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 Krinsath wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Well, they also mentioned a lot of other projects that Wargames Factory took on, thus overloading the pipe-lines as it were.

I have trouble believing that. WGF keeps pumping out tons of kits - including their own.

Likely what's going on is that the projects were far more complex than they thought when they signed on, and WGF lacked sufficient specialized engineering resources to work with outside people for these kits and their requirements.

That is the least likely scenario. Dakka has already seen pics from WGF and the piles of employees they have. They have designed dozens and dozens and dozens of successful high quality plastic kits. The absolutely most likely scenario is that Dreamforge was totally and completely inexperienced with designing 3D models for sprues and has had to rely on WGF's specialized engineering resources to keep telling DFG to fix things over and over again.

I would pretty much assume that a company that makes plastics, this is a small division of a much, much larger industrial and medical plastics manufacturer, has the necessary experience for designing plastics, as that's what they have done for years and continues to do so; versus one guy who had zero experience designing plastics.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Krinsath wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Well, they also mentioned a lot of other projects that Wargames Factory took on, thus overloading the pipe-lines as it were.

I have trouble believing that. WGF keeps pumping out tons of kits - including their own.

Likely what's going on is that the projects were far more complex than they thought when they signed on, and WGF lacked sufficient specialized engineering resources to work with outside people for these kits and their requirements.

That is the least likely scenario. Dakka has already seen pics from WGF and the piles of employees they have. They have designed dozens and dozens and dozens of successful high quality plastic kits. The absolutely most likely scenario is that Dreamforge was totally and completely inexperienced with designing 3D models for sprues and has had to rely on WGF's specialized engineering resources to keep telling DFG to fix things over and over again.

I would pretty much assume that a company that makes plastics, this is a small division of a much, much larger industrial and medical plastics manufacturer, has the necessary experience for designing plastics, as that's what they have done for years and continues to do so; versus one guy who had zero experience designing plastics.

WGF was common thread in a few heavily delayed kickstarters, if it was just one I might chalk it up to user error but when you start getting alots of projects that are running way behind and WGF is the common factor among them, its hard not to think WGF had something to do with the delay

 judgedoug wrote:

 Krinsath wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Well, they also mentioned a lot of other projects that Wargames Factory took on, thus overloading the pipe-lines as it were.

I have trouble believing that. WGF keeps pumping out tons of kits - including their own.

Likely what's going on is that the projects were far more complex than they thought when they signed on, and WGF lacked sufficient specialized engineering resources to work with outside people for these kits and their requirements.

That is the least likely scenario. Dakka has already seen pics from WGF and the piles of employees they have. They have designed dozens and dozens and dozens of successful high quality plastic kits. The absolutely most likely scenario is that Dreamforge was totally and completely inexperienced with designing 3D models for sprues and has had to rely on WGF's specialized engineering resources to keep telling DFG to fix things over and over again.

I would pretty much assume that a company that makes plastics, this is a small division of a much, much larger industrial and medical plastics manufacturer, has the necessary experience for designing plastics, as that's what they have done for years and continues to do so; versus one guy who had zero experience designing plastics.

They have experience designing plastics sure. I have experience building software, does that make me qualified to set up an ERP system? The work they were doing for these companies was quite different from what they do for their own lines and the bulk of the projects the company as a whole. I refer you again to Mark's post about the negotiation process, spoilered below.



That's not to say that their engineers didn't know that "Hey, an elbow doesn't look like that" or "Those legs look fine" because you don't need to know a whole hell of a lot to see that isn't right. However, beyond knowing it was wrong the critical thing they didn't know how to *fix* it because Mark is not a WGF employee and this is not a WGF project so they can't refer to anyone but Mark. So they didn't attempt to fix it, which is probably how it should work mind you, but this then drags the process on as they negotiate back and forth, and that presumes that the people who know what's going on with the project aren't needed for something else in the meantime as they're not twiddling their thumbs waiting for these people to respond. This is where the unexpected complexity of the models and their detail, and those of other projects, likely created such a massive backlog. It was in the back-and-forth of what would be acceptable in the final product for an outside entity and what would not (versus an internal project that someone at WGF could sign off on any compromises much more immediately). I believe that lag was unaccounted for sufficiently, if at all, and that the production timetables suffered as a result because I doubt WGF is that bad at estimating on their own. Toss in a few honest oversights like with KD:M 's armor kits and these delays pile up really fast.

While both parties in these multiple projects likely did their own share of underestimation, as you point out one of these is a dedicated sub-unit of a massive enterprise with years of experience in manufacture. Granted, they seem to have learned their lesson as we don't seem them mentioned in any new projects.

Yes, so as I see it, the redoing the project parts, the same with the other side projects on top of their own in house stuff, negotiations, and other delays piled up and acted like a project/manufacturing traffic jam. No plots or schemes, merely a cascade effect of mistakes, re workings, and a lot of people wishing to get their own projects helped via one company.

Murphy's Laws intervened is all.

 shasolenzabi wrote:
No plots or schemes, merely a cascade effect of mistakes, re workings, and a lot of people wishing to get their own projects helped via one company.

Murphy's Laws intervened is all.

I think you see it right... I wish people would (or could) lay off some of the "tin-foil-hat" material.

I got a kickstarter delivery

Well someone has received theirs at least

http://johnbearross.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/wgfmark-mondradons-15mm-mortis-and.html?m=1

I'm suppose to be getting mine today

Mine showed up on the 22nd. Looks great.

