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.

Honestly, there were a few major problems with the campaign, aside from timing. Here are some quick thoughts:

Funny money

Too many armies. Way too many armies. Go for one army in a KS. Two at most - ideally a "frenemy" faction that can either ally with or fight against the first one. But have most units for the main faction. Certainly not 4 or 5 armies.

"Early Bird" pledges weren't actually early bird versions of anything. So what were you saving money from? - with no "normal" version of a $200 pledge. Why was it an "Early Bird"?

Need a "sweet spot" pledge at $100, and a "sweeter spot" at $150. Shipping included.

Shipping as an add-on - particularly for US backers, rather than incorporated into the pledge price at each level.

Shieldmaiden concept not set in stone enough. Leading to endless arguments between those who wanted half-naked, exposed breast warriors and those who wanted Lagertha. Opening that up for debate in the middle of the KS is only going to create issues and divisiveness. My advice - go for both eventually, but pick one and get it tooled in plastic first and do the other later. And don't tell everyone that you'll do the other later unless you want a ton of people not pledging and instead waiting until the next KS

Around the 23rd. At the same time that it was revealed that it was Goblins that were the 5th faction.

Yep. A lot of mistakes and a lot of hiccups, bad timing certainly didn't help, we now however have 190 wonderful people to deliver to so task has been set and we are looking forward to acing this!

We will certainly not drop off the radar nor show up only once every couple of months, these are project creators we make fun of and we mean to maintain our level of communication exactly like the one we introduced. We have a good name and we mean to keep it.

Thank you all and hopefully next time it will be even bigger! :-)

Congrats for your first campaign, eagerly awaiting second one.

dubovac wrote:
Congrats for your first campaign, eagerly awaiting second one.

Thanks! :-)
Now that the campaign is finished we are setting/straightening out the plan for the remaining of the year -actually we are doing it over this weekend!
2nd KS should easily hit within 2015, but only after we deliver everything to everyone. It's immature/irresonsible launching any follow-up campaign without having completed the previous first. Hopefully backers will agree with us and support this type of policy.

OK, we cannot lose time waiting for the funds to be released so pledge manager is ready and already sent to more than half of our backers, should have completed sending it to everyone by the end of the week!

Almost one month to compile and submit it, in the meanwhile for anything needed simply shoot us a pm on the KS, we are there to assist you!

Thank you all! :-)

(going to bed, 03.20 am here... )
'-)

Got it, sent it back . Is the half blood champion one of the minis that is already ready? I didn't quite get if we would have to pay extra shipping if all our stuff is ready, since that's all I'm in for? He was 5 coins already so I likely won't add extra, just curious when to expect him.

I'm pleased with how this campaign turned out, hopefully fulfillment goes really smoothly and then on to regiments in the future!

I think the only stuff that is "ready" are things that are already available in their store. All of the stuff unlocked in this campaign won't ship until September. Resin pouring is pretty labor intensive (as I am sure you know much better than I), and I don't think they have started production yet on most of the minis unlocked during the campaign.

I think you're right Gallahad, although since this stayed at a manageable size I'm hoping it fulfills a little sooner than Sept - if nothing else, so that they can embark on a new project / regiments!

@RiTides Actually the prevision was for December but due to the smaller size it reached, we think September is very doable. :-)
We are working on both recent and future campaign contemporanesouly, but under no way/reason/treaty/magic/alien invasion will we prioritize the follow-up campaign in the expenses of this one.

@Gallahad Yep, all correct! We are first going to do the molds and then start production, it speeds things up much more...

Pledge Manager (PM) submissions almost completed! :-)

We are only missing 22 backers who haven't submitted their PMs, that's 88,4% completed in less than 2 weeks from the end of our Kickstarter! in the meanwhile we have more than enough material to fulfill most people's rewards! :B):
We are working on our next update, we believe by late Sunday night we will have finished with everyone interested in Early Wave shipping and Tuesday-Wednesday we will start sending messages to inform on the shipping costs and confirm splitting orders.
The empty pockets pledges will also have their freebies sent in the early wave, our casting Team is working on those as we speak! :-D

In the meanwhile here's a peak on the WiP probably from the best twin-headed Dragon in 28mm scale world wide!

I'm one of those who hasn't submitted it yet and am in no hurry to do so at this stage. I'm waiting on some more WIP pics/renders of the unlocked stuff.

Well, we are still around 20 PM's short so we will probably leave these be for now, we are looking forward to wrapping up the "Early Wave" shipping so we may proceed with the bulk of the pledges.

:-)

All good. I still haven't assembled (let alone painted) the stuff I got from you guys last time. I have started on the Mountain Orc hero, though.

The mountain Orc hero was the free resin I got with my plastic mountain orcs, right?

There were a few different ones. I got one with two swords leaping forward like Wolverine.

