Kev White does Matt Dixon - Female Fantasy Miniatures

State of the Kickstarter Union :)
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 12:33:06 AM

Hey Everyone!

Right, apologies for the lack of update, I have been commenting over on the main thread but you guys don't get any emails about that so this will be the first time a bunch of you will have seen anything in a lil while.

I thought we'd do  quick update about where we're at with everything.

We'll start with the good news stuff :)

Metal Production on Kev's 41 minis is on schedule. Large amounts of metals are already in hand with more on the way. Resin Production is also in hand with stocks rising every week.

So far there's only been 2 issues with any of Kev's minis (Shamanic Boudi and Erryn Skyclad need remoulding) which is within norms. The rest look great but I haven't had time to ink many metals yet for photography.

Kev also had time to make both a scenic base add-on for Glory 'and' a secondary scenic base add-on for her. So there's the Destruction base which is similar to the artwork, skulls and broken weapons and then the Werewolf Skeleton base which was just a stroke of genius on Kev's part :)

Ok, the not so good news.

The pledge manager has been stuck waiting for me to finish it off for weeks now as it got delayed into the accounting period of the year for us. As dull as that sounds, our company has grown for the last few years and accounting has become a far more important thing than it used to be and the yearly books are 'super' important so trust me on this, nobody out there wants us to screw them up :) I just signed off on them yesterday so they're done finally!

The guest sculptor minis are currently classed as 'hopeful'. There were some minor delays due to outside circumstances, nobody's fault really, just one of those things. They are in hand though and being worked on. At worst it will mean those who pick Frost minis for their pledge may be shipped towards the end of the queue.

We obviously have a lot of backers to ship out so the fulfillment stage will take weeks. The final step really is, now that I'm back, finishing the pledge manager. As soon as that's up and out we can start fulfillment on anyone's orders that include everything already in hand. The rest will go out staggered as castings come in. 

I also have a big folder full of raw and edited images here that need to be sorted for updates. We did do a few comparison shots though so I'll put them below so this isn't just a wall of text and a sign off :)

 
We'll be more active again from now through fulfillment. More pics, including metals, to come plus updates on the last missing minis.

A very tired Arty :)

Where we are at with the Pledge Manager
almost 7 years ago – Sat, May 06, 2017 at 12:36:10 AM

Hey everyone,

As tomorrow is the end of the first week of May, and we still haven't uploaded the Pledge Manager I thought I'd throw out a quick update to explain the issue.

First off though, please be aware that the delay in the Pledge Manager in 'no' way affects fulfillment of the Kickstarter. That's not until the end of July and if I have to hire someone to write a Pledge Manager from scratch it'll still be done and dusted well before then.

All manufacturing is underway, we don't need the final figures from you guys as we're just simply paying to make enough of everything, we can even handle it if all 1000 of you only buy naked Matthias ;)

Right, the pledge manager..

1. I have just received resin copies of the final 3 Kev minis (And they're 'great' btw, possibly the best of of the bunch, although I do have a soft spot for Glory on the new werewolf skeleton base upgrade *spoiler*)

2. The non-Kev minis are in progress, and WIPs will come over the next month.

3. The delay is that, because of the way we ran the kickstarter, we have to work the pledge manager to be able to do the following ...

• All existing backers have to be able to log in and be able to make a choice as to which minis they want for their pledge.
• All existing backers have to be able to upgrade their pledge, possibly to a different choice bracket, rather than just purchase extras.
• All existing backers who ended the KS on the Baker's Dozen, needs a different choice (with the 1 extra mini) than those who did not.
• Late pledgers need to also be able to pledge for the different pledge levels but cannot choose the Baker's Dozen pledges.
• Everything has to be done twice for metal and resin
• Anyone who double or triple pledged has to be able to choose a second multiple choice pledge level.

As you can probably tell, this is a little bit complicated, especially the double or triple pledgers. We do have a 'Success Manager' in place at backerkit and we are working with them to get this flawless before uploading. There's a lot of you out there and we don't want to find halfway through that there's an error.