Got my Black Widows. Look good. I'll have to put some together later and see how they look all done.

Can anyone snap some pics of the Black Widow sprues/assembled models? I'm very interested to see how they came out.

And have any Valkir shipped yet?

Yes pics please!

Go to the gallery and you should be able to zoom in. Sorry, all I have is a phone so hopefully that'll be enough.

The models are super crisp. Very minor mold lines, should come off with a single scrape of a knife easy. The heads look pretty good too. He took an interesting approach for the helmets without gas masks, by molding the head and the helmet separate. Allows him to do an "undercut' with plastic and they'll look really good.



I'm going to start putting together a couple now, so let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, as I'll be using plastic glue on these gals.

Overall, for $20, I'm very happy with them so far. No idea what I'll use em for as I'm not doing 40k anymore, but I'm sure I'll think of something to use the 50 Dreamforge minis I have lying around with another sci fi game later.

They look very sharp, as to be expected from Dreamforge. When you get to putting them together, could you do a mock up of one with a bolter if you have any lying around, as I'm interested to know if they'll need 3rd party guns for my planned SoB conversions or if my pile of unused SM ones will do.

Thanks.

 Paradigm wrote:
They look very sharp, as to be expected from Dreamforge. When you get to putting them together, could you do a mock up of one with a bolter if you have any lying around, as I'm interested to know if they'll need 3rd party guns for my planned SoB conversions or if my pile of unused SM ones will do.

Thanks.

I'll see what I can find, I may have used it for another conversion though. I know I had one laying around somewhere. It'll be about an hour before I have a completed one put together, I'll use some tack or something to see how it looks.

Also, the one thing the box doesn't have are bare heads with no hats or helmets on them. With these, you're going to have a hat or a helmet, no exceptions. Might impact their utility for some, but you can find 3rd female heads out there with little effort.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:


Also, the one thing the box doesn't have are bare heads with no hats or helmets on them. With these, you're going to have a hat or a helmet, no exceptions. Might impact their utility for some, but you can find 3rd female heads out there with little effort.

I did notice that. My plan was always to do mostly helmeted Sisters, so I think I'll be using GS to do some custom helmets using these as a base.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:

Also, the one thing the box doesn't have are bare heads with no hats or helmets on them. With these, you're going to have a hat or a helmet, no exceptions. Might impact their utility for some, but you can find 3rd female heads out there with little effort.

Thanks for posting the review.

I was planning on using Statuesque heads anyway, so that's not a big problem for me.

Here she is with a Catachan Flamer and a Bolter



Dammit Nosegoblin, these look really cool. If I can ever afford food again, I'll need more of these...

Cheers for that. Looks a little on the large side, so I'm now thinking Anvil Industry is the way to go. Still looks doable, though.

 Paradigm wrote:
Cheers for that. Looks a little on the large side, so I'm now thinking Anvil Industry is the way to go. Still looks doable, though.

That's a catachan flamer, Bolter is a bit smaller. I think it would work just fine. Wish I had one to show you but I must've used it for something.

EDIT: As soon as I posted that, I found one underneath some old CD's on my desk, so here you go.

Actually, that's not so bad. Cheers for digging that out! I may still go down a FW or 3rd Party route, but if that does end up working then great. I will be modding them pretty extensively anyway, so as long as the base models are good (and they seem to be) then I should be fine.

 Paradigm wrote:
Actually, that's not so bad. Cheers for digging that out! I may still go down a FW or 3rd Party route, but if that does end up working then great. I will be modding them pretty extensively anyway, so as long as the base models are good (and they seem to be) then I should be fine.

Yeah if I was going sisters with them I'd probably use a different gun than the regular bolter too. But to be fair, the Bolter is huge on Guardsmen and Sisters models anyways, so it kinda fits in that regard.

Dreamforge's stuff has always been a little slimmer than GW, so that adds to it too. That gun's meant to be held by a much chunkier model.

Great looking models. I have a couple of Leviathans, and some of the metal Kriegsmarines.
Mark's stuff has always looked very nice. If I was interested in Eisenkern as a faction in Iron Core, I'd probably buy a bunch of the Stormtroopers and Black Widows.

I'm waiting for Shadokesh and the Republic for my factions in Iron Core though.

The shujin came into work today telling me that a big box came in for me (on a Sunday, no less) but she didn't open it, or remember who is was from. I may or may not have a happiness meltdown when I get home.

 Paradigm wrote:
Actually, that's not so bad. Cheers for digging that out! I may still go down a FW or 3rd Party route, but if that does end up working then great. I will be modding them pretty extensively anyway, so as long as the base models are good (and they seem to be) then I should be fine.

I ordered a bunch of Victoria's Miniatures resin guns to use for my Isenkern stormtroopers and, IMHO, they look very nice...

Valete,

JohnS

Black Widows looking all good!

No happiness meltdown. It was a toy train for my Malifaux board. Well, you know, not that much happiness.

One final update, the black widows mesh very well with the upgrade sprue that came with the male Stormtroopers. I've been mixing the arms with them, hands, equipment, etc. and it looks great. So if you were curious about whether they would work or not, no worries.

The arms may be SLIGHTLY bigger, but if they are I can't tell even when holding them up to withing a foot of my face.

So has anyone else gotten their wave 3? I got an email they'd be shipped before the end of the year...

I got a card saying I've incurred almost £15 in customs charges from the package, not exactly what I was hoping for...