Only 7 backers left, we will complete mailing the "Early Wave" the day after tomorrow.
I will upload a couple of pics later on to keep the dakka thread updated also, we will be needing your votes for the Shieldmaiden plastic kit that will pitch the 2nd KS...

It took us 28 days to mail the first batch of stuff to 14 different countries! Yep, goodies are on their way to all of you wonderful supporters! :-)




In the meanwhile we are working on the plastic kit of the Shieldmaidens, we mean to have things sculpted before launching the 2nd KS, so please vote here!

https://www.wedgies.com/question/5526f876d9425307000026c5

We have created 4 versions, if 2 of them are VERY close to each other, then we will pitch with the first and if things climb we will immediately go for the 2nd also!

 Shieldwolf Miniatures wrote:
We have created 4 versions, if 2 of them are VERY close to each other, then we will pitch with the first and if things climb we will immediately go for the 2nd also!

The four concepts are too close together to warrant two kits, I think. I would suggest making the second kit a full blown heavy armour kit.

Not sure what the background is of the shieldmaidens, but they look like a barbarian horde, so couldn't a mix of all 4 concepts be on the same sprue? I'd assume there would be 5 heads, 5 legs and 5 torsos on the sprue, so would there be room to add variety? The concepts are so close that it looks like it could be a single kit to me.

willb2064 wrote:
Not sure what the background is of the shieldmaidens, but they look like a barbarian horde, so couldn't a mix of all 4 concepts be on the same sprue?

We posted some material during our KS, among which a "rough" copy of their history, some 10-12 pages IIRC.
You can have a look here :-)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1273312680/shieldwolf-war-is-coming/posts/1139612

willb2064 wrote:

I'd assume there would be 5 heads, 5 legs and 5 torsos on the sprue, so would there be room to add variety?

Negative, the sprues we have planned will have 4 torsos+legs, 10-12 heads, 5-6 shields, weaponry. This will be funded at 20K, we find this more than reasonable given the rest is cofunded by us.
If funding reaches higher, we will add 2 more torsos+legs, 2 more shields and more weaponry.
If we hit another 10K, we will add a Command sprue. If we hit an additional 15K, we will add additional/alternative weaponry and heads for the Warmaidens for whom we have artwork prepared for all versions we propose (making thus the final sprues/product into a dual kit).
If we hit even more, we will be adding alternative torsos+legs, otherwise we will put the funds into the "Heavy Barbarian Infantry", but we are focused in funding the maidens first, let's complete what we didn't in our first KS...
In our game Warmaidens and Shieldmaiden Infantry all belong to the Shieldmaiden faction, but bluntly put
-Shieldmaidens have more discipline/better defence,
-Warmaidens have more attack/more "momentum" at the charge/worse defence.

willb2064 wrote:
The concepts are so close that it looks like it could be a single kit to me.

 AlexHolker wrote:
The four concepts are too close together to warrant two kits, I think. I would suggest making the second kit a full blown heavy armour kit.

The concepts are close because the heads & weaponry are not scheduled into any changes from those planned, therefore all four versions are now sharing these identical parts.
Interesting results so far in the poll, but that might change...

Yay, chainmail is winning! I think it is by far the coolest concept. No tits hanging out, but not so much armor that it looks cumbersome. If I could get plastic spruces of women viking warriors without embarrassing boob armor and with your great designs... Mother of god.

Chainmail all the way. I think there's market for decently-clad female models with practical clothing, what with the miniature market saturated with naked women or women in impractical boob plates. I mean, I'm not against those but it's great to have an alternative.

I still think the pose is what will make or break these minis. Please do not give them silly poses.

Although let me just say that naked women AND silly poses would work if they're like, the frothing barbarian berserker type of models. Just make sure the silly poses are more rage-y and not pinup-y?

Yep. Basically just look at Raging Heroes and do the opposite.

If I had to choose I'd go with chainmail as well.

Poses won't be "silly", we are pouring a lot of money into this and it doesn't change once it has been tooled.
Also, they'll need to fit rank n' file so...

From left to right


pose-1 remains like it is

pose-2 right hand changes, maybe right foot forward and shield more close to the body and not in "open" stance

pose-3 remains as is, maybe right foot standing back

pose-4 will change how she holds the weapon but still facing down as if "stabbing" an enemy. This model also gets upgrades in the sprue. Legs also slightly closed for space purposes

pose-5 will remain like it is, as is long as she fits rank n' file, otherwise standing (very slightly) up.

That's the main idea for now... :-)

I think one of the main strengths of Shieldwolf is that they do listen to their customers.

You might consider ball and socket joints for the arms. That would potentially allow people to swap arms between the figures, and also change the angles and orientation of the models' arms. Simple things that add more flexibility to a kit are always very highly welcomed.