Resin is a VERY wide range of stuff. The resin I use is pretty flexible and not brittle at all, but I also have stuff that is like glass (including being clear) and stuff that is flexible enough to double back on itself almost like Bones stuff. The physical properties are sort of all over the place.
Just thought I would just drop this reply to my email enquiring about what was happening with nepharaya
Loud'n Raging says:
Michael,
I am so sorry that we keep disappointing you :(
However, you deserve extra points for the conspiracy theories
The truth is that there's a workflow where there are several sculptors, but only one Art Director. We have first kept the sculptors busy with all the sculpts that had not yet been done, and spent a fair bit of time improving their quality and our workflow as well, so that we could work more efficiently. So the Art Director has had to keep pace with the several sculptors, leaving him little time to go back and bring the first sculpts to the level of the new ones. As it turns out, he addressed Nepharya this week, and it almost made the last Update, but it wasn't quite complete and I did not want to delay the Update any longer. So really, it's just a matter of limited time and resources. If I could clone Benoit, I would, but there's only one of him... And Nepharya, a beautiful model, does deserve his full attention.
I replied to a FB message last week, and I'd like to share with you part of what I told him, in the hope that it will help you understand what is going on, and what it is like to be on the producing end of a Kickstarter:
We have been sculpting the equivalent of 250 new sculpts in less than a year. I could be wrong, but I don't believe there are many miniatures company that have managed something like that. And while we may have broken some time commitments, we are delivering on everything else. As the saying goes, "you can have it cheap, you can have it fast, you can have it good, but you only get 2 out of 3". With this KS, you're getting it cheap and you're getting it good. I do not see what else I can do. We are here all week, and most weekends as well. We are doing the best we can. Truly, I am sorry that we are unable to stay awake 24 hours a day to do it faster. Should we care care less about doing it right and put out crap and do it on time? Most of our backers want us to do it right, and take the time needed to do it right. Perhaps you prefer it differently? But that is not what this company is, and has ever been, about.
Please know that NO ONE is more concerned about the time that this project is taking than I, who is handling the purse strings: every delay means higher expenses and less revenue. So I am aching at least as much as you are (and possibly a lot more...).
Again, please know that it is your support, along with the one of or 3000 backers, that is enabling Raging Heroes to unleash a large amount of striking female minis in a world that does not have many. We couldn't have done it without you. So please know that you, along with all of our backers, are the reason we are working so hard.
I hope this helps you understand what is going on.
I understand your disappointment, and please know that I have many times brought Nepharya to the attention of the team, but somehow, other items always too precedence.
UNCLEBADTOUCH wrote: Just thought I would just drop this reply to my email enquiring about what was happening with nepharaya
Loud'n Raging says:
Michael,
I am so sorry that we keep disappointing you :(
However, you deserve extra points for the conspiracy theories
The truth is that there's a workflow where there are several sculptors, but only one Art Director. We have first kept the sculptors busy with all the sculpts that had not yet been done, and spent a fair bit of time improving their quality and our workflow as well, so that we could work more efficiently. So the Art Director has had to keep pace with the several sculptors, leaving him little time to go back and bring the first sculpts to the level of the new ones. As it turns out, he addressed Nepharya this week, and it almost made the last Update, but it wasn't quite complete and I did not want to delay the Update any longer. So really, it's just a matter of limited time and resources. If I could clone Benoit, I would, but there's only one of him... And Nepharya, a beautiful model, does deserve his full attention.
I replied to a FB message last week, and I'd like to share with you part of what I told him, in the hope that it will help you understand what is going on, and what it is like to be on the producing end of a Kickstarter:
We have been sculpting the equivalent of 250 new sculpts in less than a year. I could be wrong, but I don't believe there are many miniatures company that have managed something like that. And while we may have broken some time commitments, we are delivering on everything else. As the saying goes, "you can have it cheap, you can have it fast, you can have it good, but you only get 2 out of 3". With this KS, you're getting it cheap and you're getting it good. I do not see what else I can do. We are here all week, and most weekends as well. We are doing the best we can. Truly, I am sorry that we are unable to stay awake 24 hours a day to do it faster. Should we care care less about doing it right and put out crap and do it on time? Most of our backers want us to do it right, and take the time needed to do it right. Perhaps you prefer it differently? But that is not what this company is, and has ever been, about.
Please know that NO ONE is more concerned about the time that this project is taking than I, who is handling the purse strings: every delay means higher expenses and less revenue. So I am aching at least as much as you are (and possibly a lot more...).
Again, please know that it is your support, along with the one of or 3000 backers, that is enabling Raging Heroes to unleash a large amount of striking female minis in a world that does not have many. We couldn't have done it without you. So please know that you, along with all of our backers, are the reason we are working so hard.
I hope this helps you understand what is going on.
I understand your disappointment, and please know that I have many times brought Nepharya to the attention of the team, but somehow, other items always too precedence.
Please stay in touch,
Best regards,
Mireille
Holy gak. I'd be livid if a company responded to me in such a condescending tone. Amusing that Mireille tries to end with a kiss when the majority of that e-mail was an open handed slap.
I think they really, really need to hire someone with English as the first language to handle these things. I think they don't want to come across as condescending arrogants, but I think the real tone and meaning has been lost in translation. But I could be wrong as always.
I mean, okay - on one hand I get it: I'm sure they're all working REAL hard to get these things out the door and they set the bar real high. While their miniatures were always pricey, they were also really high-quality sculpts, which is one of the reasons I threw money at them for a bunch of female guard done right.
The problem is that, when you're the communications person for a company that's under those kinds of strains, the LAST thing you want to do is alienate the people who are going to be buying your product. Dude should have just taken a walk outside, taken a deep breath, loaded up his copy-pasted apology and sent it off with maybe a quick blip on the company underestimating the volume of the work involved in such a large project vs the level of work they had been involved in previously, etc, etc.
Mollify your customers, don't piss them off.
All of this said? I'd expect we'll be getting Wave 1 soonish (couple of months) and the rest of waves eventually. That beats "never" every time.
Oh, if only they had someone on the team who was dedicated to communications to handle things like this. I'm sure they'd be able to handle situations like this without alienating the backers / future customers. Oh, wait, they do. He's just busy collating the KS updates into a word document (possibly to see what else they promised in updates and forgot about at the end of the KS). Communications are next on the list though, right after triple checking the number of bases received.
BrookM wrote: Wave one will probably not happen before the timer in my sig runs out.
Jimsolo wrote: Other than the conspiracy theory remark, what exactly was condescending about that?
The rest of that message seemed pretty reasonable to me. (At least in tone.)
To me this was the worst bit:
Truly, I am sorry that we are unable to stay awake 24 hours a day to do it faster. Should we care care less about doing it right and put out crap and do it on time? Most of our backers want us to do it right, and take the time needed to do it right. Perhaps you prefer it differently? But that is not what this company is, and has ever been, about.
Alright, I guess I can see how someone could see it that way.
But didn't Unclebadtouch say that he had been 'pushing their buttons' in order to provoke a response? In the face of someone being, by his own admission, confrontational, I think at least a small degree of reproach might be warranted. All in all, this response seemed like an exceptionally polite way (overall) of saying "hold your horses Mac, I can't s--t you your minis."
Now, it's entirely possible I've missed a beat in my interpretation of the course of events. (And Unclebadtouch, I'm not throwing any harsh judgments at you, by the way! I only mention your name because it was your response.) But as it stands, it doesn't seem to be too harsh, and it doesn't seem to be too saccharine, either.
Clearly, how condescending is too condescending is a judgment call, but this doesn't seem to bad, at least to me.
KalashnikovMarine wrote: It is worth pointing out that Mirielle is Canadian and should allegedly speak English.
With a name like that, she is most likely from Quebec, which means that English is not be assumed at all. Her posts feel like they were written and mostly though in our version of English. But yeah... Canada is not to be assumed as a guarantor of good English. They ought to throw a bit of money across the Channel and hire a native speaker.
Jimsolo wrote: All in all, this response seemed like an exceptionally polite way (overall) of saying "hold your horses Mac, I can't s--t you your minis."
Actually, I think that would have gone over better At least with me. The bit quoted before starts to sound a lot like a grade school teacher addressing a kid having a grumpy time. If you want to tell another adult "We are going as fast as we can, calm the feth down." it is probably better to just say what you mean.
Unless maybe you are in a delicious sexy school teacher outfit... but I digress.
The problem is that "as fast as we can" is pretty damned slow by just about anyone's standards, and also really quiet and secretive when it comes to communication. Neither aspect is going to win the hearts of those who gave you money expecting something in return faster than you are making it happen.
