Red Box Zombies Finished

Sixteen zombies done! These are Trollcast material by Troll Forged Miniatures. They have a lot of detail to them. Lots of folds and clear distinction for fingers, eyes, and noses. Something that the Reaper Bones material sometimes failed to have. They are also light and easy to cut although I didn't try any modifications.

The only problem is that they are small.

Here we have two zombies. I picked one in a bent position and one standing straight up. The cleric is an old Grenadier figure from the 80's. The one next to it a Games Workshop Lord of the Ring Figure. The next three are all Red Box figures. I included them because Tre mentioned that his zombies were in keeping with his own sizing. I didn't think so based on my previous painting of Red Box figures and well, maybe the height is there but they fail, in my opinion, in terms of viability due to the sheer thinness.

I know that they're zombies. I know that they should be emaciated and narrow but as miniatures, even with other figures against the same company, they appear off. I wonder if they 'shrank' in the process of being cast in Troll Cast. Anyone have any metal ones they can do a comparison with? It could also just be the in close stance that most of them have. No arms wide open here. No zombies with weapons. No zombies with lots of clothes. Just lots of bare chested, arms at the side, slouching zombies.

Not a problem for me as I'll probably wind up using them as minions or something along those ranks whenever I get around to doing some role playing again as Red Box, at least at this time, doesn't have it's own skirmish game.

Anyone finish their Red Box stuff? I'm waiting on stuff from the second successful Kickstarter so hopefully I'll be painting up some weird monsters soon!

Reaper Bones Kickstarter: Reflections

Before the Kickstarter, I had painted some Repaer Bones and posted the work at the old 52 Miniatures 52 Weeks. I found it to be relatively inexpensive and fair detail. Took to the paint well. The larger figures seemed better off while the smaller figures lost some detail.

During the pledge, I saw an opportunity, like many, to get many figures for a good value. Being someone whose already painted them, I spoke up about my experiences with the material where I could and what primers and paint I'd used on them.

I was a backer of Reaper at the very high levels. I went with the get the metal for a year deal. I did this because I specifically asked, "Hey, with the whole Bones thing coming along, what's up with metal?" and was informed that "No dude, we're awesome and it's going to be like metal Nirvana for the next year. So much awesome." Not quite but it was assured that the regular release schedule would be kept up in metal.

So let's look over what actually happened?

First off, there was some bit where the shipments were supposed to be broken out and there were some problems with that. I didn't pay attention to that because it didn't really effect me.

Then the metal figures were initially late, but Reaper made good on that by sending all the back log of stuff that had come out. Thumbs up!

Then the metal figures stopped and Reaper was like, "Dude, we are not as awesome as we thought but we will be awesome again real soon or... you can take what's behind door #2!" I like metal miniatures so I stuck with the year of metal that will hopefully one day continue. It's not like Reaper has stopped making metal miniatures as they have rereleased the old Doom miniatures and even done some stuff for Monte for his Numera game. I've always appreciated the fact that Monte usually tries to get some miniatures done for his RPGs.

My initial shipment arrived, late as usual for a Kickstarter and I didn't even go through it until Reaper had finished. I knew that they would be bombed with a ton of issues from doing this whole scale thing.

When I finally did go through it, I was amused and angry and baffled. All of my add ons were present but my actual Vampire level pledge was not. When I asked about it, it was immediately correctly. Apparently some people at my level got passed over on the actual Vampire pledge. I wondered why, since there were only a handful of us, Reaper didn't get in direct contact with us and go, "Hey man, is everything all right? We know that you're at a particular pledge level that has some potential difficulties and just wanted to check in on you." But whatever.

In terms of the actual miniatures themselves?

Quality is all over the place. I guess there were enough of them with complaints that some figures have been pulled entirely. The biggest problem seems to be the noses. Some of the figures just don't plain have their noses at all. Flat and smooth features. At the same time, there are still people jumping into the air screaming that there are no quality issues. Look dudes and dudettes, you're not doing Reaper any favors by spreading false information out there. There is a loss of detail. In some cases a significant loss of detail.

There is also the wacky factor or pieces bent backwards. This is relatively easy to handle for the most part though as long as you have access to very hot and very cold water you can bend them back. Sometimes its more tricky with the larger figures as you have to figure out where you want it to be when its done.

The material takes well to glue though. It's also easy to cut or modify. I know this as I've cut a few off of their bases and glued them onto other bases. The glue actually seems stronger than the material at that point as when I cut too high on a foot and then had to go back in and cut the rest of the food off and misplaced where the foot and ankle should met and was like... nope, it's stuck and this is a hell of a bond so freak ankle it is.

Another nice thing is that a lot of these are one piece figures. Even where before it might have been multiple pieces, it's now, or at least arriving as, one piece. Makes assembly a much easier thing. My frustration level with Malifaux and their terrible plastic is very high so taking a few minutes out to play with some single piece figures makes my painting day.

