[Kings of War] Mantic Fantasy News & Rumors

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**Psychopomp**

My Terrain Crate pledge got in yesterday, and I'm pretty well set for walls, fences, and fantasy/medieval scatter terrain now. That's a lot of stuff.

**TheAuldGrump**

Psychopomp wrote:
My Terrain Crate pledge got in yesterday, and I'm pretty well set for walls, fences, and fantasy/medieval scatter terrain now. That's a lot of stuff.

My wife carried away a lot of the sets when they came in on Thursday.

The good thing about having a shared hobby is that you don't have to explain why you are painting little plastic people.

The bad thing is the number of times you go 'Where'd did it go? I could have sworn I had it right... oh, there it is, on Megan's side of the table....' (I would not trade that for the world! It makes me smile, every time it happens!)

And she already had a bunch painted up for her game the next day.

(A quick Prime, Wash, Drybrush - but painted!)

The Auld Grump - it is possible that my character spent time running across some of that furniture, and then leaping into the air to catch a flying critter....

**NTRabbit**

The two 28mm hedge rows also work as 15mm bocage hedge rows, and 10mm/6mm road lining trees, hooray for the sculptor capturing that bushes are often just scale model trees. I wonder if there's a way to get more of them cheaply without getting more fences than one needs?

**Taaloc**

Can you ever really have too many fences?

**Monkeysloth**

I'm fairly disappointed with my terrain crate stuff. They used such a soft, rubbery PVC that many pieces are just unusable like the campfire spit, the wagon wheels--heck the whole wagon is an unusable joke.

**Gimgamgoo**

Monkeysloth wrote:
I'm fairly disappointed with my terrain crate stuff. They used such a soft, rubbery PVC that many pieces are just unusable like the campfire spit, the wagon wheels--heck the whole wagon is an unusable joke.

The wagons were the only mutated model I received.
I dropped them into a bowl of kettle boiled water. Left them a minute, fished them out with tweezers and placed them in an ice cooled pot of water.
Perfection.

I'm really impressed with all 3 large crates I got. Well done Mantic on these.

**Monkeysloth**

Turns out my issues were with how long they'd sat in a hot delivery truck (several days over the weekend) as it took about an hour for things to cool down and harden to what they're expected to be. The wagons were really bad as for about 30 min after getting the box just their own weight was enough to almost have the bottom of the cart touch the ground due to the wheels just being too flexible. The other small parts would just droop if you picked them up at first as well.

Now that they've cooled they're not a "joke" but still surprised how soft of a PVC mantic used.

**lord_blackfang**

I'd have my crate by now if the delivery guy felt like doing his job. He called, said he couldn't deliver within the next hour when I was home, wasn't willing to deliver to my work address (a ten minute drive) and hung up on me when I declined the option of leaving the package at some petrol station.

**TheAuldGrump**

Monkeysloth wrote:
Turns out my issues were with how long they'd sat in a hot delivery truck (several days over the weekend) as it took about an hour for things to cool down and harden to what they're expected to be. The wagons were really bad as for about 30 min after getting the box just their own weight was enough to almost have the bottom of the cart touch the ground due to the wheels just being too flexible. The other small parts would just droop if you picked them up at first as well.

Now that they've cooled they're not a "joke" but still surprised how soft of a PVC mantic used.

As PVC goes, it is actually fairly firm - compare to the Reaper Bones, for example.

The plastic is still hot when the models are ejected from the molds - which allows a small amount of undercuts that would be impossible with either a harder plastic or a colder model - but it can leave the models warped.

But, yes, a boiling hot water bath followed by dunking the model in ice water after getting it back into shape works fine.

I am amazed at how quickly my wife and I have been getting these painted up - they are already seein use. (And the library shelves were used t attack a bunch of gnolls in my Tuesday kids Pathfinder game - a barbarian, raging, with Bull's Strength - for a total of 24 STR... the librarians were not happy - but it was better than using Burning Hands, which almost happened.

The Auld Grump

**Monkeysloth**

It's better then bones 1 that's for sure but the newer bones pieces are much better plastic then this.

I will give it to mantic though most items really were designed to take a wash and drybrush quite well.

**JoshInJapan**

That's good to hear. I haven't even opened mine yet.

**lord_blackfang**

I finally wrestled mine from the clutches of the evil delivery guy (actually, I folded and agreed he drops it off at a local petrol station).

Unboxing image gallery here, took a pic of most of the parts. My set is pretty good for the most part, only the orrery, carts and thin bits like candle stands will need water bending.