Unless School Marm Mirielle is in aforementioned outfit. Then hearts might be won. Who knows.
I don't see how the sculpts are to blame. Didn't they know before hand how many sculpts they were going to produce for this KS? I seem to recall sculpts being unlocked by time-frame at the very end because they couldn't hit funding to unlock their stretches anyway.
KalashnikovMarine wrote: It is worth pointing out that Mirielle is Canadian and should allegedly speak English.
With a name like that, she is most likely from Quebec, which means that English is not be assumed at all. Her posts feel like they were written and mostly though in our version of English. But yeah... Canada is not to be assumed as a guarantor of good English. They ought to throw a bit of money across the Channel and hire a native speaker.
She is definitely from Quebec as I recall from our previous conversations.
Just so people can get a fuller picture here is the message I sent to them
"So it's now looking like no Nepharaya in the first or second wave. It seems strange that you've managed to find the time to sculpt miniatures that weren't even concept art at the beginning of the campaign (wereshewolves) yet you can't find the time to go back and sort what was to all visual purposes a layman a completed sculpt. Are you just now trying to hold back sculpts on purpose to stop people cashing out or have you realised it's an unmanufacturable mini and trying to keep backers in the dark?"
UNCLEBADTOUCH wrote: Just so people can get a fuller picture here is the message I sent to them
"So it's now looking like no Nepharaya in the first or second wave. It seems strange that you've managed to find the time to sculpt miniatures that weren't even concept art at the beginning of the campaign (wereshewolves) yet you can't find the time to go back and sort what was to all visual purposes a layman a completed sculpt. Are you just now trying to hold back sculpts on purpose to stop people cashing out or have you realised it's an unmanufacturable mini and trying to keep backers in the dark?"
I don't always like the cut of your jib, but I think it was a legitimate question. If their process is so awesome, how come they are still bottle necked that way? Is their vision so unique that they cannot train another art director? Gak, hire someone for each line of minis, then review only once a sculpt is finalized.
Mathieu Raymond wrote: I don't always like the cut of your jib, but I think it was a legitimate question. If their process is so awesome, how come they are still bottle necked that way? Is their vision so unique that they cannot train another art director? Gak, hire someone for each line of minis, then review only once a sculpt is finalized.
I think that at the end of the day Benoit is the one doing all the reviewing.
Wait wait wait, so their Super Secret Special Streamlined Workflow System(tm) is "work exactly like every other company does, but add an extra bureaucratic bottleneck that slows everyone else down drastically as they wait for approval"?
Urgh, don't even joke about that. Pretty much 33% of my working day is pre-meeting meetings. In fact, everytime I get a meeting invite now, I am reminded of this scene from Grosse Pointe Blank:
Jimsolo wrote: Other than the conspiracy theory remark, what exactly was condescending about that?
The rest of that message seemed pretty reasonable to me. (At least in tone.)
I can't help but think we've gone down this road before...
...or am I misremembering this?
I don't think so...Unclebadtouch just posted this, didn't he?
I mean, we might have had a similar conversation about a different post, of course (I'd be surprised if we hadn't) but I guess I'm still not seeing the reasoning for all the ruffled feathers here.
As has been said before, there is no tone to text. As a response to a question clearly intended to poke the bear, (and identified by the questioner as such) it seems pretty tame. What exactly would people have considered to be a reasonable response? Now that I've seen the question which precipitated this answer, their response seems downright pleasant. Certainly kinder than I would have been in a similar situation. (Probably why I don't do customer service...)
BrookM wrote: I think it's a bit weak to say Salute is part of the reason though. It's not like it was a big secret announced a week in advance or anything.
I think the Salute thing was a bunch of small mfgrs all ordering stock for Salute at the same time, jamming up the supplier.
I feel the need to make it emphatic that anyone who finds that response by Mireille condescending has led a pretty charmed life.
What struck me more was that the sender obviously raised enough of a stink to get a response, and a rather passionate response from a busy someone who took the time to tailor a rather tame and meaningful message just for them. Seems like a well-intentioned effort to me.
Mireille could have spent a bit more time responding in a more detailed way (ie. explain the workflow and where things are getting bogged down) but that's her prerogative.
I'm actually quite impressed by the level of activity we've seen from Raging Heroes. They may not be moving as fast as some would hope but they're showing results, and I have no doubt some of us will have a few in hand soon enough.
I think the stink some are throwing up is in direct proportion to said results, though.
They've shown relatively little compared to what they had actually hyped up. It's getting tiresome, but here are a few of the points they could address: 1)We never had any intention of releasing wave 1 in September 2013. 2)Our Tumblr feed where we said we'd show WIPs and slices of life in the RH office and what not, it's totally going to be weird fetish stuff instead. 3)Those updates we keep promising, we're just going to stop promising them and just drop them when we drop them. 4)The guy we hired? Totes not for communication, just an administrative assistant, but since he wouldn't take the position without a nice title, we gave him one. And now we can't hire a comms guy because it would screw up the org chart in the office, and those guys, they get catty.
Remember, in February 2013, when the campaign was "set to begin," they claimed they had been working on this for a year and a half. And now the number of sculpts has gone from 150 to 250 for reasons. So instead of working on what people pledged for first, they're showing us later stuff. Does it mean it'll come out first? Feth if I know, because they've been giving us that info by the droplet among a sea of self-congratulatory bullgak.
Man I'm happy I could articulate all of this, and here, rather than the KS comment page.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Who said Canadians are too nice?
Mathieu Raymond wrote: I think the stink some are throwing up is in direct proportion to said results, though.
They've shown relatively little compared to what they had actually hyped up. It's getting tiresome, but here are a few of the points they could address: 1)We never had any intention of releasing wave 1 in September 2013. 2)Our Tumblr feed where we said we'd show WIPs and slices of life in the RH office and what not, it's totally going to be weird fetish stuff instead. 3)Those updates we keep promising, we're just going to stop promising them and just drop them when we drop them. 4)The guy we hired? Totes not for communication, just an administrative assistant, but since he wouldn't take the position without a nice title, we gave him one. And now we can't hire a comms guy because it would screw up the org chart in the office, and those guys, they get catty.
Remember, in February 2013, when the campaign was "set to begin," they claimed they had been working on this for a year and a half. And now the number of sculpts has gone from 150 to 250 for reasons. So instead of working on what people pledged for first, they're showing us later stuff. Does it mean it'll come out first? Feth if I know, because they've been giving us that info by the droplet among a sea of self-congratulatory bullgak.
Man I'm happy I could articulate all of this, and here, rather than the KS comment page.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Who said Canadians are too nice?
I'm in agreement with all of the issues you mentioned Mathieu. I'm particularly irked by RH's pension for using corporate (unnecessary?) terminology that seems completely out of place for their size. I want to actually see a 'workflow,' not just hear about how wonderful and increasingly efficient their workflow is. What are the results? What kind of data are they using to support the idea that they're becoming more efficient? It's completely fair to criticize them on whatever things irk us, and to demand transparency and accountability. And even to get dramatic when we demand answers. But as long as RH is being reasonable, I would say, why can't we be reasonable as well? The project has its faults but it's progressing, and I think they've demonstrated here through messages, and through their (infrequent) updates, that they're doing what they can within their limits.
At this point, the matter becomes, as Mireille mentionned, "will the funds last long enough?" If they squandered too much of the money on getting the first few waves ready, will they run out before they can finish the campaign? They cannot expect that much cashflow from Wave 1, honestly, so that is my concern, be it legitimate or not.
Well they've given us another update but no pledge manager quite yet
Project Update #87: Update #87 – Shipping the TGG
As we were writing up the Pledge Manager instructions, we could not help but notice that there is quite a bit of information to digest.
So before opening the Pledge Manager, we thought we should break it down and provide key information about how shipping options will be handled. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION, please read it carefully.
All the information below may seem a wee bit complex, but in the end, the Pledge Manager is quite efficient and user-friendly, like a real regular webshop.
Lower price on Additional Wave Shipping First, the good news!
We've made some calculations to offer you a better deal on wave shipping than what we originally expected. At first, every additional wave shipment was supposed to ship at full shipping prices, that is between $20 and $26, but in the end, we are going to make it work at $14.95 for everybody (except France, which unfortunately has to remain at $10).
Read on for more details on how all of this works.
How will the Pledge Manager work? When you'll sign Into the Pledge Manager, you'll see that you have your very own 'store credit' which has been calculated just for you and is based on the amount you pledged.
All you'll have to do is fill your cart with the minis that you want, and use your store credit to pay for it.
If you want more minis than what your store credit allows, then you'll be taken to a payment page to pay for the additional minis you chose.
