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Add me to the list of unhealthy behavior with Halo =P

Love the pram!

 Savnock wrote:
Those are really, really awesome.

Another smallish, useful vehicle would be a utility vehicle of some sort. A mini-garbage-truck, a robotic street sweeper, a pickup-truck model... those would all be great things to populate an urban setting.

As for street hazards: modelling some charging-stations or hydrogen pumps would be great.

Yes I think anything like that really. At the moment there is only really Antenociti's Workshop that does this kind of thing, these days especially with Infinity seemingly growing in popularity you have to imagine the market for cool little themed terrain pieces growing.

In fact, why not think of some kind of KS program that would encapsulate all of them? A whole range of accessories that could be used for terrain (or even playing pieces) for tabletop gaming. Certainly it wouldn't be difficult to keep coming up with stretch goals!

 Savnock wrote:


Yes I think anything like that really. At the moment there is only really Antenociti's Workshop that does this kind of thing, these days especially with Infinity seemingly growing in popularity you have to imagine the market for cool little themed terrain pieces growing.

In fact, why not think of some kind of KS program that would encapsulate all of them? A whole range of accessories that could be used for terrain (or even playing pieces) for tabletop gaming. Certainly it wouldn't be difficult to keep coming up with stretch goals!

Fundamentally I agree with you, practically...

1. I have a day job and kids but apparently dont like having a moments rest. Lounging is boring.

2. Ive been looking into getting these in resin and pewter at price points that make a kickstarter viable. Plus you have to make darned sure there is enough raised for less popular models to be subsidised by the more popular models otherwise the kickstarter fails. Making the smaller ones economical is fairly easy in quantity. but the larger ones with their undercuts and more "elegant" forms... those are going to have to be more expensive and may not be worth even trying (stretch goal....)

3. Im already putting the larger vehicles as stretch goals which will somehow unlock their purchasiblity (contributability) once the stretch goal is unlocked. Im weighing the option of resin vs pewter. Pewter will be a lot more expensive, but much more mass producable if I push the threshold for the stretch goal higher. Otherwise it may take a Looong time to satisfy the casting numbers of the larger vehicles. Ive also been looking into how to part models to make them spinable in pewter for the larger models.

4. I would love to keep modeling lots of stuff but see 1, only so much time. Plus for every model I design it has to be prototyped then mastered blah blah blah. Thus I Must have my ducks in a row before I initiate any kickstarter. Once I hit "start" then I can only reasonably add 1-4 more stretch goals give my free time. (hence Im outsourcing most of the casting and prefer pewter since it will get you guys your minis faster once its tooled up).

5 Limited initial funds. I did some measurements with a lot of 25 and 28mm minis and decided most of my vehicles needed to be upscaled 10-20%. Thus the prints I have now, While paintable (and they WILL BE) are not usable as masters. Thus add another 3 weeks for 3dprint and delivery... which is expensive and eats into my monthly hobby fund considerably. I just made an order yesterday after getting paid.

6. I have easily 30 ideas for what I could do for terrain/vehicles, etc. Ill have to save those for later and cherry pick right now.

So Believe me, I would love to keep designing and moving forward ( I love painting and now design apparently) but for this to ever take off I have to draw a line in the sand which is probably coming up in 2-3 weeks. That and I need to get reasonable Quotes to make sure the kickstarter would be able to deliver even with 1-2 production snafu's.

Why do I take on hobbies like this..... Its amazingly addictive in its own crazy way. I love making things! And its a lot to manage. Im not going to hit go on a kickstarter unless Im sure I have it 98% figured out. (there is always something you miss)

Ok, I think im about 85% done.
I have several prototypes in hand and decided to rescale to reach a happy ground between "looks appropriate with 28mmminis" and "looks like a realistic, fuel efficient, compact city vehicle of the future. For this I Looked at a bunch of cars next to average and larger sized people... Conclusion, we are quite big compared to cars, especially the hybrids and fuel efficient cars!

Anyway, Im working on a cargo module for the train engine, and a couple useful things to put into the "stretch goal" category. for non-vehicle extras. Some are my painting a very limited number of models and some require a bit more legwork on whats possible for large orders. That of course presupposes the kickstarter makes it to the base goal. Setting sights low seems the best chance of success. .

