Life and Minis in the Time of a Pandemic
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 12:20:03 AM

 Ahoy Backers- 

Hoping this update finds you all safe, and not too pressed upon in these challenging times.  Here in the California Bay Area we've been sheltering-in-place for over a week now, which of course is freaking out the cats- they just don't know what to do with us.  With that said, I have a few things I wanted to hit in this missive, so let's get to it. 

Shipping and Packages and Such 

Thank you all for your wonderful feedback upon receiving your packages - especially across the pond, as we can't track them very well once they have left the states. I really do value your comments, as it not only strokes my ego, but of course helps me polish the experience for future Kickstarters. 

Due to the pandemic, some of your packages may be stuck in customs or a post office for a while. We have had one backer confirm this already.  Not much we can do on either of our ends - but if they do get sent back, I'll notify you and when it's safe and sane, we'll resend.  So far we have only one package returned, which was destined for Paris. Quell domage! Or is it fromage?  My French is not so great.   If you have any questions or concerns, message us via Kickstarter.

Painted Hand Gunners 

On the up side of being  housebound, I'm getting some time to paint - here's a couple of pictures of the hand gunners.  Straight forward paint jobs, with a splash of color.  I'd love to see more of what you guys are doing with your troops.  You can post pictures on my Skull and Crown Facebook Site. I'm starting to put together a gallery of things some of you have already sent - great stuff! 

Conversions

After building my Mounted General with the mace, I had a sword and shield left over, so gave it to one of my pike skellies. To make this conversion I just bent the front arm a bit.  He's gonna make a great font ranker, or a good fighter in my dungeon. 

That's it for now - Again, stay safe, practice being aloof (pretend you're an artist), and remember it's not distancing, its "going back into the shadows..."

I remain your most Obd't Toy Maker, &c

Shipping has shipped! Woot!
about 4 years ago – Mon, Mar 09, 2020 at 03:01:32 AM

Ahoy Backers- Very happy to say that as of Last Friday, all of your backer rewards have been shipped. Okay, not all- Matt still needs to come personally pick his up, but he knows that, so I’m going to count that one.  Two backers have yet to respond despite 8 attempts to get them to, so they get shelved for now. The last of you, you brave patient few, got an extra thank you in your package- a St. Colin Dude, patron saint of surfers, to put on the dashboard of your car- or your painting table. 

As your packages come in, I’d love to continue hearing feedback on what you think of the miniatures and of the Kickstarter over all. It really is an evolving as you go kind of experience, with some interesting challenges- especially when your Kickstarter grows to 4 times what you projected it would! It also took longer to get everything out. As promised we did start shipping in January, but with so many minis, it took our poor caster a while to get them all molded and cast.   

I wanted to share some fun facts about Triumph of Death II

35 molds were made (both master molds and production molds)

5 miniatures were redesigned once we got the first castings back.

We made 349 pounds of castings!  Not a typo. We took care of our postal person with cookies and banana bread.

You backers came from 9 different countries - From Norway to New Zealand- From Finland to the Japan.  Very cool!

The top 5 favorite choices were:

· Skeleton Pikes

· Command Set 1

· Skeleton Crossbows

· Command Set 3

· Cannon and Crew

Backerkit- As I warned about at the beginning of the Kickstarter Backerkit would be a great learning curve, but also became a very valuable tool, especially when it came time to collate all of your rewards and surveys.  So thanks for going through the learning curves with us- and next time it will be even better-er!

So.., What’s next?

Let’s muse a bit, shall we?

First and foremost for us are two things. Getting the Skull and Crown Store up and running on a new server and updated, AND getting ready to run my Queen Victoria’s Robot Wars wooden Wars game at Salute 2020. But for now, let’s talk about Kickstarters.

Lots of you have asked about what will be my next Kickstarter.  Here are a few things that I have on the books, although nothing is solidified yet.

Triumph of Death III: I’d be keen on doing one, maybe next year, but I’d love to know what you would want to see in it? What personalities? What troop types? What ordnance or siege weaponry?