When the Pledge Manager goes live, if you see a problem with your account, please get in touch with me via private messages or via email (ragingheroes at gmail.com) and we'll find a solution.
How much will I pay for shipping? As you know, every one must pay for the TGG Shipping Fee (except for the one-item Private Pledge). Most of you have already done this. If you haven't, you'll be able to pay it before you get access to the full Pledge Manager (see last section below).
As a reminder, the standard TGG Shipping Fee is $10 for France, $20 for the European Union and Switzerland, $23 for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Norway and $26 for the Rest of the World.
So, once you have paid the TGG shipping fee, your options now are:
Standard Shipping: Wait until all the minis that you want are produced, and get them all at once. Drop Ship Waves: Get your shipment in 2 or 3 Waves at the Drop Ship location of your choice. Personal Wave Shipping: Get your rewards in several waves by adding 1 or 2 additional Shipping Waves for $14.95 per wave ($10 for France). Keep reading to find out how you will be able to inform us of your choice.
How will Shipping work? Case 1: You've already added your TGG Shipping Fee when you paid for your Pledge. Cool!
When you Sign Into the Pledge Manager, you will see that you have your very own 'store credit' based on the amount you pledged.
This store credit includes the funds necessary for your shipping.
Here is an example: If you pledged $50 + $23 for shipping, your store credit will be $73. With this, you can choose $50 worth of miniatures, and then you'll proceed to Check Out, where you will have to enter your address and pay for shipping, and your remaining $23 will cover that.
If you don't mentally set aside the price of shipping while you are filling your cart with minis, you will have to pay for this fee when you Check Out, with Paypal or with a credit card.
So, in our example, if instead of setting aside your $23 for shipping, you spend all your store credit (that is, $73) on miniatures, then you will be asked to pay an additional $23 at Check Out.
Case 2: You did NOT add your TGG Shipping Fee when you paid for your Pledge. No worries.
In this case, when you will first Sign Into the Pledge Manager, you will not see any miniatures... You will have to pay for your shipping first, by selecting the appropriate shipping fee.
Once you've paid that, within 48 hours (and in most cases, much faster), we'll increase your Store Credit by the amount you just paid, and give you access to the full Pledge Manager.
Once you access the full Pledge Manager, you are then back to Case 1 above, so please review those instructions as well
OK, how will I tell you which shipping option I want? You'll choose your Shipping Method when you Check Out. There, what you do will depend on what you want.
Standard Shipping (cost: standard TGG Shipping Fee)
At checkout, in Shipping Method, choose Standard Shipping Drop Ship Waves (cost: standard TGG Shipping Fee)
Go to this page and choose your Drop Ship location Copy its name and address to avoid errors. When you are on the Check Out page, in Billing Details, enter your own details In Shipping Details, paste the name and address of your Drop Ship Location (please use Copy and Paste to avoid errors) In Shipping Method, choose Drop Ship Waves There must be at least 3 backers picking up their reward at the same Drop Ship location to be valid. If there are less than 3 backers, we'll have to cancel this Drop Ship location. We'll keep you informed if this happens.
Personal Wave Shipping (cost: standard TGG Shipping Fee+ $14.85 per wave)
When you are on the Check Out page, in Shipping Method, check either Personal Wave Shipping – 2 waves or Personal Wave Shipping – 3 waves In Order Confirmation, first pay with your Store Credit, then click on Proceed to Payment to cover the cost of the additional waves. Note: You CANNOT use your Store Credit to pay for additional waves beyond your original shipping fee. If you do, we will NOT be able to process your Pledge. You must Proceed to Payment and pay for the cost of the additional waves.
If your case is not covered here, please get in touch with me via private messages or via email (ragingheroes at gmail.com).
Phhhwwwew! Well, there you have it. I hope it was not too tedious to read. Do you think you'll be using Standard Shipping, Drop Ship Wave, or Wave Shipping or Personal Wave Shipping?
On an unrelated topic, we had this week a good working session together with our 2 foundries. We had a very long three-way conversation. It was very enlightening for everybody as it was the first time we had the opportunity to review all together the entire production process from sculpting to packaging, rather than on one-on-one sessions. And we all discovered a few more ways to make everybody's job more efficient so that we can get the TGG out faster to you!
Sharing our three points in view, it became obvious that we are all pushing the boundaries of what can be done in miniature-making. We are all very excited about this as the results are already quite top-notch.
Oh, and by the way, did you know that at the mould-making stage, the masters used to make a production moulds have to bear up to 5 tons of pressure?
so we've now got a cost for multi wave shipping (and it's cheaper than I thought at $14.85 for each extra wave) and confirmation that there will be 3 waves in total
See, I read that post as sarcasm. Was I wrong to do so?
And for the record, I'll say this: the pledge manager should come with the content of the other waves. If it's only three waves, then they had better have it locked down and figured out who's going to be when and where.
And will they please just throw BrookM a bone and show Wolfenstein's render, please?
Yeah the waves better be cocked and locked, especially if they want me to put out for wave shipping like the twitter weaned instant gratification malcontent capitalist pig dog I am.
See, I read that post as sarcasm. Was I wrong to do so?
And for the record, I'll say this: the pledge manager should come with the content of the other waves. If it's only three waves, then they had better have it locked down and figured out who's going to be when and where.
And will they please just throw BrookM a bone and show Wolfenstein's render, please?
No sarcasm, totally serious! While it's entirely possible that this 'it's right around the corner, no really' is just stalling, I'm gullible enough to believe it. I'm really stoked to see some movement on this project!
Mathieu Raymond wrote: And will they please just throw BrookM a bone and show Wolfenstein's render, please?
I am Anti-pledger One, I have been marked with scorn and contempt over what I have said and done, chances are the one mini I want will be kept away from us until the final wave.
Project Update #88: Raging Heroes - The Toughest Girls of the Galaxy by Loud'n Raging
Project Update #88: Update #88 – Pledge Manager coming soon!
Posted by Loud'n Raging ♥ Like
We now hope to have the pledge manager complete and sent out to you all by the first weekend of June.
The pledge manager was actually complete, but then the new update came out and it looked so much better than the pledge manager that we simply had to go back and scrap the old pledge manager and create a new one from scratch that was up to the new standards set by our updates. In order to facilitate the workflow of the latest update of the pledge manager, a more verbose update was required in order to prepare the twitter-weaned, instant gratification-minded backer base who would not understand that the way of a true artist requires an attention to detail and a willingness to scrap an entire pledge manager if it was simply not up to scratch on later review or reflection. With this update in place, we were then able to go ahead with our updates to the pledge manager, after needing to scrap an entire 80% complete iteration we decided that it would be best for all of us, and especially you, our fans, if we reiterated the next iteration.
Simply put - A pledge manager, like any other creation that needs to be produced falls into the simple paradigm - you can have it fast, you can have it good, or you can have it cheap.
We being Raging Heroes, only the very best will suffice, and so fast and cheap are out of the question!
Speaking of cheap, did you know that Raging Heroes' TGG Kickstarter was the highest-grossing non-game related Kickstarter ever? Unless you count Reaper Bones, and Raging Heroes' models will be so much nicer and in far better types of hard plastic than Reaper's Bones models.
Plastic.
Did we say plastic?
By plastic, we meant spin-cast resin, also known as Restic to some of you. Which is a material that we know you love and enjoy. However, our restic foundry is the very best of its kind in the world so you will under no circumstances have any issues at all with our iteration of this fine material, and rest assured that we have been assured that the material will hold the fine detail that you love and expect from Raging Heroes! Of course we have other materials that you may request our models in. For example, our heroines will be produced in hand-poured resin, and also the highest quality of white metal. Unfortunately, the resin models are already pre-sold out, despite the fact that the pledge manager hasn't been released to the masses yet, but that's really not important, because our white metal foundry is the very best of its kind in the world, as the many fans and adorants of Raging Heroes over the years will be familiar with from our existing models and sculptures.
Back to the pledge manager for a moment, of course you must attempt to understand that the reason it has taken a little longer than some of the more impatient of you would have liked is because for efficiency and efficacy we need to make sure and ensure that the pledge manager synergises with our unique and proprietary manner of project management, and that it is appropriately verbose, though we understand that this makes it hard for some of you plebians to comprehend at times.
Still, the height of quality is our own self-imposed rule, and we know that you would never have it any other way than the Raging Heroes' way and our quality, as you know is second only to our modesty and efficiency.
Well, again, they've made a massive post about shipping options and neglected/forgotten to include details of the private drop shipping that was offered back in update 63. When questioned, rather than actually give a response that may be helpful to others, the suggestion was that it was an unusual case and it'd be a case of contacting them directly.
