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 scarletsquig wrote:
Asterian team:

I actually rather like these models, but Mantic really is terrible about showing their work. Seriously, this very dark paint job is doing a better job of hiding the details then emphasizing them (it took me several looks to realize there are 2 females and 2 males...).

An unpainted shot and one with some primer or ink wash, is that really beyond their technical capabilities?

Why has 1 Asterian stopped to play pool/snooker and then realised he forgot his cue!

Overall good miniatures poorly painted I might be tempted to swap the heads for DE wych or Helion heads though if the scale matches if not the current heads are fine.

 DaveC wrote:
Why has 1 Asterian stopped to play pool/snooker and then realised he forgot his cue!

Overall good miniatures poorly painted I might be tempted to swap the heads for DE wych heads though if the scale matches if not the current heads are fine.

Scale won't match-I've got a few dark eldar wych heads and they're too big for Mantic bodies-you'd end up with bobble-head syndrome. I like the Xbox paintjob-I wonder if their armor can ALSO be shot and not be destroyed (classic xbox, not 360).

haha yes, great comment about the x-box team

 DaveC wrote:
Why has 1 Asterian stopped to play pool/snooker and then realised he forgot his cue!

Overall good miniatures poorly painted I might be tempted to swap the heads for DE wych or Helion heads though if the scale matches if not the current heads are fine.

Possibly the mirrored witch heads, or whatever they are? hmm.. I wonder if the scales match up..

The blue haired Asterian is actually Mellisandra the Asterian MVP hence the slightly different look she's not a generic striker. Apparently this is painting in progress not finished.

Logical, she looks like having a mew face at the moment, overall solid models, but their presentation needs work.

Minis are likely fine, but Mantic's studio painting and photography... eek

Hmmmm, not sure how I feel about them. The faces and poses seem a bit off to my eye but the picture doesn't really seem to be doing them any favors, so I suppose I'll reserve judgment for a bit. I know when the first pictures of the Judwan appeared I was somewhat concerned about "falling backwards man", but that ended up not actually being the pose and was really an uncorrected bend. The paint of the faces makes them seem hyper-angular, which does make them look less human at least.

I too want to see how they play.

Would've liked them better with helmets on.

overtyrant wrote:
Would've liked them better with helmets on.

Absolutely this, though I can concede that showing their faces allows you to see they're not just really tall humans.

That paint job does them no favors. :( They could be cool models but we have no way of knowing from these pictures :(

Some ugly looking 'elves' almost like larp elves, except thinner

The paintjob looked fine on the email I got through

(where the picture was a lot smaller as I had the window shrunk down)

so give that a try,

They also mentioned that the painting was in progress.

I do have a bit of a question though, any ideas on doing hair? The whole mohawk thing doesn't exactly fit for me...

 Compel wrote:
They also mentioned that the painting was in progress.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaa? "painting in progress" that is a new one.

 Riquende wrote:
Sponsored by Xbox?

LOL

"It's just a work-in-progress shot from the guy who's painting them - we thought people might want to have a sneak peek "

Also

"Wait until you see them photographed properly, the colours should look a lot more vibrant."

"Whoops - I totally failed to point out that the Asterian at the front is Mellisandra, their ex-military glory-hog MVP. "

That's... rather disappointing, actually.

Her concept art looked like...


It's like all the sharp lines and elegance of the design seems to have been lost in the transition from concept to reality.

Yeah..I really hope the DZ Asterians turn out better than that. Ugh :(

It is making me reconsider the "Expanded Universe" option in Deadzone...

^ The Asterians in Deadzone will be Cyphers, which look totally different, and rather awesome (and I think, this an example of how sometimes just showing an unpainted resin can be so much better):



Also, it's been confirmed that the DZ Asterians (and forgefathers) will be done by the digital sculpting team, who tend to get it right.

 scarletsquig wrote:
^ The Asterians in Deadzone will be Cyphers, which look totally different, and rather awesome (and I think, this an example of how sometimes just showing an unpainted resin can be so much better):

Spoiler:

Also, it's been confirmed that the DZ Asterians (and forgefathers) will be done by the digital sculpting team, who tend to get it right.

I suspect it might not necessarily be the digital team being better, but that whoever is responsible for approving stuff being more willing to say, 'No, change this'

Those who can't sculpt at all tend to believe a sculptor when they say it has to be like this, it will take me X weeks to change things

On the other hand almost everybody can do some sort of digital art (however horrible) and so will feel more comfortable asking for changes (which will genuinely probably be quicker to make)

Well, with regards to the cast quality, I've just received a box of the void sirens and.. well, very easy for me, no mould lines at all to remove!

Incidentally these were shop bought, and not from the Kickstarter. I also bought a box of Forge Fathers at the same time, as well as special characters, and they were a bit worse - some mould lines, probably added 15 minutes or so to the preparation time for them.

Yep, void sirens were pretty well-casted on my end. Followed by the judwan, then the zzor then the robots, which were the worst casted, but it was mostly flash and mold lines, which I just cleaned off with my knife while watching DVDs. Overall, s2 seems to be a lot better than s1 in terms of casting.

Just to check, does anyone know how many players per team I should be receiving if I pledged to upgrade my teams to max? How many jacks/guards should I be receiving for s2?

Sining wrote:
Yep, void sirens were pretty well-casted on my end. Followed by the judwan, then the zzor then the robots, which were the worst casted, but it was mostly flash and mold lines, which I just cleaned off with my knife while watching DVDs. Overall, s2 seems to be a lot better than s1 in terms of casting.

Just to check, does anyone know how many players per team I should be receiving if I pledged to upgrade my teams to max? How many jacks/guards should I be receiving for s2?

I believe you're supposed to have 10 (8 for the team + 2 for striker) for the Sirens, Z'Zor and Judwan and 12 of the robots (the Robots have more models due to their role change rules). The other models are supposed to come in the Q3 shipment if my packing slip isn't lying to me.

Hey everyone, can I ask what everyone's opinion would be on me changing the title of this thread to cover ALL sci-fi from Mantic?

I know 1-2 of you a year ago wanted a separate Dreadball thread, but it just feels a bit weird how with Deadzone, we're now going to have *4* N&R threads for Mantic in this forum:

- All of the fantasy games Mantic makes.
- Dreadball
- Warpath (dead topic, nobody posts in it)
- Deadzone

There's just not enough posts or news on here to warrant 4 separate topics on Mantic (I'm the one who often ends up necro-ing this thread from page 17 after nobody can find it).

I will keep the thread title updated in a timely manner,and the OP with both dreadball and other sci-fi stuff.

Thoughts?

It would probably be for the best: consolidating the release info down helps keep the information closer to the top. Also, there is just so much overlap with Mantic's sci-fi offerings it only makes sense.

I'd say dreadball should be separate, but there's much more overlap between deadzone and warpath.

For reference, the original reason for the split is that a few posters stated that they liked Dreadball, but had zero interest in any other rules or miniatures from Mantic at all.

I'm just wondering if that is still the case.

Since Dreadball/Deadzone/Warpath are all one universe go for it

(although I suspect some of those who just want to follow dreadball may disagree)