MAKE 100, Savage METAL MINIS for gaming.

Shipping Underway
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 11:36:50 PM

Hi Everybody, We are very pleased to announce that:

We have started shipping and "It feels real good!" 

We are slightly ahead of schedule for the NZ pledges, with about 30% of NZ / ROW packages sent as of yesterday. The balance will be sent over the next couple of weeks as they are cast, quality controlled and packaged. 

USA production is underway, with what is looking like some really great results (see last update # 27). We envisage the casting to take a couple more weeks. So we should still meet our September shipping date (but more likely the end of September).

We are hearing varying reports related to shipping time frames due to Covid, hopefully you won't experience any big delays. Jon had a parcel take 6 weeks from the UK so we would expect you to get parcels by late October early November at the latest.

Shipping addresses have been locked.

We have locked shipping addresses, sending out notifications with 48hrs notice. No-one made any changes so we are assuming these are good-to-go. If you have moved or need the parcel delivered to another address please tell us and we'll re-address them.

Print and play.

When the hero minis arrive, feel free to print their stat cards and have a bash. They work best with a 150-200 point warband so why not download the free Beestwars skirmish pdf from my website and give the quick-start rules a go. http://www.garyhuntminiatures.com/_fantasyWarr-beestwars.html 

If you need extra rules we will be transferring them over from Zombiesmith's "Shieldbash" game available from their website. https://www.zombiesmith.com/products/war-of-ashes-shieldbash-rulebook

Post Your Pictures, Painting and General Discussion

We are really looking forwards to seeing these on your gaming tables and collections. For those on social media please feel free to post pics, painting progress and give feedback on Beasts, Beests and Beets https://www.facebook.com/groups/690873924717480/ or Gary Hunt Miniatures https://www.facebook.com/Gary.Hunt.Miniatures . These sites are also a great place to see Gary's current works in progress and notices about new figures and game details.  Your feedback is valued, especially on figure creation and ideas for the expansion of the various Beestwars factions. 

If you need any tips on how to paint why not check out some videos by Sloane ranger studio https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTDGVo2AseycZWrck4sqOMg or James Wappel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7wvg0wzWwA . and check out painters who have also worked on my minis such as Mary Profitt https://www.facebook.com/mary.profitt , Carl Lum https://www.facebook.com/carl.lum.3 and Charles Radford https://www.instagram.com/crateeight/?hl=en , 'eaviermetal FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/eaviermetal/ is also another good source of inspiration.

Future Campaigns

We have really appreciated the support from this campaign, and we have learnt a lot through the process. We are thinking about possible future campaigns but would really love to hear from you as to what you would be most interested in. Current possibilities include:

- Expanding on the Beestwars range, with additional faction sculpts and new factions. Stls and pewter options.

- Release and some re-sculpting of Gary's early classic figures.. this may include throwback to some, late 80's, early  90s stylised figures.

- a mix of the two, something totally different?

 The decapitator! Work on a large Clovis Minotaur with dual handed blade

 And I've started work on a Croc-man warband. Here's the first guy. he'll be printed about the same height as Troth the wildebeest. I'll sculpt some smaller slimmer guys and maybe some Barbarian crocodile handlers for the Hyenamen faction. I think the Croc men (need a cool name ------suchus?) would be neutral but highly territorial and dangerous, would they side with the Clovis to get one-over on the Geladan?

In the meantime if you have any questions, please contact Gary via the kickstarter message system or post in the comments.

Now... back to packing parcels :)

The new metal- it worked! (very well)
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 02:03:41 AM

 Just a quick update. 

Hurrah! Here in New Zealand, the new pewter metal worked a treat (meaning a lot less rejects being dropped back in the melting pot) we'll be using this from now on. Ian and Alan from Regal Enterprises were as excited to see it working as I and delivered a bunch on Saturday.

 Regal will cast the remaining hero set pledges next week.

And in America, Zombiesmith have molded the minis and have been getting great results.

So I'll be sending out a reminder to lock or change your shipping address in the next couple of weeks, it will come from Backerkit, check your emails and spam just in case.

If you feel like adding any more minis to your backerkit pledge (to save on shipping in the future) now would be the time to do it.. The orders were locked and charged but I'm sure we can make changes. If you need any more minis let us (or Backerkit) know.

On to other news.

I took a quick photo of the two heroes battling it out.  Minotaur painted by Sloane Ranger Studios, Gnoll painted by Carl Lum.

Mary Profitt has been painting Geladan again. This time it's a Geladan archer on warbeest.

Carl Lum has been painting Hyena

and The mighty Clovis standard.

I wish I'd had a stall at the Wellington Warlords, Call-to-arms this weekend but due to family commitments didn't have time to prep. I made it along on Sunday to meet a mate (who is making bespoke trees) and check out the tables.

I bought some model grass tufts and bushes at the show but on the way back stopped at a beach and found some interesting dried-out roots that might well make some small twisted dead trees. 

I've been sculpting some new stuff for the next Kickstarter adventure, i'll share the w.i.p.s in a future update..... Stay safe and well out there, cheers, Gary.