As for the pledge manager itself, a lot of what they seem to have built into it sounds overly restrictive. Especially the whole initial postage thing, with them not even showing you figures unless you've made a payment for shipping up front and then waited for them to apply that as credit to your account. But be careful, you can't decide to make a single payment to cover all of the shipping waves, as they'll shout at you when you use store credit for them.
Hehe, almost had me as well. Though the first give away is that they only just posted an update, now that they're not after money there's a minimum time between updates that they have to keep to.
When will we know what each wave will consist of ? By that I mean will the waves be split to average out how many models are purchased or by equal spacing of dates ? Will we get to pick what each wave will consist of ?
Creator Loud'n Raging about 12 hours ago
@David Brooks: Excellent questions! I knew I was forgetting something in this Update...
What we would like to do is this:
2nd Wave: all remaining metal Heroines + all the Troops + a few additional items
3rd Wave: everything else
In all cases, as soon as your rewards are shippable, we'll dispatch your parcel. So you may actually receive your 2nd and/or 3rd shipment ahead of the official Wave dates.
Because models are pretty much done one after the other, we will be receiving new casts on a regular basis, rather than in 3 big shipments. What this means to you and all backers is that as soon as your order is shippable, we'll put in in the Post. So if you get a total of 2 waves, you will get your first shipment with Wave 1, but you may get your 2nd shipment earlier than the official 2nd Wave date, if we can ship everything before then.
Nevertheless, there may be special cases.
Let's say that for example, you choose Personal Wave Shipping – 2 Waves.
It may happen that you want us to hold back on a shipment. Perhaps you planned to only get Troop Boxes and Artillery, which would be available only at the time of the 2nd and 3rd Wave. However, if your pledge makes you eligible for the Freebees, there will be several of those shippable in Wave 1. Normally, this would mean that we would send you a 1st package with only the Freebees, and then a 2nd package at the time of Wave 3 with the Troops and Artillery that you've selected.
By default, we will always ship everything that is shippable at the date of an official Wave Release.
However, in a case like this, if you wanted us to hold back your 1st parcel (containing only the Freebees) so that you can make use of your 2 shipments over the 2nd and 3rd Wave, you would have to let us know via email. However, I will also if I can make it possible for all backers to give us instructions directly within the Pledge Manager.
Finally, regarding the content of the Waves: things can change.
As I wrote to someone a few minutes ago, what the foundries have done so far lead us to believe that they will do the job on a timely basis. Nevertheless, we are sending A LOT of work their way, so surprises can always happen.
And finally, please remember that if you choose to get spin-cast Heroines, most of them will be available only in the 3rd Wave, for reasons explained in previous Updates.
The whole update is a mess, add in the update on how to choose what material to have your figures in, and it feels like they're just gaking around whilst they try and sort out the mess that they've ended up in.
I feel that the vast majority of those who backed are experienced gamers, who already have their own opinions on what materials they like working with and should be able to figure out a simple pledge manager. Where as RH give the impression that they're treating us all like numpties who wouldn't be able to tell a metal figure from a lump of coal (all be it one that's been through hundreds of iterations of sculpting). Though in doing this, they're missing bits out and having to write long winded explanations in the comments. They're also spreading the limited information over several updates so people are going to miss things when the big day actually arrives.
I've also just been through my PM communications with them, whilst waiting for a better response to my current question on private drop shipping. I've sent 6 messages in total and had four back, though one of those was the 'spam' about not forgetting to add shipping during the campaign. Whilst I'm sure there are others who've had a better response rate, it doesn't bode well for any non-trivial issues that do arise during the pledge manager stage.
The last two updates do seem a tad verbose. But it seems like a case of too much information being better than not enough. I grant that most of us don't need it, but at least a couple of people will.
(For instance, I have almost ZERO experience with resin barring two Finecast kits that I only got into this past month. The materials breakdown update did provide me with information I didn't already have, although it didn't wind up influencing my decision.)
That's why a graph would have been great with that. A flowchart would have taken care of extraneous text, and at the same time would have helped them realize that a lot of the cases end in "send RH an email to sort it out."
With that in mind, I would advise everyone to keep it as simple as possible. There are close to three thousand ways there could be a mix up, that we know of. Who knows how many extra backers were gleaned with Paypal.
So my pool date of May 15th is quickly coming. I think it'll be still a few weeks 'til we get the pledge manager. Give everyone a couple of weeks to fill it out, so 4 weeks from now they should be able to begin compiling data. Then sorting packages. Let's say an extra four weeks of compiling, sorting and shipping. Mid-July. With Wave 2 in September, barely 6 weeks later. 0_o
Automatically Appended Next Post: And that materials update would have made a great filler update during the winter, Jimsolo. As you said, not everyone knows all the materials out there, it was informative, but it means it bumped vital information off the update and relegated it to the comments' section.
Yes, but since when is the truth going to get in the way of good PR? It's that person's word against theirs, and for the good it'll do, I'd just chalk it up to marketing, or right hand ignoring left hand.
I'm so confused. I am actually fearing the arrival of the pledge manager (sometime about 2016) because of the 24 page essay that will accompany it. Can I just catch one wave , you know , like a surfer?
I'm still patient, I just have no idea what's going on anymore....hmmmm...maybe I'll get mathieu to translate my pledge manager , that might help. Oh god I just had a thought, this pledge manager isn't actually a thing they are going to send me, it's just a forthcoming position they are going to fill in the company , just like the communications manager who is communicating stuff.
Last couple updates, after dedicating a weekend and several interns to read through the manuscript, I'm feeling optimistic. It sounds like we're close, people: CLOSE.
Well, as of 21 hours ago they confirmed the pledge manager was ready but they'd had so many questions come up they were putting together another update to answer them before launching the pledge manager.
That's from a comment on update 87, on mobile so can't really copy it over.
prankster wrote: Well, as of 21 hours ago they confirmed the pledge manager was ready but they'd had so many questions come up they were putting together another update to answer them before launching the pledge manager.
That's from a comment on update 87, on mobile so can't really copy it over.
Oh God no, please tell me this is another Poe-based pisstake, because I honestly can't tell any more.
BrookM wrote: If it's done, why oh why are they stalling so much..
Because if they don't dispense enough information about it, how can you appreciate its grandeur?
Or non-snarky: They've received enough messages asking questions about stuff they thought was crystal clear, that they don't want to be flooded with messages regarding the use of said PM, on top of all the emails they set themselves up to receive because of all the special handling people are going to request.
Because, as the French can easily tell you, a true master keeps you at the plateau stage until you just can't take it any more. And then for a few heartbeats more to bring you to submission.
Hm, don't think so. Looks like metal casts, which are the first I've seen. Most of the older pics were of 3D prints being cleaned. Definitely Mortaria Noctis though.
Loud'n Raging about 2 hours ago
After our last update regarding the Pledge Manager, we received many messages asking pertinent questions. Some of them meant that we even had to talk again with our suppliers or our drop shippers to see how we would handle certain specific cases.
So we modified a few things in the pledge manager itself to accommodate your needs.
We are currently writing an update that summarize all this info. The pledge manager will go live shortly after you get this update.
Finally, we've just added a live chat to the pledge manager so we can answer many of your questions in real time.
We hope this will give you the best possible experience with the Pledge Manager.
Today isn't the day, they've not had a full week to write this update.
On a tangent, Darklands 2.5, ended last month, is about to start shipping wave 0 rewards. Not quite the same thing, as they're existing figures, but it's still 2 steps ahead oh RH.
I though they were just producing X hundreds of each figure and then hoping they've got the numbers right. That's certainly the way they seem to deal with concerns about production delays.
I had another look at the KS front page
Kind of funny?
"We prepared this Kickstarter project for an entire year, working with top artists and suppliers (and planning for every potential pitfall we could think of);
[...] The first wave is planned as soon as September;"
Stop asking questions you bad, bad people, it distracts them!
now with my plea out of the way the update about the pledge manager update part 2
Here is another short update, because many things are happening around the Pledge Manager.
So first of all, please note this address: ragingheroesteam at gmail.com
Just replace the spaces and the word at by @.
If you have any questions about your pledge or the pledge manager, contact us there (or by Private Message via Kickstarter). We've created this email address especially to answer all of your pledge related questions.
What's going on with the Pledge Manager?
After our previous Update regarding the Pledge Manager, we received many messages asking very pertinent questions.
Some of them meant that we even had to talk again with our suppliers and our drop shippers to see how we would handle certain specific cases. So we modified a few things in the Pledge Manager itself to accommodate your needs.
