Creature Caster and Jeremy Glen

Earlier in the week I posted pictures of the delivered models from Creature Caster's First Wave Kickstarter.

This Kickstarter funded in March 2014 after a campaign that started a couple of months before with some guerilla marketing. A series of photos were supposedly "found" in a cafe and then posted on a number of forums with an "OMG! Look at these leaked images of secret models". It then transpired that they were photos of CAD models for Creature Caster's upcoming Kickstarter.

Creature Caster was the creation of Jeremy Glen who had been the principal of Ultraforge which produced resin models around 2007/08. I have their Treelady while Jack has the Dragon which he uses for his Dark Elves. Both were great models. So, fair to say Jeremy had a reputation for producing good models.

The Kickstarter raised Canadian $335,000. It fair exceeded it initially expressed expectations. This led to a number of additional models being created as stretch goals. This did not immediately concern me as Jeremy was showing the completed CAD designs for the original suite of models through the campaign.

If you at all pledged during the campaign you'll know how involved Jeremy was. He was all over the Comments section released regular (sometimes daily) updates and was a frequent poster on the forums following the campaign. An additional two Daemons and either two or three Dragons were added during the campaign. In addition, alternative parts were offered for the initial suite of models.

Everything was planned. The models were to be 3-D printed from the CAD sculpts and then cast to "jewellery quality" in resin. Jeremy had the printers and casters all lined up as a result of his "extensive experience in the industry". There was little risk.

One of the key selling points - especially to overseas pledgers - was that Creature Caster had a series of warehousing hubs set up around the world to which the models would ship and be distributed. This promised lower shipping costs and importantly bypassing of customs duties to the international supporter.

Of course, it was all BULLSHIT!

Jeremy was a master marketer but, it transpired, a crap businessman. A few whispers started to surface that he had a less than stellar reputation with the owners of a number of North America's larger retail outlets - a big talker but not a reliable deliverer.

But it didn't matter, he had the money.

Weekend Hobby Update

Quite a busy weekend.

I continued printing off Trenches and now have around 20 components done. Woke up this morning and had run out of PLA - so I'll be making some calls this morning.

On Saturday I had a 40k game against Hagen's Sisters. As noted in an early post I had fun but that was more in despite of the rules - which I find have levels of detail that add complexity rather than improve the game. Not sure what snapfire, going to ground, overwatch etc really add for instance. Wound allocation is laborious etc. Still good to get the models out and we have another game set up for first weekend of March.

I spent the last two afternoons watching the Las Vegas Open. This was high end competitive 40k so was an interesting watch. None of the five games I had on in the background got to Turn 5 which tends to reinforce my point above. The technical ability of the players on show was very good and it was fun to follow the event. 400 players, wow!

This week I'm looking to finish up my Emperor's Children squad. Struggling to get a nice purple highlight. The ones I laid down with the airbrush have all but disappeared as I have painted the rest of the figures.

Gaming Room Setup

Over the Summer (ha!) months I have reorganised my gaming room set up for the year ahead.

In the background is a display cabinet with internal lighting I picked up second hand. It has a lot of my 40k armies in it - mainly to keep the dust off them.

The room has a permanent 6' x 4' table set up. I built this last Xmas and the GW Realm of Battle Board drops into it.

What I like about it is that there is a surround that stops dice going off the table. It also has insets for counters, dice and drinks. At the end is a power box with USB ports so you can plug devices in.

Through the door in the background is my garage were I store terrain and have my printer.

Creature Caster Finally Delivers

Two years, three months late I finally received my models from Creature Caster. This Kickstarter has been a clusterfuck right from the beginning - or more correctly, since CC received the pledged funds. I will be making a post on the KS in the next few days but this post will provide some pictures of the models I received.

It is fair to say that early pictures of the finished models showed a distinct divergence from the promised "jewellery grade quality". Detail was very soft in a lot of cases while there was evidence of mold shifts and overall casting inexperience. So it was with some trepidation that I received my finished models. I pledged for three daemons - the Vulture Daemon, the Maggot Daemon and the Plague Angel while local gamer Peter Williamson purchased the Treewoman.

1. Plague Angel

Expanding Trenchworks

Quick update on the expanding trenchworks as printinting continues unabated in the Garage Forgeworld.

The lone Ork has now got a far distance to cover from one end to another. At the moment I'm concentrating on printing straight sections to build up the length of the trenches. Once I have about 10 more I'll start adding in variants.

By the time I'm finished it will be an Imperial Fists' wet dream.

 

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Wargaming As Sports

Who would have thought we'd reach the day where you could sit on the couch on a Sunday afternoon and watch a Warhammer 40k tournament live from Las Vegas.

Both Frontine Gaming and Warhammer TV are providing live coverage of the Las Vegas Open 40k event that has 430+ entrants. This is via their channels on Twitch (both in Creative).

The Frontline coverage has both players lined up while WTV has a commentary team. I prefer the former as it is more interesting to follow their thought processes.

