Well done.

I only have two questions, in order of importance, how much? and how poseable will the final product be? As an answer to the second question a picture of one blown apart at the seams would be lovely.

Likely in the $25 range. Part break down: feet, legs, hip, torso, shoulders, arms, torso guns (12 pcs) There will be a limited degree of poseability. The torso and hip are independant so they can be rotated. The legs rotate at the hips but dynamic reposistioning will likely require some minor cutting,

I will try and post an exploded view later today.

That's the reason I was asking about an all-light army. I want to do illegal and sexy things to those giant robots.

I've placed a limited run of Raptors up for pre-order on the site.

Expected delivery is beginning of July. I am going to make 50 copies for this run of models, so if you want the all resin versions make sure to get in on these as the production models will have pewter components.

I'm excited about this project. Just placed an order for one of the resin Raptors. Will the production models be all pewter or pewter/resin mix?

Hurry up and get a kickstarter going so I can give you more of my money.

There had better be some left...

Just ordered 2...one for me and one for my buddy...both of us have been looking forward to the kickstarter, so this is an awesome deal for sure.

And bought. Along with some extra goodies. BTW, I can't wait on the goodies, so you only have to ship once.

Wish I had the funds for 2 or 3 more...but things are tight. Wife doesnt start her new job until Monday, then theres bills to catch up on. If by some chance theres some left in a couple weeks, Ill be grabbing a couple more.

Are these pre-release models gonig to change in any way (IE: more detail/poseability added later) besides the pewter bits?

katfude wrote:
Are these pre-release models gonig to change in any way (IE: more detail/poseability added later) besides the pewter bits?

Id say probably not. Chances are these are being made off the molds hes made from the 3d model he had printed for the kickstarter, and since he had to cast one as an example, hes decided to raise some funds and get some examples of Mecha Front out and noticed by selling a limited all resin run. Thats not for sure, but its my guess of the situation.

Two ordered here . Can't wait for full release.

 paulson games wrote:
Sexy hi-res renders to show off the details better.

Model measures 65mm tall, and the feet run edge to edge on a 60mm round base.

They look very cool. They evoke the big mech feel of BT without the crappy outdated visual look so common in BT. What scale are they expected to be?

Really looking forward to this game, especially at this scale. I just hope the ks not till august so I have time to save some cash! (Plus I hope shipping to the uk wont kill my wallet!)

Are the beta rules available anywhere other than the yahoo groups, im have great difficulty getting logged in!

Looks great I bought two of the Resin just so I do not lose out.

Cannot wait for them to arrive. Looking forward to Monday to get the rules.

Best of luck on the KS.

 warboss wrote:
What scale are they expected to be?

15mm scale.

I think he said they can fairly well accomodate 10mm scale too, right?

I'm strongly thinking about adding 1 or 2 myself. Jon, have they been popular?

I arrive with Answers!

They are intended to be 15mm scale, however they will also fit 10mm fairly well as there's no scale specific detail such as hatches or visable driver etc. So they can be used with 10mm or 12mm infantry they'll just be even more imposing next to smaller infantry.

Provide everything prints as I expect then there shouldn't be any differances between the resin versions and the metal ones. However I haven't had stuff cast in metal before so there is a small chance I may need to modify the model and have it reprinted in order to accomidate mold making. ( I doubt there'll be any changes though)

So far I've sold 30 of the 50 planned casts. Which I consider pretty decent for a 24hour period.

I'm working on getting the rules available for download on my site, the digital product interface is a bit confusing so it might be a day or two before I can caveman thumb type my way through it.



Why I'm doing the run of resin versions is to cover a few things:

1 - There are some people who want resin only copies. This helps scratch that itch. It also lets me reward my early supporters with something well ahead of the regular release.

2 - I need to build a set of molds to make resin copies for photos to use with KS and send a couple to my painter well in advance of getting any metal production pieces made.

3 - It helps pay for the printing cost of the master model and some of the graphics I'm having created for the KS. Additionally it lets me pay for printing the extra pieces for the alternate configurations.

4 - It allows me to eat during the next couple weeks. As glorious as the life of a resin pimp may seem there's times when orders for my other parts are really really slow, (like right now) due to all the finals at school, graduations, family trips in summer etc.


I also want to let people know that these are limited as in that they will be produced very sparingly, while I'm doing 50 on this run I may not cap it *exactly* at 50 I may do another small run in the future to sell at a convention, or if I want a give away item for contests or whatever. I won't be doing any sort of mass release on the resins as they simply take too long to make compaired to metal and I'd prefer to be putting that time into doing more 3d work as I have a lot of other designs to tackle. So just to be clear they will be very limited in number but they might pop up again once in a rare while.

Additionally once I have the other two variant configurations finished I'll make a small run of those as well. I will also make a weapon upgrade pack available so people can pick up a full model if they want, or just the weapons so they can go crazy and magnetize the current Alpha version so it can accept all the parts.

Lastly thank you to everyone who has picked up a copy (or copies) it's been a HUGE help in managing the printing costs.





Exploded View:

Wow, I have been away and coming back to that light mech is awesome! Will there be any early release heavy or quad? Just asking

I really want to pick up one of the resin only ones but my hobby funds just got zeroed out for the year after some personal stuff.
Looks amazing though.

Shimmering Sword did a good job on those mechs. Good choice in artist.

I demand that you individually number the kits under the bases! With an autograph too!

Kidding. I'll move it up to the front of my painting queue as soon as it comes in, though.

 5deadly wrote:
Shimmering Sword did a good job on those mechs. Good choice in artist.

I was under the impression these are Paulsons designs...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
I'll move it up to the front of my painting queue as soon as it comes in, though.

Same here. Ill get mine built and painted ASAP, then pics posted.

Maybe his designs but i think is all hired concepts? shimmer did the 3ds...
Mr. Paulson could tell us...

But he's working with good artist.
Even though they do "Battletech POS" lol.
Mr. Paulson knows what I mean. ; )

Anthony (shimmering_sword) was contracted to do the concept art and color illustration. He creates a very rough 3d image which he takes a screen shot of and then paints on top of the screenshot to produce the colored art. That basic image is devoid of any surface details and looks pretty much like a bunch of blocks or cylinders.

This is the basic frame he did:



Using that basic frame and his color art as a reference I then created my own 3d model on which I did all the surface detailing work. It's an entirely seperate model as it needs to be "watertight" and that's easiest to do working from scratch. I build my model along side the basic frame (using a reference model helps it go quicker) My final model is the one used for creating the rapid prototyped print and the print serves as the master model for mold creation.

The basic frame I transformed into this:





Once I had everything done I had Anthony do a final render of my model, I'm working on an older program and my rendering program isn't all that hot. So it's a combined effort to make these; Anthony handles the early visuals and I take care of the 3d work and make it print worthy. It's a fairly intertwined process and we are in constant communication giving each other feedback and exchanging ideas about the designs. Most of the time we use streaming video while creating the early mecha concepts so it speeds up the process considerably as we're able to brain storm real time with no email lag.

Here's is the final render, it's the same exact model as the one posted immediately above, but it's rendered in a newer version of Maya with a surface texture applied to it.

Interesting process, thanks for the insight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Something occurred to me..once you get to casting the mech, can you post a picture of it with some of the resin parts you make? Im toying around customizing mine, and Id love to see how your parts scale up to it. Im sure others would be interested as well.

Working on one of the variants armed with a light railgun and missiles.












And the "overkill" version with twin railguns

There's no such thing as overkill.
Just more fun annoying your supply guy for more ammo.

Highly prefer the "overkill" version . That is sweet!

Looks great. Can't wait to see the Canuckbots.

Honestly, I like the assymetrical one.

I'd like to see the asymmetrical one with some kind of coolant tank or sensor pod on the other side.

I too like the version with the single railgun.

 Mad4Minis wrote:
I too like the version with the single railgun.

I feel the same.

 JOHIRA wrote:
I'd like to see the asymmetrical one with some kind of coolant tank or sensor pod on the other side.

Nice idea

Nevermind....just checked the scale. Looked so good!

 JOHIRA wrote:
I'd like to see the asymmetrical one with some kind of coolant tank or sensor pod on the other side.

A small machine gun or grenade launcher would do to. Theres no infantry in game, but one would figure they are still around, and anti-infantry weapons on mechs, especially smaller ones, wouldnt be an uncommon thing Id think.

Heres an idea for a stretch goal for the KS...an accessory pack for each size of mech. Might be stuff that doesnt actually have any game effect, but fills empty space in custom load-outs, and gives a bit of flavor as well.

That, too, is a fantastic idea! I would love an accessory pack . Might have to be a separate item at retail, but as M4M said, it'd be a great possible KS include / stretch.

First time seeing this and I have to say as a fan of BTech I prefer your mechs. Very cool.

Paulson site still shows some in stock. Im throwing all kinds of stuff on Ebay trying to get funds for a couple more. Later this morning Ill be listing my 1/200 Robotech/Macross Battle Pods & officers Battle Pod (aka Battletech Marauder) perfect size for N scale Battletech or 15mm mech games.


EDIT: Listed on ebay and swap shop. If you want a large scale unseen Marauder get in on it fast.

...end threadjack...

Any news on the Kickstarter? Or just news in general?

Working on the Bloc Light mecha. I'll hopefullyhave it finished up and headed out for printing this weekend.

(This is still in the early WIP stage).

