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Are the scientists in that location artwork wearing dog hats?

Still looking forward to this. The power armored jackal guys were pretty cool looking, so I hope they'll be available as well before too long.

 Gallahad wrote:
Cool artwork, I like the environments in particular. With the 3d DLP printed miniatures you will be selling will they still have the supports attached or will you remove those? I'm open to the idea that support rod burs are the mold lines of the future, but I had some terrain 3d printed and have found the support bars a huge pain to remove.

In my opinion supports are definitely the equivalent to mold lines or snipping a miniature from a sprue. I believe future manufacturing this is the next step, mainly because it allows on-demand manufacturing without the need of keeping large amounts of stock. It obviously won't work for everything but for the most part can be a valuable addition.

Supports and the ease of removal depend on the printer, material, and slicer used to prep the file. FDM/FFF supports are annoying to deal with if I use Cura or Slic3r but come off easier when sliced with Simplfy3D. For resin SLA/DLP printers it depends on how the supports are created. If using meshmixer or a free program, they tend to be harder to remove while Solus Contour or PerfactoryRP supports separate fairly easily. A lot of times they'll separate as part of the cleaning process.

If someone wants to remove supports themselves they can request it however supports will usually be removed. However, there might be some spurs that need to be trimmed or touched up (I'll try to get a picture to demonstrate). After they are cleaned with alcohol I use an air compressor to dry them off, also makes sure no liquid resin got stuck in cracks or creases. The compressor will separate some supports, the rest I pull away before putting them in a UV cure box. It is easier to remove supports before the final cure because the alcohol makes the touch points weaker when it is fully cured they become stiffer.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The artwork is amazing. Was there an art book or something like that for this campaign?

When do the minis hit retail?

Also, what are you doing with the 3D print scaffolding after you remove it? It looks like it would be great for 6mm or 10mm terrain...

There is no artwork planned at this time. I don't feel there is enough artwork to warrant that... yet. Once we get a lot more then that is something that could happen if there was interest.

It won't be open for purchase until after KS backers receive orders. However the Pledge Manager will open up and allow late backers, it will close once we start Wave 2 shipping. After Wave 2 is complete then they will be on the online store.

I never thought about the scaffolding... currently, all the scraps are sitting in a box. I guess I could see how it could be used as that, an interesting idea. I might have to see about doing some terrain designs that incorporate the supports generated with them.

 Barzam wrote:
Are the scientists in that location artwork wearing dog hats?

Still looking forward to this. The power armored jackal guys were pretty cool looking, so I hope they'll be available as well before too long.

Yes some of them are. Most of the armors have them or something similar designed into them, similar to the horns for the Blinc troopers. Even if someone didn't have horns or was human and not a gene-splicer, foreign units wouldn't know how to tell the difference. This lends to their psychological profile as other factions want to avoid them because they are mutants. It is a bedtime story that others tell their children to behave, "Be a good citizen and behave otherwise the devils and demon dogs will come for you in the night and turn you into a monster".

The Jackals are one of the next things up along with lizards. We want to wait until we have more tactile feedback about the miniatures, pros, cons, strengths, weaknesses. That way when we do the next batch or sculpts we can adjust or correct any issues and continue to create better products.

Update #24 - Incoming Images

In order to help people decide if they wanted to wait for Wave 2 or be part of Wave 1, I will be doing a few of these image updates.

I apologize for the quality but I'm still learning, there definitely a learning curve when you actually have a decent camera to take better pictures with. The good news is they take good details, the bad news is everything shows up and when I mean everything, I mean every dust particle or hair. It does look like I'll need to hit the miniatures with the air compressor before priming them. I should also add another light source, towards the bottom or change the angle of my camera for photos.
Once I get these primed up and it dries, I'll take another batch of pictures for the pledge manager and update.

I will start with the control image, this is one of our traditional resin cast miniatures.



When you put it next to a 3D print, it is hard to tell the difference other than the color. The photo doesn't do it justice but once they are primed as one color you will be able to tell better... or rather won't be able to tell the difference between the two.



One advantage of 3D printing is that we get access to product faster which means getting to customers faster. Another advantage is things that normally require multi-piece casting or needing to be cut, can be done easier with 3D Printing.



Normally if the above or below miniature were to be cast, it would have been cut into multiple pieces. The legs on the Shadowbeast and the clothing on the one below can make them more difficult to cast. Extra cuts can add extra costs so not having to do that and gaining access to more easily done dynamic posing is a plus.



Here are some other prints:

Update #25 - Primed Prints

I still have a long ways to go dealing with the learning curve of the camera, however, I am getting better. Here are some of the images of the 3d prints that have been primed. Again I apologize for the quality, the pictures don't do them any justice.



Once the resin 3D Prints have a coat of primer on them, when they are next to a traditional resin cast miniatures it is very difficult to tell the difference. Can you spot which one is the resin cast and which one is the 3D Print?

















Here are some other things we've been working on:







Another bonus of using digital sculpts and 3d printing means we can also do larger 75mm format for painters and collectors.

I love those security guard human types and the big robots! I also really like the big guy firing the two guns!

So the pledge manager will be open until wave 2 ships...? What is the estimated date for that?

Everything looks amazing, but with some surprise KDM shipping and other commitments, my budget isn't allowing any purchases right now.

Buh, kind of bummed that my favorite mini of the bunch, by a large margin, was the KS exclusive. That Ex-Inquisitor model is terrific.

The pledge manager will be open until Wave 2 ships, which should hopefully no longer than 2 months out. I don't have a more exact date yet because I haven't had an update from the casters yet. However, once Wave 2 has finished shipping, we'll also open online retail after it is complete.

The good news about the KS Exclusive is if you miss it this batch, it may be available in future KS. The idea was that the exclusives would stay exclusive to Kickstarter, but future KS would have options of getting them for those that may have missed previous campaigns. We want to reward those that back us but at the same time don't want to punish those who may not have seen the campaign until later or didn't have funds to back at the time.

Any future campaigns will be paying for artwork and sculpting of miniatures with production going straight to 3d printing. This should allow us to deliver much faster and not wait for a "full casting run" before we can ship anything. That puts more control of timing in our hands only waiting on one source, the artists, to complete their tasks.