Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

That Plague spotter needs to share some shopping tips with his brethren- it must be hell trying to find clothes to cover up his midriff! Those guys seriously have some long torsos!

It would have been nice to get a shot of all these guys together. It's hard to get an idea of just how tall each of them are when they're on their own.

Big Knifer Orc seems to have his jacket zipped up rather than wearing a kilt. Maybe that's just my eyes.

Reb Rocket needs a little more detail... not sure where though. Maybe it's her face that seems a little off.

I feel satisfied with what they've shown.

Wow, the Orx hands are even bigger. First the fist was larger than the Orx head, now his fist can hold his leg from knee to foot in his hand. If I was wearing foam 'hulk hands' they still wouldn't be as large as this model's hands.

And to think, Mantic made a name for themselves with realistic proportions. With this last batch, only the first 3 models are any good. Everything below the female is just poorly sculpted trash, especially the pile of leaves.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Mantic need to leave behind this odd fascination with really tiny legs on models...

I don't know. They look perfectly proportioned to me: 1:3:3, right?

Don't know why you'd direct that at me, but, no, they look awful.

I suppose the Space Plague *could* mutate you into such horrible proportions but, overall, it is a bad look.

For both Fantasy AND SF figures!

Standard fare from Mantic, I guess - a mix of decent and awful, but sadly missing "great". The Tau Air caste figure is the pick of the bunch there, but still nothing amazing.

 Crimson wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Mantic need to leave behind this odd fascination with really tiny legs on models...

I don't know. They look perfectly proportioned to me: 1:3:3, right?

Those are the proportions the zombie-creatures have and it looks horrible.

Imagine that, too bad they are 1/4/3, but not let that distract you.

Rebel heavy weapons lady looks good, but her head is gigantic.

That Reb's tail, the hulks legs and head...bleh. Terraton looks quite nice, the Orx commando looks kinda ridiculous, but in a good way. Good, not great. Rebel girl also looks pretty nice. The Plague...still only really like the big guy that was the poster boy of Deadzone. He's still in Mantic's top 5 best models, maybe even the best. The rest of the Plague is meh. I'm content to be getting the Striker for the Enforcer group(s) as I'm doubling up on them, the Marauders, the characters, my Plague leader and a terraton, while letting the rest go to a friend who is snagging the rebs and terrain. After letting that stuff go, I'm still getting a pretty good deal for the KS, and I'll be getting an Enforcer $50 booster doubled, plus a couple rounds of Peacekeepers. I love the Enforcers enough to have a lot. I mean a lot...

 Cyporiean wrote:
Well here is the Nameless Team for Dreadball




Not what I was expecting...

Wow . I love them... I love them so much!

And somehow, I picked this team, and only this team, based on the concept art... and it is by far my favorite! Man, I am so stoked for when these ship

When is that supposed to be, by the way?


Edit:
Also, that board they're posing on... is that purchaseable somehow? Looks very nice.

(If it's the normal board, ignore me... I haven't yet gotten to play Dreadball, as I'm waiting on the Nameless, of course )

Yep, that's the standard board!

Dreadball stuff has been unveiled by Mantic, so here are my shots:

^ The zz'or are nicely done, but I have to say, the Asterians are definitely not your best work.. the black just hides all the detail and the paintwork comes across as a little too messy to get the look you're going for (really, really hard scheme to paint well, there). I imagine they look great IRL, but with the black they don't photograph too well.. hopefully Mantic's official pics will have them looking better, the black parts and face highlights seem a little washed out in that pic.

The rear view is better for some reason, they're not bad sculpts I think, one thing I do like is that the male/ female difference is clear from the hips, it is nice when sculptors bother to recognise the fact that women have different legs to men (I'm looking at you, drag queen GW dark eldar and elf kits).

Yeah, I agree on the Asterians. The brief was asking for the OSL 'tron' effect on the piping, but the time allowed (a factor of budget) just didn't stretch to having enough time to tweak enough to pull it off I think. Could also be that the sculpt isn't done with that in mind. Regardless, definitely not my favorites of the Mantic pieces I've done - that's probably the trolls - they were a lot of fun.

These (dreadball stuff) were all pre-production resins.

The Rebs look decent, the rest are either meh or terrible. The proportions on the plague look really off. It may be that this is deliberate due to the fluff, but if so it hasn't translated well into decent or even passable sculpts IMO.

Love all the Deadzone greens, with the exception of the big-chest plague, but their style is not really to my taste. Tons of detail for such small models. the Plague Teraton looks fantastic, like Mierce was releasing it.

I've put my survey in now.