Is there going to be an update on the rules soon? I was going to post my thoughts on the yahoo group email, then I saw here you were re-working some things and I thought I'd wait until then and take a crack at the new version... Do we have an eta for the newest version of the rules?

 paulson games wrote:
Working on the Bloc Light mecha. I'll hopefullyhave it finished up and headed out for printing this weekend.

(This is still in the early WIP stage).

I like it, any chance you will be doing a pre kickstarter sale for this one as well?

Looks great! I love the consistency.

 Mad4Minis wrote:
I like it, any chance you will be doing a pre kickstarter sale for this one as well?

Yes I'll do a pre-order on these as well.




(Also updated the pic link to show today progress).

 Mad4Minis wrote:

 JOHIRA wrote:
I'd like to see the asymmetrical one with some kind of coolant tank or sensor pod on the other side.

A small machine gun or grenade launcher would do to. Theres no infantry in game, but one would figure they are still around, and anti-infantry weapons on mechs, especially smaller ones, wouldnt be an uncommon thing Id think.

Heres an idea for a stretch goal for the KS...an accessory pack for each size of mech. Might be stuff that doesnt actually have any game effect, but fills empty space in custom load-outs, and gives a bit of flavor as well.

I like the way you think!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 paulson games wrote:
Working on the Bloc Light mecha. I'll hopefullyhave it finished up and headed out for printing this weekend.

(This is still in the early WIP stage).

Love it so far.

Will both pre-orders ship together? If so, then I'll have one as well! I can finally force someone to play a test game with me!

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Will both pre-orders ship together? If so, then I'll have one as well! I can finally force someone to play a test game with me!

I would doubt it. The first one is supposed to ship early July, this new one hasnt even been 3d printed yet.

They are likely going to be several weeks apart. It wasn't the best of planning but I didn't have the ability (and money) to tackle printing more than one at a time. If anyone wants me to hold their raptors to ship at the same time as these I can (which can save on shipping), however I'm not sure exactly how soon that is going to be. I'll try and keep you guys in the loop as get more info on the Neo-Bloc mech.

I like the Bloc Light mecha substantially more than the other one, and I didn't dislike the other one. I think I'd get the resin cast of this one, if/when available.

Honestly this project is maybe the one I'm most excited about at the moment, presume the rules are fairly accessible.

 paulson games wrote:
They are likely going to be several weeks apart. It wasn't the best of planning but I didn't have the ability (and money) to tackle printing more than one at a time. If anyone wants me to hold their raptors to ship at the same time as these I can (which can save on shipping), however I'm not sure exactly how soon that is going to be. I'll try and keep you guys in the loop as get more info on the Neo-Bloc mech.

Any thoughts about releasing more mechs, or going straight to kickstarter after this one? I like the one a month thing youve got started...

 Mad4Minis wrote:

 paulson games wrote:
They are likely going to be several weeks apart. It wasn't the best of planning but I didn't have the ability (and money) to tackle printing more than one at a time. If anyone wants me to hold their raptors to ship at the same time as these I can (which can save on shipping), however I'm not sure exactly how soon that is going to be. I'll try and keep you guys in the loop as get more info on the Neo-Bloc mech.

Any thoughts about releasing more mechs, or going straight to kickstarter after this one? I like the one a month thing youve got started...

Mad4Minis... you just made a ton of sense regarding the one-a-month thing. I know the game can't grow out of 50 castings, but you seem to be managing it fairly well, Jon.

And yes, I'd like to get my Raptor sooner, screw the double postage, I'll pay it.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:

 Mad4Minis wrote:

 paulson games wrote:
They are likely going to be several weeks apart. It wasn't the best of planning but I didn't have the ability (and money) to tackle printing more than one at a time. If anyone wants me to hold their raptors to ship at the same time as these I can (which can save on shipping), however I'm not sure exactly how soon that is going to be. I'll try and keep you guys in the loop as get more info on the Neo-Bloc mech.

Any thoughts about releasing more mechs, or going straight to kickstarter after this one? I like the one a month thing youve got started...

Mad4Minis... you just made a ton of sense regarding the one-a-month thing. I know the game can't grow out of 50 castings, but you seem to be managing it fairly well, Jon.

And yes, I'd like to get my Raptor sooner, screw the double postage, I'll pay it.

Ditto on the postage, worth paying the extra to get em in hand faster.

I think it would be awesome if he did one a month, or maybe one class for both factions each month. It would keep things manageable on his end, and more affordable for us.

But it'll be ridiculously time-intensive for him. I can't believe he's making *that* much money by selling those 50 casts at that price. And I've been told that resin casting is very man-hours demanding. I want Paulson to be rich, not my personal slave.

Although...

The resin models are basically a break even venture, I don't really see any money out of it but it allows me to pay for prints and the molding costs for the metal versions, or possibly prints of the next mech. As I'm doing all the 3d work and casting all it costs me is time it's a way to fund stuff slowly.

While KS has worked out well for some companies I'm not entirely sure it's what I want. Lately there's been a lot of toxcity generated on KS towards even sucessful projects, people have forgotten that it's meant to help fund start ups (which means delays and even failures) and instead everybody treats it like a pre-ordering system. If a company is only using them as a platform to take pre-orders what exactly does KS provide? It creates a lot of extra stresses and imposed deadlines and while it reaches a larger audience I'm not sure I see that as a favorable trade off.

If I release 1-2 mechs a month its a much slower start but it's at a pace I'm 100% confident in rather than feeling rushed or needing to completely restructure my schedual because pledges cause it to blow up too quickly. People on KS have created a toxic atmosphere with demands and arguements about backing, large companies have perverted the use of KS by pre-ordering to the point that people expect every small company to be able to bring huge discounts to the table and have a massive infastructure when they are just getting started. It's created a very inbalanced enviroment and unfortunately in many cases the artist creating the KS ventures are recieving an undue amount of stress and difficulty in trying to accomidate the backers. I look at how quickly several of the current kickstarters have spiraled out of control (raging heroes for instance) because they are desperstely trying to appease their supporters but it's clear they are in over their heads and they've expanded so fast they've actually lost control of their own project.

If I can use the resin model pre-orders to fund the greater portion of the process then it'd allow me to launch a KS at a point where most everything is already in place and it virtually eliminates any chance of delays as all the bases are covered.

I think you'll be doing yourself a great disservice by refusing to use Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. Both still serve the primary purpose of helping small companies garner advertising and expansion or operating capital. While you can argue the point if Mantic, Palladium, CMON are corrupting it's purpose or abusing it, it really doesn't matter for your purposes. From what I've gathered from this thread, your exactly what KS or Indie was built to help. Hopefully your project is as wildly successful as Raging Heroes and if it is, it may require some more planning on your part. I know the ogre KS was successful beyond their wildest dreams and they came out with a statement saying that this will take some extra time. I don't believe that really bothered anybody. As to specifically the toxic atmosphere on KS, it's the internet. Once somebody/something becomes popular there are folks who sole purpose in life is to knock it down. Those aren't the folks who you're making the project for and they won't likely be contributors.

Not saying that I'm pulling the plug on using KS, just that I want to be situated a bit better before I commit to it.

Also take a look at Xia. Its done by one guy. It had an initial goal of $100K which was the cost to actually make the game. Some people complained and said he'd never get there. Almost at $300K now.

Look at those projects,

but also ones like Red Box Games where Tre seems to have felt it was a disaster even though he pulled in about $140K

have an accountant tell you how to handle getting a load of cash in suddenly. Tre ended up paying loads of it in tax (and I'm sure with a bit better planning at least some of that could have been written off/deferred)

Think about shipping, he lost out there from what he's said

And think about how you price the pledge levels and stretches (he gave so much to the higher level pledges these reportedly turned into losses for him)

KS is a great tool and will give you great publicity, but you do need to be wary about it (as you say)

Given the toxicity of the TGG kickstarter, I'm inclined to agree. Avoiding it might be for the best.

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
Given the toxicity of the TGG kickstarter, I'm inclined to agree. Avoiding it might be for the best.

For the time being, certainly. While RH isn't in the exact same situation as Paulson, it would still be a good idea to let that cesspool of ill will dissipate a bit before launching a campaign.

TBH, launching a game via Kickstarter is much less stressful then launching it without Kickstarter, at least until the shipping stage. (Depending on the length of time between Kickstarter finish and shipping stage.)

csimian wrote:
Also take a look at Xia. Its done by one guy. It had an initial goal of $100K which was the cost to actually make the game. Some people complained and said he'd never get there. Almost at $300K now.

While this is a great example, I do think that paulson is in a slightly different place. The Xia guy had been working on the board game for years, whereas paulson is just ramping up Mecha Front this past year. So, continuing with the release in resin of a mech a month, say, for several months would put him in a much better position before going into a KS.

Imo

I hope theres some of those mechs left come payday on tuesday! Just hope shipping to the uk isnt going to cripple me with vat and import duties!

Loving the latest design, whilst id jump straight in on any ks, being able to pick up a nice new mech each month whilst you build up funds and material is a great idea.

One thing I've noticed watching the various KS threads as well as general release threads is that many people are completely blowing their budgets on KS projects which may leave them unable to contribute to other games for 6 months or even a year. I've run into that issue myself with Zombicide, while I love the game and and glad to have backed both of their KS projects it does leave my wallet with a giant void and nothing to show for a long stretch of time.

Doing a small run of resin versions allows people to help out with some of the start up funding and get a much faster turn around on when they recieve the items. It also allows them to make smaller purchases which sounds like people are preferring a bit due to stuff like bills or being stretched thin by supporting other projects easlier in the year.

I certainly see value in doing a KS, and still plan on using it once I'm at the point I'm ready, but it's not completely free of of it's own pitfalls.