Furthermore, we've just added a Live Chat to the Pledge Manager so we can answer many of your questions in real time. We hope this will give you the best possible experience with the Pledge Manager.
We are currently writing another Update that summarises all this info. The Pledge Manager will go live very shortly after you get that update.
New Images
In the meantime, we've also have made a few new images (scroll down to see them all) for the Pledge Manager.
But first, please note that we caught a few mix-ups in the Artillery renders that you may have seen in previous Updates. Therefore, to make sure you know which Servants go with which Artillery Mount, you will need to refer to the Pledge Manager images. They will show the definitive combinations.
And now, for the images:
•The freebie Kristina Karlstein (IE) has been redone.
•Commander Elektra Eisenstein (KST) has been upgraded to a more epic look.
•Arsuhka (KST Yaga) has been completely re-created as we never thought that she was up to par with her two other Yaga sisters. Her sculpt is being redone now.
•We've shown Heleria Drakkenfeld before, but you've never really seen her Heavy Lightning Gun.
•You'll also discover the alternate arms of Snow Ivanka...
•... as well as the final version of the pilot for the KST Mecha.
•And we've also thrown in a new render of KST Sniper Karmina Noxx in the mix, just because we thought it looked cool
I'm still looking forward to the minis (eventually)
So first of all, please note this address: ragingheroesteam at gmail.com
Just replace the spaces and the word at by @.
Why didn't they just write...[text removed]?
Because they are afraid of spambots. By not putting the actual email address directly on the forum written that way, automated bots can't pull the address. The OP has asked me to remove the address the way you wrote it, so I have. --yakface
So first of all, please note this address: ragingheroesteam at gmail.com
Just replace the spaces and the word at by @.
Why didn't they just write...?
It's a semi-safe way of posting an email without catching spam bots, who then spam your inbox with Nigerian Princes asking for money, all-natural male enhancement pills, and chances to win all-expenses-paid vacations.
As to the update, I'm not all that impressed with the new Eisentein head. It's a bit too....pinup inspired, which is weird to think about. I think it's the tilt of the hat. Hope there's another head option closer to the original, which had a very Angelina Jolie as Franky in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. This model looks more like a bomber pilot with a sword than an armored vehicle commander. The wolf pelt is a nice new addition, though.
Anyone have a TLR for the actual copy in this update? I couldn't be bothered. My best guess is: "Hurry up and wait."
So first of all, please note this address: ragingheroesteam at gmail.com
Just replace the spaces and the word at by @.
Why didn't they just write ?
Tactic to foil spammers scraping web pages for email addresses. It's not completely effective, since it's a pattern that can easily added to a program that's scanning, but better than nothing I suppose.
-iPaint- wrote: It's a semi-safe way of posting an email without catching spam bots, who then spam your inbox with Nigerian Princes asking for money, all-natural male enhancement pills, and chances to win all-expenses-paid vacations.
Krinsath wrote: Tactic to foil spammers scraping web pages for email addresses. It's not completely effective, since it's a pattern that can easily added to a program that's scanning, but better than nothing I suppose.
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote: Too many email harvesting robots online, if you put up a full email address you end up with mega spam
It would probably work better if you all stopped posting the unmodified version.
It's a semi-safe way of posting an email without catching spam bots, who then spam your inbox with Nigerian Princes asking for money, all-natural male enhancement pills, and chances to win all-expenses-paid vacations.
~iPaint
Wait, those pills are a scam? I'm...asking for a friend....
-iPaint- wrote: It's a semi-safe way of posting an email without catching spam bots, who then spam your inbox with Nigerian Princes asking for money, all-natural male enhancement pills, and chances to win all-expenses-paid vacations.
Krinsath wrote: Tactic to foil spammers scraping web pages for email addresses. It's not completely effective, since it's a pattern that can easily added to a program that's scanning, but better than nothing I suppose.
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote: Too many email harvesting robots online, if you put up a full email address you end up with mega spam
It would probably work better if you all stopped posting the unmodified version.
What, you're afraid a wave of spam emails is going to dramatically affect the efficiency of their workflow and delay them for months on end and oh wait nevermind.
Not content with a glacial forward crawl, Raging Heroes has decided to go full golbal warming and go backwards for a while.
Otherwise, what would they pay their concept artist for?
Compel: It's supposably (I know, we say supposedly, but this was for added effect) over 3000 backers, since they harpooned a lot of people with the PayPal option. And yes, a Live Chat that will only be live during business hours in France. Glorious.
-iPaint- wrote: It's a semi-safe way of posting an email without catching spam bots, who then spam your inbox with Nigerian Princes asking for money, all-natural male enhancement pills, and chances to win all-expenses-paid vacations.
Krinsath wrote: Tactic to foil spammers scraping web pages for email addresses. It's not completely effective, since it's a pattern that can easily added to a program that's scanning, but better than nothing I suppose.
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote: Too many email harvesting robots online, if you put up a full email address you end up with mega spam
It would probably work better if you all stopped posting the unmodified version.
Wait, what? Did someone actually post the full email?
Discussing the patterns for circumventing the spam bots does not contribute to the spam bots getting the emails. They aren't sentient A.I.s. reading along with us.
And wait, what? A chat system? We're getting a communication system for this Kickstarter?!? Was that a stretch goal? Did they hire someone to handle all of that?
AlexHolker wrote: It would probably work better if you all stopped posting the unmodified version.
Wait, what? Did someone actually post the full email?
Scroll up. Read your post.
Touche.
Still, it is a bit odd that they didn't just post the email address. Google does a pretty good job of collecting spam and preventing it from getting through. Also, they have emails under their own domain name on their website. I can't imagine a few forum posts on DakkaDakka will constitute a DoS attack or anything malicious for RH. Bit of an extreme caution on their part, but I understand your concern. Nobody wants to get a load of emails for winning a FREE IPAD, or to MEET LOCAL SINGLES.
Every time I feel like I've gotten just tired enough of being given silly information, excuses for delays, and more minutia I didn't need as a response to a legitimate question that never got answered, every time I feel like I'm JUST about to switch to the other side of the hate-fence, they show some more art/renders like those, and I fall in love all over again.
This must be what an abusive relationship is like.
And my wife vetoed the penguin costume purchase, .
It's often easier to sell your spouse on a costume if you two will have occasion to wear it more than once. By which I mean you have to get her excited about using it for 'role playing'.
That's why we got our commissar outfit.
The penguin suit might be a tougher sell, but if you pull it off you'll be an internet legend.*
Jimsolo wrote:Every time I feel like I've gotten just tired enough of being given silly information, excuses for delays, and more minutia I didn't need as a response to a legitimate question that never got answered, every time I feel like I'm JUST about to switch to the other side of the hate-fence, they show some more art/renders like those, and I fall in love all over again.
I understand where you're coming from with this. As much as their gaking around makes me angry with the models still look good. Though personally, I'm at the point where shiny new art/renders/whatever doesn't bring me back, the only thing that will possibly do that is three largish boxes from France with my pledge rewards in.
BrookM wrote:Oh well, t'was but a dream.
So, who's still in the pool?
I'm still in, think there's one other, but can't recall who.
Oooh I just thought of a good game: Get together all the photos and pictures both pre KS and in the updates (all 50 of them) and mark down somewhere what date they were posted. Then shuffle up the pictures and post them without the dates, and see if people can guess correctly when the picture first showed up, or at least what stage of the KS (Pre, During, Post).
Mathieu Raymond wrote: The malcontents are gaining the upper hand on the comments section.
I wonder if there will be a post-mortem of the campaign at RH HQ and they'll wonder... "What if we hadn't alienated a good portion of our backers?"
That would require far more introspection that I suspect they have. They will probably wonder "Why weren't they more grateful for all the work we put into things? We made everything thrice so they would have the best possible models and still they whined!"
Still holding out hope for some Iron Empire stuff at retail, but that's a candle-flame slowly guttering out as other stuff shoulders it's way past to the front of the checkout line...
Last time I saw it referred to was last September on their blog
"Artbook
Regarding the Digital Artbook, we realized something very obvious that we completely missed when we wrote down the delivery date of this reward: If we make an artbook about a whole new line of minis, wouldn't it be nice that the Artbook also feature sculpts and minis, and not just the concept art? So we don't intend to keep you you waiting until we have sculpted each and every miniature, but at least we would like to feature some of them in the book.
We'd really like to take the Artbook as an opportunity to include and showcase the entire process of the creative work of making the Toughest Girls of the Galaxy, rather than stopping at the design part.
