Post-Kickstarter Update XXV: Problems, Problems...

Well they say no plan survives contact with the enemy and that certainly seems the case here at Hysterical Towers were we have had a month blighted by a series of unfortunate events.

As we said last update, the Gnomes have been causing a few problems so we decided to switch production of the arms and weapons to white metal. Unfortunately that was not as simple a solution as we first thought so we have brought in expertise to solve the problem in the form of Chris Nicholls of Macrocosm Miniatures.

He has solved that problem (go Chris!) and now we can get on with getting the Command and Support sets finished and out to you.

Le Problem du Gnome has had a knock on effect on the Troglodytes as the work Rob needed to do to get the masters ready for moulding has been delayed in him trying to get the pesky Gnomes to cast. However with Chris on board, Rob can now devote some TLC on the Troglodyte infantry.

Trog buildings with some Gnome ones...

In addition to this one of the Trog buildings one was destroyed in the mouldmaking process, so Tony is remaking the master and Rob will need to mould that up using a less aggressive technique. Those that survived have been cast up for orders and look really nice.

If your Wave Two has been delayed because of this all this we can only apologise.

And if that was not enough…

Whilst Ian is working away on the Mass Battle game, even starting to lay out pages of the rulebook, Matthew has been cursed with a string of bad luck that almost beggars belief, including his chimney breast collapsing at his home and being driven off the road by a lorry and ending up in a ditch. Fortunately Matthew was unscathed, unfortunately his car was not. This obviously has had a knock on effect on the Skirmish rules, quite what that impact will be we’re not quite sure at this stage.

Post-Kickstarter Update XV: Hysterical is Go!

Blimey, what a busy week, indeed it is still ongoing as whilst I type this, Rob is still hard at work with the Hysterical trade stand in Abingdon so I picked up my Supreme Overlord mantle once more! In this capacity my first action is to award Rob the “Busy Bee of the Week” award due to his non-stop sterling efforts on the Panzerfäuste front! (I have graciously permitted him to have a five minute tea break tomorrow and go large on his Happy Meal at McD’s)

Orc Commandos deliver Rob's Happy Meal!

First off the pledge manager is up and running (hurrah!) thanks to Craig’s hard work. Emails are being sent out to pledgers in batches to enable us to manage things so don’t panic just yet if you haven’t had your email. We will let you know when all are sent out and then you can panic!

As promised Rob posted out the first tranche of Wave One Kickstarter Pledges for those who had contacted him as previously posted on Friday. Hopefully some lucky people will be getting deliveries very early next week and we are looking forward to seeing what you think of the miniatures and (more importantly) seeing some painted examples from you! :-)

Wave One parcels off to be shipped...

On Saturday we officially went public with our first trade stand at the Hammerhead show in Newark. We had a great first day of trading and lots of compliments over the miniatures on show. It was great to meet a number of KS backers in the flesh (even ones waiting for wave three!), thank you for your faith in us.

Our first retail customer!!!

Lee, Ant, Allan and Ian deserve praise for all their help and putting on a great participation game using the Panzerfäuste Mass Battle rules at the show (I’ve posted a number of photos in the Panzerfäuste Facebook page) and this was recognised by the show organisers as it won the ‘Best Looking Game’ award. Really chuffed for the guys, it was a great looking game and hopefully we’ll see it around the shows throughout the year. (You boys can go large as well, but no tea break!)

The winners of the Best Looking Game (not gamers!)

The Panzerfäuste group on Facebook is well worth joining and this week we’ve been having “Fun With Flags” with lots of Orc, Gnome, Dwarf and Trog designs being posted by gamers (especially an enthusiastic Robyn!). Some of these can be seen in the game photos as Ant printed them off to add a splash of colour.

Get a room! Mass Battle Ian and Skirmish Matthew discuss rules mechanics and whatnot...

Next Sunday we are at WMMS in Alumwell so hopefully we’ll see some more of you there. We should also have an update on the Troglodyte support and Mountain troops as Heriberto has been beavering away on them and I hope to get enough time this week to slap some paint on a Skøgtroll which we plan to release at Salute next month.

Post-Kickstarter Update VIII: Orcs, Enigma, Deathless and a Frog!

Casting

The good news for us is that we are preeeeetty much there to really push on with our own resin manufacturing at full tilt. Our equipment has finally all arrived as well as having been gone over by someone who is familiar with Pressure (Pressure is a scary and potentially massively destructive thing that can go very, very wrong - so this was important to check before rushing into anything).

This means we are able to start manufacturing figures at a larger scale than we have been up to now.

So, without further ado, here are the rest of the Orc Command (we decided to get the missing parts printed from an alternate source, just to get this ball rolling. Over a month late, but there we go). Thanks to Anders for getting these sorted out for us so quickly.

Orc Sarge and Orc Enigma Machine - Crewed by a pair of Boffins!

In addition to the Orc Command missing bits, Anders also managed to print out the Orc Support Set - which we have cast up (figures are a bit shiny due to being early casts from the mould. Models sent out to backers will NOT be shiny!