One of the major concerns I have are the quads, they are of a scale that very few other companies offer (and for good reason). They are going to be far more involved to make than any other items in the line and if I don't get the pricepoint balance exactly right they could sink the whole line. I have production prices locked in for the smaller scale mecha, but the quads I'm still working with projected theoretical numbers on which has me very gun shy on KSing them before I have exact costs figured. They could easily end up costing me a lot of money and be a terrible PR experience if something were to go sour on the pricing or with the ability to get them made.

Could you not leave the quads aside for a later date? I know I prefer smaller mechs myself (I was a fan of the Mongoose, in Battletech) and they are certainly easier to move around a table full of terrain.

Personally, and I don't think I've been too vitriolic in my comments on other KS threads, I see two different types of gaming KS as clearly defined. The first type is, as you say, bigger or well established companies using KS as more of a long-term pre-order rather than to, dare I say it, kickstart themselves literally from the ground up.

Second type is for smaller operations that aren't selling stuff yet, have a good idea and want to get it to market but can't in this economy. I give these a lot of leeway regarding delays because this scale of operation is unknown to them. I sunk a bit of money on Black Water Gulch's 2nd KS, they were thinking of maybe beating their dealines by 3 months, and I'm not even bothered that it didn't happen. Impudent Mortal got me my buildings 3 months late, I never said a word because it's this one guy literally inhaling sawdust in his garage every weekend.

I think as long as you can fund the printing and mould prep of mechas one by one, do so. At least you have no one pestering you as it is your own capital.

Like I said, im fine with both ways, but I really like the 1 or 2 mech a month thing. Both in the fact that it gets me stuff quicker, and its more affordable.

True. Besides... it makes me feel like I am spending on a budget. I feel so adult all of a sudden.

I think the time to do a kickstarter is after you have production molds of a few of the mechs and want to fund the next one. You can offer the purchase of metal models of your first few as part of the KS for those who want to buy more than one thing and copies of the new model as well.

And don't do heavy discounting. You'll already take a heavy hit from KS taking their chunk, so don't end up in the situation of losing money on it. You already have your flat $4/$8/$10 shipping charges (I'm assuming they work for you given that you're doing it now), so you can probably factor in everything you need to charge in order to not lose money.

You'll still want a sweet spot though, where a discount is obvious, but the amount spent is high enough that you don't mind.

And be careful about the Kickstarter funding in one fiscal period but then incurring the costs related to the project in another fiscal period. Or some costs might be classified as capital investment and you won't get quite the write off you were expecting and instead have to depreciate it over multiple years.

Make your stretch goals about funding what you plan on doing next rather then as goodie baskets for people looking for cheap stuff. And remember that if you have $10K to reach a stretch goal, but in doing so people claim $7K worth of mechs you have to cast, you've only raised $3K to cover the stretch goal's costs.

Kickstarter is made for projects like yours and if you are honest in your challenges section and reiterate that this is about funding your next mech and not about big discount preorders, I think you'll find the negative people will say their piece and then fade away.

Yes. And for whomever's sake, have a stretch goal map that is realistic and stick to it. Even if it balloons at first.

I'm assuming you'll want action shots of our mechas once they are painted?

I uploaded the 1.2 version of the rules to the mecha front yahoo group. If anyone has a problem with yahoo groups shoot me a PM with your address and I'll email you a copy.

Lots of minor revisions, sensor points have changed, aiming has changed, clarified rules about targeting buildings and terrain destruction.




Current progress on the Neo-Bloc light:

From concept art I thought I'd be more keen on the NorAm mechs, but with latest render...

Thanks for posting the updated rules! One question I didn't see amended in the rules:

I roll to hit location, get a critical, decide to roll again to apply the crit to a random location and get another critical result. Do I

A: Choose where it goes

B: Have the option to apply ANOTHER critical and reroll again

C: Either or?

katfude wrote:
From concept art I thought I'd be more keen on the NorAm mechs, but with latest render...

I like the body of the Neo Bloc mech better, but I prefer the legs of the NorAm.


However, as an overall I do like them both.

Neo-Bloc mech is looking fantastic! Making me doubt my favorite faction already

 paulson games wrote:

One of the major concerns I have are the quads, they are of a scale that very few other companies offer (and for good reason). They are going to be far more involved to make than any other items in the line and if I don't get the pricepoint balance exactly right they could sink the whole line. I have production prices locked in for the smaller scale mecha, but the quads I'm still working with projected theoretical numbers on which has me very gun shy on KSing them before I have exact costs figured. They could easily end up costing me a lot of money and be a terrible PR experience if something were to go sour on the pricing or with the ability to get them made.

To be honest, I like the idea of 15mm mechs but I think it's a mistake for you as a company to do them in that scale, especially in regards to the quads. If you're not doing it in the 5/6mm industry mech "standard", you're losing out on sales from an important segment of people who are already into the genre. I realize that you're trying to do your own thing but I wouldn't poo poo how much fans of other mech games are willing to shell out for tiny robots. In addition, the quads (from the description you gave a while back so correct me if I'm wrong) are going to clock in at between a carnifex and tyrannid monstrous creatures (or defilers) in size. That's a solid chunk of resin and I was very surprised at your pricing estimates from a few months back. I don't think the average joe mech player will splurge the $60+ that something resin that size would likely have to cost at retail for you to make a worthwhile profit via FLGS. Again, if I'm wrong about the actual sizes of the mechs, feel free to correct me.

katfude wrote:

Thanks for posting the updated rules! One question I didn't see amended in the rules:

I roll to hit location, get a critical, decide to roll again to apply the crit to a random location and get another critical result. Do I

A: Choose where it goes

If the roll for the location results in a ccritical (rolling a 12) and you opt to apply critical damage and your second location roll also results in another critical (again rolling a 12) You would now pick the location and apply critical damage. (marking the damage collum from the bottom up)

The double crit doesn't happen often but it's brutal when it does as even against the heaviest of mechs it can be used to aplly damage directly to the engine posisbly killy the enemy mech in one hit (even if it's only a single point of damage)

 warboss wrote:
To be honest, I like the idea of 15mm mechs but I think it's a mistake for you as a company to do them in that scale, especially in regards to the quads.

There is an established crowd for 15mm games that are hungry for mechs in this scale. The Quads are essentially the same size as the Colossals from Warmachine and despite their cost being around $130 there is no shortage of players using as many copies as they can squeeze into their list. The larger scale also appeals to people who also just want a large model to have as a cool display piece, lots of people build robots in this scale as hobby projects completely unconnected to gaming.

There are a good number of people using the MW Dark Age clicks models and older 1/144 or 1/200 scale model kits in order to fill the need for mecha in the 15mm ranges, the problem is that they are all discontinued products. Some are easy to get ahold of but many are very difficult to obtain reliably as they've been out of print for 10-15 years. Additionally there's a pervasive trend in 15mm is to use build forces using a mix of ranges. The 15mm market is supported primarily by small companies who don't offer complete lines of everything imaginable so cross line pollination is basically expected if you want to have any sort of diverse army list. Tanks from Company A, infantry from this Company B, helicopters from Company C for example.

The 6mm market ie battletech is pretty self contained they don't tend ot make much use out of miniatures from other ranges, and in offical events use of otehr lines is not permitted. There's a lot of people who jumped into the Robotech KS to get "unseens" but that demand is mostly artifical as those designs were once part of the battletech setting. They have a history with the game that people want to use where models by other companies do not (and are not typically used). I'm active on a number of btech forums, there's lots of interest in customizing offical models but there's far less talk when it comes to non-btech lines. There is a cult-like following to Btech that rejects anything not produced by CGL/IWM, even Robotech barely got more than a nod on some of the 6mm battletech forums, and they aren't legal to use in any offical events. ::shrug::

Since you estimate we'll need a single quad at most, I'm ok with the price.

Are there any good N scaled tanks out there? Those on display at the train store are quite expensive...

Matchbox puts out several modern day tanks and military vehicles packs that are in the $15 range. I've seen several blogs where they re-paint very well. They also produce some cool stuff like the batman tumbler and hovering craft which look awesome repainted in military colors or with a few modifications. Really wide range of stuff to pick from but there are two scales when it comes to their stuff so you either have to eye ball it to make sure it's what you want, or be flexible and let scale be a bit less important.

There's a ton of 15mm companies, if you want to kill an afternoon check out the dropship horizon blog as they showcase tons of great sci fi stuff. Off the top of my head there's several companies to check out for sci vehicles & tanks

ground zero games

rebel minis

micropanzer

khurasan

 paulson games wrote:
If I can use the resin model pre-orders to fund the greater portion of the process then it'd allow me to launch a KS at a point where most everything is already in place and it virtually eliminates any chance of delays as all the bases are covered.

This is a wise plan. If the sculpts (or the majority of them) are ready/produced - that would make sense and speed up some of the process/time invested in production.

I suggest sticking with whatever causes less stress - I'd like to see this come to fruition - no matter how it goes.

V/r,

PTC

The print arrived today and here's some pictures. Sorry about the quality my regular camera was out of juice and these are from my phone. It's currently held together by sticky-tac so some of the parts aren't fit perfectly and are a bit crooked. I'm very happy with how it came out, now i just have to get everything molded.

that looks pretty phenomenal

Any shots of it next to a more recognisable 28-32mm model?
I know that's not the intended scale, but it's what I'm curious about.

Whoa, very nice!

