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Also, for some reason I was expecting the models to be boxed rather than a pile of sprues. I'm sure that was discussed at some point.
That was at least disclosed in the comments as i asked about boxes and was told by Angelos that we wasnt getting them, as the art work wouldnt be completed for a while and he didnt want to hold up the KS fulfilment any longer as it was already a few months late, but i cant remember if it was in any update.
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
this is a link to the pledge levels with what you should have got (dakka doesn't want to display it)
The shieldmaiden kit itself has two sprue types (one has a banner, the other doesn't) and each pair will make 10 shield maidens or rangers depending on how you assemble them
and finally everybody should get a free shield maiden sprue as we hit the 500 backer stretch goal (not sure if this was a random one of the two types since we ended up with two different ones, or one of each)
Good info but you might want to update it with the correct sprue ratio of 3 command sprues and 2 troop sprues per box of 20, check their website
I think the free sprue was supposed to be a command one as i also asked in the comments but it does seem to be a bit random, myself and another mate got a troop sprue and another 2 i know got a command sprue.
Im a bit miffed by some of the shipping mistakes, like the missing dragon riders or other minis, seems quite widespread, i dont know if they took on any new help for fulfilment!
On a note of shipping mistakes. Stretch goals were supposed to be 1 per gold level. Multiple gold levels got the stretch goals twice or whatever number of gold levels you got.
I had 2 gold levels but only got one set of stretch goals. I doubt I am gonna ask as I don't really need the duplicates...
Azazelx wrote:
Also, for some reason I was expecting the models to be boxed rather than a pile of sprues. I'm sure that was discussed at some point.
That was at least disclosed in the comments as i asked about boxes and was told by Angelos that we wasnt getting them, as the art work wouldnt be completed for a while and he didnt want to hold up the KS fulfilment any longer as it was already a few months late, but i cant remember if it was in any update.
Tom aka "Original Timmy" Superbacker about 16 hours ago
@All, Rendera had the 'Madians and Orc boxsets for sale at Salute yesterday and when i walked by their stand again at end of the day it looked liked they sold nearly all of them, so thats a good sign for the future of the 'Maidens, im not sure if they did but they should have put a leaflet for the upcoming KS!
Honestly, that's the sort of thing that needs to be told to backers via a Kickstatrer update. Saying something in the comments to a limited audience simply isn't good enough, especially for a company that appears to pride itself on quality communication. Likewise with the sprue pics. The spears issue is even worse, with so many in the renders, along with left-handed weapons. Also interesting that they only just went out yet there were boxed sets (with boxes) available at Salute only days later. Doesn't seem like it would have exactly held up the KS fulfilment all that much. Sounds like pinching a few pennies to me. Disappointed on several levels there.
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
this is a link to the pledge levels with what you should have got (dakka doesn't want to display it)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139394575@N08/24344847864/in/dateposted-public/ backers at gold level also got 3 additional minis as free stretch goals you can see them at 35, 40 and 50K on this link (again dakka won't show it)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139394575@N08/25076923280/in/dateposted-public/ The shieldmaiden kit itself has two sprue types (one has a banner, the other doesn't) and each pair will make 10 shield maidens or rangers depending on how you assemble them
and finally everybody should get a free shield maiden sprue as we hit the 500 backer stretch goal (not sure if this was a random one of the two types since we ended up with two different ones, or one of each)
Good info but you might want to update it with the correct sprue ratio of 3 command sprues and 2 troop sprues per box of 20, check their website I think the free sprue was supposed to be a command one as i also asked in the comments but it does seem to be a bit random, myself and another mate got a troop sprue and another 2 i know got a command sprue.
Im a bit miffed by some of the shipping mistakes, like the missing dragon riders or other minis, seems quite widespread, i dont know if they took on any new help for fulfilment!
Smokestack wrote: On a note of shipping mistakes. Stretch goals were supposed to be 1 per gold level. Multiple gold levels got the stretch goals twice or whatever number of gold levels you got.
I had 2 gold levels but only got one set of stretch goals. I doubt I am gonna ask as I don't really need the duplicates...
Nothing gives me as much pleasure as knowing that I'll be needing to go through a painful inventory management for a kickstarter. Sprue counting working out how many I should have for each pledge and making sure I receive the proper amount of stretch goal models in the correct multiples. Not that I need to worry about any of that though, as I have no tracking number and I've got a feeling that my pledge might well be one that slipped between the cracks, but of course there's no way to find out anything there for at least another week since they're all on holiday.
Orcs are great -- I believe they've been around for a while though, so no great news there.