Diverted all the things that I had for Orx into more Rebs.

I'm thinking a paint scheme or green wax / leather for them.

Agreed on the Plague, I think I'll skip that faction and wait for the Zz'or as my horde army for warpath. The same problems with the marauders are present in the plague, but only the ones sculpted by that one particular sculptor.

The zombies look like they have much better proportions, probably a result of the different sculptor more than anything else.

I'm really not a fan of whatever sculptor they have on their books who is seemingly incapable of doing anything other than tiny-legs sculpts.

It's pretty hilarious that their new in-house sculptor (Sylvain) was actually hired specifically to fix problems with sculpts that their freelancers send them.

I can't help but feel like it would be a better use of the guy's time to have him sculpt nice models instead of being stuck as the resident turd polisher.

The strange thing is I really like the plague figures, also the orx hulk is really nice although id like the legs a bit further apart so they look like their supporting its weight.

The orx sergeant seems ok, but il leave final judgement till I get the figs in my hands.

The rebs seem a little plain, although I think the judwan medic looks pretty cool.

The plague swarm does however seem a bit of a mess, id like tohave seen it at a different angle (and a bit less ratty)

I don't think it can entirely be blamed on the sculptor or at all, someone at mantic must be going, yep that's good etc or at least giving some kind of information/feedback to the sculptor, otherwise why the near constant tiny leg syndrome across most models, fantasy, sci-fi etc.

The problem purely rests with Mantic and the desire or at least direction/style to have shorter legs. Hell, if you can get SS to complain about it, something is wrong

Yeah, it just looks to be more Mantic's "thing".

Like Skulls on GW kits, and Goggles on PP kits.

I would wish they upped their quality control and acceptance levels, if they fumble this one I will be quite reluctant to support them in their next one.

 Earthbeard wrote:
I don't think it can entirely be blamed on the sculptor or at all, someone at mantic must be going, yep that's good etc or at least giving some kind of information/feedback to the sculptor, otherwise why the near constant tiny leg syndrome across most models, fantasy, sci-fi etc.

The problem purely rests with Mantic and the desire or at least direction/style to have shorter legs. Hell, if you can get SS to complain about it, something is wrong

I think it is definitely a problem with the sculptors, as Mantic's concept art for the most part is pretty decent (thinking especially of the concepts shown during the KOW KS), but the sculpts that resulted from that art had numerous basic problems with them. That said, Mantic shouldn't be approving the sculpts (or even hiring sub-standard sculptors in the first place).

It is very frustrating as they should be able to see that poor sculpts harm their reputation and sales, but they still can't achieve consistent art direction or quality control.

 Earthbeard wrote:

The problem purely rests with Mantic and the desire or at least direction/style to have shorter legs. Hell, if you can get SS to complain about it, something is wrong

I had the same thought. SS is a very firm supporter of them (so am I, mind you), but if he's questioning their output, they really need to stand up and take notice. When their number one fan is offering criticism, it needs to be addressed. And Squig, there is no offense, malice or anything else in calling you their #1: merely an example to show they need to sit up and notice your suggestions and thoughts.

I guess it's a question of both time and money

They've got £X to pay for the sculpt so this limits the pool of talent that's available to them

And the need it done by Y date (and quite possibly this is multiple figures done by Y date) and I'll bet this is even more of a problem once again limiting their talent pool

From what they've said about Kings of War their margins on that were so tight that the KS money could not even stretch to paying for the command upgrade sprue, that had to come out of Mantic's general funds

(and when they've tried to increase their margins there have been howls of outrage, just read the early bits of the Deadzone thread)

So it may just not be viable to dump substandard sculpts both in terms of cost and in terms of getting stuff out on time (where they're head and shoulders above almost all other KS companies). Hence a house sculptor hired to try and improve them where nessesary (although this will never be as good as stuff done right from the start)

(I do wish that they'd stop using sculptors that keep producing less than stellar work, if you know one persons work always gets flak and sells poorly, just STOP)

It's always going to be a problem for a company that originally sold themselves a cheap alternative when they need to increase costs to produce a better product. It's up to they buyers to decide whether they get to make the step up, and so far the calls for more stuff, more value, more discounts makes me doubt they are willing to pay for it.

Tiny legs are a big problem with privateer's stuff too- Trollblood infantry can suffer badly from it, and pretty much all the Dire Trolls and Jacks have it to some degree. On one level, it's part of the aesthetic, but on another, it just looks silly.

Rebs are looking like the faction to watch so far. Lots of interesting concepts and fairly decent sculpting so far.