That's a 60mm proxie models base, right? Which would mean, it's Actually 60mm in diameter, not 62.5 or 65 like GW's (I can't remember which of those numbers it is, but I know it's bigger than 60).

I have to admit, I'd been considering whether I had too many games already... but when you're ready to go with this, I think I'm going to have to sell off another game to fund this one. My excuse will be another use for the sweet Dropzone Commander buildings

Yes it is on a proxie models 60mm base, whichis a true 60mm. (GW's dreadnought bases are 62mm at the top and flair out to 65mm)

I'll be providing proxie bases with the models, I'd sent in a bulk order earlier this week. I'll likely be using him for the 120mm quads bases as I like supporting other small gaming companies particuarly those that are US based.

OMG OMG OMG! It is so faithful to your renders it's got me all excited.

Quick question... since those 25$ light mecha seem to have gone pretty quickly, do you have a reasonable idea how you'd price the mid' and heavy mechas? As you said, people seem to have no problem paying a nice chunk for heavy resin pieces for warmahordes (I still remember the pit in my stomach when I bought my Shadowsword 10 years ago)

Cuz seriously, put me up for one of each. And if you ever run a few more of the Raptor, let me know.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
OMG OMG OMG! It is so faithful to your renders it's got me all excited.

Quick question... since those 25$ light mecha seem to have gone pretty quickly, do you have a reasonable idea how you'd price the mid' and heavy mechas? As you said, people seem to have no problem paying a nice chunk for heavy resin pieces for warmahordes (I still remember the pit in my stomach when I bought my Shadowsword 10 years ago)

Cuz seriously, put me up for one of each. And if you ever run a few more of the Raptor, let me know.

I think that the mediums will likely be $30 and $35-$40 for the heavy mechs. The Quads I'm ballparking at around $90 but that may change as I have no clue what their final volume is going to be.

Immediate plan is to finish up the Bloc Light mecha and get it printed, and at the same time have the alternate configuration weapons printed for both it and the Raptor. (There's 3 variants for each mech). I'd hoped to get the alternate parts for the raptor done to release all 3 variants at once but time and money didn't let that happen so I had to settle on just doing the alpha. It makes things a bit clunky in terms of customers ordering but growing pains and all that. From here out when I release a mech I'll try and have all of the alternate configurations available along with it.

I've got a bit of final cleaning to do and these are off to molding, just like you guys I want them done NOW but I also have to take extra care not to rush it so that everything comes out perfect. I can't wait until the first resin copy is complete as I can't properly assemble the master without running the risk of damaging it. its painful to have it in hand and know I still have to wait a couple days before I can build it. I think it'll be production ready by wed and they may start mailing out on the 1st. FIngers crossed.

For some reason, those were exactly the numbers I was thinking of. I'd go so far as to say that the quad, being a unique piece on the battlefield, could go up to 100$ and I wouldn't feel offended.


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Man, I'm almost ashamed of how much time a day I spend on this forum. And this from a guy who doesn't own a smartphone.

 warboss wrote:

 paulson games wrote:

One of the major concerns I have are the quads, they are of a scale that very few other companies offer (and for good reason). They are going to be far more involved to make than any other items in the line and if I don't get the pricepoint balance exactly right they could sink the whole line. I have production prices locked in for the smaller scale mecha, but the quads I'm still working with projected theoretical numbers on which has me very gun shy on KSing them before I have exact costs figured. They could easily end up costing me a lot of money and be a terrible PR experience if something were to go sour on the pricing or with the ability to get them made.

To be honest, I like the idea of 15mm mechs but I think it's a mistake for you as a company to do them in that scale, especially in regards to the quads. If you're not doing it in the 5/6mm industry mech "standard", you're losing out on sales from an important segment of people who are already into the genre. I realize that you're trying to do your own thing but I wouldn't poo poo how much fans of other mech games are willing to shell out for tiny robots. In addition, the quads (from the description you gave a while back so correct me if I'm wrong) are going to clock in at between a carnifex and tyrannid monstrous creatures (or defilers) in size. That's a solid chunk of resin and I was very surprised at your pricing estimates from a few months back. I don't think the average joe mech player will splurge the $60+ that something resin that size would likely have to cost at retail for you to make a worthwhile profit via FLGS. Again, if I'm wrong about the actual sizes of the mechs, feel free to correct me.

Dont underestimate the growing popularity of 15mm, its growing by leaps and bounds in scifi and WWII genres. Also, the quads arent required to play the game, so anyone who doesnt like the price of them doesnt have to use them, much like the colossals in Warmachine.

On a personal note, I would have zero interest in this at a smaller scale. Besides the great designs, its the scale that helped sell me (and my buddy) on the mechs. We like our robots to be as big as we can get them.


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 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
For some reason, those were exactly the numbers I was thinking of. I'd go so far as to say that the quad, being a unique piece on the battlefield, could go up to 100$ and I wouldn't feel offended.

I shall agree. The regular mechs are the ones Id plan on getting multiples of, and at those prices its acceptable. Since Id only be planning on getting one quad (for each faction), the $90-100 range would be workable as well. There are people buying multiples of the WM Colossals (similar in size/weight to the quads), and they retail for around $125, going for right at $100 from discount sellers, so for something that size its obviously a price point the market will accept.


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 paulson games wrote:

I think it'll be production ready by wed and they may start mailing out on the 1st. FIngers crossed.

That would be epically awesome. I know a bunch of us are quite excited to get them, build & paint, and get pics up for you. I think thats when interest will really spread as well, when people can see multiple examples of completed models.

Good news! I have the first set of molds done and the first test cast came out great. Bad news is that I've been stuck without power for the last 12 hours and been unable to take or upload photos. I tried taking pics on my phone but the lighting is beyond bad. Hopefully power will be back on in the morning and I can get pics then

Oh wow, that looks amazing!

Now make one twice that size with full articulation, opening cockpit, and die-cast parts please.

Only twice the size? Next step is a life size one with functioning lasers, as soon as my Japanese interns figure it out

Not having actual Internet or tv has me going insane and not being able work on anything is even worse. ComEd you suck.

Fantastic quality on that model - there's no visible stairing as far as I can tell. Is that a post-production model you've already cleaned up the various print artifacts from, or is that fresh from the printer? If the latter, who do you print with - because I want to throw some money at them!

 paulson games wrote:
Good news! I have the first set of molds done and the first test cast came out great. Bad news is that I've been stuck without power for the last 12 hours and been unable to take or upload photos. I tried taking pics on my phone but the lighting is beyond bad. Hopefully power will be back on in the morning and I can get pics then

Overnight it to me and I'll take pictures

We lost power, too... I think you are due west of me, which makes me think maybe the same storm got us both

 RiTides wrote:
We lost power, too... I think you are due west of me, which makes me think maybe the same storm got us both

He is in Chicago... that's one hell of a storm

I mean Ohio is between you two, and we're getting hammered with some rain

I never claimed to be a meteorologist I just know which way the winds blow.

We have power now, though, so hopefully paulson does too and we'll see pics soon

Power just came back almost perfectly at the 24 hour mark. I'm still stuck using my phone for Internet as my cable my not be running until thurs. Half the town won't have power until thurs or Friday so I'm lucky in that aspect. I don't have any easy way to upload from my standard camera so it mAy be another day or two for pics.

Funny part is both storms that hit onsat and Sunday were really short maybe 20 min each but they were really intense and had hail which is unusuAl for here. It knocked down a ton of trees which is why all our lines are down.

I have to wait a few hours for the ac to remove the humidity from the house before I can do anymore work on the molds or casting as Its moisture sensitive.

Can you send photos via text messaging? I'd be happy to relay post them for you.

OMG these are looking nice.

I managed to get some photos of the first test cast posted up on my Facebook page. They were taken on my phone so the quality probably isn't that good. The last two days have been very aggravating and messed with my schedule. I'd planned on shipping these starting the first but it's looking like they'll be heading out on the 5th. If I can get them out sooner I will.

when i get my internet service back i should have an update with some artwork.

 paulson games wrote:
I managed to get some photos of the first test cast posted up on my Facebook page. They were taken on my phone so the quality probably isn't that good. The last two days have been very aggravating and messed with my schedule. I'd planned on shipping these starting the first but it's looking like they'll be heading out on the 5th. If I can get them out sooner I will.

when i get my internet service back i should have an update with some artwork.

the 5th is my B-day, so i'd love to have them by then, but either way Im just stoked to see these moving ahead.

Looks really good, Paulson!

Looking forward to pointing my airbrush at a couple of those babies...

Totally awesome, looks great. Looking forward to having it in hand and ordering the next one.

Looks good. Can't wait to see the full starting lineup that Mad4Minis funds for me! I'll likely wait for the initial retail release before dipping my toes into the pool as I don't have any 15mm minis to use it with in the meantime.

When your internet is fully operational, can you post a pic of the light mech next to one of the dropzone commander cardstock buildings? I think they're 10mm but I'm planning on getting a set of them in a few months for a few different mech games and would like to see the size/scale next to your planned model.

Proper internet restored















Scale shots





manz-in-spaaaaaace

Yup. Magnetizing the joints. I did that to a few mechs (well, pinned before I knew the awesomeness of magnets) and loved the effect of torso twisting and moving arms around.

edit: I may have missed this... I know these aren't final (they're Resin pre-sales) but on the ones you've shown are any bits going to be metal? Or did you drop metal entirely?

Super awesome. Now I have to think about base design, and how to scale it. 6mm or 15mm for humans?

Would that be usable as a sentinel for 40k? I'm not sure of the base size that those are usually on. Probably taller than a sentinel, but it looks soooooo much better...

