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 judgedoug wrote:
GCPS look great!
I mean, they're no medge epirians...

...but then you repeat yourself. Oh well, no accounting for taste I guess

I see a fair bit of detail on those legs that will never physically be able to make it into a HIPS tool though - stuff on top of the foot while you really need to mold the legs from the front, details to the sides of the legs that really won't transfer, in short: lovely design, but whoever missed the memo that these ought to be HIPS is going to cause yet another mantic-hatefest once the inevitably disappointing result turns up.
Oh well...

GCPS troopers look really promising.

This one's supposed to be a Girl I think?

Yeah the face looks somewhat feminine though we'll see if that detail passes through the crucible...

Just got my survey invite, time to politely ignore it for nearly two months while I generate funds. Then we'll see how I feel.

I really *really* hope that they let us know what the new KS is going to be before March and the close of the survey. I'm not planning on spending on both and I'd like to be able to make a somewhat informed decision...

But I'm not holding my breath.

Didn't Scarletsquig hint that there might be info on the next KS in a Christmas message?

I just got an email from the campaign, having pledged a dollar... think I'm going to up it to include some "murder birds" now! Love everything about them... except the name

 judgedoug wrote:
GCPS look great!
I mean, they're no medge epirians...

Heh. The Mantic GPS guys look great in render. If the sprues cast cleanly and with no surprises, and if Mantic don't make any weird alterations, they will be the best generic unarmored sci fi infantry on the market. However, that's a lot of ifs for a Mantic product. The sculpting and proportions look miles better than the Enforcer Pathfinders.

I'll probably get 20 of them through the PM while they are cheap. If they don't pan out, oh well.

 Alex C wrote:
Didn't Scarletsquig hint that there might be info on the next KS in a Christmas message?

Is the next one in January?

^That's kind of where my thinking is, Bob. $20 is probably worth the risk for what those *can* be, but I probably won't be ordering a full company of the buggers.

And the trucks are probably right out after DZ:I. I considered ordering a 3 pack of mules because in resin, that's a good price. But if they (likely, IMO) switch them to restic... I can probably just wait for retail. I mean restic won't be a bad material for them necessarily, but I'm less inclined to buy now for reasons that may evaporate before the product ships.

Love the birds.

Ouch. I know it is a WIP - but the fingers on the front hand is *way* off.
There is no way (except for serious rheumatism) they could be bending slightly forward - when they ought to be pointing approx 45 degrees backwards!

Why all the left-handed GCPS gunners? No lefties allowed in Enforcers, so they all end up in GCPS?

 kendoka wrote:
Love the birds.

Ouch. I know it is a WIP - but the fingers on the front hand is *way* off.
There is no way (except for serious rheumatism) they could be bending slightly forward - when they ought to be pointing approx 45 degrees backwards!

Spoiler:

That's some pretty sloppy anatomy.

They look decent. Anvil Industries did it better though IMO. Being in proper hard plastic would give them some value.

Anvil is in resin(right?) and has a weird (subjective, I know) aesthetic I can't get into. The fingers should be changed though. Being a digital sculpt that should be fairly easy right? We've just got to hound them? Sure they could have someone in house fact checking them but as long as it gets done.

Honestly the large shells on his arm bother me more, unless they're adding a grenade launcher profile and he's it. I don't see a second barrel but he does have a different gun. Should be laser tech though, always has been. Seems to be the first thing that gets forgotten by writers and artists though, maybe it isn't heavily emphasized in their instructions/requests/however you tell/ask them to do what they do.

 kendoka wrote:
There is no way (except for serious rheumatism) they could be bending slightly forward - when they ought to be pointing approx 45 degrees backwards!

Yeah, but this is in the future. Random stuff like "hands" are supposed to look different. I'm sure Mantic did this intentionally.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 GrimDork wrote:
Honestly the large shells on his arm bother me more, unless they're adding a grenade launcher profile and he's it.

Good point. What are those over-sized shells for? Maybe I'll just pretend they're futuristic grenades. That makes some sense, given their size.

Maybe I'll substitute Epirians for these.

I wish mantic would stop with the kickstarters and focus on developing the stuff they already have in a more incremental fashion, as in take their time and do it right. Or at least not start a new kickstarter until the previous one has been completely shipped.

Got my own survey invite and while I pledged for $1, I am tempted to pick up some things here and there. My only worry is how long it's going to take for them to deliver the GCPS stuff.

 Vermonter wrote:
Good point. What are those over-sized shells for? Maybe I'll just pretend they're futuristic grenades. That makes some sense, given their size.

