MAKE 100, Savage METAL MINIS for gaming.

The new metal- it worked! (very well)
over 5 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.
over 5 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 6 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 6 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.

Update#23 - Production, Progress and 3D Printing
almost 6 years ago – Wed, May 20, 2020 at 11:11:08 PM

Hi All,

Production & Progress

NZ has now moved out of lockdown! Yey!

Post offices are open again, kids are back at school and we can move around! Really hoping it stays that way.

NZ production is progressing, we are happy with the output from Regal Casting - always top quality (see update 21 for casting pic).  We should see metal versions of the Dust devil and Geladan soon.

We have a bit of a delay in the USA with availability of materials. The metal is all in-stock and ready to go at Zombiesmith but there is a bit of a challenge getting the best quality print resin to run the 3d masters. We are looking at how to get around this including sending metal masters from NZ. We think it will eat about 2 weeks of our program. But we had a fair bit of contingency in there so are still believing our September date is achievable.

3D Print

We had a great response to the 3D files (see update 22 ) and wanted to explore the sentiment amongst backers about us running a mini digital campaign.  In general we think it is not ideal to run new campaigns before delivery of the previous one, however we think the digital and physical are slightly different markets and the digital assets are largely developed (but need review and some mods). 

Please give your feedback on this, optimistically we could be ready to go as early as July/August.  Thoughts/Comment welcome.

If you are a backer and haven't already tried the Hero set 3D files you can get them by checking out updates #20 and #22 for the link

As mentioned above I've been working on finishing some more sculpts, I'll share two of the Minotaurs with you. The Clovis Glaive runner (name may change) is largely done but I'd like to add a lot more to the Clovis decapitator (hair and rags etc).

Jon has been busy painting, converting and gaming!