I made one Shieldmaiden and I like her a lot too. Bit disappointed with hand/arm/weapon options. On multipart sprues this is usually where you get plenty of options, and that's just not the case here. I'd have quite liked some bows along with the crossbows, for example, and definitely more axes, and obviously some spears... Plus we just have way, way too many banners and horns.
The bears have lovely detail and an impressive size (bigger and, I think, better than the Mierce dude's polar bear). However, the icicle spikes on their forepaws are not really optional, as was claimed by SW. Yes, you could leave them out, but you would be left with four large holes on each bear! I may leave them out anyway, and just use GS to make some extra armour sections to cover the holes, but I really shouldn't have to.
More importantly, for me, two of the three bears in my pack are essentially miscasts. Their molds must have been severely misaligned, by a millimeter or two in each case, so that to get rid of the mold lines I would also have to do a significant amount of fur resculpting. I've emailed Shieldwolf, last Wednesday, but haven't heard anything back from them yet. Ideally I would like replacements or a refund, as I don't think those two bears are fit for purpose.
I think whenever and whichever group of figures they come back to Kickstarter with in the future, the first stretch goal really should be to fund some sort of weapon/ accessory sprue.
Poorly lit photos of my ever- growing collection of completely unrelated models!
Got my box - looks like lots and lots of cool stuff
I AM A MARINE PLAYER
"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos
"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001
highlord tamburlaine wrote: I think whenever and whichever group of figures they come back to Kickstarter with in the future, the first stretch goal really should be to fund some sort of weapon/ accessory sprue.
Aye that would be good as well as spears, more axes and swords are needed imo, in hindsight perhaps going duel kit wasnt the best idea,, like someone else here mentioned, why need 3 banners,horns and champion bits for a 20 "man" box, i was always miffed by that choice!
Hopefully they come back from vacation and are ready to hit the customer service issues.. I mean.. they are planning on another Kickstarter.. so how delivery and QA issues are handled on this is definitely going to be influencing people's decisions to back any future outings.. at least for me.
Did they ask us what kind of bases we wanted? Was there a choice? I got squares, but I could have sworn there was an option for rounds as I certainly would have taken them.
Overall I'm pleased with what I got, as they seem to scale well with the current Sigmar stuff.
My only hope is next time around we see dedicated sprues as opposed to dual kits. While having both choices of troop types is cool, I think it limits the variety of both.
The new wolf armored ladies should hopefully have lots of weapon options, and maybe a few more non wavy hair head choices!
Poorly lit photos of my ever- growing collection of completely unrelated models!
Wait, no spears I didn't even open my parcel yet, I have to admit. Pretty weird to leave out spears after all the talk of not being abe to change issue X because it was in the art or render and they couldn't do that to backers who wanted what was shown
Ah well, now I have four sets of them, anyway, if someone wants half of that...that was always the plan, though.
Looking for a Skaven Doomwheel banner to repair my Nurgle knights.
Smokestack over on the Reaper forum has converted some as spear carriers with Wargames Factory Samurai Arms and Wargames factory amazon spears which look good
I really like the way those arms match. Good conversions. Sadly, using WGF amazons, while fine, just isn't a patch on what you can achieve with an RB01 sprue and one Action Comics #1 per mini.
Anyway, while the limited arms options are disheartening, the minis look good and should mix well with parts from many ranges. The cloaks will end up on a number of my conversions, and the shields are just too awesome not t use on some boring ol' historical dudes. Some of the arms and weapons would look good on KDM minis, or vice versa, so that will keep me interested. Sadly, my package came in a padded envelope and a few of the noses were smooshed. I suppose broken noses lend an air of authenticity to the warrior women (the minis, not the book by Maxine Hong), so I won't pursue replacements but will request another layer of padding on my next shipment. I plan to pledge for the next plastic kit Shieldwolf make.
Binabik15 wrote: Wait, no spears I didn't even open my parcel yet, I have to admit. Pretty weird to leave out spears after all the talk of not being abe to change issue X because it was in the art or render and they couldn't do that to backers who wanted what was shown
Exactly! They can't have it both ways...
Those spear conversions do look nice, thanks for the pic Orlando!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/04/27 17:12:07
Those look excellent Zywus, I wish I hadn't given my DE stuff away now.
I haven't seen an unboxing here yet so thought I would take some pics and relate my thoughts, spoilered for many images.
Spoiler:
So, I pledged for the 'Boxed Set' early bird ($95US). The box arrived and here is a picture of the box;
Front and reverse of the pamphlet;
Some of the heroes came in blister packs and some loose in bags;
Holy flash, these are the models that came in bags;
Those in blisters look a lot better (except the banner);
The pledge level included 40 each of Maidens and Mountain Orcs in HIPS (pics shown for completeness);
Finally are some pics of size comparisons;
So that's the pretty pics done now on to my thoughts overall.
