Kickstapocalypse

I'm late in posting as I was away crewing at a 40K LARP at the weekend. I spent a lot of time playing an assortment of villains and persons of dubious moral fibre for Rogue Traders and Inquisitors to shoot, stab and blow up. It was excellent fun.

Obviously, this left me with little to show on the wargaming and painting side, as I've not got much done running around a scout campsite near Dundee. Still, the sacrifice was worth it. In the meantime, I've had three of my Kickstarters deliver, so I can show off all the amazing loot!

Tablescapes by Secret Weapon

So, Tablescapes is a modular gaming board system by Secret Weapon Miniatures. They are not to be confused with Tablescape, who are a British company who make pre-painted hard foam terrain, who I also buy things from!

So, from this campaign, I had ordered a 4 x 4 "Scrapyard" design to fit on the KR desk / table my wife bought at Salute the other year. We were originally intending to use it primarily for Eden and 40K. I'm not sure what will cause it to see the most use!

I haven't properly gotten the tiles out of the packaging yet, but I hope you can see the basic premise. There's a lot of scrap metal detail on some of the tiles, with others being a little "cleaner". It should mean I have something nice to photograph models on once I get some painted up, and once they're all done, I'll have a good gaming surface.

Target Delivery Date: October 2013
Actual Delivery Date: November 2014

Olleys Armies Steampunk Dwarves

This was a much smaller Kickstarter by Olleys Armies to expand their "Scrunt" range. I picked up some models for random little skirmishes, and also to sometimes be a Squat Enginseer in my Imperial Guard army.

I'll give you a closer look when they reach the painting / assembly stage, but suffice to say that they're awesome old school style single piece sculpts. Also, they delivered early, which given some Kickstarters' spectacular delivery failures, is a bonus.

I've backed Kickstarters for a book, computer games and miniatures. I would almost certainly not back another computer game - they are unreliable and prone to delays. You also can't foresee quality, so waiting until it is out and hearing reviews is a much better idea.

For miniatures, smaller Kickstarters with unambitious goals will have less problems. Being an existing business with products already on the market sometimes helps, as does previous Kickstarter experience. Metal casters also seem to experience much fewer delays than plastic manufacture which has been outsourced to China.

Target Delivery Date: December 2014
Actual Delivery Date: November 2014

Maki Games

Here's an example of outsourced plastic manufacture problems. Poor Maki Games have had all sorts of delays from their chosen supplier, but have finally managed to deliver. With a simple goal of a shipping container design, but easy to reach ambitious stretch goals for massive modular terrain, this one definitely over-stretched.

These slot together really quite easily - much better than the Deadzone terrain, with wider, more robust pins. Not every part of it holds together naturally, which I think was the original intent, but I've always been intending to glue mine together. I'll probably leave the doors free to move, though.

I also picked up an extra in this adorable Sushi Bar. Again, this is just dry fitted together, and didn't have any glue involved. Unfortunately, the roof decoration bits are wrong - they should go all the way around - I've got some wrong pieces, but this sort of thing happens sometimes with Kickstarters, so I'll be dropping them a line to get it sorted.

Despite that hiccup, the quality of the product is absolutely excellent, and I'm looking forward to painting them up.

Target Delivery Date: November 2013
Actual Delivery Date: December 2014