On the positive side, as soon as we upload the pledge manager people can start finalising their choices and upgrades etc and paying postage. Once you have done that and consider your pledge finalised, we will start fulfilling the minute that your order has stock. Resin backers will start fulfilling immediately (Unless you chose one or more of the non-Kev minis, then you'll need to wait for those). Metal backers will start fulfilling in June when the first productions castings come in.

So yes, while we say end of July for fulfillment, that's the date we estimate for the 'last' of the production. So the only people who are waiting until then are those who bought everything, and you guys got the best deal so that should hopefully be fine :)

One last thing, the pledge manager will use a standard RRP, that's also what the Kickstarter was based on. These are 'not' the RRPs that will be in our store when they reach normal release (some of the minis will be £6, some will even be £7, the large sprues on some and heavy cloaks etc. greatly increase the costs of metal production). We wanted to make sure that you guys who supported us, could also now upgrade at the cheaper Kickstarter prices too.

There we go, I think that's everything :) I'll continue to keep you guys informed over the next week while we make sure the manager works as it should.

Arty.

Feedback #30 - Mythic & Winter Helen
almost 7 years ago – Tue, May 02, 2017 at 11:50:04 PM

I just got pics from Kev who visited our resin caster, I don't have these in hand yet but thought you'd like a sneak peek at Kev's badly lit pics of the sprues :) ...

 As you can see, while Mythic Helen was kept fairly true and simple, Winter Helen has had some extras sculpted for her :) She know has a choice of 2 left and 2 right arms!

Whadya think?

Arty

Feedback #29 - Jaguar Shaman Boudi
almost 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 12:31:55 AM

 This is now pretty much done, barring any last second Kev 'Dammit, need to change that' moments.

Meaning that other than a shield swap on the Helen's, Kev has now finished his 41 minis :) I'm awaiting resin castings of the last ones this week sometime to upload pics of them to the pledge manager.

This is also one of the minis that everyone who pledges on the KS will get a hefty discount on, this will likely end up being £7 RRP. A number of the minis have ended up so dynamic (and therefore multipart) or so chunky (with added capes and the like that they will be more than our standard £5 price point, meaning bigger discounts for everyone who backed the KS, which we based almost entirely on our regular RRP for simplicity's sake.

I should also take a moment to thank Lee Lowe of the trade show Diceni, as the original Boudi is the face of Diceni. She is used with permission of and in conjuction with Lee and Jaguar Shaman Boudi is currently her 9th variant :) 

Whadya think?

Arty.

Feedback #28 Jaguar Shaman Boudi and a Status Update
about 7 years ago – Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 12:07:46 AM

Hey everyone, let's get the WIP update out of the way first...

Bear in mind it's still a proper WIP and even some major things could change but you can see where it's going :)

This is Kev's final mini, I would say 40th but he made an extra one (Living Ksenia Skyclad) so technically it's his 41st.

With Salute taking over our lives I took the decision to wait until this point to finish the pledge manager and release it. It'll go live as soon as I have resin castings of the last Kev mini in hand so at least all of his will have a photo of the final product in the pledge manager rather than art.

The unusually late in the day pledge manager does 'not' affect fulfillment. That's going ahead regardless, mastering and moulding is ongoing and we should start getting metals back in May.

This means that once the pledge manager is up, those of you who want only resin will start seeing early fulfillment! :D  We will start receiving resin copies for fulfillment in May so will be working to start shipping as soon as we take the pledge manager down, which looks to be early June (Just past June payday ;) ).

Metal fulfillment is still on track for end of July with those of you who were lucky enough to order the minis that come in first getting them sooner than that. 

The Frost variants will start seeing updates in May also and we'll get new WIPs of the Leopard twins.

I think that's everything. Oh, we'll also finally post resin pics here of the KS minis, almost forgot that!

(If you were at Salute and saw them in person, feel free to chime in :) )

Whadya think of Jaguar Shaman Boudi so far?

Arty.