Satisfaction level overall? High. There are so many figures with so much potential in there that I'm going to be spoiled for options for a long time. The price and affordability are what really sells it. I'll be curious to see how they do in the retail level if the quality control issues are there in the same level.

At the same time, Reaper has pulled their P65 line. I believe it's P65? Their old 'formula' so to speak that wasn't as costly to Reaper in terms of what their figures were made out of. Bones will probably replace that for sure in the future. Good material for that as there are a ton of large figures that will not lose a lot of detail due to scale and will hopefully be more affordable.

I can't see this stuff becoming a 'painter's' choice of figure medium though. It's just not crisp enough. Now that may change in the future, but for example Trollcast? There is some fantastic detail in that material even though the guy doing it is having issues getting it onto painter's hands. Resin will probably be the medium of choice for 'high end' stuff for a while though. This doesn't mean that there aren't uses and fun stuff with metal still.

I myself may go back and buy some of the figures I have in Bones in metal after it's all said and done. Like I said, the loss of detail on some of them is high.

I think that in the future, if there are going to be 'exclusive' Bones figures, that they will need to be designed more 'old school'. Minimize the buttons, the buckles, the straps, the pouches, the elaborate hilts, the numerous pieces of clothing that go no where. The old '80's' look of Citadel for example might be perfect for these as they were often one piece figures with exaggerated poses and stances.

At Gen Con 2013, I heard that Reaper is doing Bones 2 very soon. I'm actually kind of surprised. I thought that they may go a few months normal mode to catch up on everything. I've heard complaints for a few online retailers about the customer service levels but I personally haven't had any issues with them so take it with the internet grain of salt.

I haven't backed a few miniature projects that I was very interested in to see what Reaper will be offering. If the value is similar, not even as good mind you, but similar, to what they did with the initial Bones Kickstarter, I'll be in. Mind you I won't back any 'metal' pledges because I've still got many moons left on my metal pledge but anything else is fair game.

How about other people? I know that the off shore backers aren't happy and I'm wondering if they'll be back for a second round? Any other metal for a year people that stuck with the actual metal for a year? What's your experience been with the material? Buy more or forget it?

Red Box Kickstarter Troll Cast Zombies are Tiny eh?

When I unpacked my zombies from the Red Box first Kickstarter, I was a little concerned with how small they appeared. I was able to pop then onto their tiny round bases and clean them up pretty easily. You also got twice the amount of rank for the same price as one of the standard ranks so that was good.

I ranked up some miniatures from various companies. I made sure that the front of the bases were all approximately at the same 'start' point so that distortion from distance from front to back wasn't causing the issue. When you're a modern figure on a 30mm base, having some lip of the base while the body is back can cause some scale visual issues on photos. So above the front of the bases all line up if you used a ruler.

So from left to right...

Snake Man priest, true 25 mm.

Red Box Kickstarter Troll Cast Zombie.

Retribution Elf Mechanic.

Malifaux Guild Member.

Games Workshop Wight Lord (Old Krell figure)\

Dark Sword classic style wizard.

That Red Box kickstarter figure is just a tad taller than the true 25mm snake man.

The good news is that there are a lot of unique sculpts in the zombie range.

Further good news is that the details are crisp and clear.

Even more good news is that they are easy to clean up.

Bad news? Way too small. I don't know if that was a result of the switch but I've had other Red Box figures and I don't recall them being this tiny. Sure, they might be 'true' 28mm figures but the dwarves for example often blend in well with say some of the Reaper dwarves that aren't in the Warlord Range and some of the older Games Workshop stuff.

These zombies? No way man. Far too small. Great news for those running true 25mm thought and looking for some hordes. They were cheap. It was like two ranks for the price of one. Hate the small sized bases too. Like smaller than 20mm. Probably... 15mm round?

I'm looking forward to seeing how they take primer and paint next.

The New Hawt Is Not Quality Indictative

It should be no secret that I've backed many a Kickstarter with a miniature theme going on. Some I haven't backed not because the product didn't look good but because I simply didn't have the money. Damn you semi-middle wage earnings!

 

One of the things I notice though is that there is a lot of 'love' for miniatures that are new simply for no other reason than it's new. I can understand that. It's one of the reasons why role playing games change editions and why new editions of various old books come out with new covers, new introductions, new bonus chapters of the guy's next book, etc...

 

However, sometimes it's best to remember where things came from. For example, Danithal, Elven Warlord, is a little over ten years old. I've owned him for about that long. A great sculpt by Werner Klocke that has a lot of his tell tale detailing but unlike some of his Freebooter's Fate material, is NOT overburdened with it. He was a three piece figure, base, body, and right hand that I finally assembled and put together and painted.