Why futuristic? Go and google 40mm grenade, they look exactly the same, and the same scale compared to the fingers, and have been in service for decades.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I wish mantic would stop with the kickstarters and focus on developing the stuff they already have in a more incremental fashion, as in take their time and do it right. Or at least not start a new kickstarter until the previous one has been completely shipped.

They tried that, it didn't work. You have to make a big splash with multiple complete armies or nobody will play the game, so no money comes in, or alternatively make everything in an inferior material with cheap moulds like metal, which is what Warord had to do with Antares.

 kestral wrote:

I need those birds. Nothing quite like it out there, unlike pretty much everything else Mantic makes. I wonder how big they are?

IIRC we're talking about a 40mm based unit, that's the best I can give you for scale at this point.

 NTRabbit wrote:
Why futuristic? Go and google 40mm grenade, they look exactly the same, and the same scale compared to the fingers, and have been in service for decades.

As used in Grenade launchers, which the trooper doesn't appear to have so it makes no sense that he'd be packing them, sure. As hand grenades, the ones strapped to has arm don't fit the bill. Hence "futuristic."

Well it's not impossible that troopers would all carry extra ammo for a squad support weapon that only some of them had (especially if they didn't need to carry ammo for their main gun)

(look at all the late WWII German squads weighed down with MG42 belts)

but in reality it's probably just lazy sculpting

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Well it's not impossible that troopers would all carry extra ammo for a squad support weapon that only some of them had (especially if they didn't need to carry ammo for their main gun)

(look at all the late WWII German squads weighed down with MG42 belts)

but in reality it's probably just lazy sculpting

You would not carry ammo for the squad/team grenadier on your damned sleeve. Maybe in your ruck sack. It is (another) silly Mantic design decision.

Am I wrong in thinking that the GCPS faction starter is much worse value than the others though? You have $40 of the $75 taken up in the plastic troops, but then the remaining $35 gets you...a couple of PVC striders, a couple of weapons teams (which do have the potential to be more impressive than the image in my head), a small resin buggy (that is likely to end up in PVC), and a couple of human-sized metal characters.

I suppose, as ever, we have to wait until the last possible moment and decide. Although as we've discovered, that won't stop things like reduced sprues or changed materials!

 Vermonter wrote:
As used in Grenade launchers, which the trooper doesn't appear to have so it makes no sense that he'd be packing them, sure. As hand grenades, the ones strapped to has arm don't fit the bill. Hence "futuristic."

Are you sure he or she doesn't? You don't get to see the front of their gun for an underslung barrel opening, and that rifle in particular is different at the front end from the rifle that appears in the other three renders

 Bioptic wrote:

I suppose, as ever, we have to wait until the last possible moment and decide. Although as we've discovered, that won't stop things like reduced sprues or changed materials!

First post. Lurking for a really long time

I backed for $750 USD and I also just got the Pledge Manager email. It's my first time kickstarting anything, so I have high hopes and am pretty excited...

I hope that 'hard plastic' is easy to work with like GW's plastic.

The GCPS Trooper WIP looks amazing, really nice detail, of course these are the CAD renders and not actual physical models. The front bit on some of the guns look like a lasgun, which I do like and the gun's themselves are very nice.

As for the grenades/shells on the left forearm - I think maybe on the legs, top of the thighs would be cooler? or both?

Personally, the more grenades and ammo present on the model the better ... some of my favourite models are the old GW Metal IG Stormtroopers below:


FYI there was a Google spreadsheet on the Mantic Warpath Kickstarter page comments section to help with calculating base + add-ons, I don't know how it compares to the Pledge Manager yet.

darkon wrote:

As for the grenades/shells on the left forearm - I think maybe on the legs, top of the thighs would be cooler? or both?

Personally, the more grenades and ammo present on the model the better

I think it would be cool to have the guy with grenades sculpted anywhere on his body to be equipped with a launcher for those grenades.

And putting extra ammo in ammo pouches and grenades in appropriate pouches would also be cool.



I lugged around an M203 for a bit. I can't imagine having the ammo exposed like it is on that model.

Well, there's always the possibility that those grenades are a separate piece that can be glued on. They're probably not, but you never know. I'm just glad that so far, everything they've shown has been pretty accurate to their concept art. Those Murder Birds are actually spot on to the art.

 NTRabbit wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
As used in Grenade launchers, which the trooper doesn't appear to have so it makes no sense that he'd be packing them, sure. As hand grenades, the ones strapped to has arm don't fit the bill. Hence "futuristic."

