Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

chaos0xomega wrote:

RiTides wrote:I agree about the "two-handed" heavy weapons being the best poses. The quad-cannon makes more sense to have on 2 separate arms (it's also smaller) but the two guys with the large gun in a single hand are begging for a support to hold it with their other hand, like the guy 2nd from the right has.

Getting tempted!

If you check the links you would learn that these are energy weapons, and therefore dont have recoil, etc. They are also wearing powered armor, no reason for support whatsoever...

Someone needs to take physics.... Energy generation and expulsion still follows the rules...

This are great figures but you are suffering one big problem.

These are all CAD designed models. It is easy to tell. The lack of organic sculpting done my a person shows through in a real really big way. You need to "Humanize" the sculptures. They are far too robotic and unnatural in their poses and appearance.

Unless you make some changes to these figures I am afraid you are looking at a big fail. No matter how cool. and they are very cool.

Its a great idea though. So what is the whole plan? Do you have a universe design etc?

Red Corsair wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:

RiTides wrote:I agree about the "two-handed" heavy weapons being the best poses. The quad-cannon makes more sense to have on 2 separate arms (it's also smaller) but the two guys with the large gun in a single hand are begging for a support to hold it with their other hand, like the guy 2nd from the right has.

Getting tempted!

If you check the links you would learn that these are energy weapons, and therefore dont have recoil, etc. They are also wearing powered armor, no reason for support whatsoever...

Someone needs to take physics.... Energy generation and expulsion still follows the rules...

Last I checked the 500W laser and flamethrower I had an opportunity to use in the past didn't have any recoil...

Love them all, except the assault-helmet. The twoo others are superb thou, so if I get enough of those I'm all good!

definatly want some of those assualt squads

Woah these are awesome!

My only thought is to make the "holding the side of the weapon" such as the artillary cannon a swapable part so you can be 1 handing or 2 handing any of the weapons.

they all look great, though I would want the guy on the far right with the railgun-looking gun to be 2 handing

I'm hoping one of the higher options of the kickstarter have an option for a few of your previous things too
*holding onto money for kickstarter* ^^

Yeah, im still pissed I didnt have 800+ dollars to get the two platoons and 2 leviathans... I still dont have that kind of money, but heres hoping i get a legit job soon

Great to see such progress on the sculpts!

Pic 1 looks a bit bland, love Pic 3 although the fluting seems a bit odd from a purely design perspective (needless ornamentation on an otherwise very functionally designed set of armour). Heads in Pic 2 seem to fit the most, but not nearly as epic as the fluted ones! If you want to go with non-fluted helmets, consider changing the angle of the slope so they don't look so top heavy.

I agree with the points on swappable weapons, but arm blanks should solve that problem in the short term.

My vote is for option 2
The heads look perfect on the bodies that way. but maybe a shield option?
Option 3 seems to need a fluted shield to round out that gothic look.

What if something like a bipod/stand were attached to the heavy weapons under the end of the barrel?

It would give it the look of portable and powerful.

I am interested in seeing how this goes.

I think they look great. The stormtrooper/ gasmask style helmets are the best.

Mat

Love the heavy weapons railgun, LOVE the assault squad, with one exception: that shotgun/pistol thing they are holding looks terrible compared to the rest of the model. It looks really unbalanced and well ... like a wierd pistol/shotgun thing.

chaos0xomega wrote:If you check the links you would learn that these are energy weapons, and therefore dont have recoil, etc. They are also wearing powered armor, no reason for support whatsoever...

I did check the links, I'm a huge fan of DreamForge! I just think they'd look a LOT more balanced with another hand to support the weapons, with the exception of the quad guns. I also think it makes them look a little more dynamic, supporting the weapon rather than standing very stiff/straight and firing it one-handed. Aesthetics are what I'm talking about... I tend to "check my physics at the door" when considering these things although if anything, supporting it makes more sense, even from a simple aiming standpoint.