I have quite a few quotes and am leaning heavily to spin casting for most of the smaller vehicles (mono blade and smaller) while larger vehicles will probably be parted for spinning or have smaller parts spun, and larger parts pressure cast. So far the preliminary quotes look reasonable. now Im trying to figure out the details of the pricing structure to make sure funds can deliver on goods.

I also need to do a bit more painting so some of the cars look nice.
'
Ive also been trolling the net trying to find appropriate places to "poll" to determine order of popularity of vehicles in order to balance against cost and probability of funding.

Have fun!

This is excellent news - can't wait for the poll, final decision, Kickstarter, stretch goals and deliveries!

Going to paint it like a yellow Countach

http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/news/2012/09/28mm-hawker-evora-aircar-now-available/



more pics of the car found here

http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/28mm-hawker-evora-aircar-for-sci-fi-wargames.html

One thing I liked in the new Total Recall movie was the hover cars could only go on the certain roads. No road, no car. Now THAT could be possible with Infinity. It's not like a hover car could go anywhere. They probably have them on Earth's major cities but more likely Neo Terra and Shentang/Wutang.

 CDK wrote:
One thing I liked in the new Total Recall movie was the hover cars could only go on the certain roads. No road, no car. Now THAT could be possible with Infinity. It's not like a hover car could go anywhere. They probably have them on Earth's major cities but more likely Neo Terra and Shentang/Wutang.

That makes good sense. You have to have some infrastructure in place. The obvious question is why would they pay to put it in place and the answer would be traffic density. With hover cars you allow people to still walk, allow some ground traffic, but you can greatly increase the traffic in a city by adding the 3rd dimension to traffic lanes. The obvious problem then is people driving in 3d. Many cant handle driving in 2D. Probably would need to be automated.

I saw the cars PistonHonda. The angles are nice and Ill probalby pick one up in a couple months for painting, but so much of the future sci-fi stuff around looks blocky or inelegantly designed for minimum air resistance. With the anticipated population growth Cost of fuel and materials will keep rising so vehicles will have to get more fuel efficient and more compact, or at least lighter. At least that was my main thought in most of my deisgns. Only some of the hot sport cars are very large.

dunno if this is the same thing or not xD but something similar that I plan on getting for my infinity are these: http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/antenocitis/g-o-t-vehicles-1.html


Automatically Appended Next Post:
curious to see what your ones come out like o.o

Automatically Appended Next Post:
curious to see what your ones come out like o.o

Im presently painting some prototypes of the podcar, the Viper sport, and the executive hover. I hope to have pictures of these up within 1 week. I have a couple more prints due in a week and will get to work on those shortly there after.

 atropos907 wrote:

 CDK wrote:
One thing I liked in the new Total Recall movie was the hover cars could only go on the certain roads. No road, no car. Now THAT could be possible with Infinity. It's not like a hover car could go anywhere. They probably have them on Earth's major cities but more likely Neo Terra and Shentang/Wutang.

That makes good sense. You have to have some infrastructure in place. The obvious question is why would they pay to put it in place and the answer would be traffic density. With hover cars you allow people to still walk, allow some ground traffic, but you can greatly increase the traffic in a city by adding the 3rd dimension to traffic lanes. The obvious problem then is people driving in 3d. Many cant handle driving in 2D. Probably would need to be automated.

I saw the cars PistonHonda. The angles are nice and Ill probalby pick one up in a couple months for painting, but so much of the future sci-fi stuff around looks blocky or inelegantly designed for minimum air resistance. With the anticipated population growth Cost of fuel and materials will keep rising so vehicles will have to get more fuel efficient and more compact, or at least lighter. At least that was my main thought in most of my deisgns. Only some of the hot sport cars are very large.

Have you played the Mass Effect 2 DLC, "Lair of the Shadow Broker"?

It features a 'skycar' chase sequence which I very much think you could use for inspiration in regards to how the infrastructure would be in play...
Things like automated beacons which force the vehicles back on a designated "road".

I did see that in ME2, A reasonable premise to explain antigrav.