 RiTides wrote:
Would that be usable as a sentinel for 40k? I'm not sure of the base size that those are usually on. Probably taller than a sentinel, but it looks soooooo much better...

It's taller than a crisis suit, but I'd say that'd be up to your opponent.

Well, all my units are already oversized, so what's one more (and I agree with you)

 warboss wrote:
Looks good. Can't wait to see the full starting lineup that Mad4Minis funds for me!

Sadly Im fairly poor, and have far more enthusiasm than cash. However, should I happen to win the lottery jackpot...Id gladly fund the whole line.

Well, if we all buy a little bit where appropriate, we can fund it a lot more effectively than any one person alone

I believe that was the original impetus behind kickstarter.

Speaking of lottery, I should really get a ticket. A minimum of 41 winners this friday.

The lottery has always been the back up plan for me as well. Unfortunately my luck is pretty crappy and I never even win a free ticket, let alone giant jackpots.

Doing the pre-orders really helped, 50 models may not seem like much but it helps me manage the printing much easier. All the single model orders add up fast and I really appreciate the support everyone has been able to kick in with. So I wanted to say thank you guys


The molds are finished up and are woking well so I should have casting underway tomorrow and I'll try and sneak out a couple orders on Monday. The orders that were placed the earliest will be mailing first. (the rest I expect to ship on the 5th) Most of the people on here are fairly ealry in line.

I'm just about done with the Neo-Bloc light mech, the 3d printing company is closed for about a week and half so I'll be using that time to finish up the other variants. I likely won't have the prints back until the end of July, but it'll effectively give me a batch of five new models rather than just one.

Really excited to see these coming along. The only problem now is me building 15mm buildings. I guess I can plunge on the set from drop zone commander, but are you planning any designs of your own?

Having the variant options done will be awesome! And likely get me to part with my cash finally . I'll like want 3 of whichever light walker of the two I end up liking best... and weapon options would be very, very sweet.

Theophony, seriously, for a cheap and fast solution the Dropzone Commander city pack is hard to beat. I think there's room for expanding on that in the future, but for now, it's a huge win to get folks to be able to have dense urban terrain very quickly. There's not much that gives it away as 10mm as opposed to 15mm, imo, although as paulson has said the mechs will just look even more imposing using 10mm-type terrain.

I think, if you want to go pricier, there is a line of buildings from Design... something or other. You can get them through the Woodland Scenics website. A bit Americana, for some of the kits, but the urban sets are a no brainer to fit together. They were a bit small for my 1/72 WW2 efforts, but their "3 apartment buildings front" pack was very alluring. I used it to build a city block and with a little bit of work, it works great.


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Maybe you guys can tell me if it is still too big. It looks to be about HO scale. I'll take snapshots with a big stompy mech if you guys are nice.

I'd like to make some sort of terrain available, but I need to finish all the mecha designs first before I can do that type of stuff.



Some pics vs the dropzone commander buildings.

Definitely looks good and relatively to scale with the model. With those being light mechs, I can imagine a pilot to scale with the entries on the buildings fitting in the cockpit. Thanks for the pics!

I'm just dying to know, how big is one of those doors on that dropzone building?

Most of the doors are about 21-22mm tall, but the door framing & entry ways are quite tall. The entry on the grey building is a huge 35mm and the actual first level is 41mm tall while other floors are about 25mm. All the building have very tall first floors which I think it meant to represent the buldings you see in downtown commercial areas as they tend to have very tall and open foyers & lobbies.

They do vary a bit the smaller buildings have a first floor that's about 31mm tall and the other floors are about 18mm.

(I think DZC might be set at 12mm for infantry)


They are a good deal larger than the buildings I was using for playtesting, but overall they work well and are pretty affordable. The card stock buildings I made at home ran me about $50 by the time I bought the ink cartridges and cardstock paper, then there's all the time spent gluing stuff in together. The DZG comes out to about the same price or even less which is why I picked up a set to expand on what I'd have available. It let me skip the assembly and I think they may hold up a bit longer as the lamination is quite nice.

The buildings I came up with for playtesting are basically a 60x60mm footprint with 3 differant heights, the 60mm round bases can fit inside so they can be used as rubble markers as buildings are destroyed. I made larger buildings by lining up groups of buildings next to each other.

I might be able to work out some sort of PDF for buildings, buildings in resin may be possible but costs become a possible issue. Individually it'd be cheaper than GW terrain but the game can be very heavy on terrain so as a group resin buildings would tend to add up quickly. In an ideal world a set of plastic buildings would be perfect.

While they aren't cheap I really like the pre-made stuff that Kato makes for their modern railroad sets, it has a sleek downtown Tokyo look that gives it s slightly near future feel.

 paulson games wrote:
Most of the doors are about 21-22mm tall, but the door framing & entry ways are quite tall. The entry on the grey building is a huge 35mm and the actual first level is 41mm tall while other floors are about 25mm. All the building have very tall first floors which I think it meant to represent the buldings you see in downtown commercial areas as they tend to have very tall and open foyers & lobbies.

They do vary a bit the smaller buildings have a first floor that's about 31mm tall and the other floors are about 18mm.

(I think DZC might be set at 12mm for infantry)


They are a good deal larger than the buildings I was using for playtesting, but overall they work well and are pretty affordable. The card stock buildings I made at home ran me about $50 by the time I bought the ink cartridges and cardstock paper, then there's all the time spent gluing stuff in together. The DZG comes out to about the same price or even less which is why I picked up a set to expand on what I'd have available. It let me skip the assembly and I think they may hold up a bit longer as the lamination is quite nice.

The buildings I came up with for playtesting are basically a 60x60mm footprint with 3 differant heights, the 60mm round bases can fit inside so they can be used as rubble markers as buildings are destroyed. I made larger buildings by lining up groups of buildings next to each other.

I might be able to work out some sort of PDF for buildings, buildings in resin may be possible but costs become a possible issue. Individually it'd be cheaper than GW terrain but the game can be very heavy on terrain so as a group resin buildings would tend to add up quickly. In an ideal world a set of plastic buildings would be perfect.

While they aren't cheap I really like the pre-made stuff that Kato makes for their modern railroad sets, it has a sleek downtown Tokyo look that gives it s slightly near future feel.

Thanks, I'll look into Katowice, and probably pick up the drop zone commander stuff as well. I'll build my own once I have some of those as reference.

Yeah DzC infantry are a bit "oversized" (the creator has explicitly said so), so the buildings work as a decent bridge between 10mm and 15mm, imo

Sooner or later Im going to have to pick up that terrain set, its just too good with the mechs.

Just got my shipping notification . I'll post pics once they arrive, hopefully before Friday (b-day), really excited about these.

 Theophony wrote:
Just got my shipping notification

As did I, quite excited for sure.

Can't wait for pics of them "in the wild"! As well as seeing the new weapon options which will be forthcoming (hopefully offered as an add-on pack too, for folks who ordered before they were available).

Stupid question but, uhh, is it because I'd outside of the US that I don't get tracking info, or because I selected basic shipping?

I took basic shipping as well and go tracking. Must be either because our out of the country, or your batch wasn't done yet. I thought h said hat he would be casting and shipping all week. Also he may have gone by quantity, I ordered two, don't know how many others ordered.

two as well. though my second was later.

Its due to being outside the US. Normally I use paypal to print the domestic stuff, but for international items i need to use a seperate postage program which is supposed to send out emails via outlook. In the past outlook has been a nightmare for me and basically served as a virus entry point so I no longer run it, it's why I use a hotmail account for my primary contact. In order to send out notices for international mail I need to manually email people which I haven't gotten around to doing yet.

International "tracking" for first clas mail doesn't offer much information other than stating that it has been accepted and when it ships from its final point in the US. There's no point by point tracking like there is for US addresses. They make that an option available for priority mail but last time I checked it was over $30 to send by priority class which isn't an option when people already comment on the $10 shipping as being high.

For anyone that would like Priority Mail delivery I can always accomidate but I've yet to have any one express interest in it due to the cost.


I've currently shipped out 32 of the 50 models, the remainer should all be sent by this coming friday.

Just got my present on my doorstep, two days before my birthday, guess I'll have to wait to open it.......nah!!!







Okay so the bad (if it could be considered that) no instruction, or picture, but I have them saved under my gallery for reference.
Slight flash, but easily cleaned, did one whole model in less than five minutes.
The leg attachment point is my only concern. It looks like the tab on the foot is right where it should join the ankle, Paulson do I remove that tab, it's in a very bad spot if its to come off?
The great news, no mold slip.
The flash cam off with a quick flip of a knife blade turned backwards.
Same great casting I've always gotten from Paulsongames.com.
And it arrived before my birthday.

I'm going to poster tack it together quickly as we are going out for dinner, I'll try to get pics up quickly.

Edit:
Looked at the pics a second time and realized do not cut the tab off the leg, good thing I hadn't yet.
The quality is fantastic, easily on par with the dreamforge figures I have.
Far exceeds all the ogre world figures I have for comparison.
Glued he legs to the feet for stability, here's a size comparison next to a dreadnaught and marine.


Will be posting more in my p&m blog as time permits

Yeah, not so interested in the play-by-play of USPS and CP going at it with my precious goodies.

Just wanted to make sure everything was alright.

Nothing here yet...friday hopefully.

Got my tracking this morning, looking forward to getting it in a few days

Thanks for the pics Theophony, looks cool

I'll have different pics in the morning, I glued most together already, just leaving top separate from bottom. Also missiles got magnetized on for later swap out. Until then I'm taking a much needed break.