Are you sure he or she doesn't? You don't get to see the front of their gun for an underslung barrel opening, and that rifle in particular is different at the front end from the rifle that appears in the other three renders

Hard to tell for sure from a side view, isn't it? With that caveat, it looks unlikely to me that there's such an opening sized to fire those shells. But if there is, you win, I'm wrong, and we're both happy. Sound good? If there isn't, then I claim the sacred right to call it dumb. If it makes no sense, I would hope that Mantic are able and willing to change details like that and the fingers.

Incidentally, it looks like the minimum shipping charge for US backers is $12. That's what you pay to get one $8 (presumably metal? That's what they said in their updates, but who knows anymore?) Blaine figure or 5 hard plastic nightcrawlers mailed to you in the States.

Otherwise, it's worth fooling around with the your choices to see how it impacts shipping. Certain choices will land you at $25 shipping for spending $100 (adding 3 tunnel runners for $30 bumped my shipping up $5.) Other choices will allow you to buy $108 worth of goods for $20 shipping (adding one tunnel runner, one Tangle, and one Blaine Mercenary to my order for $38 instead of the tunnel runners kept the shipping at $20.)

We don't know what material any of those figures will end up being, and it's likely that Mantic don't know either, perhaps waiting to see how many are ordered before deciding, and they have wisely decided not to tell you what material these items will be cast in on the actual pledge manager to cover their bases. But they're still calculating shipping based on some assumption of the intended material and its weight.

On another note, could someone who loves the murder birds explain their appeal to me? I'm just not getting it. I don't mean to slam them, I'm just not seeing what the rest of you are, and I'm curious as to what I'm missing here. The details on the feathers impress me, but otherwise the design and the whole idea of murder birds just isn't clicking for me.

yeah full credit to their digital 3D sculptor(s) they do seem to be able to get their work to match up to or exceed the concepts. The more digital sculpting they do the better (IMO).

 Vermonter wrote:

 NTRabbit wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
As used in Grenade launchers, which the trooper doesn't appear to have so it makes no sense that he'd be packing them, sure. As hand grenades, the ones strapped to has arm don't fit the bill. Hence "futuristic."

Are you sure he or she doesn't? You don't get to see the front of their gun for an underslung barrel opening, and that rifle in particular is different at the front end from the rifle that appears in the other three renders

Hard to tell for sure from a side view, isn't it? With that caveat, it looks unlikely to me that there's such an opening sized to fire those shells. But if there is, you win, I'm wrong, and we're both happy. Sound good? If there isn't, then I claim the sacred right to call it dumb. If it makes no sense, I would hope that Mantic are able and willing to change details like that and the fingers.

Incidentally, it looks like the minimum shipping charge for US backers is $12. That's what you pay to get one $8 (presumably metal? That's what they said in their updates, but who knows anymore?) Blaine figure or 5 hard plastic nightcrawlers mailed to you in the States.

Otherwise, it's worth fooling around with the your choices to see how it impacts shipping. Certain choices will land you at $25 shipping for spending $100 (adding 3 tunnel runners for $30 bumped my shipping up $5.) Other choices will allow you to buy $108 worth of goods for $20 shipping (adding one tunnel runner, one Tangle, and one Blaine Mercenary to my order for $38 instead of the tunnel runners kept the shipping at $20.)

We don't know what material any of those figures will end up being, and it's likely that Mantic don't know either, perhaps waiting to see how many are ordered before deciding, and they have wisely decided not to tell you what material these items will be cast in on the actual pledge manager to cover their bases. But they're still calculating shipping based on some assumption of the intended material and its weight.

On another note, could someone who loves the murder birds explain their appeal to me? I'm just not getting it. I don't mean to slam them, I'm just not seeing what the rest of you are, and I'm curious as to what I'm missing here. The details on the feathers impress me, but otherwise the design and the whole idea of murder birds just isn't clicking for me.

Having to send out all the extra packages to correct misplaces/erroneous orders must put a giant hole in their budget. I'm surprised they don't pad the kid shipping charges more to help cover it.

The murder birds are just something new and different that i'll be able to dress up bases and dioramas with

I got a few pigeons from the infamy KS for the same reason, and some from Kromlech too but they're not 'evil' looking enough for general use and the murder birds will address that need

winterwolf wrote:
Why all the left-handed GCPS gunners? No lefties allowed in Enforcers, so they all end up in GCPS?

SJW's?

My wife is a leftie and so is my son, so I am glad someone is finally catering to oft-excluded minority.