Crowd Funding - Pitfalls of Miniatures Projects

I’ve been a user of Kickstarter for more than a year now and I’ve even posted on this blog about projects that I’ve found interesting. Despite this I’ve not backed too many projects and have found myself looking less and less for new projects to back, why is that?

First of all like many people, I suspect, I initially see a project and am wowed by the sales pitch. However I usually like to take time to reflect on the project before backing it and it’s usually during this reflection time that I find myself decide not to back.

Now while I appreciate that the idea behind crowd funding was to get small projects off the ground, with miniatures this isn’t always a good thing due to the complex nature of designing and manufacturing them (this article touches on this in much detail). Likewise the platform is also used by larger companies as a pre-order tool, effectively selling you products in large quantities that you’ll be able to buy retail a year later at pretty much the same price.

So ideally you want to find something in-between the two, a small scale project, offering something special, by a company who know what they’re doing. And sadly I’ve not felt that many projects meet those criteria.

At the end of the day I look at it this way.

• Is project owner clear on what they are offering? For me I want to see prototype models as a minimum. A few renders do not mean completed or even feasible miniatures.

• Is it giving me anything extra for backing early? If not they maybe I should wait.*

• Can I wait? If so, then I wait, this gives me the benefit of buying the products retail when the product has to be more clearly defined.

• Can I afford to lose this money? If not, then I probably shouldn’t back it.

*(In the case of the few genuine small start-ups it doesn’t need to be a lot if it’s the difference between the project happening or not).

Touching on the last point, can I afford to lose my money, I’m reminded of a recent well publisiced Kickstarter that appears to have failed. The Torn Armor project has ended up with accusations and counter accusations (see here) and looks like it's heading towards the inevitable end involving the loss of backer’s money.

I’ll let you come to your own conclusions about how this project failed and ask, would you have backed this project?

The Demise of White Dwarf (and the Games Workshop?)

There’s been a fair bit of talk recently about the Games Workshop’s decision to cease publishing its monthly magazine, White Dwarf. This comes not long after the magazine recently underwent a dramatic change in format and content, a change which it appears hadn’t had the desired effect.

A lot of criticism seems to revolve around the magazine basically being nothing more than a catalog for new releases and sadly I feel this is the case. The content of hobby related articles certainly has certainly declined, somethig I touched on here when I wrote about their painting guides.

I first came across White Dwarf at a time when I was playing more and more Games Workshop games. I’d started out with MB Games Heroquest and Space Crusade before moving on to Advanced Heroquest and Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Naturally I wanted to read more and so I picked up my first ever copy of White Dwarf, issue 132, promptly followed by plenty of back issues.

Issue 132 - December 1990

This magazine was read from cover to cover. It featured experimental rules, modelling projects, scenery projects (a dwarf mine, which I did try and build) and of course articles showcasing painting. Back then it had a true hobby feel, it engaged the reader, much like many of the scale modelling magazines of today.

Sadly today the thought of the Games Workshop publishing an article on building something not using products they sell is unthinkable and maybe there’s a general reluctance to even publish anything that not Games Workshop corporate standard. I feel the spirit of those days is missing now. Back then the company was build and run by people who were the age I am now. People who could write, who could create an evocative living world, one which I think no other company has come close to doing since. 

As far as miniature companies are concerned Games Workshop are unique in their longevity and I think this is a real difficulty for them. They have new younger followers, and they have older followers like me who both want differing things from the hobby. As a result they are having real trouble identifying their target audience. Do you sell vast amount of kits to kids who will play with them until they move onto something else, or do you cater to mature modellers who have more specialist needs? Which it is will decide on your magazine content and recently they’ve been going for the sale brochure content and it hasn’t worked.

So what will the future bring? There will be a new monthly magazine called Warhammer : Visions and a weekly White Dwarf magazine. I had a quick conversation with the guys from my local store and they weren’t a 100% sure what the content would be but suggested that the monthly magazine will be more hobby based, the weekly magazine more gaming based. I really hope this is the case and I’m approaching this change positively, if the monthly magazine is hobby based then it certainly looks like good move from my point of view.

One final thing I will say is that the Games Workshop would do well not to neglect their older followers. I’ve left the both the miniatures hobby and the scale model hobby and then come back to them both. It is people like me that will pass the hobby on to our children. As things stand at the moment and despite the Games Workshop being a key part of my formative years, I imagine in the future I would most likely be teaching my children to build that other great British institution, the Airfix kit, long before I introduced them to the current Games Workshop range.

Looking Back... At The 2nd Century AD

Taking a break from the modelling desk, I recently decided to take a visit to the British Museum in London.

Wandering through the various ages I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Roman section, I'd wanted to look at some of the Roman armour that is on display there. However while I was there I made an interesting find, some ancient Roman miniatures which I thought I share.

