Friday 25 December 2015

Merry Christmas!

Hysterical Games wishes you all a very Merry Christmas this year and would like to once again thank you for your support in 2015!


Sunday 20 December 2015

Post-Kickstarter Update VI: Zinn Mann, Panzerbär & Gnome Buildings

Well, 5 days until Christmas! Blimey! We're still busy busy busy, with lots of exciting stuff to report on this week. So let's get started!

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for so keenly letting me know you are willing to paint and assist with graphics. The response has been utterly fantastic! We will respond to you all when the appropriate time arises to do so, but please let me express my most humbled thanks for your kind-heartedness!

Let's get on with our actual internal progress.

3D Sculpting

One party in particular is still being quite slow. We've had no progress on the Troglodyte front, but been assured that progress will continue in the coming week. This is for the x3 Troglodyte Shamans, the Troglodyte Support and Wojtek the Bear (in that order!). It's important all of our Troglodytes are sculpted by the same sculptor, as we think it's a difficult concept to copy and one that is incredibly core to our range. Nothing else like them!

However, we have had a few others bring stuff up to speed. Firstly, the Dwarven Zinn Mann!


Other head variant not pictured. x2 Dwarf Techniks not ready to show

Of course, this model will also come with a second head variant, for the Flamethrower variant. The set will also come with 2 Dwarf Techniks, dressed up in black overcoats and black wide-brimmed hats... One will carry a Tool box and the other an Oil dropper!

Oh and we know it's goofy. That's part of the charm! Imagine it all chipped up and weathered though. I'm getting very excited about painting this one - because it's so wacky!

Next up, Panzerbär!




Okay, there are a few points on this one.

Posing not started, the final pose will be aggressive.

Size is not quite right, the Dwarf will eventually be up to the midriff of the Bear.

Size of the hatch on the Turret will increase slightly to take the optional Tank Commander. 

Weapons will increase in size too, whilst the turret itself will shrink a little bit.

There will be x2 Head Options, x2 Turret options and also, if all goes to plan, optional Stowage, including pickaxes, spades, Beir Steins and Dwarven Smoked Sausages.

That's it on the Sculpting side. I've had to do a lot of reposing and repositioning for 3D printing, which is my next point.

3D Printing

Last week, I said I had some potentially awesome news. Well, here it is.

We have been working with a contact in Sweden, who further to that has contacts that are able to do masses of high quality prints on an industrial scale. This means that we will be able to print everything we have had sculpted so far at a rate that no other company can match. We expect to have all of the sculpts we've had done until now 3D printed and ready for moulding by the end of January, but likely sooner than that. If there are any issues, we have a backup plan involving the same contact, that will allow us to fix up any small issues (i.e. misprinted models, particularly bad texture, etc).

The past 2 or 3 weeks have proven to me that we really are living in the world of tomorrow and anything is possible. I'm genuinely astounded at the potential technology out there.

Casting and manufacturing

Well, Rob spent a great deal of the last week setting up my workshop. he really, really have to thank his beautiful fiancee, Hannah for helping set things up. She's got the brains and helped lay out everything and really get the place sorted. he just followed her commands and made sure he didn't whinge (too much)!

Anyway, here is the fruit of their labour.


His swanky new desk! Just waiting on a Wi-Fi Extender before he sets up my PC in there.


Just some shelving for little bits and pieces. Mostly moulds and test casts at the moment. 
Where the magic happens! The casting workbench. Waiting on more pressure tanks to arrive, the supplier ran out!


All rather exciting! Very humble beginnings, but that is where great things grow from (I hope!). We also hope this further proves the point that we most definitely are our own company now!

By the way, if you have a small resin-casting job that you want doing, please let Rob know. Little things like that can really help keep me going. Anything from 10 to 1000 casts.

Terrain

Rob's been a busy man with buildings again. It struck me that we haven't shown a cast of the actual Mushroom House, so there it is!


He also cast up a few Bakeries and the Wall Set in this resin, which really makes them look beautiful. Much better than the white casts last week.

Gnome Bakery

Gnome Wall Set

We've also pushed on remoulding the new 3D prints of the Dwarf Command, which came over from Sweden and look utterly fantastic. As you'll see they are less shiny and less 'sticky' in appearance. This is our level of expectation with our miniatures. The quality should shine through in my mind. I should also say, I've been looking for alternate resins (costs are tight, I wanted to try and save money if I'm honest!) but I genuinely can't find anything better than this. I've tried all sorts and I'm just going to stick with this beautiful stuff.  

Group Photo!

Closeup

Another closeup!

