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.

Live chat on Kickstarter comments with Icarus. So if you have a question or fence sitting, swing by and grill Anto.

New update, focus on the Ji'tar background. They really seemed to have given alot of thought to the background and it should be good fun to create missions in.

Not sure why, but that picture just makes me think...

"What is dead may never die."

....you know the rest.

Stay sharp, those on the fence there is a 3D print of a Nexus Grunt inbound (I've had my sneaky peak and he looks awesome!) comparing the quality of the Gabriel Cross miniature with the print of the Nexus and Gunslinger and these miniatures will be epic!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've posted up the update in the first post, hoping that makes it easier for all.

15% Off Gabriel Cross at Icarusminiatures.com until 21/09. Plus Artbook unlocked!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/icarusminiatures/the-icarus-project-a-new-sci-fi-skirmish-wargame/posts/1356786

In case you missed it, until 21st I believe.


Just realised I doubled up on this, my bad, but it is worth it. I've updated my wip post if you want to see the actual miniature, I do recommend him!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/663730.page#8120957

New update up, this time with my favourites - The mercenaries! There are some really awesome artworks for this range already, including my personal favourite of the bunch, Isaac Cross. That helmet design is awesome!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/icarusminiatures/the-icarus-project-a-new-sci-fi-skirmish-wargame/posts/1360204

Love that helmet! Pics of the printed Nexus must be coming soon right?

Hope that picts of the actual resin Nexus model helps the campaing.

3D print was posted off to Icarus last week I believe, so any day now hopefully. We need a little push to get the campaign ball rolling faster and I think the print should do it. Especially as he was looking awesome last I saw!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
3D print of the Nexus grunt will be up in the next KS update, so tomorrow!

New Nexus sculpt printed - check his awesomeness!

Pretty cool indeed. Here is some size comparison photos to the Gunslinger and Gabriel.




So more pictures can be found in the kickstarter post.

He looks good too, nice and detailed... I don't get why this isn't taking off more. :/

You and me both! If you do the maths then it's something like £5 for a high quality resin miniature. I know it's not as cheap as the plastic mountains the likes of mantic can offer :p the details, artwork and concepts are top drawer, having seen lesser games get more I'm a little puzzled.

I think it's just how new the company is perhaps - I don't think, if this doesn't fund, it should be viewed as a failure - I think almost all of us would be back for another campaign. But it might make sense to get another figure or two out there to build up the name? Miniature-13 encountered similar things with their campaign (funded, but had a lower goal) just due to being so new, despite awesome hard scifi sculpts.

I really love this pic:



Looks so detailed and very dynamic... impressive! Nice that the arms are compatible with the other grunt sculpt, to allow multiple variants just by swapping one or both arms

Hm, maybe the newness of the company wasn't in it's favour, but like Jim I've seen worse offerings (imo) get more

Value wise especially it seems a great offer, the quality looks to be up there with other resin companies.

Maybe the higher goal scared them off?

I've been interested to follow this, not only because I actually like the miniatures (and Ando turns out to be a couple of miles away from me!), but I'll be trying something similar in the next year... And not understanding the reason is concerning me! Haha

These sculpts are great but I think the issue is more that miniatures campaigns in general aren't doing so well these days unless it's coming from a big company. Seems like nowadays if you can't fund on your first day or 2 or come really close, then you're not gonna make it.

I think this would do well if they reboot it and aim for a funding goal between $5-10k and not try to do as much all at once. Fund a few things and then add stretch goals for the other stuff. I think with the great minis they could easily get up to the 45k range with stretch goals.

Maybe also drop the hardback rulebook in favor of a print on demand option since it's a new game, and work toward a hardback book in a few years as a 2nd edition, after the game gets off the ground.

Newness of the company is one thing.

But the reason I'm not in on the campaign is that I can't use these minis with my collection.

The humans are too tall for my other 28-30mm humans and the aliens look to be over 40mm tall which is just a bit too big.

In an increasingly overcrowded sci fi skirmish game market for me you need to stand out more. Either you need:

To be the standout skirmish rule set
Have unique minis that fit with other people's collections so they will use in other games.
Minis that are jaw droppingly amazing in real life (this is the only reason Prodos might survive after the AVP bull!!!!)
Be dirt cheap

Out of the above which do Icarus actually hit?

I wanted a set of the humans however, I cannot use them with 40k and I am in the middle of a move.

I could make Destiny Figures out of them but, I'm kickstarted out at the moment as I am waiting on two to send me my stuff.

