First off, a confession. I have bought two copies of White Dwarf. Admittedly they have been in German, so I have just been looking at the pictures. I do wish I had looked before I bought the last copy as it was just full of Space Marines tm and bugger all else. The new edition is devoted to the new Dark Elf releases so I will carefully examine it before purchasing. I still do not think it is worth the money, especially as the first forty odd pages are a glorified catalogue and twelve pages are store directory.
Something that I have done over the last year has been to support crowd funding projects. The first was Mantic’s “Kings of War” Kickstarter. This was a huge disappointment. The Goblin figures I received lacked any sharp definition, as if they were cast in soap. When I rang to complain I was told, “Well they paint up OK.” I don’t want to spend my painting time fudging up details that should have been there at the start. Subsequent stretch goals have been received and on the whole are jus as poor. This was one Kickstarter I wish I hadn’t backed. As a result of this and the poor customer service I won’t be buying any new Mantic. The new Orcs from the Deadzone Kickstarter look rather nice, but I’ll wait and get them from Fleabay.
The second project that I backed was an Indiegogo one, Goblin Pirates sculpted by Kevin “Goblin Master” Adams. I’ve been a fan of his work since the eighties when I first started gaming. Nobody makes Goblins as charactorful as his.
A quick digression, sorry, I do this quite often as my thoughts often flit round from topic to topic without rhyme or reason. 4A Miniatures produce some beautiful Sea Goblin figures sculpted by KA. They have some more miniatures in the pipeline which I await eagerly. If you are lucky enough to attend Salute, go and visit their stand.
There is another collector who is commissioning KA to sculpt an old skool Goblin army. Search for Crooked Claw Miniatures on Goggle. I bought the Catapult and it fits in beautifully with KA’s “Machineries of Destruction” released by GW in the eighties. If I can justify it (not really as the lead mountain is high enough already) I’d love their Goblin Infantry.
And finally, Ral Partha Europe have released all the Goblinaid figures sculpted in aid of Kevin Adams after his vicious assault earlier this year.
Back to the Pirate Goblins, I had some problems with delivery and had to contact the guy via Facebook to get a result. Nice figures worth the wait.
Massive Voodoo was the next project I supported. MV are two German professional painters, Raffaele Picca and Roman Lappat, who blog about their work. Their blog is worth looking out out for not only for the figures but also for the tutorials. Their goal was to raise enough money to print a book of their work. I got it in the post a couple of months ago along with a bonus documentary book and some stickers. No regrets with this campaign.
The Iron Brotherhood was a Kickstarter campaign by Ramshackle Games. If you haven’t as yet encountered RG yet, please do. RG produce resin figures and vehicles. The vehicles are multipart and individual parts can be purchased from the website to form your own creations. The models aren’t quite as detailed as Forgeworld’s, but the casting is crisp and you’d be hard pressed to find any bubbles. Did I mention free worldwide postage and excellent service? RG’s Kickstarter aims to produce two squads of troopers, heavy weapons and a support vehicle. The troopers look as if they are wearing heavy chemical suits and I think they may fit thematically with my next Kickstarter which is from Raging Heroes, “The toughest girls of the galaxy”.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Forgeworld’s Death Korps of Krieg, who honestly hand on heart hasn’t? Raging Heroes produce the Kurgonova Sisters, female DKK kommisars, fetish stylee. One of the three factions in the Kickstarter campaign is the Iron Empire, basically female DKK troopers. Some of the fluff mentions dark necromantic powers and I thought the RG troopers would fit the bill as rather squishy reanimated corpses contained within a chem suit.
On the topic of DKK proxies, have a look at Anvil Industries “Tox Troopers”. A very passable and affordable alternative. I visited them earlier this year at their studios and very affable they were.
The one project that got away from me due to funding problems was “Arcworlde”. Run by a young chap who is showing unbelievable sculpting talent and deserves a huge following.
Not quite a crowd-funding, or maybe it is as it started before this particular wave, is the Heresy Dragon. An immense beast, look at the photos on the Heresy website. I don’t know how long this particular saga has been going on, but there have been some major casting problems due to the size and complexity of the model. It’s flipping huge and I can’t wait to get it.
genuine grumpy old tin 