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 Azazelx wrote:
Hm. Not funded yet. That's a real shame. :(

I think not having at least renders and (realistically) 3d prints of the Valkyries - both "raw" as well as assembled and professionally painted before the campaign was an unfortuate choice. Just having silhouettes (and now, a week or so into the campaign, half-painted assembled models in an awkward angle) isn't the best way to sell people on giving their money.

Having the same finished raw-and-painted prototypes for the Araves would also have made a lot of sense...

But wasn’t that the original intent of Kickstarter? To get funding to bring projects to life. Sure it’s been highjacked for years as a preorder system by most companies, but, shouldn’t it be silhouettes and prototypes being shown as concepts of what they want to achieve.

I completely agree on the half painted and poor angle shots. If you are going to show something off, leave the potato at home and get quality pics of completed work at the sprue, assembled, painted and polished phases.

I am not backing again as it is an overload for me. Too many choices to scroll through and decide. I might be getting way too old, but I like seeing things organized by groups. All the different armies and bundles clustered together makes me look for filters. When I shop GW, Mantic or others I can limit the page to one army so I can clearly see what I’m getting. Here it’s just mashed up like a rummage sale, which devalues the brand to me.

I really like the ogres look though.

I am a little confused on the way the kickstarter is being presented.

Shieldwolf said that everything will be delivered in July, including the Valkyries... except the Arivises which will be December.

That is great, but we have a clear look at the parts for the Arivises, but not for the Valkyries that will be delivered 6 months sooner. The project still looks great and I am still excited for it, but that part seems strange. Since the Valkyries are delivering first, it would have made sense to have them be more of the show case here.

I am mostly interested in the Arivises so I am glad they are the spotlight, but the teasers had the Araves, Drots and other things which likely wont be reached at the rate of funding.

Shieldwolf is a good company, solid history of delivering what they have funded (mostly on time) and have a good quality product. It does surprise that they dont reach the levels of funding other companies do and it takes them longer to do it... Just like Fireforge.

Edit: We are currently at 40% of goal

 Theophony wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
Hm. Not funded yet. That's a real shame. :(

I think not having at least renders and (realistically) 3d prints of the Valkyries - both "raw" as well as assembled and professionally painted before the campaign was an unfortuate choice. Just having silhouettes (and now, a week or so into the campaign, half-painted assembled models in an awkward angle) isn't the best way to sell people on giving their money.

Having the same finished raw-and-painted prototypes for the Araves would also have made a lot of sense...

But wasn’t that the original intent of Kickstarter? To get funding to bring projects to life. Sure it’s been highjacked for years as a preorder system by most companies, but, shouldn’t it be silhouettes and prototypes being shown as concepts of what they want to achieve.

Sure it was, but to be blunt - thats nice aka "who cares?"

In this case, where they have models (presumably 3d prints?) that they've been able to assemble and start to paint a week into the campaign, theres no reason that couldn't (shouldn't) have all been completed before hitting the big red "go" button.

Viagra was originally a heart medicaton. Doesn't matter what the original intent of KS was when we're looking at how it's used today in actual practise. And especially so if you, ya know, have the capacity to present them in the same way that CMON does rather than as mysterious silhouettes.

I mean, we're not just having a philosophical discussion on the nature of crowdfunding - it's a real campaign that I would have very much liked to see well funded by now, and I'm highlighting what I personally believe is a critical misstep - especially if the Valkyries are supposed to arrive to backers in July then they should be fully ready to show off in all their painted/assembled/sprue-laid glory.

That would sell a lot more people on them Day 1 than the silhouettes or any number of potato-photos of half-done models. We know a lot of people look at a campaign once and make a decision immediately...

Good morning everyone.

We don't have pictures for everything and some items were hand sculpted, we do trust we have portrayed things as best as possible (there's so much it wasn't the easiest of tasks) but we will have time to reflect after the project ends.