Spoiler:
How the campaign was run Overall I was pretty impressed with how ShieldWolf ran the campaign; their interaction with backers was good and their updates regular and informative, I was never in doubt as to what was going on. I have seen quite a few comments about the lack of spears on the SM sprues and whilst this didn't come as a surprise to me if someone was not reading the comments closely then I can imagine it being a shock (perhaps the decision to drop them completely should have been announced in an update).
Communication As said above; both during and after the campaign I felt that Shieldwolf's communication and engagement with backers was good furthermore when I dealt with the company on an individual basis their communication was timely, polite and informative.
Packaging This a major negative point for me, the box arrived with no protection at all. The sprues were not boxed, bound together or in any way padded and I am surprised that everything was not smashed to bits (there were only two broken pieces from twenty odd sprues).
The models The models, both resin and plastic, are of very good quality. There is a lot of flash on the kickstarter resin but this is acceptable. The resin itself is firm with out being brittle and holds detail very well. Whilst they are very well produced I do have several issues with the SM models, firstly the scale. They were described consistently as being 28mm and the resin models are, whilst the plastics are more like 32mm. I have seen SW comment that the plastics were intentionally designed to this size which then begs the question as to why the resins are not in the same scale. I find this very disappointing.
Secondly the lack of options in weaponry, there are only six non command hand weapons on each pair of sprues (10 models) and none of them are for off hand weapons.
Thirdly for the resin heroes and some of the Orcs options I find the weapons to be ridiculously massive and out of all proportion.
Conclusion Overall I am very happy with what I received and how Shieldwolf ran the campaign, the price was good and the quality exceeds what many other companies can produce. However as things stand I will not be backing their next campaign as I find Shieldwolf's lack of consistency with scaling to be a major issue. I very much fear that the Sci-fi models they produce will be totally out of scale with their (obvious) target. Whilst saying that though I will dive headfirst into the Goblin kickstarter and spent way more than I can afford as I really love all the Orc stuff that I received.
Binabik15 wrote: Wait, no spears I didn't even open my parcel yet, I have to admit. Pretty weird to leave out spears after all the talk of not being abe to change issue X because it was in the art or render and they couldn't do that to backers who wanted what was shown
Exactly! They can't have it both ways...
Those spear conversions do look nice, thanks for the pic Orlando!
Unfortunately, they do have it both ways. The lack of spears sucks. I'm hoping something from my bits box will fill the gap.
There is also the added problem of more than half of the command sprue being just exactly the same as the regular one... seriously people, if you pay for multiple sprue machining, try to use it better!
I had some DHL delivery issues (my package was delivered two streets away from my home) but as of saturday afternoon I have a ton of stuff, including 29 sprues and a big pile of resin bits. I also ordered a pack of 5cm Fireforge Spears which should get here in the next day or two, so will report on the scale when they show up.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/05/01 22:28:01
I see a lot of comments so I will quickly address some of them and then return to answer any questions people might still have. :-)
MLaw wrote:Hopefully they come back from vacation and are ready to hit the customer service issues.. I mean.. they are planning on another Kickstarter.. so how delivery and QA issues are handled on this is definitely going to be influencing people's decisions to back any future outings.. at least for me.
Yes, we have received multiple messages, I haven't yet gone though all of them but I see many simply to say good things about us (we appreciate the time to write these as they mean a lot to us). We intend to go through and reply to each and everyone of them in the following days.
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:No choice on bases as far as I know (i'd have gone for rounds if the option was there)
Indeed we only had square bases as an option. Choice between squares and rounds are going to be given in the following KS however as you've probably seen by now the company's decision to enter the Sci-fi area. It seems both variants but especially the Wolf Wardens sparked huge interest. More on this once we publish our next newsletter later this month.
Binabik15 wrote:Wait, no spears I didn't even open my parcel yet, I have to admit. Pretty weird to leave out spears after all the talk of not being abe to change issue X because it was in the art or render and they couldn't do that to backers who wanted what was shown Ah well, now I have four sets of them, anyway, if someone wants half of that...that was always the plan, though.