Right, that's the Dwarf Command... Now onto the Orc one. Or at least part of it. I'm still waiting for prints from Poland, which are now over a month delayed. Ho-hum. Worst case scenario, I will get them printed in Sweden. In fact, I may just do that anyway. 

 Orc Command Set (missing the Enigma Crew and the Sarge)

Genuinely though, the figures are beautiful. It's just frustrating they are not complete. Very, very annoying.

Packing dice!


All the dice are packed! I think I already told everyone, but I (rather rudely) forgot to mention that Lee was kind enough to pop round to see Rob, chat (and everything else!) and pack up the various dice we'll be sending out to you folks.

THANKS, LEE! :D

Orcs in the Webbe

Craig's Orcs in the Webbe website has unlocked another batch of History-Fantasy game articles. Here's some that I think may be relevant to you guys, but please do check out the others.

Panzerfäuste Terrain - Tony Harwood, the sculptor for all of our terrain discusses the process we went through designing them and eventually him making them. Watch out for a few surprises that we sadly didn't get to unlock in Kickstarter, but hope to as part of our Pledge Manager, but will ultimately release eventually!

The Isle of Shadows - A grim tale penned by Craig himself, in which the Kaiser's Technik-priests, the Braumeisterwache, intercept an Orcish mission. Even comes with a playmat!

The Legend of Fyrebeard's Gold - Written by Steve Blease, this is not a Panzerfäuste mission (though you could adapt it to be). It is set 2 millennia before Panzerfäuste begins and is for the Wessex Games publication, Strange Grogge. In this scenario, you will require a snakes and ladders board! So it's bound to be an interesting and fun one! We may well adapt it for our belated Quarterly magazine!

So, I don't know if there will be an update next week, or much of one, obviously because of the festivities! So I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, whatever you are doing and wherever you are!

Sunday 13 December 2015

Post-Kickstarter Update V: Panzerbär and Gnome Snail Barn

Yep, sorry for the poor photographs last week. As we said before, they were taken unprofessionally, with poor lighting and they were also the first one or two casts out of a new mould (resulting in sticky/shiny models that obscure detail). I have a little less to show you this week - but it's still exciting.

3D Design

The Panzerbär is still work in progress. I'm chasing the sculptor near daily now to get this done. I get the impression he has a few jobs on the go at the same time. His work is stunning so far though.


Details are to change here and there. He's going to pay closer attention to the Historical Panzer I and Panzer II (it will have two turret options), as well as reducing the height of the hull and also changing just a few minor things. That includes the printed logos on the sides, we prefer to leave this up to you or potentially even look into waterslide transfers.

I've commissioned the Zinn Mann too! Hopefully some WIP next week.

3D Printing

This week's been a bit slow on this front. Sadly, our Orc Command Set was missing the tubes for the Enigma Machine. It took a little longer to get these sent out to us than we would have hoped, but we've been assured they are on their way. Along with that, we are expecting Rusalka prints and some parts of the Deathless Troll. We've also had the Dwarf Command parts which needed reprinting sorted out, they only just arrived on Friday, and we have been told that the Dwarf Grenadiers and the Gnome Command are about to go into print on Monday.

We have some potentially *very* exciting news regarding printing, but I do not want to crush any dreams by jinxing it. I hope to report on that next week. If I don't, well, you know it's not happened. :)

Mouldmaking/Casting

I've been very busy on this front. Now able to do the basic stuff myself, from home; without having to travel to a friend's to borrow their kit, I can get stuff done a bit faster and in times that I want/need to get it done. I managed to get the Gnome Snail Barn, the 2/3 of the Gnome Wall Set and the Orc Command Set into moulds. I have also poured silicone onto the Gnome Bakery and Mushroom House today, as well as the final 1/3 of the Gnome Wall set.

The setting time is 12 hours, so I will be pulling them out tomorrow.

In terms of casting, I ran out of dye, so the models are currently coming out in White Resin. This looks *HORRIBLE* and I will not risk daring to show you the Orc Command. Frankly, they look horrid, but the detail is all there, there is no surface texture or any untoward difficulties. They are great casts, they are just glaring white and the detail is very hard to see. I will make sure to get photographs once I have grey-dyed resin again!

In any case, to prove my point, here is a (UNFINISHED) Wall Set. Each set will be trimmed and the bases will be filed down on a belt sander before being sent to you guys. They look lovely once given that treatment.


I also managed to cast the Snail Barn up. It looks really, really nice actually!



...You can see the horrid white Orcs on the side!

Assistance! 

I've realised, rather quickly, that I'm not going to be able to do everything if I want to do this in the timely fashion I would like to. With that in mind, I am asking if anyone is willing to help with some parts of the project that they are experienced with. It's not the end of the world if not, but I figured it's always worth a try. I must stress that the return for this will be endless gratitude and a lot of figures. Our budget is stretched enough as it is. :)

We need the following, ideally.