For the time being we are moving slowly but steadily. Admittedly slower than we would have liked, but at this pace we should fund; we are strongly hoping to have funded before the 48 hour emails go out so we may make it on time to unlock as many stretch goals as possible.

Shout-outs and spreading the word is the best way to make this happen. We so much appreciate the 150+ backers that are holding on this with us, we put in so much work. Much gratitude!

Videos and more teasers to follow, but the best stuff is yet to be revealed. We have learned from the past and won't show anything that's still a very long way from showing up however.
Let's see what we end up with! :-)

This was posted on the Reaper forum.

A pack of human-scaled wings would be incredibly useful in its own right. This kit is a must buy for me.

Some more Valkyrie pics from the comments

Looks worth getting a box just for stuffs.

I don’t need 20 but I’d stick 8 in a Skirmish Army add on in my order but that isn’t an option at present.

A sprue of Valkyries would be on my list. Need to see more gobbos stuff.

Wonder if shieldwolf would consider doing a mixed box

One sprue of each line to tempt people, or just as a way to get bits. So many people would get a sprue of A, or a sprue of B and C. Maybe if they did one of each it would interest people wanting to make stargrave, frostgrave or other groups to pick it up and try the different lines.

Neat. Never say no to more gobbos, and valkaries look interesting

 DaveC wrote:
Some more Valkyrie pics from the comments

So there are actual sprus pictures.
That aren't on the KS main page, but hidden in comments.
So new/prospective backers won't see them - just the people picking through the comments.

There's 2 Valkyrie sprues but it's not clear how many of each you get perhaps Shieldwolf can clarify? It would need to be 5 sprues to have 20 wings? if it's 4 sprues you have 20 bodies but only 16 wings. Depending on the mix you could also be short spears for a unit of 20 and possibly only have 6 winged helms.

5 sprues total (like all of our kits, Valkyries won't be an exception).

A single box will allow 20 Valkyries to be equipped with spears and 16 of them can have the helmeted option.
A single sprue will supply the 17 head versions from the original Shieldmaiden sprue, we find the "windy" hair fits the aesthetics of Valkyries but we felt we had to include the winged helmeted version. It's more "Valkyrie" the way we imagine them at least.

And yes, we will deliver in July, our reputation is important to us!

also sounds like they were expecting some more youtube etc channels to have posted about the campaign by now but it hasn't happened

(some for very good reasons)

 Shieldwolf Miniatures wrote:
5 sprues total (like all of our kits, Valkyries won't be an exception).

A single box will allow 20 Valkyries to be equipped with spears and 16 of them can have the helmeted option.
A single sprue will supply the 17 head versions from the original Shieldmaiden sprue, we find the "windy" hair fits the aesthetics of Valkyries but we felt we had to include the winged helmeted version. It's more "Valkyrie" the way we imagine them at least.

And yes, we will deliver in July, our reputation is important to us!

Thanks for the clarification so there's some bonus shieldmaidens in there as well

Sorry i love your products an all, but we shouldnt be waiting 13 days, pretty much half the length of the campaign to see the sprues or built pics of the Valkyries via some random 3rd party reviewer, they should have been shown on the KS on day 1 along with the renders as they are one of the main selling points of the KS, theres no excuse why they were not shown there 1st!

Copy pasting the answer to @Original Timmy (but always very glad fr the constructive criticism)

That's true Tom but allow me to explain :-)

The Valkyries were not possible to be shown as renders since these were partly hand sculpted. We had to make sure the fit was precise in order to match the existing bodies of the shieldmaidens. This was not possible only via 3d sculpting as I will illustrate below

On the contrary to the weaponry which was fairly easy



The wings are these



The heads too, I don't know if I can scoop a jpeg to show you

Not exactly a "selling" image, I think you'll agree. It is a very practical one however since now the finished parts are an *exact* fit.

We should have had these painted and illustrated within the first week of launch. Poland is next to a country now at war however and that didn't help since one of our two painting studios commissioned is there. The second studio in Thessaloniki Greece tried their best to speed their delivery but it was not agreed in prior so we can't blame Dirty Brushes studio either. They were mostly to show an alternative paintjob.