This also means that we'll be able to show you the sculpts in a different way than what we usually show on the website. For example, we may use the 3D renders of the sculpts to create illustrations, stage them in various settings, the way we did in our Kickstarter video:
The artbook will also include a few original illustrations and here's a sneak preview: Svetlana, the Freedom Fighter of the Kurgans (see her story here), running with the wereshewolves and rallying her followers.
"
so it sounds like it will be aftermost of the production is done.....
Mathieu Raymond wrote: They said that in March? On the 10th? It's over 2 months ago? All of that for a bloody live chat that isn't even open yet?
Jimsolo, prankster: I'd be happier if what we saw were models, not renders, not concept art. This gak is getting old real quick.
Not just any live chat, a Raging Heroes live chat. Guaranteed to be the most delicious online experience you've never had. Of course, it'll be down for tweaks, reworkings and sweeping changes 80% of the time until they decide they don't like the idea and replace it with a picture of Jinx.
But still, 18 days until we're likely to see the pledge manager.
Wehrkind wrote: Oooh I just thought of a good game: Get together all the photos and pictures both pre KS and in the updates (all 50 of them) and mark down somewhere what date they were posted. Then shuffle up the pictures and post them without the dates, and see if people can guess correctly when the picture first showed up, or at least what stage of the KS (Pre, During, Post).
It would be like Professor-or-Hobo.
You could make an awesome Raging Heroes Kickstarter Buzzword Drinking Game, I bet...
Awesome
Workflow
Production
Process
Efficient
Best
Possible
Wave
Previous update
Next update
Pledge Manager
Redone
Rework
Approved
Finished
Not quite
Tweak
Almost
Nearly
Cool
Mascot
Blondie
Lulu
Objective Marker
PayPal
Facebook
Tumblr
Twitter
Private Message
Understand
80
Art book
Unfortunately
Delay
Sorry
September
Confident
Soon
Wehrkind wrote: Oooh I just thought of a good game: Get together all the photos and pictures both pre KS and in the updates (all 50 of them) and mark down somewhere what date they were posted. Then shuffle up the pictures and post them without the dates, and see if people can guess correctly when the picture first showed up, or at least what stage of the KS (Pre, During, Post).
It would be like Professor-or-Hobo.
You could make an awesome Raging Heroes Kickstarter Buzzword Drinking Game, I bet...
alanmckenzie wrote:How about a game of TGG Update #89 Bingo?
Awesome
Workflow
Production
Process
Efficient
Best
Possible
Wave
Previous update
Next update
Pledge Manager
Redone
Rework
Approved
Finished
Not quite
Tweak
Almost
Nearly
Cool
Mascot
Blondie
Lulu
Objective Marker
PayPal
Facebook
Tumblr
Twitter
Private Message
Understand
80
Art book
Unfortunately
Delay
Sorry
September
Confident
Soon
How many will they hit?
Place your bets?
All in fun, of course.
Azazelx wrote:
Wehrkind wrote: Oooh I just thought of a good game: Get together all the photos and pictures both pre KS and in the updates (all 50 of them) and mark down somewhere what date they were posted. Then shuffle up the pictures and post them without the dates, and see if people can guess correctly when the picture first showed up, or at least what stage of the KS (Pre, During, Post).
It would be like Professor-or-Hobo.
You could make an awesome Raging Heroes Kickstarter Buzzword Drinking Game, I bet...
Ok lads, let's do this. Take a shot every time one of those words come up past the first time in the next update. That is, if they use it once, no drink. Every subsequent time, however, take a shot.
You win internets if you post a video of yourself doing it. You can then reflect on your fame and glory on the ride to the hospital.
Well, judging by the last update, Pledge Manager is going to be the dangerous one. Assuming, of course, that the next update is actually the pre-PM update rather than another filler arc whilst they redo the pledge manager because they suddenly realised they'd not included an add to cart button on any of the items.
Now, now, you don't really think that a mere cart is a grand enough receptacle to hold the exquisite (re)works of art that are being produced here do you?
Tut tut...nothing less than a full-on palanquin would be used here! However, upon realizing this the PM will be delayed while they engineer proper digital slaves to bear it about the store and you can watch as the selections appear to be dropped on it, your e-servant's knees growing shakier the more models you add.
Also, the word reminds me of penguin, which is now eminently tied to RH for me. So there's that too... (damn you BrookM!)
I've reached a new stage of "well, screw this crap" when I got my order of FemCadians from Victoria Miniatures yesterday. Modular, female guardsmen cast in high quality resin with no flaws, hardly any flash and all you need to do is give it a wash like other resin products out there.
One day, they'll have to realize that quality and aesthetics are perceived notions and will not move minis on their own, necessarily. If they wait too long between releases, then they'll stay on the sidelines.
They may not be the leggiest, thinnest or sexiest soldiers, but at least the FemCadians fit in with the rest of my existing Guard metals and resins:
Also, holy gaking gak, the Kurganova is slightly crouched and still a full head taller.. It's a good thing I didn't put in a mega-pledge, otherwise I'd have one half of the army look like midgets next to poorly dressed amazonians.
While I love my Leviathan, I am not a fan of his not-space Germans and not-Hanomag with toy wheels. I'm keeping the TGG miniatures in my army to a minimum, maybe even confined to just that one right there, makes for an excellent officer of the fleet, the extra height can easily be explained as her being a void born.
Their increased size, compared to existing options, can be a cause for concern. Especially as, at the time, they still hadn't decided what scale the troopers were going to be. Part of the reason I went in for the level I did was to try and mitigate that a little.
Though void born is a good reason to have a few that stand above the average IG trooper.
And the Eisenkern are actually slightly taller than GW stuff as well by about half a head. However, the bases they come on are shorter so the differential isn't as readily apparent if both are based on what they come with.
They also appear taller (I based a squad of Eisenkern on 25mm bases) because their proportions are closer to true. Space Marines look really squat and compact next to them. The Kurganovas look like Iman is leading the charge, which can be it's own cool thing.
I'll have no more than a squad and a sprinkling of heroines. I'm curious about Aleksandr Kurganov, I must admit.
Mathieu Raymond wrote: Please, tell me you're playing on a veterans' list... or that you have so much money you can send me a cheque.
Honestly, it's your money, you go guy, I'm as bad as you... but the amount is staggering even by GW's prices these days.
Like, again, not judging you, just impressed.
Yep, veterans list. I only sunk a little over 300 into this. Planning on running vets in boxes with some tanks to back it up. (I thought Valhallans-on-a-desert-world would make a great theme that would give me a good choice for basing, an already existing color scheme, and a good explanation for why my Jailbird models are all in various levels of out-of-uniform.)
Good plan. I first thought I could use them as Adepta Sororitas, but a less baroque version. But the codex is a bit lackluster.
We're in it about the same, before I factor in the half my friend bought out of me so far. The only problem is, he'll only pay me once I give him the minis.
I have about $150 in down from $300 and I'll probably add a bit more from the manager. None of it's for an army any more though. Just more cool single characters and figs to paint, and none of the girls are nearly as expensive as say my Twilight Knight from KD.
And for the record I have a squad of Victoria's fem guard and I freaking love them. Amazing models and well worth $50.
Huh - that scale's an interesting question. I was debating making a small group to work as kind of a "Sororitas-in-training" squad to bolster my sisters, but if the scale's that different, I might just get a couple for display pieces and call it good.
BrookM wrote: Maybe we should lock this thread in 15 days and start afresh with one where we can edit the subject and first post when something does happen.
Maybe. That's not a bad idea, though how often does anything actually happen?.... "New Gif Page 80!"
Sad to lock this one though. Are we having anniversary celebrations?
I've been reading this thread since Kickstarter finished and have been enjoying it greatly. Everytime RH posts another Best Update On Kickstarter By A French Company, first place I go is here.
Anyway, I've been thinking quite hard about this the last few days, especially since the scale discussion emerged here a while back and since Victoria released her much-more-40k-compliant guardswomen. Some of you mentioned something about people demanding refunds? Does that even work? I know Kickstarter cannot help here, so it's up to Their Benevolence to grant such a thing, but does anyone know any details? I realised that I probably got way overexcited back then and just went for too high a pledge. Perhaps it would be better for me to just demand a refund and then, perhaps, repurchase the interesting heroines in 10 years, once they are released. Anyone who can shed some light on this?
But once they've heard from the beta testers surely they'll have to re-work the entire pledge manager for optimal exquisiteness. It needs to be a complete experience, not just some sort of on-line shoppng trip......
I've been reading this thread since Kickstarter finished and have been enjoying it greatly. Everytime RH posts another Best Update On Kickstarter By A French Company, first place I go is here.