Yes, final weaponry had not been decided and we were commenting on the spears (we were talking about it in the comment section in the following months but even while the campaign was live as it is clearly mentioned in update #13, perhaps elsewhere but I haven't gone through all of them obviously). The idea was to "break" the banner in two providing one spear and then add another 1-2 spears, but not only was that not doable the way we had designed it but we put in effort and time which showed up nowhere so I'll take advantage of this comment to point it out (as often a lot of hard work going on behind the curtains doesn't show up). Adding a single spear was doable (if you notice that's why the "nude midriff" bodies you see where tooled vertically and not horizzontally like the rest) but it still would be insufficient as even people with 4(!) boxes would have not had enough to make up even a single regiment of 20 strong.
It was an error not changing the main render perhaps, then again some people might not have liked the substitution after the campaign ended? I don't know, food for the mind I guess, we appreciate the feedback as it can only help us do even better next time! :-)
Albertorius wrote:There is also the added problem of more than half of the command sprue being just exactly the same as the regular one... seriously people, if you pay for multiple sprue machining, try to use it better!
Well, we always had the choice to tool an additional "half sprue" but we opted for full sprues by duplicating part of the sprue in order to supply our backers with even more bits. It never crossed our minds that would be cause for complaints but we still regard the vast majority appreciate the additional bits we provided.
Once again, we thank everyone for their support, it allowed a very unique army to be created and it would have never happened without your help.
I hope to get some modeling done this week. I will try KDM arms, Mantic Succubi and Naiad arms, some Fireforge stuff, and maybe some Dreamforge arms, although they look a bit thick. WGF hoplites and Amazon arms are definitely too small, but the pictures earlier with the samurai arms look good, so I might try some later WGF arms, such as from the survivor kits.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I hope to get some modeling done this week. I will try KDM arms, Mantic Succubi and Naiad arms, some Fireforge stuff, and maybe some Dreamforge arms, although they look a bit thick. WGF hoplites and Amazon arms are definitely too small, but the pictures earlier with the samurai arms look good, so I might try some later WGF arms, such as from the survivor kits.
Oh man.. if the survivor arms fit, that would be epic. I got the old boxes with loads of the survivors.. so arms for days in that instance!
I've got some old school Dark Eldar arms and I think some High Elf arms somewhere I can try as well. I might dry fit some Anvil Industries and Mad Robot arms just to see.. if I still have any Victoria Miniatures arms I can try those too but I may have used them all.
Statuesque heads are seeming more and more appealing though.. The more I look at the ones from the sprue the less I like the sculpts.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I hope to get some modeling done this week. I will try KDM arms, Mantic Succubi and Naiad arms, some Fireforge stuff, and maybe some Dreamforge arms, although they look a bit thick. WGF hoplites and Amazon arms are definitely too small, but the pictures earlier with the samurai arms look good, so I might try some later WGF arms, such as from the survivor kits.
Well, my sister in law is coming out for a surprise visit, so maybe next week. Maybe I can just sneak some modeling in the bathroom if the fan is going loud enough...
Albertorius wrote:There is also the added problem of more than half of the command sprue being just exactly the same as the regular one... seriously people, if you pay for multiple sprue machining, try to use it better!
Well, we always had the choice to tool an additional "half sprue" but we opted for full sprues by duplicating part of the sprue in order to supply our backers with even more bits. It never crossed our minds that would be cause for complaints but we still regard the vast majority appreciate the additional bits we provided.
Once again, we thank everyone for their support, it allowed a very unique army to be created and it would have never happened without your help.
That's not a "complaint", it's feedback / constructive criticism! He wasn't suggesting you tool only a half sprue instead of a whole sprue - he was saying if you're paying the tooling cost for that whole second sprue, more value is gained (for both the company and the consumer) by not duplicating half of the original sprue.
This is what I've been talking about - people taking the time to give you detailed feedback like this are doing so to help, and honestly are better than I am in this regard as I gave up on getting through during the goblins campaign (which I still love, by the way!).
But the misunderstanding of saying "We could have just given you half of a sprue" rather than "This is why we chose not to have new armaments included on that duplicate half sprue" (including, notably, the many spears that would have fit) epitomizes my frustration in trying to communicate about your projects.
Keep up the good fight, those of you willing to persevere . But the final product would be so much better, and the process and expectations clearer, if you guys could take constructive feedback more seriously and not just gloss over it, and at worst misunderstand it and implement it incorrectly, as illustrated above.
I won't keep bringing this up - hopefully this post came across is as I really did intend it, one last try at showing what I'm trying to communicate to you guys, Not as a "hate" post. You guys are awesome, your product is awesome, if you could just adjust this you'd have the trifecta!
I didn't even open my parcel yet, I have to admit. Pretty weird to leave out spears after all the talk of not being abe to change issue X because it was in the art or render and they couldn't do that to backers who wanted what was shown 