The date could no longer be delayed, we had stalled already due to us wanting to first *fully deliver* on the previous project first before launching this one. Heck, there are people who still don't appreciate the length we went to first service them (unfairly penalising perhaps) ourselves in the process.

On the next update we'll post a detailed explanation why the Valkyries hadn't been shown yet. Backers can always pull back before the project ends, we promised pictures and we will show you before the project ends.

Finally crossed the 50% funded line today. Needs more images like this out there.

Many have run late but one by one they are popping up!
Another video has just been uploaded, we hope you like it

From the comments on the kickstarter

"Here are pictures for those who have haven't seen them. These were back on 2014, the comparison is... *miles* away from what we have now!

Araves Infantry (first 2 pics)

Araves Slaves (3rd and 4th pic)

We'll post them also on the next update for those who don't follow the Comment section, but we won't be showing new renders (we've done so before with stretch goals very far away, it's of absolutely no use and a mistake we won't be repeating)."

I hope we get to these guys... They look pretty good. And in hard plastic would definitely be useful.

The infantry are exactly what I’ve wanted from a fantasy Arabian force. The slaves….if those bindings are optional, they would make a great Sinbad-style crew.

From the land beyond beyond…

Well I'll up it by €8 for the Chieftess, swords a bit thick but I get that it's designed for resin and it's an easy swap for a plastic one. Hopefully she's the same size as the plastics the larger resin Goblins makes sense here though not so much.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shieldwolf/war-is-coming-reinforcements/posts/3452835

@DaveC
The heroines of the Aravises are going to be 1mm taller than the plastic "common" infantry.

more pics of Valkyries

[img]

 Shieldwolf Miniatures wrote:
@DaveC
The heroines of the Aravises are going to be 1mm taller than the plastic "common" infantry.

Great thanks 1mm taller is fine.

Valkyries looking good painted up.

I know you have 1 more round of add ons any chance of a Valkyrie Skirmish party even if it’s just 8 of them?

The add-ons were already pre-scheduled. I'll pass it on to see what may change.

 Shieldwolf Miniatures wrote:
Copy pasting the answer to @Original Timmy (but always very glad fr the constructive criticism)
That's true Tom but allow me to explain :-)
The Valkyries were not possible to be shown as renders since these were partly hand sculpted. We had to make sure the fit was precise in order to match the existing bodies of the shieldmaidens. This was not possible only via 3d sculpting as I will illustrate below
...

On the next update we'll post a detailed explanation why the Valkyries hadn't been shown yet. Backers can always pull back before the project ends, we promised pictures and we will show you before the project ends.

You didn't really answer that question. The next update skipped it entirely but the following was filled with hurfblurf. Even that's not important.

You. Had. The. Sprues.

You had these:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/at/at2/2022/3/7/d72ece220c724b42abaa5167511e183f_61979.jpeg

You sent them to youtubers all over, but you didn't think to take a photo of them and post them on the KS main page.
They're actually better than renders.
But, you didn't show them.
Lyla Mev had the sprues, but you didn't show them to your backers on Day 1. You could have photographed the very same physical sprues you sent her before posting them and had them ready for the front page, instead you showed silhouettes.
It's just... I don't even...



What frustrates me (and I presume others) so much is that you guys clearly have talent and ethics, but you seem to so constantly to take aim at your own feet with cripplingly poor or blind decisions. Then you explain them with a half page of stuff that often doesn't matter because you can't see the wood for the trees.

We'll discuss what has gone wrong after the project has ended with a clear head. Perhaps it's as you say Azazelx, perhaps the Aravises plastic kit alone should have sufficed.
25K is not a huge sum for KS and it is the minimum we needed if we meant to keep the next couple of plastic kits within reasonable range and the offers we offered in our opinion were solid without the need for stretch goals to get to the value making it worth it.

Whether we manage to fund or not some things clearly have gone wrong and we will be asking current backers for their input.