Anyway, I've been thinking quite hard about this the last few days, especially since the scale discussion emerged here a while back and since Victoria released her much-more-40k-compliant guardswomen. Some of you mentioned something about people demanding refunds? Does that even work? I know Kickstarter cannot help here, so it's up to Their Benevolence to grant such a thing, but does anyone know any details? I realised that I probably got way overexcited back then and just went for too high a pledge. Perhaps it would be better for me to just demand a refund and then, perhaps, repurchase the interesting heroines in 10 years, once they are released. Anyone who can shed some light on this?
At this point, you're hanging onto their goodwill to grand a refund, minus the KS and Amazon percentages. Since we're "so close" to getting an update about how close we are to fullfillment of a little under 10% of the minis, I'd say lick your wounds, and put them on eBay if you really can't stand having them/want to recoup your loses.
I've been reading this thread since Kickstarter finished and have been enjoying it greatly. Everytime RH posts another Best Update On Kickstarter By A French Company, first place I go is here.
Anyway, I've been thinking quite hard about this the last few days, especially since the scale discussion emerged here a while back and since Victoria released her much-more-40k-compliant guardswomen. Some of you mentioned something about people demanding refunds? Does that even work? I know Kickstarter cannot help here, so it's up to Their Benevolence to grant such a thing, but does anyone know any details? I realised that I probably got way overexcited back then and just went for too high a pledge. Perhaps it would be better for me to just demand a refund and then, perhaps, repurchase the interesting heroines in 10 years, once they are released. Anyone who can shed some light on this?
At this point, you're hanging onto their goodwill to grand a refund, minus the KS and Amazon percentages. Since we're "so close" to getting an update about how close we are to fullfillment of a little under 10% of the minis, I'd say lick your wounds, and put them on eBay if you really can't stand having them/want to recoup your loses.
Or, depending on what you picked up and how high your pledge was, contact Jimsolo and see if he'll buy them off you for what you paid for them. If you're just wanting to break even in a hurry, that is. Otherwise just wait patiently OR wait impatiently and then ebay them.
Plus, I feel there may be a glut of TGG figures on eBay in the 'near' future.
As for the pledge manager, it's good that they're testing it. Though the only person I've seen mention it is one of the heralds, so I'm not sure what kind of feedback they're going to get
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, going by the comments from the KS comments section, a few days.. Does this mean we'll get the pledge manager or will we be getting a manual for using this complex piece of software first?
They delayed working on the Pledge Manager by quite a few months because they wanted to know where they were, how they stood with production, the content of the waves, and all sorts of stuff. Fine.
But then they come up with a webstore that encompasses all of the campaign, and we still don't know what the content of waves 2 and 3 (or 4 or more) will be... I call BS. Could they have changed their minds? Yes. Could they have told us to lessen the insult to our intelligence, I think so.
The answer is simple
They have no idea what they want to do and how they might get there.
To me, all what they are doing (besides the sculpting) is random stuff that shouldn't happen at all.
Joking aside, the RH sculpts have always been VERY good. It's one of the reasons I tossed money at them in the first place. But Victoria's models are pretty damn good, too, and from the sounds of it, more in scale with 40k.
Granted, the TGG models fit my aesthetic a bit better, but if they're out of scale, as I said earlier, I'll get a few for display models (or heroes) and go with Victoria's for the actual game.
Personally, I'm fine with a more 30-32mm scale. I know that GW is typically what people compare stuff to, but ugh, it's such a poor comparison to make in terms of proportions. GW's models tend to be too short in the torsos and have impossible hip joints.
The pledge manager is set up like a webstore. You make all your selections and then use your pledge as a store credit. All the figures have pictures, either the renders or concept art for figs not finalized yet. You have shopping cart functionality you'd expect on any webstore. I was invited to test it and was able to set up my pledge without much difficulty. Most of the issues we found were cosmetic. I can't say specifically when they will open it, as I don't know. But I can't imagine it will be much longer. It was pretty awesome seeing all the stuff we unlocked in one place. Reminder, I am not an employee of RH.
Aaaaaand let there be light at the end of the tunnel(?):
ok ive just filled in my pledge manager so im sure if you havnt gotten yours yet you will in the next few days its very easy the way its set up apart from only being able to add one item at a time
Aaaaaand let there be light at the end of the tunnel(?):
ok ive just filled in my pledge manager so im sure if you havnt gotten yours yet you will in the next few days its very easy the way its set up apart from only being able to add one item at a time
I call BS on this. Whilst it may be someone who's been pulled in for the beta getting a little confused, I'd not expect RH to put out the pledge manager without a massive update before they send the emails to tell people exactly how to determine which figures they're worthy of owning from the project.
-iPaint- wrote: Did a quick mock-up of sizes based on 25mm bases, and the flattest head on shots RH has provided so far of their 3D prints.
Bit closer to 30mm scale than 28mm if you ask me.
~iPaint
Mhhh... Will be fine for HQs and the like, but troops will be completely out of place next to each other. Unless they scale them down a little bit (the troops).
Well unless each troop squad is its own detachment. Squads will look accurate as their own squad and when moving around the board any difference wont be noticeable in comparison to other squads. Unless you're planning on mixing normal ig with TGG then it'll look weird. Honestly the TGG would make accurate female space marines since space marines are SUPPOSED to be taller than normal troops. however I feel that no one is going to use that option.
Haljin wrote: Mhhh... Will be fine for HQs and the like, but troops will be completely out of place next to each other. Unless they scale them down a little bit (the troops).
Well weren't they going to be in-scale with 40K minis right from the start until some people starting bitching about proportions and then they changed their mind?
Haljin wrote: Mhhh... Will be fine for HQs and the like, but troops will be completely out of place next to each other. Unless they scale them down a little bit (the troops).
Well weren't they going to be in-scale with 40K minis right from the start until some people starting bitching about proportions and then they changed their mind?
Something like that, but I still remember their early prototypes that looked more or less in-line with GW stuff, so I was satisfied. Unless my memory is tricking me now. And I mean, aren't they just Cadians, Catachans and DKoK anyway? Not sure what else would you use the troops for, not like anyone believes that this game of theirs is ever going to happen.
H.B.M.C. wrote:So can you get refunds for this one?
Seems like nobody dared to do that first step
Also, it seems going to work transported me over the ocean.
Not that I'm aware, though I'm sure you could force the issue if it came to it via Amazon or VISA. I'll just get my $150 worth of models which I expect will be very nice sometime in 2015 or 2016 when they ship. If I'd pledged a lot more, I'd probably be rather upset. My main concern is that they don't go under before delivering, since it seems that organisation and management of anything aren't exactly their strong points....
In all honesty, I can't see RH going under because of this. What's likely to happen is they'll get the first and maybe second waves out before they run out of cash. Then they'll start the next project to pull in more funds before they do wave 3.
Enticing new backers in by showing off the finished sculpts from TGG and saying that they've managed to ship 100% of 80% of wave based pledges.
Just informally to someone here or one of your friends or whatever. Never done it, and I'm sure a good bit of trust is needed, but take their money, either now or on delivery, and pledge in your name (ks account) for whatever the new buyer wanted. Then deliver the minis to them. Easier if you know the person well and live nearby, of course.
In fact.. the PM is utterly useless for me. I cannot really decide before I saw the final product. There are many MANY miniatures without even a final render...
I mean.. a very long time ago... at least I remember it that way... that told us that we will not be locked into our pledge/choice UNTILL they have shown us at least final renders or even better production models.
Orrrr maybe we're last in line, I mean, we got mass-unfriended already, why stop there?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, saw this on the front page:
The Toughest Girls of the Galaxy Kickstarter is the 2nd biggest miniatures-only Kickstarter (that is, miniatures proposed without a game), after the legendary Reaper Bones Kickstarter
Andrew Hayford (Raging Herald) 16 minutes ago
Invites to the Pledge Manager are going out in waves, and will proceed over the next 72hrs or so.
Andrew Hayford (Raging Herald) 19 minutes ago
They compiled some very specific instructions. The freebies have to be added individually to your cart, and they wanted to make sure people understood how the shipping situation. They also wanted to make sure people understood how their pledge credit was going to work. I would say, providing as much complete information as possible is a good thing. Not everyone "gets" it the first time in.
BrookM wrote: For me the models are worth dick if they don't fit in with 80% of the other ranges out there.
This. Put simply, scale will determine if I buy one or two of the more characterful models to paint and display, or if I drop a lot of money to make an actual army.
My plan still is to get a nice small Count as Space Marine and/or SoB army. As long as these models are not twice the size of the opponents figures, I don't REALLLY care about it.