Bad timing, the dudes are too big, and new company. I really, really, love them as miniatures though. I would buy from them in the future if the chance came up. I wish there was a way I could back it for 1-3 of the Alliance soldiers and some of the aliens so I could theoretically make a Destiny diorama. I can't afford two starter sets.

I don't suppose there is, is there? I couldn't leave a comment or something, could I? If that was possible I'd back honestly.

Vorian wrote:
I don't get why this isn't taking off more. :/

Unknown company, new game (which means it gets hit by the 'will anyone else play it?' factor), and yet another skirmish game in what is becoming a very crowded pool... All of which are becoming progressively bigger factors with Kickstarters.


For myself, I'm not interested in it rules-wise (as I don't need another skirmish game) and while the miniatures are lovely, they're not in a scale I can use with existing stuff... If they make it to retail I might be tempted to pick some up later as a painting project.

My Gabriel is sitting in a post office waiting to be picked up - but from the scale shots it looks like it's pretty much infinity sized, so that would work with pretty much anything that isn't true scale wouldn't it?

Is it a comparison with 40k that people are making when they say they're too big?

Vorian wrote:

Is it a comparison with 40k that people are making when they say they're too big?

Unless they're for a game that I'm interested in playing, or something that I just want to paint, yes, I generally look at new scifi miniatures with an eye to how I could use them in 40k or Necromunda.

Makes sense, I haven't had a hame of 40k in 10 years, mainly blood bowl, necromunda and boardgames since. I started getting back into painting and the 40k heroic scale wasn't appealing to me so I looked at infinity. Found them good, if a little too cheesecake at times but it just didn't grab all of me. Icarus did. I like the true proportions, armour and weapons and the artwork was great! If they don't fund they are hoping to release 1 miniature every month or so - that suits my painting speed so should suit those looking for a cool project. People like what they like, can't force them to change their game preference just cause I want them to but from a hobby side I do urge you to grab one, they really are excellent miniatures.

It is extremely hard to break into the miniature skirmish gaming market place, with many gamers being indoctrinated to love HIP plastics over any other material ( with them not knowing how out of this world the costs are and the loss of detail casting in plastic does to the miniature). I am happy to see more companies like yourself move to true scale miniatures, they really stand out in quality and fantastic sculpting much more than heroic scale minis ever could and more of the market is moving this direction which will help your sales in the long run.

However as I said before we ourselves have come too this conclusion and like what many others have already posted is unless your a well established "older" company not a lot of gamers feel its worth the time to invest into a new game. Which is truly their loss as it encourages companies like ours to move over to much more diverse and more welcoming markets like that of the miniature board gaming market place. With the success of HINT the board game with metal miniatures , it shows that it is possible to still do a miniatures board game with metal miniatures so this could give you the upper hand in starting your game line with several metal or resin casts ready to go for production in and outside your board game.

I would recommend taking a look into this market if your kickstarter doesn't succeed, it may be better for yourselves to start their with a small light version of your game and once its out in production you can grow your fan base and then come back into the miniatures gaming market with a crowd already ready to back and help support your campaign. This or if you truly want to start off with a skirmish game , I would come back with a much lower price , try two factions and set a lower price , perhaps also have your rule book just as an online PDF and just gain some funding too recover your artwork costs for it.

hopefully your campaign will work out, however as I see it right now the funding goal is just too high to be reached, the only way you could reach the goal is if everything was in plastic for all the gamers who want nothing else but it, or if you had already been around for several years running with a full game and a few factions for it.

I would say indoctrinated to like multiposed plastic and ridiculous large battles, for the table space available anyway.

That's why if you want to break in to the wargaming scene with a skirmish game your miniatures, rules and setting must be top and two of the three must be amazing, or the miniatures must be mind blowing.

I would caution you about your assessment of HINT, 970 people means nothing, the true boardgame scene is against models that need assembly, at least assembly that includes more than two or three parts and glue been involved and frankly we have not seen sales of HINT, all the best wishes to them for success, but until we see it selling some good reviews from prominent boardgame reviewers and sales from boardgame sites, I think calling it a success and drawing conclusions and guidelines for other projects it is premature.

Regarding Hint, maybe just a success as far as crowdfunding goes, with the future to be determined (like any campaign really). I think they'll do well, but you do have things like Sedition Wars that launch well on KS but struggle once released.