The tab is meant to be left there. When mounting the foot the thick part of the cylinder goes towards the front. The deeper part of the groove should fit against the face of the ankle and the slope angles up towards the rear of the foot. (the spure connection points are on the rear portion of the fooot)

 paulson games wrote:
The tab is meant to be left there. When mounting the foot the thick part of the cylinder goes towards the front. The deeper part of the groove should fit against the face of the ankle and the slope angles up towards the rear of the foot. (the spure connection points are on the rear portion of the fooot)

Realized after I started assembling that I had the leg misaligned, good thing I poster tacked it together first.

Great job on this guy Paulson can't wait for he bigger guys.

 Cyporiean wrote:
Got my tracking this morning, looking forward to getting it in a few days

I got my tracking Monday...it shows zero movement on the package...

Just got mine in the mail today, and I'll say this about the quality of the cast: the foot I dry fit on the leg stayed on, with no glue. Very well engineered, and I look forward to the Bloc mechs.

Got mine primed, hopefully will have time tomorrow and toss some paint at it. Need to look through the rules again to see if there's any fluff about color schemes.



Forgot if I mentioned, but magnetizing the shoulder missiles was easy, and left the torso loose from the waist for safety transporting it around.

Stop taunting us. You are a bad, bad man!

Looking fantastic, Theophony!

Looks over at his 6mm scale battletech minis...

Woo-hoo! My mech has shipped!

Mine came friday...looking great, cant wait to build.

Seems we have 2 postal people, one who does mail in the mornings, one who does packages in the afternoons.

No sign of mine yet :/

 Mad4Minis wrote:
Mine came friday...looking great, cant wait to build.

Seems we have 2 postal people, one who does mail in the mornings, one who does packages in the afternoons.

And they wonder why they have problems with finances .

Theophony: that is a whole other debate, which strongly involves politics.

Canada Post also has two delivery people, because not everyone gets packages and can you imagine carrying that truckload in your little trolley?

I've had a bunch of questions regarding the "tab" on the front of the shin piece. It's meant to be there so don't cut it off.

The foot is a bit tricky at first glance so hopefully this will help.






I was going to hold new art until tomorrow but figured meh... as long as I'm on here I may as well post it up

Also www.mechafront.com is up and running, that will be the homepage for the game from here on. Not much there yet as it's still under construction but more will be added soon.

Pray tell, when can we buy those?

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Pray tell, when can we buy those?

^^ This x 100!

The Neo-Bloc light mech (the green mech) should be available next month. I'm hoping to follow up with the NorAm medium mech in sept.

When does the subscription service open up?

Is there art for the Neo-Bloc that I have missed due to work block shenanigans? I enjoy the look of that mini, and would like to see more of it

I think I'm shaping up to be more of a NorAm kinda guy.


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Ugh, just remembered, since oil seems to be such a big thing in the game, there was an important train crash that almost wiped a small town of the map last weekend. Only 4 of the 73 train cars exploded, all containing crude oil.

Hmmmm available September eh? seems I have a birthday in September, may have to drop some hints...... :-)

I'm holding a painting contest for the Raptor model. It'll run until Aug 15th, send me pictures of your mech when it's all painted up and I will chose the top 3 submisisons that I Iike. If your mech is picked you will recieve a free copy from the upcoming mechs slated for the Aug release. (Raptor & Goshawk).

There's no modifcations or converting required, stock mechs are fine. You can submit converted mechs if you like but the focus will be on the painting.

Please PM me with your entry or post them up on my facebook page.

I've also placed a small number of the mechs back in stock, so if you didn't get them on pre-order there are a few currently available.




I had some fun with converting one of the mechs with some spare parts, most of my older parts are a bit too larger to fit well with the Mecha Front models but the udnerslung beamers and lasers aren't too bad for giving the models a beefy uograde to their firepower. Rare earth magnets are awesome for doing stuff like this as it'll allow for the wepaons to be swapped out for whatever load out you want.

That gives it a real high tech look. While the parts are large, I think they still work.

Looks pretty sweet, paulson

Holy gak! Holy gak! Holy gak! I got my two Raptors in the mail today! Can you assume I finished my essay on the double to play with it?

I only got the legs sorted out before I had to go to work, but it's going to be super fun to paint. They clean up super well.

I tried to use 1/72 parts on the base to give it a little bit of flavour... and it's indeed to big. The "dead guy" I twisted to fit on the base was almost 20mm high, so he looked huge compared to the cockpit.


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I'm done with superlatives for the month, I swear.

Awesome, Mathieu! And I'm guessing you weren't actually typing "gak"

Edit: Upon quoting your post, I do believe I stand corrected! How Dakka indoctrinates us

I'm a good boy. And as a teacher, any word you can use to replace "swearing" you tend to latch onto.

I'm thinking a fairly standard camo pattern for one, but I'd like to convert my second one with one of Paulson's longer guns and paint it black with hot rod flames. Give it a real "mecha ace" feeling.

I just finished building my first one with magnetized weapons, including two of Paulson's guns, even a light mech looks suitably bad-esh in that configuration (especially as I built it assymetrical... something about it just screams "you're dead.")

I'll prime and basecoat tonight, let you guys see what it looks like.

My Raptor arrived today, and I have to say I am extremely impressed by how clean the model is. The mold lines are minimal, and located in the absolutely easiest locations to clean. The details are so crisp that I actually wasn't sure if that even the air vents from the mold were razor sharp, to the extent that I'm still not certain I wasn't supposed to leave them on.

Also, the vending machines will look beautiful on my eventual Deadzone board.

Thanks for the comments on the casting quality. Each time I do a new set of molds I always try to improve a little bit over my previous efforts and I think these mechs are the best items that I've cast so far. Its a bit geeky but I really enjoy having a direct hand in every step of the process and I'm very happy with how they came out.

I used a slightly differant method for these which is a combination of split molds and a vacuum system for degassing. It takes longer but it lets me use fewer sprue connections and less bubbling meaning I get very few miscasts. The molds don't last quite as long as my past molds but the cast quality is much better and IMO its well worth the trade off. I'll be using the same process for the future mech releases.

Just one question: are those weapon shields going to be available as separate parts if I want my weapons to have that look? As it stands, my big guns don't have it, which might be ok if we consider a balance issue (bigger gun, but less armour).

And here we go. Crappy pictures, but I was in a hurry last night.

The building behind is actually HO scaled, it's the 3 Flat Fronts set from Woodland Scenics that I used for my WW2 gaming. Speaking of which I will attempt to pick up their N scale building kits this week. Hopefully they have them locally, otherwise I'll have to order direct from their website. It's not super futuristic, but I don't believe in the "whole city being sci-fi" vibe.

I only put the NorAm star from the cards as a symbol for the moment, and a little Québec Flag, cuz, you know.

Dang...nice looking paint job. Mine isnt even primed yet.

That mecha does have a nice paint job there.

Nice paint job, bad camera

Yeah. My fiancee's cat even pushed it off the table once, so its screen is cracked. She says she finally found how to take pictures of close-up objects with hers, so I might give that a go.

I still want to magnetize mine, and I haven't picked up the magnet kits yet.

I think I need to order a gak-load of them, this project is worth it.

Addressing the issue of the guns and details: they work really well in resin. Can you give us a breakdown of pieces you'd have done in white metal on the Raptor, for example?

Looking very good. I'll try and make some of the shoudler shields available as individual parts. (I had the benefit of having a few miscast launchers that I could cut them off of). I'll see if I can squeeze them in with the next batch of parts, in worst case scenario I'll make some weapons and armor packs available at a later point.

The weapons on the final print ended up being twice as thick as what I'd originally featured on the renders. Before sending it out for print I basically doubled it in diameter and extended the length slightly as well. If you look closely they are a fair amount thinner in the renders prior to making my last minute change. The gun housing was also increased in wicth quite a bit to accomidate the larger barrel. It was initally flush with the angled piece diretcly above it (on the side of the torso) The modified version now sticks out further, but looks fine IMO.

At the current size they seem like they will handle game play fine so I may not need metal for durability like I initially expected. Later on if the demand for the game ends up being huge I may still need to make the metal switch due to it having a much higher production rate. However I'm still testing the waters on that and I do prefer to keep using resin if possible.

The Raptor was my test model to see how everything came together. I was bit uncertain as it is in a scale I haven't done yet but it came out quite well and I'm very pleased with it. It addressed as lot of the questions I had and gave me a good idea of what to expect for future models in terms of printing, molding, costs, etc so it was a very important first step.

Like an idiot, I keep forgetting my mech at home before I go to my FLGS to pick up magnets. Does anyone have the correct sizes for the hip to torso join and the arm joins? I'd love to start working on mine.

I like them thicker as-is, seems to work great and might make everyone happy since they could stay resin

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
Like an idiot, I keep forgetting my mech at home before I go to my FLGS to pick up magnets. Does anyone have the correct sizes for the hip to torso join and the arm joins? I'd love to start working on mine.

I used a 3mm dia magnet on mine. (1.5mm thick) It's a very narrow fit on the arm joint so take extra care with the dremmel or you'll end up carving through the wall. If they have a 2mm or 2.5mm option it might be better.

The waist I used the same 3mm and it works great, for extra grip I went two magnets deep on the waist. I glued the legs as there wasn't a need for magnets on those, the hip movement was plenty IMO.