As for the kickstarter, I have some more concrete numbers from the spin casters for the small and most of the larger vehicles. Some things were cheaper than expected but some more expensive. Itll take a decent quantity to average the prices down, but I think spinning is the most economoical way to do this. So now Im doubling down on figuring out which models to make part of the Base objective of a kickstarter to improve probability of success. and which would be stretch goals. I expect all the smaller ones to be almost all in pewter (the blade being a questionable transition point), while some of the big ones may be all resin or partial resin and parts in pewter.

Ive put up a poll on TMP, you can respond here or at that poll to help me narrow things down.
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=281360

I've designed a hand full of 28mm "scaled" sci-fi civilian vehicles to populate the typically desolate streets of the future cities (wargames , skirmish games, apocalyptic, etc). At this stage I would like to asses relative popularity/preference of the particular models. For scale the smallest model is just under 20 mm tall, the train is about 10" long All models are very close to scale to eachother. Im hoping this will help me prioritize production, assuming there is enough of a response.

Please Vote for models you would be most interested in...
Up to 2 of the numbered models

And/OR
Up to 2 of the lettered models

And/OR
Not interested unless they come armed

OR Not interested, I like my streets empty of anything civilian as wargames should be.


F/0 can be voted in either category as I view it as a threshold on size and volume for production.


Description
A. Mono Stroller (IED)
B Crotch rocket
C. Mono Bike
D Grid commuter
E Blade Mono Bike
F/0 Family Pod
1 Performance Hover with optional high performance outboard parts
2. Outboard reactor long range hover
3. Adaptive Clawed Viper
4. Executive Hover
5 FUV Family Utility Vehicle
6 Viper Sport
7. Armored Train

7,1, as well as E and D for me I've been looking everywhere for a sci-fi train

5 and 7 for me. I'm liking the train a lot.

 CDK wrote:
5 and 7 for me. I'm liking the train a lot.

Same for me - and I 'voted' first before looking!

7 - the armored train, for certain!

5 - a nice 'generic' hi-tech SF vehicle - nice!

7 and 2.

7: Armored Train--because who doesn't love train scenarios?

2: It looks utilitarian enough to be an "anywhere, anywhen" kind of vehicle while the others all seem to have a kind of faction specific tie to them.

I'm actually gonna say 3 & 7.
Oh, and E. Damn that E looks good.

Those definatly help narrow down the focus of a kickstarter (If I ever get it going, Ive hit a few snags that are irritating)

anyway, here is an image of some of the vehicles painted. Not all vehicles are to scale to eachother. These were initial prototypes to see how they looked on the table. I have since upscaled over half of them 10-20% so they look ok with "wrongly proportioned" 28mm miniatures.



backdrop cg by andree wallin http://andreewallin.com, base and everything else by me.

5 and 7 for me
That train is really really awesome =)

Ok, since there were several requests, Here is one of a couple truck concepts Im playing with. Now I need to find a remotely economical way to make it because I doubt people want to spend over 50 bucks to get one. I call it the street sweeper. Its a heavy lifter for a trash vehicle, cargo vehicle or possibly an armored van. Its the street sweeper because the repulsors are inefficient and have a habit of kicking up a lot of dirt off of the street

We will call the street sweeper/ utility truck #8

Can you make them "hollow" so you don't use much resin?

Ive looked into rotocasting for the big ones but the handful of rotocasters I found are way too expensive, or wont return my inqueries (Im guessing its a hobby for them)

Ive considered foam cores to eat volume and reduce the need of a silicone plug on the bottom of the mold that would reduce volume. Ive found 2 casters that have given fair prices... for 40 of the armored train cars. I doubt I can move 40. Im thinking that for the smaller ones I may have to say all models start at resin production. If volume gets over a certain amount it will switch over to pewter production. But that point is not something I think I can commit to because of the tooling costs for spin casting being a little uncertain until the casters actually have the models in hand.

