Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money – September 2016

As you’ll know by now, I like to keep an eye on what’s happening on Kickstarter, especially when it comes to miniatures (and board games) and this month sees a couple of interesting miniatures Kickstarters.

First up is another Oldhammer style miniatures release called Greenskin Wars. It’s very much like the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter I wrote about back in April, which is not surprising as its run by the same people. This time it’s some fantastic old school goblins, plus a few hobgoblins, which instantly takes me back to the early editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Source: Kickstarter

The models are sculpted by Kev Adams, something of legend when it comes to goblins, so much so he’s known as the Goblin Master. There’s a good mix of foot soldiers, plus interesting options such as mounted goblins and war machines.

Source: Kickstarter

Personally I will be sitting this one out, but that doesn’t mean you have to. My reasons are that I actually backed the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter and I’d prefer to have received them before buying more from the same people, (plus there’s the whole GBP v € thing which is still ongoing). Hopefully they’ll be with me soon, I’ll be sharing a first look with you when they do arrive.

That leads to the next of this month’s interesting project, Hasslefree Miniatures, Kev White Does Matt Dixon’s Female Fantasy Miniatures.

Source: Kickstarter

Hasslefree are becoming one my favourite ranges, I’ve bought a few from them, not yet finished painting any of them yet (the detail on them is excellent)… In this case they plan on releasing a range of pin-up miniatures based on the work of artist Matt Dixon. I know the pin-up models aren’t to everyone’s taste but Hasslefree’s miniatures range is going from strength to strength in my opinion and if you can find something you like then this certainly looks worth getting involved with.

Source: Kickstarter

Initially they set out to do a small range of female characters in three versions, a pin-up, a skyclad (their term for ‘nude’) and a winter variant. They flew through the initial options within a few hours and seem to have been caught out somewhat. However they’re going a very good job of engaging with their backers, listening to suggestions, posting daily work in progress reports (NSFW link) and working on more options. One very appealing option that’s been mentioned is an enhanced variant of some of the winter models (in addition to those on offer) in collaboration with Tre Manor of Red Box Games, these could be ideal for Frostgrave.

The pledge levels pretty much allow you to bid for one model upwards, which is good. I do hope they manage to get further than offering sketches for the majority of the models as I tend not to want to purchase models that I’ve not at least seen the greens for. However given the quality of their existing range I think they’re a safe pair of hands. So in this case I will be keeping a close eye on this project, especially for the Frostgrave related miniatures, and most likely backing them later on.

If you want to back them then:

Greenskin Wars can be found here (finishes on Tuesday, October 4th 2016 at 2:44 PM BST)

Kev White Does Matt Dixon’s Female Fantasy Miniatures can be found here (finishes on Sunday, October 2nd 2016 at 8:00 PM BST)

Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money - April 2016

I like to keep one eye on what's available on Kickstarter. Aside from the usual 'pre-order' Kickstarters run by the larger gaming companies this month has seen something that particularly appealed to me.

Source: Kickstarter

The Kickstarter in question is The Pantheon of Chaos, a miniatures range with a distinctly old school, Oldhammer, feel to them.

Source: Kickstarter

I remember seeing the greens sometime ago, although where exactly escapes me, and instantly having flashbacks to the golden age of Games Workshop miniatures.

I really think it's a positive step to see new miniatures being released in this Oldhammer style as I feel the actual Oldhammer movement is a bit of closed shop, especially if your interest is a passing one. Unless you're 20+ year hoarder, involved in gaming groups or prepared to cave into the demands of eBay profiteers it's really difficult to get involved. Try joining their Facebook group. Time after time I seem to be refused, obviously I don't know the right people / secret handshake / code words etc...

So anyway, now the Pantheon of Chaos has gone live, and been funded within 2 hours, I'm sorely tempted to get myself a few of them. Although the €30 to €50 price tag for a decent sized set will certainly test my spending resolve for this year they do look too good to pass up. And given the ease with which they reached their funding target it bodes well for the post-kickstarter plans for the range, including a book and further miniatures.

If you feel like getting involved then you can find the Pantheon of Chaos can be found here and there's still 10 days left to run (finishes on Wednesday, May 4 2016 at  8:44 PM BST).

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?