Great photography, multiple cameras.....the whole nine yards. Interesting watching the different player psychology too!

Even if you don't play 40k it is interesting to check out.

 

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We Don't Know How Lucky We Are!

There is an old song sung by comedian Fred Dagg (and rehashed by Sportscafe) called "We Don't Know How Lucky We Are, Mate" that I found myself humming this morning.

Recently I've dipped the toes back into 40K, drawn in by GW's narrative and advance of the storyline. That's led me to have a couple of games with my Emperor's Children which I've really enjoyed getting out on the table.

Before I ventured in, I knew the rules were bloated....216 pages of mini rulebook before you even move onto the various extra supplements and codexes you need (in my case only two - CSM and Traitor Legions). I've been lucky in that I've had two locals show extreme patience playing these initial games, answering all my questions which have been legion.

While I have enjoyed playing, my key takeaway has been how bloated the rules are. The game mechanisms, army composition etc have so many layers of complications for little foreseeable payoff IMO. To be successful - in the first instance - is more about rules knowledge than tactics. I'm sure at the very high end that when both players have invested hours and hours in trawling the rulebook and codexes, tactics are the key decider (after force composition) but for the casual player rules knowledge trumps all.

I contrast that with Kings of War where the casual player can pick up the rules very easily and after 2-3 games the focus changes from learning mechanisms to on-table tactics. IMO this is the hallmark of an elegant ruleset - easy to learn, hard to master. This shouldn't be a surprise given that the rules were written by Alessio Calvatore. He learned his skills as a designer at GW before going freelance.

Part of the problem with 40K is that the rules are five editions on from the last reset. Mechanisms that started stripped down have had 16-17 years of layers plastered on top. I think of it as layers of wallpaper and paint on a wall - at some point you just have to strip everything back to bare bones.

I am so looking forward to the next edition of 40k if the rumours of a major reset come true. The ruleset needs to be Sigmar-ised where the extraneous detail is stripped away leaving a skeleton that allows the process to start new.

In the interim I'm very thankful for the Kings of War ruleset.....We don't know how lucky we are mate!

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Mantic Trident Realms

Mantic have released some updated pictures of their new Trident Realms figures.

Riverguard

Riverguard Captain

Thuul

Thuul Shaman

Gigas

These are much better photos than Mantic previously released. I'm still not convinced by the Gigas but they look 100% better than the initial photos. Here you can at least see the detail.

I really like the Riverguard and the Champ and would go as far as saying that they are probably my favourite Mantic models to date. they really capture the amphibian nature of the troops (helped by a very good paintjob). 

Would like to see a different paintjob on the Thuul as I'm still of the opinion the current one is probably a bit unflattering.

Great to see some in-action shots - really capture the army.

Review - Bits & Kits

Recently I purchased the Bloodbowl game minus the Human and Orc teams from UK bits supplier Bits & Kits. I have used these guys in the past and found them very good both from a supply point of view and also in relation to customer service.

Unfortunately this time was not a great experience. Rather than bagging them, this post is a heads-up when using them in specific circumstances.

The price on the box less figures was GBP30.00 with postage of GBP3.00. This made them very competitive in terms of price and - given I had used them before - I ordered from them, mid-November. I received an email update that my order had shipped on 19 November.

When the item had not turned up a month later I checked my order history on their website and found no record of my order. Being holiday season I thought it might take awhile to get here so sent them an email checking the order was "real" and method of shipping. I received no reply. It wasn't until my fifth email in late January that Bits & Kits replied.

"Sorry for the delay in response, the package in question was returned as undelivered, this has happened with large box sets before, we assume that due to the weight or the size of the box that it cant be delivered and get held by your country's postal service and get returned to me."

This seemed very strange as this has never been a problem with NZ Post before. I'd hazard a guess that they are probably one of the more progressive and reliable postal services in the world and the handling of large boxes is never an issue.

The cynic in me suggests that the cost of postage made the order uneconomic for Bits & Kits. If that was the case then I would have preferred that they had just contacted me and told me so rather than the rigmarole I went through. I post this only as a heads up to people using the service for more than isolated bits.

In the end I received a quick refund (3-4 days) but the experience cost me two months delay and $6 in transaction charges. The good news is I have the same purchases en route from eBay.

Trenchworks

Due to a few ongoing family issues I've been relatively quiet over the last month but one thing I have started is building up some 40k themed trenchworks.

One of Printable Scenery's Kickstarters had a modular trench system you could print out. These are based around 4" wide pieces that you arrange as you desire. There are ends, straights, T-junctions, 90 degree turns and half turns.

My intention is to print off sufficient modules so that I can cover the width of a 6' x 4' board in three lines of trenches with interconnecting trenches between.

My thinking is that these will be good for scenario and narrative games - as well as look good on the table.

The pics are the raw plastic but I am sure that these will paint up well especially using weathering and rust effects.

Currently I have six modules printed up with a target of 100!!!

 

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