For future use I've resized the launcher arms slightly taking the connection from 4mm up to 5 which will give a little extra wiggle room for the magnets. They'll be reprinted alongside the Light Bloc mecha. I've used those same connection measurements with the goshawk so that the joints are more standardized. I didn't have magnets in mind when I built the Raptor model and got lucky that the joints worked out ok with them. I've experimented with having preset holes on the model but they are problematic when casting, so unfortunately people will have to still have to do their own dremmel work but I'll be making sure the parts are sized large enough.

If you guys don't already have a dremmel tool you really should get one, its by far my favorite tool I own after my hobby knife. The 194 bit is sized perfectly for 3mm magnets, it looks like a cylinder with a flat end. Makes very quick work of magnetizing stuff.

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/Accessories/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=194

I used 3/16 magnets, 1/16 thickness, and I did all of my grinding manually, with a file. It literaly took me 5 minutes to get a perfect fit. For the missiles, I just cut off the little joint and replaced it with a magnet. If you let it dry completely, it's fine and won't come off.

I did not magnetize the torso though... maybe I should.

Paulson, I've been converting a "sensor pack" that would replace a weapon hardpoint. You don't mind 3rd party bits for the moment, do you?

I certainly don't mind people kitbashing with other parts. I want people to have fun both with the game and also their models. Yeah I know that's such an alien concept in the 40k circles now days


Also I haven't had a proper Mech Front Monday post in a while so here you go. Here's the Blackfrost Medium

I'll also have an updated render for the Neo-Bloc Goshawk later this evening.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Paulson, I've been converting a "sensor pack" that would replace a weapon hardpoint. You don't mind 3rd party bits for the moment, do you?

Oh the irony

 bbb wrote:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Paulson, I've been converting a "sensor pack" that would replace a weapon hardpoint. You don't mind 3rd party bits for the moment, do you?

Oh the irony

You do what you can with what you have is my new gaming motto.

Dude, Paulson, that Blackfrost Mech is sexy like an Eskimo Fridge. It seriously looks like a bouncer. Love it. So Goshawk is Neo Bloc light. Got any class names for the medium ones so far?

NorAm Light - Raptor
Neo-Bloc Light - Goshawk

NorAm medium - Lynx
Neo-Bloc medium - Osprey

NorAm Heavy - Wolverine
Neo-Bloc Heavy - Black Wolf

NorAm Quad - Kodiak
Neo-Bloc Quad - Tiger


Here's the Goshawk render it's 98% complete all that's left to do is touch up the detail on the toes and it's good to print.

I'd love to see some 3+ barreled rotary cannons...

I like the looks of it, but I'm definitely staying noram, possibly will get the black frost guys as well. The second army will have to wait to see future expansions.

I'm not trying to derail the thread... but I just noticed that Spartan is also making its dropship^in 6mm/10mm scale... I wonder how they could be incorporated in a game of Mecha Front.

They'd make for a nice objective/infantry deployment method. I've got some of your long gunz, they'd look suitably impressive on those models.

Lots of reveals today, nice! Blackfrost mechs continue to be my favorite

I just finished priming my second Raptor with sensor pod... I have to study real hard tomorrow, but I was going by the train shop to pick up N scale... anything really. And my fiancee will be nice enough to bring back the camera I forgot at work today.

Whoa, wait a minute, we can buy mechs already? I thought this was going to be a kickstarter....

That's what i get for not keeping up with this thread...

Yup, some are available in very limited numbers from Paulson's store.

Alright, back from the train store. Turns out they can get almost anything from Kato I might want, and stock most of Woodland Scenics. I decided to splurge on an Entire Town in a Box, a roll of self-adhesive road strips, two cars. They had no soldiers for that scale, apparently purists don't like models that small.

So I went to a FLGS a subway stop away (by foot, cuz 38 degrees is just so much fun) and realized Dropzone Commander uses 10mm infantry. So yay me! I've got an old city downtown squared away.

I was thinking of making my mecha part of the Gaspésie regiment, protecting the petroleum exploitations of Québec, a reluctant part of NorAm.

How much was that 'Entire Town in a Box'?

 Cyporiean wrote:
How much was that 'Entire Town in a Box'?

156 bucks... I already looked it up. Because I too was interested
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/s1485

 Alfndrate wrote:

 Cyporiean wrote:
How much was that 'Entire Town in a Box'?

156 bucks... I already looked it up. Because I too was interested
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/s1485

hmm.. I need to get a wholesale account with WS.

Can you take a shot of the mech next to the building? I'd like to see how well it pairs up.

(I don't own any terrain in that size & have been using cardstock stuff so far)

Looks to be a very promising set, I'd have to order it online somewhere as my local hobby shop has pretty horrible selection in their train dept.

Except I paid my ETiaB 136 CAD. Plus our horrible 15% taxes, but still...

There are so many decals in there that you could literally have two of those boxes and not name the buildings the same twice. They are a little too short to be the entirety of the board, as they cannot hide a light mecha, but can provide useful cover at least.

Notice the open binder at the back, that's Unit 7 of my class that I should be reading right now instead of playing with models. You're all bad, bad people.

The little car... the wheels are actually functional. They're pricey, from Atlas, but I figured I only needed a few. There were two kits I really wanted to buy the budget just wasn't there: a gigantic parking garage, clocking in at 78$ and a hardware manufacture at 40$. Most of the rest was train related, and I figured that could wait until I had a bigger core of buildings. The scale is so cool though because I can store the playing pieces in the same Rubbermais container as the terrain and call it a day!

Mine actually has a decent selection being a hobby shop that deals with games, trains, models and rc cars ...

Hey Cyp, if you can get a wholesale account with WS, wanna hook a brotha up?

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:

I was thinking of making my mecha part of the Gaspésie regiment, protecting the petroleum exploitations of Québec, a reluctant part of NorAm.

Hehe, had to +1 the Gaspésie regiment.

Progress Log.

I've finished the exterior of the "Cooke's Drugs" building kit, converting it a bit to a local pharmacy branding. I'm assuming they'd still be around in the near future. As well as basic infantry stands. I am in no way patient enough to paint them as well as Hawk Games did.

And finally the better camera, closeups of my Raptor.

Piloted by Jérémy Lauzon, the Raptor "La Chipie" has been involved in countless scouting missions to protect crude oil convoys in and out of Rimouski and Gaspé, the two main ports in Québec on the south-eastern peninsula.

Those pics are soooo much better, thanks! Might deserve a P&M blog soon

There actually is one of those things in existence. I have just not updated it in a loooooooong time.

Hi, Ive been trying to access your store at Paulson Games.com and I cant seem to connect to your page.
Is it currently down or something?
Cheers

I just checked and Paulson's store is working fine for me so it's probably an issue at your (or your isp's) end

(the site below is a useful one for checking this sort of thing)

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Final renders and he's off to print

Looks great, will probably get at least one, even though I'm not going to build the Russians. Wait I think I just contradicted myself , I guess I'm just hooked, let us know when hey go up for presale.

Nice. Got a quick question I can't seem to remember the answer.

Typical games would involve what type of force? How many mechs per side, excluding quads?

The typical force is 6-8 mecha.

What we've been using for play test is 3 lights, 2 mediums, 1 heavy

or

3 lights, 3 med, 2 heavy for a 8 mecha list.

Heavies are strong and can often one shot lighter mecha, Quads are their even bigger brother and if they sneeze stuff dies. A list using a quad would typically have 2 lights or 1 med for back up.



Also I posted your pics up on the facebook page with credits. They look great

Looks great! I'd love to have an asymmetrical weapon option, though, if you end up getting multiple weapons / loadouts made

Also, the typical game size sounds very attractive! (i.e. not too big / too many mechs required, but enough to make it interesting and give variety to army builds)

I just liked, reshared and commented. This kinda made a sucky day better.

Great News!(tm) about the game sizes. With the boxes I bought and the terrain, I guess I could carry everything along (say to conventions or gaming stores) in a single Rubbermaid crate.


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Oh and my friend who was turned off by the mention of 60mm thought it referred to the height of the mecha, he's now back on board to do some playtest. Yay!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just purchased a bunch of buildings from seller plazajapan on eBay. He does a lot of N and Z scale train stuff. It's prepainted, but I can repaint over it a bit to give it some depth. There are nice industrial structures like Distillation towers, heat converters, chemical plants...

My table is going to be pretty full now.

Paulson, will you be modelling sensors/cameras on the mechs from now on? They – and headlights, come to think of it – are a rather glaring absence on the Raptor given that it's supposed to be near-future. I had thought you were going for a gubbins-are-hidden look like Battletech tends towards but seeing the Goshawk with it's sexy little sensor turret...

You know, I think a bunch of optional add ons, not just for weapon hardpoints, would be interesting. Stuff like headlights, IR lights and sensors, etc.

I finally finished my LE Raptor:





I'm not 100% pleased with how the urban camo came out, but since it's the first time I've ever painted urban (as opposed to woodland) camo, I'll cut myself some slack. I wonder if I should go back and reload the first image without the Dakka autocorrection.

Does it look like the other 3 pics (not the 1st auto-corrected one) in-person? I quite like the other 3

I like it. A lot. I almost went urban camo, but then remembered that I did a whole Tau army with it and hated doing it. Your canopies look great!


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I was internet-shopping today for trees. N scale seems to have them around 2 to 4 inches of height (50 to 100mm) whereas even the light Raptor are significantly higher.

Would it be even worth it if they don't impede LOS, just movemement?

 RiTides wrote:
Does it look like the other 3 pics (not the 1st auto-corrected one) in-person? I quite like the other 3

The bottom photo is the closest. The other two are kind of washed out from the flash. I suppose I need to read the tutorial on photographing minis one day soon...