Example If I have 6 models in the base of the kickstarter (my current plan as it seems the most likly to succeed) but it turns out that 2 of them only move 20-40x, then those will be resin. If one of them moves 60x and the other two move 80x then I may have to call the 60x resin as well as the margins may be too close to be safe. If on the other hand the last two go for 130x copies, then I have to choose, do I use the extra made from the latter two to subsidize one of the slighly less popular into pewter so it will rapidly become cheaper, or do I set a low threhsold stretch goal that will add an extra of the high quantity models to pledges over X to encourage more pledging at the higher levels. Ive been watching all the miniature related kickstarters in detail to see how pledging is trending. But most of those have sets of 28mm minis that due to volume are pennies to spin after tooling costs. These vehicles typically are dollars to produce after tooling, making it much harder to keep throwing in "extras" as we pass stretch goals. Of course that presupposes success which may be far fetched. especially since even in resin, some of the larger vehicles are dollars to tens of dollars unless some funny hollowing takes place. And of course the more complicated the vehicle the more molds required to make its parts driving threshold costs up further. Another factor is the need to part a model to minimize undercuts. Its a tradeoff between mold life and number of molds.

For example, the pod car will easily be 1 mold, may not even need to be a 2 parter, the sideboost/outboard hover car will be 3 parts, as will both vipers, so 3 two part molds each. The train is 3 parts, one of which is huge. The hover utility vehicle may be 1 large resin and 6 small pewter(1 disk) just to make production of the hover pads-or wheels cheaper.

Its all doable, its just the strategy thats a little daunting, which is why I set the poll to help me prioritize. If the kickstarter only has 3 vehicles I think it will fail doe to insufficient cross interest in the choices. If it has 6 vehicles the base cost for success is high, but I think it will draw considerably more interest with the options. If it had all vehicles... I think there is no way in .... that it would go because the popular vehicles would not be sufficient to subsidize the less popular.

More info than you wanted, but this is why Im going slower than expected, I have reasonable quotes for most of the vehicles. I just have to sit down and dedicate a good chunk of time to designing the tradeoffs properly. but this is also showing me a few more of the many reasons why there are not nearly as many vehicle minis as figure minis. Figure minis are the bread and butter.

For those who don't care for a hover vehicle, is this better for the utility truck?

Yes! It looks cool. But how do you get in? Now that I think about it most of your designs look like you need to fly to get in or out of the vehicle.

 CDK wrote:
Yes! It looks cool. But how do you get in? Now that I think about it most of your designs look like you need to fly to get in or out of the vehicle.

First remember a lot of the smaller vehicles or performance vehicles are designs more for fuel and materiel efficiency than leg room. With petrol becoming more expensive, fuel and plastics will get very pricy. Plus scrap metal is also rising in costs so all materials will be getting more and more expensive for more and more people wanting them. For longer trips people use public transportation. For commuting you use whats legal due to the fuel efficiency laws of the overpopulated cities.

A. Hit open canopy and insert baby/bomb
B. duck a little You want that cowl behind you at the speeds your going so your head doesn't get ripped off.
c. just climb in. The visor may slide up the wheel to get out of the way.
D. Hit open canopy, step over the front wheel and sit down, then hit close canopy.
E. Canopy slides forward and you climb in with barely more room than an old WW2 fighter cockpit. Its built for speed not comfort. You sit leaning forward a lot, in almost a crawling position, but rotated up a bit.
F. Side door translates out laterally then rotates up. Seating is tight, like an old VW bug.

1. The dome is almost seamless and so I didnt model it, but it would be a split similar to F/0 that slides out of the way.
2. The dome just lifts up and back. Climb over and climb in dont get too many rads if you are dumb enough to climb over the reactor.
3. canopy slides back, climb in the front. It fits two, barely, again a performance vehicle.
4. Doors on the sides behave as F and 1
5. Doors open conventionally. but canopy can fully open at the joint on the top just above the doors. Otherwise there is no way you could cram your crap in there to make it a Family utility vehicle. Seats fold down to make room for the non-existant wooden 2x4's of the future. or your skiis.
6. canopy slides, you climb in fit is just barely more roomy than E
7. Door is in the rear. Thats why its an armored train. You have to fight your way through everything to get into the cabin. Meanwhile the driver is activating internal automated defenses to ash, shoot, or otherwise #@$ you up.
8. Door is on the left side, it splits opening up and down. As a trash truck there would be an arm just right of the cab dome that grabs the trash cans and tosses them in back. In this case the top of the back opens to admit trash. If it were another type of utility truck the rear splits open like a large tool chest and the side panels open to act as a portable workshop with moderate storage. If its a cargo transport then once again you open in the top or split the back. to load. There is no walk in because internal arms assist your loading.


