Tectonic Craft Studios: Well and Barbed Cage

After putting the suckers together yesterday, I realized I put the barbed cage together wrong. The clue didn't hold on the top where I threw the small piece but it did on the bottom and I know from previous experience on similar material that the glue will hold past the product's tolerance so that's okay. It is still a barbed cage without it.

So taking that and the well outside this morning at a little after five AM, I used some black matte army primer. I knocked the nozzle off when I opened the can. Done that a thousand times. Put it back on and it started spraying all over the place in a radius around the can. The nozle fell off and it continued! Thankfully I was on the back porch and had a garbage bag nearby and quickly threw it in there.

I then decided to follow this folly with some grey primer which went off without too much trouble and spent the rest of the day washing the black primer off my hand.

When I got home, I hit the cage up with tin, boltmetal, chainmail, mithril silver, all the old GW colors which I was trying to finish off. Then a splattering of the last of my old GW black wash.

If I ever order from them again, I might actually get the cage again. While parts of it were a PIA to punch out because of the narrow pieces, especially at the top of the cage, I do like the way it looks at the 'three foot rule' and it has a good size. It would make a good prop for the Shackled City even.

The well was easier to assemble and easier to paint. It has a good size, the base is a good size and while up close you can see the various ridges cut into the 'stone', even in this pics unless you view the originals up close, it looks like a standard piece of gaming terrain.

I also put together the sundial and yup, just as I predicted, part of the lower part of the sundial where the reaper and his scythe is, didn't hold. Also glued together the chaos portal. Think I'm going to go with some Purple Primer on that sucker and see how it paints up from there.

Tectonic Craft Studios: Kickstarter Rewards Part One

So many moons ago, Tectonic game out with a kickstarter to come out with some inexpensive terrain. It looks interesting and I'm always a sucker for terrain that's not too much of a PIA to put together and use.

According to my pledge level, those rewards were due in June. Didn't happen. Then the online store opened. I figure that yeah, the machinery is there and it needs to run but at the same time, where's the backer's stuff? Didn't happen. Then a Thanksgiving sale happened and I asked if we could have the stuff already done sent out. Too expensive in terms of shipping. Then I asked, "Hey man, I know you don't have everything ready but how about if I order some stuff can you send me the other stuff I already paid for?" It wasn't a problem on his end and it was delivered very quickly. If I like the stuff after all is said and done, I might order from him again for stuff that's already done.

So the things here are the chaos portal, barbed cage, and the stone well.

I have a bit of other stuff to put together...

So... I think I screaed up the cage by putting that grate on top. I think it was supposed to go on the bottom or on the inside or something along those lines.

I haven't glued the Chaos Portal together yet.

The well was interesting for a few reasons.

Overall, not bad but some of the material is so fine that it breaks. Some of it is so close together, you you better be very good with your hands. The material feels cheap, and not in a good way. I don't know how well its going to hold up to heavy use or play. I've still got to assemble some more stuff and paint it up.

But...

No instructions. Checked the website and didn't see anything. I could be missing it and I'm not saying that this is brain surgery, but having a quick video for each piece probably wouldn't be a bad idea. As a matter of fact, since the kickstarter updates have pretty much come to a crawl, putting them up might give people something to look forward too.

Heck, for some things, like the Sundial, it might be a great visual. I'm sitting there playing with it and didn't realize one piece with with another and was like, "How does this thing go together" before I realized that I didn't have the all the pieces together. Big d'oh on my part I"m afraid but if you only look at the one picture on the website, you don't see the bottom piece. Without that bottom piece, it really doesn't work because that pointer does not have a slot while the sundial has one. Thankfully that bottom piece has that.

And of yeah, that bottom piece with the reaper and the scythe? Good luck punching that out. You'll have the patience of a siant by the time you do it if you're a better man than I.

Temptation Awaits...

I'm pretty broke these days from too many Kickstarters but I can't help but find myself being drawn into at least looking at some of those ongoing. While I managed to resist the Otherworld adventure founding, which was indeed a bitch to do because it did well and wasn't that bad, doing the same for Freebooter's Fate was easier.

Mind you, it wasn't because the miniatures didn't look fantastic. They did. It's just that I don't play the game and some of those figures are of a specific time frame, even in a fantasy game and they are premium. Now when I say premium, I'm not saying their not worth the price, or that they're over priced or anything like that. There are miniature lines that are more expensive than the 'standard' and if you don't want to pay that preimum, you have to keep these things in mind.