Nice looking stuff as usual. Sadly Im not in need if scifi infantry. However, Ill be all about the smaller scale Leviathans if/when you start on them.

RiTides wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:If you check the links you would learn that these are energy weapons, and therefore dont have recoil, etc. They are also wearing powered armor, no reason for support whatsoever...

I did check the links, I'm a huge fan of DreamForge! I just think they'd look a LOT more balanced with another hand to support the weapons, with the exception of the quad guns. I also think it makes them look a little more dynamic, supporting the weapon rather than standing very stiff/straight and firing it one-handed. Aesthetics are what I'm talking about... I tend to "check my physics at the door" when considering these things although if anything, supporting it makes more sense, even from a simple aiming standpoint.

RiTides does have a good point.

That other arm just kinda hanging at the side feels wrong. It's why I've given my Assault Cannon Terminators for my Deathwing the "striding forward" legs and the powerfist held out as a counterbalance. Even if it's not necessary, it might look better as a kind of "dramatic posturing". Maybe give the energy weapon wielders something else for their off-hand, Nosegoblin?

Some kind of rangefinder built onto their gauntlet's outside, a datalink or something techy that they'd want to be doing something with could go a long way to add a bit of character to the model.

(P.S. Sorry I keep adding these silly little bits to your completed design ideas! They really do look good except for a few minor nitpicks!)

I love the models but the machine guns (both the ones on the assault troops and the belt-feed heavy machine gun) don't pop for me the way the rest of the weapons do. they look very bland compared to the energy weapons. They lack that certain pizazz.

RiTides wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:If you check the links you would learn that these are energy weapons, and therefore dont have recoil, etc. They are also wearing powered armor, no reason for support whatsoever...

I did check the links, I'm a huge fan of DreamForge! I just think they'd look a LOT more balanced with another hand to support the weapons, with the exception of the quad guns. I also think it makes them look a little more dynamic, supporting the weapon rather than standing very stiff/straight and firing it one-handed. Aesthetics are what I'm talking about... I tend to "check my physics at the door" when considering these things although if anything, supporting it makes more sense, even from a simple aiming standpoint.

Thats true actually... I think they would look nicer if the weapons were held across the torso being supported from above by the other hand...

Mad4Minis wrote:Nice looking stuff as usual. Sadly Im not in need if scifi infantry. However, Ill be all about the smaller scale Leviathans if/when you start on them.

Ditto...mini-leviathans por favor.

cool design........not sure about the mushroom cap shoulder pad............like the second pics helmets the best

got to agree with the point made on the swords.....about being manga..............you put katanas in the hands that should have held a claymore sword

Cool idea with the mid evil style plate mail look , but they look to much like the bastard son of rowboat Girlyman and something Tau. They're too clean, and too plain for my taste. The weapons look kinda lame, and yes, claymores not katanas. :/ these guys just have no feel to them, they just look like mass produced tin can coated men. I thought these were awesome for about a minute then I realized the bland appearance. But hey, alot of people seem to like them here already, I only wish you the best

Redaxe13 wrote:Cool idea with the mid evil style plate mail look , but they look to much like the bastard son of rowboat Girlyman and something Tau.

You mean this?


Can't say I agree with you on the weapons, to me they look awesome. If only the swords would have an =][= style prong half way down the blade I would love them to bits.

The assault pistols arent my cup of tea but with the separate hands that is no problems.

Redaxe13 wrote:these guys just have no feel to them, they just look like mass produced tin can coated men.

So these early works don't have any feel? Can you give any specific examples of why other than something nebulous like they look "Mass Produced"?
That way the NoseGoblin guy cant take it on board and act on it if he agrees with you or ignore you if he doesn't.

I’m actually surprised by just how few incoherent and unspecific responses there have been… Thank you!

-So the general consensus, (two or more mentions of the same issue) so far seems to be-

Make for easy weapon swaps:
Will do…. I will make a few blank arms without weapons.