Killer Rabbits II: Almost as many of you and from the Killer rabbits Kickstarter have asked for a Killer Rabbits II. This is something I have been playing with, collecting drawings and doing a couple of doodles. A while back I invented a snail racing game for my daughter’s birthday party- and I think it would translate really well to the Killer Rabbit genre.

Breaking Lances: This game Is actually ready for a Kickstarter, I just need to lay out a proper set of rules. Higher on my list of “next Kickstarter”. Based upon the illustrations in the Codex Manesse, a 14th century catalog of knights who jousted in a tournament. All the pieces are designed and lasercut by yours truly.  This is a fast paced and fun game, and I run tournaments at game conventions all the time. 

Unicorn Hunting Party: When I visited Scotland last year, working with Claymore Castings on a possible set of rules for them, I also got to hang out with my good friend Iain McDonald ( of Flags of War Fame- the guy that did your flags) who took us to Sterling castle. There I fell in love with the lovingly and expertly re-created tapestries of the Unicorn hunts. I spent a good 40 minutes sketching from the tapestries and taking pictures. The tapestries are chock full of so many great characters and, of course, Unicorns!  Wouldn’t this make a great Kickstarter set?  Also I’ve started jotting down ideas for a Unicorn hunt set of quick play rules… When I mentioned this to Drew Day Williams, he was keen on sculpting them. Always good to have your sculptor excited about a project.

Here's a link to the cool Tapestries  https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/discover/highlights/the-stirling-tapestries/ 

Right, that’s enough babbling on for now. Again, thank you all for a fantastic and successful Kickstarter!

I remain your most’ Obd’t toy maker

Ths

p.s. this is not my last post. We do have more to share J

Making Plastic Pikes- a Tutorial
about 4 years ago – Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 12:23:14 AM

Ahoy Backers!  Now that shipping out rewards is going strong, and folks are getting their pike units, I figured it's high time to give you that tutorial on how to make plastic pikes (and spears) so without further ado..  

Making Plastic Pikes- a Tutorial 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good metal pike, and have used them quite a bit- I also have the scars to show it. More times than I care to remember I’ve impaled myself on my pike blocks. Looking for a good, and much more economical alternative, I found others making and using polystyrene plastic for pikes. Here’s my step by step on how to make your own.

Tools

The most important tool that you will need, and might not have in your tool kit is a pair of smooth pliers. Smoothing meaning no teeth in the inside grippy part. Aside from that you will also need:

• Cutting blade- A basic Exacto works, but for this job a chisel shaped blade is very helpful
• Measuring device- to measure out your polystyrene pike lengths; once you’ve cut one, you can use it for a jig. If they are off a bit, I’m sure that’s more “historically accurate” than them being all regimental.
• Metal Pin- use this to align hands
  Drill- in case a hole needs to be enbiggened
• Rat Tail file- cleaning up any hands if needed
• Glue- Super glue, gel type is the best

Note: Sharp things are sharp, pokey things are pokey and gluey things are gluey- all can give a good dueling scar- so please be safe and responsible when using them.

Parts

For this exercise we are making pike for my Triumph of Death pike miniatures. These minis come with polystyrene plastic sprues.

Pike making

Take your polystyrene rods and measure them out in sections to cut for your pikes. I measure mine at 60mm, which is roughly a 15 foot pike.  Cut the rods into your pike shafts. At 60mm you will get 5 pikes with a bit of excess. We’ll use the extra for practicing making pike heads.

Making spear points

This is actually quite easy, but does need a bit of practice. Take your flat nose pliers and “pinch” about 3mm of the end of a sprue to make the flat part of the point. Note that if you want a wide head squeeze more. Pike heads in general are not very wide, so I don’t squish the plastic too much. Really it’s up to you- but do try and practice on the off cuts first.

Next take your favorite cutting tool and cut the flat shape to a point. First cut one side, then roll the polystyrene to the other side and cut it. If it’s a bit uneven, just trim a side to match up.

Once you have all your pikes made, time to put them in the hands of your troops. With my Triumph of Death Skeletons the hands are made big enough to accommodate the polystyrene, and even a bit bigger, but sometimes in the mold and casting the hands get out of alignment to each other. I use a large sewing needle to put through the hands and straighten them up before I glue the pike in. You can also use this pin to move and pose the hands into a slightly different position to add variety to your unit, by slowly prying the hands about. This technique may mean you have to cut the back hand away from the body first.  If you find any flash, a rat tail file of a blade will make short work of it.