I am actually a bit sorry I didn't get more walls and fences.

https://imgur.com/a/UnV6iXJ

**TheAuldGrump**

Thinking about getting more Library goodness.

These are perfect for dioramas - which means Christmas gifts.

The Auld Grump

**DaveC**

Ho! Vanguardians,

We've got a few exciting tidbits for today's update, showing you what's been going on behind the scenes.

1. The rulebook is almost complete and is being tested by a team of dedicated playtesters. The rules have come a long way since the alpha rules on the Kickstarter and we can't wait to get them in your hands. There are 12 scenarios in the book and some fantastic campaign rules, which will make creating your warband great fun

2. Warband cards for the Basileans, Nightstalkers, Forces of the Abyss and Northern Alliance are finished and ready for printing

3. We've been getting regular updates from the factory producing the plastic miniatures. Above you can see the latest Men at Arms sample. The little red marks are areas that we've noticed small problems with and have asked the factory to sort them out

4. Resin production - which is being handled by our own in-house team - will be complete at the end of August and the results so far have been absolutely stunning. These are definitely some of the best resin miniatures we've ever produced

5. The plastic giant is complete. Above you can see the sample we were sent to approve. We're delighted with the finish and can't wait to see this stomping around tabletops... it's absolutely MASSIVE

So, as you can see, things are progressing very nicely. In fact, things are going so well that we're planning to bring shipping forward. That's right! We initially had a November shipping date planned for the Kickstarter but thanks to the hard work of the Vanguard team, we're hoping to bring the shipping date forward to late September... excluding any last minute hiccups.

We're really excited about Vanguard here at HQ and are hoping to host a special Vanguard launch weekend in early October - so stay tuned for more details on that.

**Monkeysloth**

Will be great if they can hit september. That means I could use the frost giant I ordered right near the end of my RPG game.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Oh dear God those swords are stubby sad. Embarrassing, really. Hope all you people who asked for smaller swords are happy now. Jeez.

Looks like they bought those foam Minecraft swords from Target.

**Galas**

Hm? They look normal sized. At least the ones without the cross-guard.

**BobtheInquisitor**

The ones with the crossguards. Those ones look ridiculous now. The other swords are also clearly the old swords shortened along one dimension, making them look stubby., but not so bad as the ones with heroic scale crossguards and Perry-historical blade length.

**Monkeysloth**

ya, I just went and checked the original image on the KSer. The swords are like 30% shorter now.

**highlord tamburlaine**

Hopefully that's one of the things they requested the factory to get fixed.

Those blades don't look good...

**Zethnar**

Holy gak, those swords are amazing. There's no way that's a factory mistake, the models would have to have been sent to the caster like that.

Is it actually possible for Mantic to run a kickstarter without fething over their customers in some way?

**Gallahad**

The swords definitely have more of a Roman gladius feel to them now. Maybe more of a Greek Xiphos, which only had a blade around 20 inches long. They don't look bad to me ( aside from the silly crossguards that are easily snipped), they are just armed with weapons primarily meant for thrusting.

**Mymearan**

Zethnar wrote:
Holy gak, those swords are amazing. There's no way that's a factory mistake, the models would have to have been sent to the caster like that.

Is it actually possible for Mantic to run a kickstarter without fething over their customers in some way?

Of course it is! Well... almost.

**BobtheInquisitor**

So now the only option is to snip the crossguards to make the tips look bigger even though they are exactly the same length as the spear blades? At least with the old kits you could use snipped spears as thrusting swords and the sword swords as badass swords.

**pancakeonions**

Isn't that why some guys shave their pubic hair?

I think those swords look great!

Huge!

(actually, I do think they look good! I don't like the oversized warcraft swords that seem to be so popular these days)

**DaveC**

EDIT:something went wrong with my post see below

**NTRabbit**

Painted by Angel Giraldez

**Gallahad**

Wow, they really went all out on the paint job to good effect. It is a nice miniature, and can hold its own with higher end manufacturers.
Mantic giant vs CMON Bigthulhu anyone?
Actually, a really cool diorama would be the Mantic Giant vs some absurdly large dragon from Reaper with a bunch of smaller soldiers fighting around their feet...

**Modock**

Finally a great paint job for a mantic miniature (giant). Amazing paint job from the master himself. This is what sells the minis. It's always better to invest in a good artist.

**Gallahad**

Modock wrote:
Finally a great paint job for a mantic miniature (giant). Amazing paint job from the master himself. This is what sells the minis. It's always better to invest in a good artist.

Good sculpting and a good paint job really do pay off. If you told people this was a Mierce miniature they would be lining up to preorder it at 3x the cost for wave 73 or whatever delivered in 5 years.