I just shipped some test parts off to a couple casters to gauge quality and workability. Hope I like the results =)

Can't wait to see them. This is really cool.

Thoughts on my corney art?
I was going to go fancy but I thought fancy art with fancy paint jobs may be overload to the viewer.

I don't think the stick figures are needed. It makes it a bit childish. Simple is better. You need the focus on the car.

I like the direction of the logo but I think it needs be a bit more unified. I assume the name of it is Sci-Fi Traffic Hazards! as one heading. Right now the name just looks like Sci-Fi Traffic, with Hazards! as a sub-heading. Otherwise I think it's looking good.

Agreed!

Also, if you want help, why not throw it up for a mini 'competition'/help session here?

We got some users here that are quite good with this kind of thing - just look at my sig!

I like that idea
so here is the deal. I will hold a competition, it will last for at least two weeks. After which time I will pick a winner. If The kickstarter seems to be delayed I may delay picking a winnner
A single winner will be chosen by me. However, if I feel none of the entries fit my "vision" for this I will just use my own art which im still working on.
If I choose yours then I get rights to use it for whatever purpose I wish including modifications.

What do you get if I choose yours (you win).
1. If the kickstarter doesn't make it or if I by some horror never even start the kickstarter you get one copy of any miniature Im capable of casting myself. At present this includes the monobike and pod car. Ill probably have the blade done in a couple weeks (free including shipping anywhere).
2. If the kickstarter makes its base goal, then instead of 1 you get two miniatures (same or different from A through F) that successfully get funded for production for free including shipping .
3. In addition to #2, If you choose to pledge to the kickstarter (and it is successful) PM me your real contact info and what you pledged, and I will effectively match your pledge up to the 150 USD level or your pledge (whichever is lower). This means if you say pledge at a 140usd level and you want 2 lower pledges that add up to 140usd or less I will include those minis for free with your original pledge fulfillment.
4. in addition to #2, but Instead of 3, If you choose to pledge for one of the painting commission levels (up to 500 USD) I will up-to double your yield in the commission giving you a second painted vehicle of equal or lesser painted commission value (this will take longer to deliver) . If your pledge entails multiple vehicles painted , say 3 different vehicles, then you get 3 more painted vehicles of equal or lesser value painted.
5. if you pledge for even a single vehicle, inclusive or exclusive of the above, and If we get the train stretch goal funded it will be several stretch goals before there) then you get a train free. If you happened to pledge for a train then you get your pledged train and still get your free train. (free shipping anywhere)


Rules for entries.

1. Entry is a package of one banner 468x60 and one splash at least 640x480 4:3 aspect ratio. If the splash is larger it must look good at 640x480.
2. I like the eurocorp font free from http://www.pixelsagas.com/fonts.php?catid=3 and would like you to use it for at least "hazard", but if you find a better freeware font...its a risk. I also like that style of sci-fi traffic, just consider that for my tastes as I think both are in line with the style of these minis.
3. I would prefer you use one of my car images as this is about the cars. Ill attach them below.
4. if chosen you provide me the files in a layered format compatible with GIMP, or separated into a gif for each layer.
. Banners can be animated Gif's(similar to some of what you see on Dakka) If so they must be accompanied by a single banner separately that can be used where animated banners are not allowed.
6. Any images you put in the picture you must have rights to or proof it is free for commercial use or you received authorization for commercial use with nothing more than credit given on kickstarter traffic hazard webpage.
7. Obviously it must say kickstarter or have room for me to add kickstarter in the standard white-green.
8. should not be lewd or offensive PG13 if not PG (what is that, no curves or dirty looks?)
9 Images will not have ANY third party miniatures as I don't want this kickstarter to get sued. I have however received authorization from Zombie smith to include his minis as long as I give reference on the same page. If you get permission from the third party with no conditions other than giving credit, you must present proof (forward me the email so I can verify it) Dont even try GW. But frankly what would you need them for other than scale or background, and since they arent in the same image...

If you think Ive missed a rule please let me know.

You can use any image related to traffic hazards from my gallery or this page
http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-search.jsp?u=18662
EXCEPT you must not include the city background in the picture that has all of the painted cars as I only have authorization to use this for personal use.