Next, add the pike into place where you want it to go, then slide it up a bit, add glue to the hands and slide it back in. I use my Exacto knife to hold the pike in place while the glue is setting.

Ready for Muster

That’s all there really is to it. When you have them all done, use a good primer and you are ready for painting.

Say- won’t the paint peel or break off it the pike it bent?

I’ve been making these for about 5 years now, and have yet to see any of my pike peel. If you use a good primer and paint, and seal afterwards it should not be an issue. If it does, simply re add some paint and re-varnish!

Here are some examples of the Pike skeletons with plastic pikes. Note that these guys have thicker (2mm) polystyrene rods for pikes to help visualize better.

Cheers, and thanks for following through. This technique also of course works great for spears, and banner poles. If you have any questions, or have your own method in making these I'd love to hear from you.

 I've also uploaded this tutorial to my Blog- 

https://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/2020/02/making-plastic-pikes.html

Shipping updates and Postage Hiccups
over 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 12:11:42 AM

Ahoy Backers - and Happy New Year! 

Shipping continues, with another 25 boxes being shipped today, and another 15 packed and ready to go. As more boxes of castings come in from our "working-like-dwarves-possessed" caster, the packing and shipping will ramp up.   Thanks very much to those of you who have already received your rewards and shared your feedback and messages!  

Hiccups: Shipping- Postage

Remember how at the beginning of this Kickstarter I mentioned that Backerkit was an unknown? Well we found a small flaw in our set-up related to additional add-ons' shipping fees. If you ordered any add-ons (other than just the "Generals of the Apocalypse"), you did not get charged the additional shipping. This is a heads-up that we have resolved that snafu, Backerkit accounts reflect the edit, and we will be charging a few of you for the additional poundage in the next day or so. Very sorry for the mix up, and know that for future Kickstarters we now know what to watch for. :) 

Here's the breakdown on the shipping costs of for add-ons (image below).  Yes, the costs for shipping overseas is crazy expensive. That being said, on my last Kickstarter I refunded monies if the shipping charges were way over the actual postage costs. We are also tracking these costs for this Kickstarter (esp. since certain US postage rates just changed a couple days ago), so we can be more accurate in future Kickstarters, and we will let you know if we discover any wild discrepancies for your specific shipment. 

If  you have any concerns or questions regarding this - please don't hesitate in sending me a message.

Skeleton Cavalry with Bows

Over the holiday I was able to get a unit of horse bow painted up. Normally I would paint the rider and horse separately then glue them together, but in this case I glued them together first, then painted. Totally recommend this. Adding a bit of color to the bows and quivers really helps these models stand out.  

Final Note:  Outstanding Surveys!!

There are still 11 of you who have not responded to your surveys.  We have sent direct emails (in early January) as well as followed up a week later via Kickstarter - but have not heard a peep from any of you. Please check your TODII Kickstarter Messages and/or your emails - as we have resent survey links, etc.   We really really want you to get the Rewards you want, esp. since you have already pledged and paid for them. 

Thanks again for all your support and understanding, and stay tuned for more updates.

Thomas

Shipping Has Begun!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 12:17:53 AM

Ahoy Backers and Happy New year! 

Shipping Stuff

As promised, shipping has started in January- yay!  A few days ago we shipped out the first 23 boxes to some of you, These were picked based on the stock we currently have on hand- and will be expanding as our poor overworked caster gets us more. Speaking of which...

Pike! 

You are looking at over 2,000 casting of skeleton pike!  I swear if the Feds show up to my shop (aka patio) they are going to think I'm running a miniatures cartel. These get sorted and bagged tomorrow- and if we are lucking the rest of the cavalry and the command packs will also show up tomorrow- or next week for sure. 

That's all I have for now- Oh actually no. Thanks for everyone for responding to the messages, emails and pumbps to get your surveys in- we only have less than a handful still out. 

Cheers! 

Ths