Anyway, Eden looks to be very interesting. I've seen some of the miniatures before but never played it. Prices don't look too bad and some of the scenery and other bits look nifty.

Shadowsea is by a company that I've supported before. Doesn't look like this one is going to make it though. I'll check on it again in a few days but...

The real one erroding my will power though, is Assimiliation Alien Host.   Funded? Check. Neat figures? Check. Lots of stretch goal goodness? Check.

Wallet wimpering in the corner even as I'm prepping to go into work two hours early? Check.

Still a little over a day to go though so I'll continue to fight that urge until I can verify some other bits...

Deepwars Kickstart Goods

One of the earliest Kickstarters I backed was Deepwars. I haven't played Song of Blade and Heroes extensively or anything like that, but I like the 'Gonzo' of the game. Magic, high technology, ancient races, fallen races, all that good stuff. I went in for the three pack and as a stretch goal it made it to the fourth pack for free.

 

They arrived the other day and while I haven't done more than look at them, I thought I'd snap a couple of pictures quickly and share what they look like.

 



For a 'standard' fantasy campaign, the Dark Marines have to be the best bet for the money. They fit right into the whole Mind Flayer and Far Realm thing so regardless of the 'tech' look some of them have, they are a fairly good fit. Surprised that the 'warrior' of the set is actually kinda small compared to the 'scientist'.

These are the 'ancients' of the setting. Elves anyone? Hate to say it but m'eh. I like the robot shark though.

While I like Mercenaries, or Fortune Hunters, as a general rule, too specific to the setting. Great for those who love the setting but the only figure I think I'll be snagging for use outside the boxed set is the machine, the resin figure in the back. It can make some weird space golem or something.

Another winner, the Scaly Horde was the bonus set. Almost every monster here looks like it can be useful in a standard D&D game right off the bat. I know the one with four arms may look a little off, but hey, Spellweaver anyone? The rest need no real thinking about even if the big fish is well, a big fish. I still bug one of my friends who lost a second or third level character when third edition came out to a giant catfish. He's still not happy about it.

There were a few other figures that came with it, but I didn't snap pics of them. The cards are a nice touch. I wouldn't mind seeing those for standard Song of Blade and Heroes games. Maybe if they do some specific miniatures for the game?

I'm also still waiting on the hardcover. Mind you, this is a Kickstarter that is on time. They tried to get it out early, but that went by the wayside. Nonetheless, I'm impressed it's out on time. That is a huge thing to me. They've also been very good about keeping people in the fold.

In terms of the hardcover, I'm hearing some good things about it . I enjoyed Shadowsea, or at least the first edition, so expect this to be good as well. I'm thinking about supporting the new Kickstarter but it's not really a matter of want, it's a matter of what am I going to give up that in order to do so should I go that route.

The other problem is, I think it's too soon. There are a lot of people who may have the funds, but want to see how this game works first. They want to play with their toys. They want to paint their figures. By overlapping the Kickstarters, I think they've done their fans a disservice.

What's worse though, is that the original had a very modest goal and made a fairly decent % over its initial goal, something like $18K. The new Kickstarter has a minimum goal of $30K. Hmmm.... Math is not being friendly here. They've gotten over the old goal for Deepwars but not much further than that.. I'm still thinking it over though. It's another one of those count the pennies and see what we'll see.

There are a lot of great miniature Kickstarters now but I'm tapped out. I'd love to back more of them but the funds are lacking, and while I generally think that the miniature guys are more on top of things than the RPG guys, the ones doing Blackwater and Tectonic Craft Studio have dropped the ball in months and quarters even so there is no 'perfect' medium for Kickstarters.

Metal Kommander Sorscha and Reaper Grave Elemental

I finally finished Kommander Sorscha. I've had here sine War Machine originally came out. Yeah, a long time. I kept meaning to paint her but since I never actually played the game... Well, she's done now.

As I continue to sort out my miniatures, I occassionally come up against some that are almost done. They get a quick cleaning, priming, where necessary, adn finished off. This is a Gravel Elemental from Reaper for their Necropolis faction in the Warlord game.

And there he is finished after assembling, scrapping off a mold line I could only see from one angel, but once seen could not be unseen, and given a touch of one of the Vallejo Primers over the brown and a different Vallejo PRimer over the green that needed touching up.