Graphic Designer - Somebody experienced with InDesign and (to a lesser extent) Photoshop, to aid getting the books laid out, looking lovely and getting them ready to print. My plan was to originally do this myself, but I would have to learn the software, which will take time and time is something I'm short on.

Painter - We're looking for figure painters! We must express to ONLY put yourself forwards if you can accept being let down. We have a standard that we want to maintain and we may not believe that your style is appropriate for our product. This does not mean we hate you and think you are untalented, just inappropriate. Between us, we will get some items done - that I am sure of. But I doubt we will get enough of the range done, to a good enough standard, to grant it!

A few people have come forwards to help with painting, the ones we agree to, we will be contacting in due course - Callum from Oxford and Tony from Droitwich Spa, to name a few! Obviously, Ant from Leicester has been helping with the scenery already.

If you're interested in helping out with either role, just send us a PM. Even if it is helping TEACH me how to use InDesign, that would be much appreciated!

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar

A few days have gone past in the Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar and, as such, there are a few more Panzerfäuste articles worth reading! Craig's been doing a fabulous job getting these articles together from the fans and making them accessible! We cannot thank him enough!

Where Beaglez Dares! - In which a crack team of Orcs attempt to infiltrate the secret mountaintop retreat where Hauptmann Entwickler of the Ausdenkerkorps is working on yet another invention, though this time it could change the very nature of the Land...

The Raid on Saint Nazal'aire - In which the infamous Orc Commandos take on seemingly insurmountable odds in a raid against the Dwarven Kraken pens and associated harbour installations of the Kaiser’s army at St. Nazal’aire.

Above and Beyond the Call of Dutiful Harvest - In which the Scarlet Sages, a specially assembled team of Orcs chosen by Chûrg-ill himself, is sent on a dangerous mission in the Gnomish lands to investigate reports that the farmers there may have made a break through that could change the course of the war. The Dwarvish High Command has also dispatched a unit to investigate. Only one side can leave with the secret of the mutated Mushrooms...

There will be more Panzerfäuste entries on Orcs in the Webbe, including one which *should* go up today!

Sunday 6 December 2015

Post-Kickstarter Update IV: Zombi, Commando, Dwarves and Dice

We've had a busy week here at Hysterical Games; but actual progress pales in comparison to the past two weeks. This may happen now and again, but we expect better progress in the short future.

Artwork

We have had more artwork done, however, we are keen to keep some of this as a surprise for the rulebooks you have pledged for. Trust us, there will be some lovely scenes, landscapes and portraits.

3D Sculpting 

Sadly, we've not had the progress we would have liked in this part. We discovered the Deathless Zombi Elves were carrying Dwarf heads that were out of scale from the Dwarf Grenadier models, so we have had to do some jiggery-pokery to fix that. We've also not had any progress since last week regarding the Panzerbär, but trust me, I am on the sculptor's case! 


The edited Zombi. Dwarves have big heads!

Mouldmaking and Casting

This week we were unable to do quite as much as we usually would. Due to a huge mishap with the mould on one of our buildings, we sadly cannot share that just yet. However, next week, we expect we will show this building at the very least.

We did make a mould of the 3D prints for the Dwarf Command Set, sadly, they are not quite up to standard, so the printer is now looking at solving that for us. It's a step backwards, and a little irksome, but that's all part of the learning curve. Here's what they came out like.

A mixed bag, some are shiny, some details have not printed correctly, yet one or two are perfect!


We also managed to cast up the missing part from the Orc Commandos, which I can show you here!



Accessories!

We did make some progress here! We have received and packed all of the Dice we need for the Kickstarter and then some. Here is a quick snap-shot of the Printed D6 that many of you will be receiving.



We have also taken shipment of a whole load of bases in a variety of sizes (20mm, 25mm, 40mm, 50mm and 60mm to be precise). Having looked at our figures, we decided to include 50mm (not shown in the photograph) as well, especially for the Gnome Weapon Teams.



So, ultimately, the good news is that we have packed all the dice! That's one product range entirely sorted and ready to ship already! Not much, but we have to celebrate the little wins!

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar!

Craig has been a busy bee, updating Orcs in the Webbe with community driven articles for Panzerfäuste and other Historo-Fantasy wargames. Please do check it out! There are already a number of Panzerfäuste articles there.

Mushroom Turrets

Irek Zielinski Interview

There will be many more this month, so do keep an eye out. We'd also like to hear any questions you have for Rob, from , regarding our project, what it has been to do it, what we will be doing and what plans we have. Simply email Craig at: craig@orcsinthewebbe.co.uk