Make all three helmets available as options for each figure:
Yep, all three will be included with each mini.

Energy heavy weapons need to be supported by free arm:
I will rework this, I agree the left arm need something to do

Some issues with the size or design of the shoulder pads:
I probably won’t make huge changes to these, it’s a design decision that defines the minis silhouette but I think they could use some tweaking to make the minis less top heavy while maintaining a heavily armored look.

Need to re-design the sword to more medieval two handed sword look:
Easy fix… will do.

Need to redesign the auto-grenade launcher to be more interesting:
Agree, but I’m completely uninspired here…. If you have examples of what you would like to see or a direction for me to take these in please speak up. (More input please)

There are a couple of comments that reference them feeling like CAD models or stiff or what I call wooden. Simply meaning, that they lack life and movement or individuality. I must agree to some extent that this is true. It’s a side effect of making what I call a troop choice model rather than a character model.

I can pose these as dramatically as any hand sculptor but the nature of making a multi-part, posable mini to represent a mass troop means that there is a certain amount of generic feel to them. I could make these as dynamic as a Corvus Belli mini but then you would have sixty minis that all look over posed, like a space ninja attack. I would also need to charge more for each mini because I would not be able to swap parts from one mini to another, so every mini would be an individual print. This would quadruple the cost for each print and mold.

You need to keep in mind that the ability to pose these will gives you the freedom to make them more dramatic if you choose, and it also keeps a line of twenty from looking like clones. Making accessory packs will allow me and you to add bits, pouches, etc. that will also humanize the minis.
I don’t mind doing dramatic character models if you don’t mind paying the price the market is charging for them.

Overall, so much great feedback, thank you!
Mark-

wait is the auto grenade launcher the mortar on the far left? because if so, I love it!

Grundz wrote:wait is the auto grenade launcher the mortar on the far left? because if so, I love it!

Nope, the SMG/Pistol looking things the Assault Troopers are shooting.

My feedback is this-

WHEN & WHERE CAN I BUY THESE!

I'll buy an "army" please.

Will you have an army deal?

They look very nice, the assault troopers top the bunch though!

I know probably not the right place to ask this, but did you ever get anywhere with scaling down the leviathan to 15mm?

I only have one problem with these...

Do they really have to be metal/pewter?

It makes them far less durable (resin and plastic bounces, can be weighed down and paint is more immune to being scratched off) and much harder to convert.

NoseGoblin wrote:Need to redesign the auto-grenade launcher to be more interesting:
Agree, but I’m completely uninspired here…. If you have examples of what you would like to see or a direction for me to take these in please speak up. (More input please)

For my personal tastes I would prefer not to see that chunk missing out of the front of the barrel. I assume it is supposed to be some sort of cooling thing but I am not loving it. In fact the ribbed part forward is not really my cup of tea.

I would love to see a nice chunky front section, possibly like this...

Though with a much nicer back.
The solid construction and magazine/clip/whatever that fits into the body looks pretty bad-ass (though the pistol back does let it down in that picture)


Alternatively who says it has to be the traditional magazine? Why not a pistol grenade launcher with six shooter style, kinda like this:



Scale the revolver chamber wheel thing to make it look capable of holding the grenades and then have a few "replacement" chamber wheels on the sprue so that you can add them to belts of where ever to make it look like these soldiers can eject the empty wheel and replace the whole chamber wheel with a new one.

I actually like the current sword. Perhaps you could include both options? Also, as I said on your blog, I'd love to see a shield option.

I'm a big fan of making the guns look like the ridiculously large nerf revolver above.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of the German flag on the cloth part of the back of the model. It somewhat limits the models' uses. If they were resin, though, it would be easy to remove! So there's another vote for resin.

those look amazing, will the models be as good as the renders though? i followed the shock troopers from conception to production and the end result was a bit lacking ?