My Warhammer Fantasy Empire army is a almost purely Perry Miniatures one and their minis are a lot smaller and thinner than the GW ones. So far everyone has liked it. So I'm really not that bothered by the scale...a s long as it's consistent.
rayphoton wrote: Well unless each troop squad is its own detachment. Squads will look accurate as their own squad and when moving around the board any difference wont be noticeable in comparison to other squads. Unless you're planning on mixing normal ig with TGG then it'll look weird. Honestly the TGG would make accurate female space marines since space marines are SUPPOSED to be taller than normal troops. however I feel that no one is going to use that option.
And this - it's always bothered me that the Smurfs don't TOWER over other 28mm figures. Aren't they supposed to be 7-8 feet tall?
I think I'll start with my freebies and see how they compare. If the size is close? Fine. If it's off by a head or so? Yeah, I'll be stopping at the freebies.
I don't really notice the difference with the three sister figs mixed in with my Guard, so that's not really been a concern from the moment I backed this and I do plan on mixing them.
Look forward to seeing the pledge manager a long last, also need to double check my pledge etc and make sure they give me the correct total to spend.
Ah, if they're doing it via KSPMs, I suspect I'll be at the bottom of the list rather than closer to the top. Still waiting on a final response to my last PM and that's been dragging on a few days.
Jailbirds:
Cruz, Heavy Gunner (JB)
Foxy Dynamite, Infiltration Specialist (JB)
Harry the baby Hippo, JB Mascot
Lieutenant Parker (JB)
Mad Nurse Bernadette (JB)
2 Mimi the Radio (JB)
One-Shot Blondie (JB)
Punky, Army Standard (JB)
Tania Tanker, Tank Specialist (JB)
Yoko the Psycho, Pyromaniac (JB)
4 Jailbirds Artillery 01
4 Jailbirds Artillery 02
4 Jailbirds Artillery 03
2 Jailbirds Sniper Unit
2 Jailbirds Motorbike 01
2 Jailbirds Motorbike 02
2 Jailbirds Motorbike 03
2 Jailbirds Mecha
2 The Lulu, 5 Stray Kids (JB)
5 Jailbirds Regular Troopers - Command Group
10 Jailbirds Regular Troopers - Troops
I had an early-bird Colonel pledge, and had to add a few dollars to top this off, but I'm pretty happy with the number of models in there. I'll have 75 jailbird bodies to work with, plus the heavy weapons, snipers and characters, so that should work really well for a guard detachment, with the KST acting as stormtroopers.
10 Internet kudos for the first one to correctly guess fromhow many months ago this statement is: (it's part of a KS update)
"Pledge Manager
The final Pledge Manager is not quite ready yet, as we want it to be as efficient as possible for you to make your choices, and for us to be able to suitably manage the orders. As you know, there are many items available in this Kickstarter, and furthermore, the wave shipping system adds a layer of complexity to the project. As there are almost 3000 backers selecting their choices between 100 different items shipped in several waves and you can understand that the management of your order means that we have to set up something pretty much comparable to a full-blown online shop."
It says which ones are pre-orders, and therefore I would imagine that those not listed as pre-orders are ready to go.
It doesn't say when the pre-orders will become available. It does have info about the shipping plans. I live an hour and a half from the closest "drop location" and have other projects to work on, so I'm content to wait and get everything delivered together when they have it all ready. Since I pretty much got the whole line of the Jailbirds, (except the ogress), I figure that'll be when the 3rd and final wave is set, but I'm in no rush.
I basically got 1 of everything, plus multiples of the following..
IE Artillery - 3 of each
IE Heavy Troops - 4 or both
IE troops - 2 of both
Plus two extra bikers so can make a squad of five
JB Artillery - 2 of each
JB Troops - 3 of each
plus two extra bikes
KST Artillery - 3 of each
KST Heavy troops - 2 of each
KST Troops - 4 of each
KST Snipers - 2 lots
KST Walker - 2 lots
plus 2 extra bikes
Will happily finish off my two main Guard regiments, and allow Aura to mix in some Krieg with Iron Empire to make her Traitor Guard.
It was a bit slow to use, but not too bad, glad its sorted. Oh and I went for White Metal all round, not willing to risk resin problems with some of the heroes equipment and sending it out over the three waves.
BrookM wrote: Visit it during your lunch break, come on man, victory is in sight, don't get bummed out now!
Dude... we own the store, we don't get fancy things like lunch breaks. Let alone 1-hour ones. That's the kind of thing you do when you have employees. I'm lucky we laminated a little sign that says "back in 2 minutes" to get a potty break.
Frak. My co-pledger thinks he's going to drop the idea.
You guys didn't all get together and decide to have a jolly jape at my expense right?
Now I'm worried - the sheer excitement of actually, finally, really getting to choose my stuff coupled with the closeness of pay-day doesn't bode well in terms of adding extra stuff in.
Well, a PM is a step in the right direction. Especially if RH are sticking to their earlier promise of not locking anything in until the final sculpts are ready to show off. Assuming private drop shipping is in, as suggested by one of the early invites, I'll probably just sort out my wave one stuff now and wait for proper images for the further waves.
RoninXiC wrote: I mean.. a very long time ago... at least I remember it that way... that told us that we will not be locked into our pledge/choice UNTILL they have shown us at least final renders or even better production models.
@R Naysmith: " ... we won't even get to see renders before they send out the surveys which will lock-in our choices..."
Just want you to know that your choices will NOT be locked-in. You will make your final choices once the sculpts are finalised. As mentioned earlier, we never want our pledgers and future customers unhappy with our minis.
You don't have to lock in your choices (as far as I'm aware),
so you'd be free to not fill it in yet and wait to see actual 3d prints (or minis though we've not really seen close ups of any of these) before making your choice
all this does is let those who want to cash out now or who are confident enough to pick based on concepts to tell them what we want
.... (so they can ignore the info and carry on working as the muse directs them)
so....white metal or resin? What are you guys going for. I'm leaning towards metal since in not planning on converting these lovely ladies and I like the added weight. (I'm old school. light minis make me feel weird) Do I believe their hype about the primed minis looking exactly the same?
Metal where available. I'm not planning on converting any of the characters (save for Dr. Von X, who is only getting magnetized) so the durability isn't an issue for me. I too enjoy the added gravitas of a metal fig.
man......I had all these choices planned out...and now that I'm having to choose again....I'm all indecisive....bikes, mechas, more troops......GIANT WEREWOLF GIRLS??!!
I went with resin, because I can glue a nickle to the base of a model to add weight, but you can't pin parts that are too small, and I'd rather not deal with tiny arms falling off.
I'm torn. Metal means it won't be that really gakky shiny plastic that Mantic and Sedition Wars used for their Kickstarters, but it's metal and I hate metal. Resin means it's not metal, but it may be that gakky resin.
Remember, too, that all the troops are just resin, the metal option doesn't exist, so you may get resin you don't like regardless. And, there's something to be said for consistency within the army.
H.B.M.C. wrote: I'm torn. Metal means it won't be that really gakky shiny plastic that Mantic and Sedition Wars used for their Kickstarters, but it's metal and I hate metal. Resin means it's not metal, but it may be that gakky resin.
Grr!
It's NOT going to be PVC (restic) based on what they've shown update 84) eg
they way that the mould is set up is just not how you'd do it, that's from a traditional round spincaster mould
(my best guess is it will be similar to the material used for Alkemy which was a mass market resin game and offered decent if not outstanding cast)
looking at this
the resin will be (almost) as good as the metal (the arms holding the gun and knife look a little soft, but the rest looks sharp), so if you dislike metal the resin will be fine
the main problem is resin heroes will only be done after everything else, so you may need to wait, and wait, and wait
I'm going to go for resin troops and metal heroes and whatever the bikes are made of (?) personally
Received my invite to the Pledge Manager, and good god is it clunky. After using Reaper's and Dwarven Forge's post-campaign pledge managers to manage large pledge amounts - both of which were painless I might add - this initially looks like it wants to be an online store that will be used for non-KS orders, not a pledge manager.
I'll refrain from commenting on the pitfalls RH have created for now, since they want this thing to be sort of hush-hush as they roll it out, but I'm far from impressed given the amount of fuss they made over this thing in the updates. The back end might have been challenging to implement, but the front end is what people see and interact with. And it's bad. As someone who appreciates a pleasant UI and an intuitive UX, this pledge manager has neither. I'd be curious to hear what others have to say about their experience.
I'll slog through just to be done with this whole ordeal...
I do feel that those of us who 'despise' RH will be the last to get an invite.
I'm a little surprised no one has let the actual link slip yet, given we're over a third of the way through the 72 hour release window and could expect ~1000 people to have been given access.
"