Plague are okay mutants, Orx are sub par Orks when you can get Nelson sculpts in plastic that look better. KoW Orcs are better looking!

 judgedoug wrote:
Love all the Deadzone greens, with the exception of the big-chest plague, but their style is not really to my taste. Tons of detail for such small models. the Plague Teraton looks fantastic, like Mierce was releasing it.

Um. No. The Teraton doesn't live in the same country as any of the recent mierce releases in terms of quality. I like parts of the winged reb. I like the tau guy. And the chick is okay. The zombies are awful.

Have we seen Zombie models already?

I mean, yeah, the Plague aren't looking so good (ha!), but I didn't think we've seen actual Zombie models yet, and the renders did look nice...

 Alpharius wrote:
Have we seen Zombie models already?

I mean, yeah, the Plague aren't looking so good (ha!), but I didn't think we've seen actual Zombie models yet, and the renders did look nice...

I don't think they have been shown, but I'm confident the DZ zombies will be great, given that the KOW zombies are arguably Mantic's best work to date.

Winterdyne, thanks for posting your pics of the Nameless you painted! I really love the job you did on them

willb2064 wrote:

 Earthbeard wrote:
I don't think it can entirely be blamed on the sculptor or at all, someone at mantic must be going, yep that's good etc or at least giving some kind of information/feedback to the sculptor, otherwise why the near constant tiny leg syndrome across most models, fantasy, sci-fi etc.

The problem purely rests with Mantic and the desire or at least direction/style to have shorter legs. Hell, if you can get SS to complain about it, something is wrong

I think it is definitely a problem with the sculptors, as Mantic's concept art for the most part is pretty decent (thinking especially of the concepts shown during the KOW KS), but the sculpts that resulted from that art had numerous basic problems with them. That said, Mantic shouldn't be approving the sculpts (or even hiring sub-standard sculptors in the first place).

It is very frustrating as they should be able to see that poor sculpts harm their reputation and sales, but they still can't achieve consistent art direction or quality control.

The problem is weak, inconsistent art direction. Sculptors are humans, and thus just as likely to take the easiest route as anyone else. If there is no one to say: "No. That's not good enough, tweak A, B, and C and get it back to me." or "Not good enough, do it again please." there will never be any consistency. Plus the AD needs to have a strong visual theme or idea for each faction in the first place.

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:I guess it's a question of both time and money

They've got £X to pay for the sculpt so this limits the pool of talent that's available to them

And the need it done by Y date (and quite possibly this is multiple figures done by Y date) and I'll bet this is even more of a problem once again limiting their talent pool

From what they've said about Kings of War their margins on that were so tight that the KS money could not even stretch to paying for the command upgrade sprue, that had to come out of Mantic's general funds

(and when they've tried to increase their margins there have been howls of outrage, just read the early bits of the Deadzone thread)

So it may just not be viable to dump substandard sculpts both in terms of cost and in terms of getting stuff out on time (where they're head and shoulders above almost all other KS companies). Hence a house sculptor hired to try and improve them where nessesary (although this will never be as good as stuff done right from the start)

(I do wish that they'd stop using sculptors that keep producing less than stellar work, if you know one persons work always gets flak and sells poorly, just STOP)

It's always going to be a problem for a company that originally sold themselves a cheap alternative when they need to increase costs to produce a better product. It's up to they buyers to decide whether they get to make the step up, and so far the calls for more stuff, more value, more discounts makes me doubt they are willing to pay for it.

I don't really see how money is the issue. There are average priced sculptors out there who do better work than what is presented. Sacrificing quality for speed might be the issue. That is a questionable decision though.

cincydooley wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
Love all the Deadzone greens, with the exception of the big-chest plague, but their style is not really to my taste. Tons of detail for such small models. the Plague Teraton looks fantastic, like Mierce was releasing it.

Um. No. The Teraton doesn't live in the same country as any of the recent mierce releases in terms of quality. I like parts of the winged reb. I like the tau guy. And the chick is okay. The zombies are awful.

I agree with Cincy on this one. Almost nothing Mantic has released is on par with Mierce's stuff. There are a few gems, but overall not as good.

At this point, I think I have written off the Marauders completely. I'll wait and see what they look like in hand before making the final judgement, but I doubt my opinion will change that much.

Lastly, I will ask: Why are these pictures released by Bruckenkopf online instead of Mantic themselves?

~Eric

On a gameplay related note, the Nameless and the Teratons have beta rules for their teams now available.

http://quirkworthy.com/

I disagree on the plague terraton being inferior to Mierce... Apples and oranges, really, but it's fething sweet!