 JoshInJapan wrote:

I'm not 100% pleased with how the urban camo came out, but since it's the first time I've ever painted urban (as opposed to woodland) camo, I'll cut myself some slack. I wonder if I should go back and reload the first image without the Dakka autocorrection.

The Raptor looks good, Josh.

I think what sticks out to me, personally, is that it looks like you utilized an infantry or tank styled camouflage pattern on a walker. That can tend to make things look a bit awkward as the camouflage styles which work on infantry/tanks would not necessarily work for a walker.

The colors look good. The painting is crisp. Everything about it suggests that you put a lot of effort into it and made it look fantastic.


I hope this is not too off topic or that you think I'm picking on you here. I've been following this thread and saw his Raptor and thought I would throw in my opinion on the model.

 Kanluwen wrote:


I think what sticks out to me, personally, is that it looks like you utilized an infantry or tank styled camouflage pattern on a walker. That can tend to make things look a bit awkward as the camouflage styles which work on infantry/tanks would not necessarily work for a walker.

I spent a long time on Google trying to figure out how to approach this problem, and this was the best I could come up with. If only some real world military wold employ walkers in an urban environment

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:


I think what sticks out to me, personally, is that it looks like you utilized an infantry or tank styled camouflage pattern on a walker. That can tend to make things look a bit awkward as the camouflage styles which work on infantry/tanks would not necessarily work for a walker.

I spent a long time on Google trying to figure out how to approach this problem, and this was the best I could come up with. If only some real world military wold employ walkers in an urban environment

I know, those jerks!

I could see a pattern like the "Berlin" pattern camouflage on this Ferret working well, if you adapted it with the same skill you did for what you have already done.


I'll gladly take this to PM with you though so we're not taking up Paulson's thread.

Camo nerds

There is also the school that says "giant mechanized fighting machines won't gain great advantages from camo."

I disagree. Though in my heart I'd like to paint a mech ace flamboyantly.

Yeah.
Aside from depending on the size of the mech, and where it's fighting:
Failing all else, being able to blend in making it harder for aircraft to see you is good.
Being harder to target against a backdrop buildings / desert / trees / sky, also good.
Not painting yourself as a massive target is even better.

Garish or muted paintjob depends on how stupid good or stupid bad the sensors are in the universe the mechs are set in.

Looks good Josh, mind if I repost them on my FB page?


Here's some eye candy for another Mecha Front Monday, enjoy.

NorAm Heavy Mecha - Wolverine

I love the flat top, and those muzzle brakes are just darn sexy.

Man, I tell you, can't wait to have one of those in my arsenal.

Do you have a comparison shot with a Raptor? i see some elements of the legs and "crotch" are the same, but could it be they are oversized for sucha manly beast?

 paulson games wrote:
Looks good Josh, mind if I repost them on my FB page?

Here's some eye candy for another Mecha Front Monday, enjoy.

NorAm Heavy Mecha - Wolverine

You make my Mondays better paulson

He makes mine worse, everything is work blocked

Yes, I concur that comparison shots would be awesome.

So, in an ideal world, these would run about 40-45$ each?

Here's a rough mock up of the sizes. Since the pieces were all done at various angles it's not exact but it'll give an ok idea of how they stack up against each other. The raptor may seem like a big beefy model next to all of your other toys... but remember it is just a light mech and its the smallest in the Mecha Front game

Erhmagerd I want that Wolverine so bad. That's gonna be a whole lot of resin though. I'm assuming the "shoulderpads" are going to be separate pieces?

Did I sign your praise about casting quality, by the way? Because I should. More.

Can the Neo-bloc have a looted Wolverine? Because that's just damned purty.

 paulson games wrote:
Looks good Josh, mind if I repost them on my FB page?


Here's some eye candy for another Mecha Front Monday, enjoy.

NorAm Heavy Mecha - Wolverine
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSm43Szq-4w/Ue1-qU6yw8I/AAAAAAAAAvo/HMHdMYvXn8I/s1600/blog-heavy-noram.jpg

But... I wasn't liking NorAm! That's not fair!

 paulson games wrote:
Looks good Josh, mind if I repost them on my FB page?

Please do.

I'm looking forward to the next release so I can try a different paint scheme.

Love that Wolverine.

Too bad we won't see it for a while...

Paulson, are you going to release them in that order? ie Light, then Med, then Heavy, and Quads sometimes down the road?

Got my raptor and I am very happy with it both in design and quality.

 paulson games wrote:
Here's a rough mock up of the sizes. Since the pieces were all done at various angles it's not exact but it'll give an ok idea of how they stack up against each other. The raptor may seem like a big beefy model next to all of your other toys... but remember it is just a light mech and its the smallest in the Mecha Front game

Sweet! Those look awesome!

Would anyone know where I could get some simple, modern or near future 10mm tracked or wheeled vehicles to compliment the Mecha Front *excellent* range of mecha?

I tried Khurasan, they shut their website down for vacation, I found Reiver castings, but they seem a bit pricey, and I don't necessarily want to go the DZC route either. Their look is too... distinctive?

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Would anyone know where I could get some simple, modern or near future 10mm tracked or wheeled vehicles to compliment the Mecha Front *excellent* range of mecha?

I tried Khurasan, they shut their website down for vacation, I found Reiver castings, but they seem a bit pricey, and I don't necessarily want to go the DZC route either. Their look is too... distinctive?

Have a look at skytrex's action200 range they do a modern line including Israel which means the merekava which makes an excellent sci fi tank.

Indeed. I just wish I had 4£ per vehicle to spend at the moment.

Good News though. I will be having a few playtests with Ironbovin next week.

Those mecha look amazing. I love the variety that still keeps a consistent aesthetic; Battletech ended up with some hideous designs where chubby mechanical people had weapons bolted to them. I prefer the chicken-walker legs that increase stability, and lack of arms because these are weapon platforms, not human effigies.

Do you have any photos of a model next to a 25mm miniature for scale comparisons? Apologies if I missed it, I checked your site and didn't see any.

Here ya go

I've just had an idea... Paulson, do you have any miscast legs or torsos that we could buy? I figure they'd make good wreck markers.

 Cyporiean wrote:
Here ya go

Perfect. Thanks!

Can someone email me the Rules document at work? I'm unable to access the yahoo group from there and I'd like to send a copy to my printer.

afficheentete@videotron.ca

Thanks guys.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Would anyone know where I could get some simple, modern or near future 10mm tracked or wheeled vehicles to compliment the Mecha Front *excellent* range of mecha?

I tried Khurasan, they shut their website down for vacation, I found Reiver castings, but they seem a bit pricey, and I don't necessarily want to go the DZC route either. Their look is too... distinctive?

I'd either look through the Mechwarrior clix lines (T&T and other places still have some) or check out 10mm (try 1/144 scale or N Scale search terms) modern military vehicles.

I don't have much in the way of miscasts, out of 80 sets of casts I only had two rejects on the torsos or legs as they were really well vented.

I had a small number of miscasts on the missile launchers but I'm not sure those would be of much help for basing.

Damn you and your effective work methods!!!

You might give tis to other companies on how to cast resin then. *cough* Defiance *cough*

So, Goshawk due for August?

If anyone's interested, I've just recorded a fairly detailed preliminary analysis of the Mecha Front beta rules for Episode 12 of the Precinct Omega BattleCast.

http://bit.ly/1aPiCHB

R.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
So, Goshawk due for August?

Hopefully middle to late Aug.

It currently at the printer, I expect the Alpha variant to come in hopefully this coming week so I can check the size. Provide it coms out as expected the other parts will be done in about another week or so.

Things ran a bit slower than I wanted as the printer was on vacation for two weeks plus I've been on the fence about attending gencon which could add another week of delay, this time of year is always crazy busy. Worst case it'll be out at end of Aug.


Also Thank you Robey for doing the review. I'll get a couple responses together for you.

Well, I'll have pictures of the playtests on tuesday. Hopefully I can get the good camera for that too.

Regarding your contest, do you prefer pictures on a white backdrop, a green screen, or in situ with terrain?

Must avoid looking a Paulson's rules....must avoid.... but your making it hard on me

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Regarding your contest, do you prefer pictures on a white backdrop, a green screen, or in situ with terrain?

There's no requirements, people can submit their pics however they feel best captures the painting.

 NoseGoblin wrote:
Must avoid looking a Paulson's rules....must avoid.... but your making it hard on me

Lol, maybe some reverse psychology will get you to crack... Mark you're not allowed to look at the rules! mwhahaha



Here's a Goshawk variant with some railgun arms. I'm waiting on the first print to come in so I can check to make sure everything comes out as expected and if everything checks out like I hope then this will be fired off right away for print as well.

 precinctomega wrote:
If anyone's interested, I've just recorded a fairly detailed preliminary analysis of the Mecha Front beta rules for Episode 12 of the Precinct Omega BattleCast.

http://bit.ly/1aPiCHB

R.

Just listened to this.

I'd just like to express my strong disagreement with the idea that Mechafront should restrict itself to only having mecha on the battlefield. For all the talk about the range system breaking a suspension of disbelief, why would you accept combat never having infantry or vehicles present? Just because things would be hard to represent and that other rules already exist that cover the same type of game doesn't preclude giving it a try.

Also, crits are under the hit location chart. If you get a crit, you can either pick a location and do standard damage or roll again and do critical "bottom up" damage. I assume you'd reroll further 12s.

The range system definitely needs work though.