 

I was getting a little tired of the angry elves of Warmachine as well as their round bases and wanted something a little more traditional. I used the painted image for some inspiration because honestly these days, choosing a color scheme takes me more time than it does to paint. Still, glad to have him done. He's a great figure. He's actually taller I think, that a lot of the Freebooter stuff.

 

 

 

Another miniature by Werner is Lurg. Right now he's listed at a ridiculously low price of $4.99. He has a little bit more of the 'fiddy' bits I was talking about that the elf doesn't have. Belt straps, buckles, and a host of other things like a body wrapping scrap. Must be an old Doctor Who fan or something.

 

 

 

This was another instance in which I used the painted figure as a quick guide. You can tell mine is old because that base there? That's sculpted onto the base itself and came with the figure. Now it's probably a bland plastic base while mine was metal. Adds a nice weight to the figure.  While I didn't have an urge to continue to stay away from Privateer Press models or anything, I did have him primed for a looooong time and figured while I was working on one Reaper Warlord figure, I might as well work on both of them since he was already out. I'll probably touch up the base a little more and he'll be good to go.

 

Anyway, my point is that while there are some fantastic figures coming out, and it seems there are more and more of them, don't forget your already existing collecting. Don't forget that some of the older figures that are already out there may be less expensive and better sculpted than the current or new ones coming out.

 

Good painting!

 

1650 and Mantic Second Wave in de House

My 1650 miniatures from the Indiegogo finally made it in. Expected September 2012 and well, not quite a year later but here we are. The figures look fantastic. Damnably fantastic. Like so fantastic I will actually be tempted to back anything else they do if it appears to be of the same quality.

On the other hand, my Mantic games second wave of stuff also showed up. I wasn't expected it and had completely forgotten about it so yeah, I'm good with that.

Both however, do showcase some of the weaknesses of supporting a Kickstarter. I've mentioned this before but... the person you are when you first place the order, is not necessarily the person you will be by the time the stuff arrives.

That new 'hawtness' that you fell in love with? Well it's probably going to be replaced by something else at before the material even gets to you.

Another thing to consider, is what is your time schedule looking like down that road? I know some people who were expecting and were like, "Oh my god! What have I done!" and some of that stuff has either gone into storage, been traded to friends, sold via blogs or gone into good old E-Bay.

There's a lot of great stuff out there. Just try to keep in mind where you're at in your life now, try to think where you'll be at in the future, and try to save a few bucks in case something that you're already playing decides to come along and offer numerous exclusive figures well before they hit the store shelves eh?

Reaper Bones In da House

A large 16+ pound package arrived the other day.

I still have no opened it.

I'm desperately trying to finish off some Warmachine Retribution and Mercenary figures as well as a few Hordes minions bits. This doesn't count the starter set for Hordes that I bought and remains unopened, the various Redbox miniatures from the first Kickstarter, and other bits.

The problem with things showing up late is the potential back log of moving onto other things in the meantime or having other projects that should have been out, also hit at the same time.

On the other hand, having too much to paint? That's a good problem. Maybe I'll do a video bit when I open the box and start the dreaded inspection...

July Sales and Kudos

I may have mentioned before that I've been collecting Privateer Press miniatures for years. Recently the company decided to release some of their classic units that used to be sold at minimum strength in unit sizes of maximum strength. Units like Greygore Boomhowler and Company.

I've had the six pack for years and well, it motivated me to assemble the miniatures for either RPG or future use one day. When I did so though, one of the guys was missing his battle axe. Privateer Press took care of it in a manner of days. Kudos to them for the quick no-hassle replacement.

Miniature Market is having a board game sale. I placed an order two-three days ago and it arrived already. I bought some more Privateer Press miniatures for reinforcements for my angry elves and mercs as well as the two Okko board games that were on sale. Great graphic novel series there on a fantasy style Japan setting for those interested in that vein. Solid art and good story telling.

One of the problems if you will, and it's a "first world problem", is that our hobby has so many niche specialty items, that even a great game store like Games Plus in Mount Prospect, doesn't have everything.  Mind you I was just there today and very pleased to see the new range of washes by Vallejo Paints.

Michigan Toy Soldiers though, is having a sale and they have some Andrea and Scale 75 and Lifecolor paints that I've wanted to test out.

Well, let me amend that. The Andrea paints I've used in the past are fairly solid if a little thick. You'd have to really thin them if you wanted to use them in an airbrush. The Scale75 looks like it's using a similar idea of themed colors and I've watched a few videos of Lifecolor and they look pretty solid. But you don't want to pay full price for these things right? But that's what a sale is for!

But with July 4th around the corner, we have other companies, like Fantization having a flat 20% sale. They also have some of the Andrea and Scale 75 paints as well as a good selection of materials.

In short, it's a good time to be a hobby painted so grab those brushes and batten down the hatches!

Anyone else getting in on sales while the getting is good? Leave a comment if so!