The humans would be the only thing out of scale really and then, not by much. What are we to compare the aliens to for them to be out of scale??? Either way, I had hoped this would take off but they are being level-headed about the whole thing and mention coming at it from a different approach in the comments should it not fund. That's to be applauded IMO.

 RiTides wrote:
Regarding Hint, maybe just a success as far as crowdfunding goes, with the future to be determined (like any campaign really). I think they'll do well, but you do have things like Sedition Wars that launch well on KS but struggle once released.

Sedition Wars 'struggled' post-KS due to restic, scale issues and almost completely borked up gameplay!

Hopefully all of that can be avoided here - and with HINT!

I actually see a way I can pick and choose what I want.

If I make a pledge consisting of what I want in addons, that's all I need to do right?

Thinking of getting Gabriel Cross, some Feral Nexus, the Heavy LMG guy, and the Outrider.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I would say indoctrinated to like multiposed plastic and ridiculous large battles, for the table space available anyway.

That's why if you want to break in to the wargaming scene with a skirmish game your miniatures, rules and setting must be top and two of the three must be amazing, or the miniatures must be mind blowing.

I would caution you about your assessment of HINT, 970 people means nothing, the true boardgame scene is against models that need assembly, at least assembly that includes more than two or three parts and glue been involved and frankly we have not seen sales of HINT, all the best wishes to them for success, but until we see it selling some good reviews from prominent boardgame reviewers and sales from boardgame sites, I think calling it a success and drawing conclusions and guidelines for other projects it is premature.

Yes for the first sentence , its a real shame as it holds back the fair majority of miniature wargaming and is set on something that is highly unrealistic for 98% of companies to produce. I would argue it is more of a thing of how long you have been around, Strange Aeons has a good will behind it and even though their miniatures are only recently becoming decent they still succeeded on their kickstarter due to their great game being around for already several years and having a community already built up.

I feel it is more a matter of building up a fanbase and community first, Hordes and warmachine were two settings I never heard about before, and they came in and took the miniature table top market by storm, my conclusion to how they did this, is the fact they already had a strong RPG community which helped them grow their setting and start up their game for the miniature scene. Infinity? same thing they already were well known for their historical miniatures and hence already had a community to start from.

Several plastic kickstarters that have produced miniatures of poor sculpting quality and artistic direction have been able to go into the hundreds of thousands bench marks due to being HIP, it is quite discouraging and disappointing for many other companies that produce superior miniatures to get no were because their materials are in the realistically affordable metal and resin. to produce something in even PVC can be fairly costly and with a strong loss of detail, even HIP is not the best for keeping detail.

We will be watching how HINT does in the long term, however most of the issues that people have voiced for their game was the lack of game play information, yes their was a fair amount of complaints about metal, but we see it being fairly easy to produce metal miniatures only being 2 - 3 parts assembly needed at most. We also are looking at just doing PVC miniatures for the board game with optional metal and resins to be sold separately from our site so gamers can get the best out of both worlds.

Infinity though is purely a skirmish game in their starter box focuses have sold very well with their all metal miniatures, I feel the key here is to keep the separate parts as few as possible no more than 2 - 3 which we have felt should be the case right from the start, yes it means a little less dynamic miniature posing , however it allows our gamers ease of assembly because metal can be a great pain to glue together we understand this fully.

We could do a successful kickstarter for a few miniatures ( mostly now that we have moved our setting over to a dark , fantasy area and hence many of them would be useable in many other games which opens us up to a much more larger market place ) however to gain enough to produce enough to give players an option for a skirmish game would still be an up hill battle, most gamers want to see everything already sculpted ( which defeats the purpose of the kickstarter in the first place , as it is needed to fund the sculpting of the miniatures, metal and resin casting is quite affordable, sculpting however is costly) which only the large companies can do. Gamers seem to be focused on wanting only a few high end companies and not too supportive of aiding new companies or starting ones, this in turn discourages many who then go off to markets that are much more open too new games and products.

We will be aiming for our game to be either a pure coop dungeon like crawler or if we want it to be a light skirmish game that could later be advanced to a full table top miniatures game, a competitive multi player game.

However as of right now these are the two options we are looking at, and I would highly recommend Icarus to reconsider how to approach the markets, building a fan base is the #1 biggest thing any gaming company can do, however this is best done by producing a full playable game, and miniature board games seem to be the right area and only realistic area for new companies to go.

Also as an added note keep a watch on your demand, as your game and products become more popular you may eventually have to move over to metal in order too keep up with demand, I myself love resin but understand in a production sense that resin eventually becomes too time consuming to keep up with popular demand.