Mars

Mars, un-armoured

Moorish cavalryman

Now if these pieces were listed on a well known internet auction site I'm sure they'd be described along the lines of, LOOK!!! RARE Roman Miniatures LONG OOP (Incomplete, see description).

The two figures of Mars would have originally have been carrying a spear and shield. Made from bronze they're both beautifully detailed pieces. The Moorish cavalryman, identified by his hairstyle and beard, has of course has lost his horse but again has some really nice details.

And finally, before Iana dragged me off to look at one of the museum's jewellery collections I managed to grab a photo of some early Roman figures. Not as detailed as the ones above but they still have a certain charm and remind me somewhat of the lead miniatures of the early 1980s!

Anyway these rather tenuously leads back to the present day and a game and range of figures that I've been watching. I've always wanted a collection of Roman gladiator figures to paint and when I first saw Arena Rex back in early 2013, featuring detailed resin gladiators, I was blown away by the initial sculpts.

In the end I didn't actually pledge for the initial release as I didn't feel there was enough detail on exactly how the final miniatures would look. I've been following the project ever since and as more information came out I'm kicking myself for not committing. General release looks to be mid-2014 and I'm hoping I can get hold of them here in the UK. Until then I might have to dig out an old Citadel pit-fighter...

Evidence (the token New Year's Resolution post)

It's a new year and of course it brings with it new New Year's resolutions.

Looking at my stash of kits and miniatures one would probably think my resolution should be to not buy any more kits. But I'm not exactly prepared to go so far, so I think a more realistic compromise would be to limit the number I buy.

This post can serve as written evidence. This year I will buy less, build more from the stash. So, here's a list of kits I don't yet own but could buy this year. I don't have to buy them if my resolve is especially strong!

• Eduard's 1:72 MiG 15 (either a single or the combo kit)
• Airfix's 1:72 English Electric Lightning F2A
• Fine Molds' 1:72 Star Wars Y-Wing fighter

Miniatures wise, I don't buy many these days so apart from the odd figure or two out of curiosity I don't expect to buy much. Potential buys are from (in no particular order):

• Hasslefree Miniatures
• Black Scorpion Miniatures
• Perry Miniatures
• Mierce Miniatures
• Wargames Foundry 

And that's it, let see how long this resolution holds for. Apparently 33% of resolutions are broken by the end of January, 50% by the end of February, 80% before the year is out... Feel free to share your own modelling resolutions!

An average Modeller's stash? Top people working on it, no doubt!

Looking Back At 2013

So here we are, a new year and for many of us a new set of modelling goals. I'm sure you've already read many to-do lists for the next year but for me I'm currently reflecting on the past year. The whole purpose of this blog was to chart my journey as I returned back to scale aircraft models after a long absence from any form of modelling.

However as the year passed I found myself trying my hand at many other projects as well. Looking back at my very earliest posts I had set out to complete certain models but at the end of year I find I haven't achieved that. I did however try many things that I hadn't original intended and I'm very pleased to have widened my modelling focus.

So 2013, lets look and the good and the bad.

The Good

With out a doubt the highlight of my year was rediscovering (the newest) Airfix models, a brand that had featured strongly in my childhood. It didn't start too well with my first Airfix kit of the year which was strong mix of nostalgia and disappointment. However by the time I reached my final build of the year I was thoughly enjoying Airfix again and felt that I'd experienced the rejuvenation of a much loved British icon over the course of the year.

My 2013 Build of the Year

If I was to give out awards, then Airfix's 1;72 scale A6M2b Zero (kit A01005) would be my 2013 build of the year without any hesitation.

Looking forward to 2014 I'm really hoping to get a few more Airfix builds under my belt.

The Bad

The bad point for me really was the way I approached my return to the hobby. First of all I set myself targets that were way above my current skill level. As a result it sometimes took the fun out of the hobby for me. Secondly, at times was impatient and rushed builds. Partly because I felt I had to get something done for this blog and partly because of my aforementioned misjudged level of skill. I know I can build to a good standard but I also now know I'm still learning.

So for 2014 I'm going to take a more relaxed approach to my hobby. I'm also not planing on buying many more kits as I intend to build the ones I have in my stash. When the stash is smaller I hope I feel more of a sense of achievement.

The Ugly...

One of the surprise highlights of 2013 was my discovery of a selection of old miniatures. I came into possession of a large collection of metal miniatures in varying conditions and I'm slowly in the process of identifying /stripping / repairing them.

As I've said before I originally intended to work only on scale aircraft models but this discovery made me really appreciate some of the older miniatures of my teenage years in a way that I've not found possible for scale models. These models may not be able to compete with the latest resin casts, but I have found that sometime a simpler model can be just as much fun to work with.

If time allows then I'd certainly like spend some time rediscovering older miniatures again alongside my continuing scale model projects.

A Games Workshop Necromunda ganger with claw conversion

On that note I'll leave you with a teaser of the first, hopefully of many, that I'll be working on and wish you all best for 2014, whatever you choose to work on this year.