Progress report for July.
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 22, 2020 at 07:11:03 AM

Hi everyone. 

In the last update I mentioned that the metal masters for the Hero set, Geladan, Vampire and tokens were winging their way to the U.S. . Well they have arrived and Josh has baked the first mold. 

Here in New Zealand, while we have a little time, we decided to get our production success rate up. Currently some pieces, cast in the pure pewter that we use, have a few holes appearing, It doesn't seem to be a problem with the mold as pewter with 7% lead has almost a 100% success rate. We've ordered a metal, Bismuth, to mix with the pewter instead of lead. this should rectify the situation. I know some collectors are fine with white metal (a small amount of lead content) others prefer not to have it.  The (un-leaded) Pewter Zombiesmith uses in the U.S. doesn't seem to have the same problems as the pewter from our suppliers in NZ. I use un-leaded pewter so I can sell the assembled minis in the Weta Cave shop and I would like you guys to receive the cleanest metal as well. 

This quality improvement impacts our programme by about a week. But we are still on target for our shipping dates. 

The new metal is set to arrive from Australia next week. 

Carl Lum has done a great job painting this athletic Geladan.

 ....and the Gnoll.

Carl has also painted a set of tokens (these could also be used as large shields).

 I've also been updating the Beestwars stat cards with colorful images.. 

 and mucking about with some faction motifs...

I'll make sure the Hero set stat cards, along with the Dust Devil rules and Geladan acrobat are ready for you by the delivery of the minis. And uploaded to the free pdf Beestwars rules for the next ks.

 I started sculpting a Crocodile, I think it would make a great barbarian pet for the next KS campaign, maybe I'll convert it into a croc-man? :)  

 I chose to work on this fella whilst giving a little digital sculpting demo at the Weta Cave.

As always, happy to hear feedback / comments.  Hope all of you are well. 

Update #24. Metal Masters sent to US. Geladan and Dustdevil 1st cast/assembled pewter minis and coins.
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 11:34:49 PM

 Hi Everyone.

The metal masters are winging their way over to the US (hopefully they won't take too long with shipping the way it is at the moment). Zombiesmith can then mold, cast and ship them out for our American backers. The original plan was for ZS to 3d print them but we opted to send over metal masters instead, this addressed some issues we had with resin availability and was the best approach in respect to timing.

Regal have also sent me the first casts of the Hero set, Dust devil, Geladan and tokens (these are looking really good). As soon as  the lead masters for the Dust devil and the Geladan arrived  I rushed to assemble a copy of each.

Here is a close-up of the Dust devil (wish I hadn't rushed and had instead cleaned this mold line- maybe I'll fix it and take another pic, I was just keen to see it assembled).

and here is the acrobatic Geladan.

 I'm pleased with how the tokens turned out. They are more 3d than actual coins but I think that works for the battlefield.

 And if you missed the last update, here is the first pewter cast of the Hero set.

 Carl Lum has painted the Hyenaman Gnoll for me. It looks great! If you downloaded the stls, let me know how you got on, If any of you painted them it'd be great to see some pics. If you have a 3d printer and haven't yet downloaded the files go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/595101020/make-100-savage-metal-minis-for-gaming/posts/2823843

 https://www.instagram.com/lumcarl/

 Other GH Minis related stuff outside of this Kickstarter...

 I introduced my eldest son to his first game of Beestwars, he's nine.... he won!!  If you haven't already downloaded the free quickstart pdf ruleset you can with this link (Beestwars.pdf)

I also was keen to use the new 3d status tokens.

 Here's a close-up. I feel a lick of paint on the coins would also be a great idea

 I recently re-vamped the Weta Cave shop display, giving it a little more Beestwars flavour. I just used broken twigs from the garden with dabs of hot-glue.

 And a friend, Mark, assembled a menagerie of ink-washed beasties for me over lock-down, to sell in the Weta Cave Shop.

And Weta Workshop are well on their way to manufacturing the District 9 boardgame that I played  a part in, creating many of the minis for the game.. Check it out here; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wetaworkshop/d9-the-boardgame/posts

That's all for now folks, see you in a week or so. Cheers, Gary.

Update #24 First Pewter Hero set assembled. Molding progress and new work in progress.
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Jun 08, 2020 at 07:56:53 AM

Hey there everyone, thanks for being patient.

We have some pics of the hero set, cast in Pewter, assembled and inked.

And here, again is, the Minotaur that James Wappel painted.

Follow this link to see how it's done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7wvg0wzWwA

We have some pics from Regal toy soldiers of the coins, Geladan and Vampire molds layout. They've actually been cast now, no pics as yet, I'm so looking forward to seeing the dust devil.

 I also have a mini design to share. This figure is a witch/shaman for the Hyenaman clan. Prepping for another "Beestwars" related Kickstarter later in the year.

 And here is another Wip Geladan. I'll create a new Warbeest. The "Berber" style rifle, a gift from the nomadic Elves that roam the land helping the indigenous peoples defend themselves against the marauding Clovis Minotaurs.