Orc "Drainpipe" Anti-Tank Team

Orc "Sausage Shredder" HMG Team

Orc "Pudding Tube" Mortar Team

3D Printing

We've got a load more prints from Anders to get through, with more coming. We don't like to say too much, just in case it's not up to scratch, but we'll show you as soon as there are casts.

Let's just say that Piotr's latest piece of (WIP) artwork should be a good hint...

Artwork

WIP Artwork for The Deathless...

Gregor is currently working on new full concept art for Prince Kaliko of the Gnomes. We hope to share that with you next week.

3D Sculpting

Victor, the sculptor of the Panzerbär, has just begun work on the Local Orc Volunteers. It's going to take him quite some time, as they are a complex unit to sculpt (lots of individual characters and tweaking), but we're hoping to share the progress with you over the next few weeks.

Irek, who sculpted our Dwarves, has committed to finishing the rest of our Dwarves and Gnomes. Again, this will be slow, but we'll get there. Irek is now freelance too, so it should be easier to get progress from him.

The first piece he's done for us since going freelance is Hauptmann Entwickler!

Hauptmann Entwickler and his Night-Vision Frog!

We absolutely love this character, first created by long-time Panzerfän, Luke Passingham. He is in a LOT of scenarios on the Orcs in the Webbe website, so get over there and check it out!

Community

Ant Evans has continued to be awesome and paint scenery for us. He's been working on the Snail Barn that Tony so lovingly sculpted up. We think you'll all agree that it looks really fantastic.

Also, we've been mentioned in the Beasts of War XLBS Video today! If you are a back-stager, check it out! They just run through some of the designs for The Deathless.

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!

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!

Post-Kickstarter Update III: Commandos, Snail House, Gebirgsjäger and Gorale

Just a quick one to sum up the past week at Hysterical Games - what we've been up to and anything else we can share at this stage!

It's still early days - however, the great news is that we have had the funds come in from Kickstarter (your pledges!) and we have finally started being able to really invest. Firstly, we've paid off for all the work done prior to the Kickstarter; and we have been buying the equipment we're going to need to manufacture everything. We have also ordered all of the Dice we will need and the first batch of bases (we expect we will need to order more once the Pledge Manager comes through and we know what you all want!).

The unfortunate news is that the supplier of our Pressure Tanks had only one in stock! They expect to have more available towards the 3rd week of December, at which point, we will be ordering them!

Oh and we have started booking some shows. Once the Pledge Manager goes live and we have explained our plans, we will announce the shows we are going to (UK only (and possibly Belgium...), we are afraid, due to tight purse-strings - if you want to help us get closer to you, please let us know!).

Right then, now for the interesting stuff!

3D Printing

We've made good progress this week. Both the Orc Command Set and the Dwarf Command Set have been printed. The Dwarf Command Set is in my hands right now, having travelled from Sweden and will go into Moulds early next week - after which, I will share whether I am happy with the quality or not. The Orcs are on their way from Prodos in Poland.

Some of the Orc Command Team that Prodos has printed for us

Sample of 3D printed Dwarf Command

Sculpting

This has been painfully slow this week, but we have organised a few things. Firstly, the Bear's basic anatomy is now done. This took a lot of tweaking and deciding how 'strong' we wanted the fur effect to be. We decided, in the end, that the more detail the better, so asked for quite an 'aggressive' fur detail (this will look beautiful with washes and dry brushes).

Panzerbär doesn't much like being called fluffy...

We've been assured that sculpting on the armoured sections will begin very soon!

On another note, we have commissioned the Troglodyte Support Set. We have not been able to do this until now, due to the sculptor just being totally overburdened. We hope to share progress next week, but more likely the week following.

Casting Models

I've been a busy bee this week making moulds and casting models in between organising *stuff*.

First up, the Orc Commandos!

Sadly, I misplaced one of the parts - having forgotten that I had placed it to one side to protect it. That was the (super fragile) rope and grappling hook for the Back-Right Orc. I will make a separate mould for that part this week coming! Whoops! Keep in mind, all of the moulds are hand-prepared and this is an example of a small human error. It happens!

Next up - Snail Shell House!

Tony has done a fantastic job creating this lovely Gnomish hovel. This week, we cast it up in Resin! The resin we are using is different to our miniatures. It's lightweight, yet very hard, so easy to file down and fix. These pieces should have no airbubbles but may feature one or two minor ones (refer to the Chimney in these pictures). That's the only bubble on the whole piece!

Ant, who has painted some of the other scenery for Panzerfäuste for Hysterical Games has kindly agreed to paint this piece too. Tony, who sculpted the piece, will be receiving his soon as well. I pulled these out of the mould today though - so he'll have to wait a little longer!

Artwork

We are continuing to get Artwork made for the project, but much of it can't be shared right now. It's mostly to do with our 6th faction, which we hope to unveil independently of Kickstarter and sell on our website and at the first few shows we attend. Full rules for this faction should also come within the Rulebooks we made available on this Kickstarter! More about that when we have plenty of cool stuff to share!

Sort of related to that, Gregor has still been working on finishing some of the older art pieces he rushed out for the Kickstarter. He's spent a bit of time on the Dwarf Gebirgsjäger - even though he has actually really damaged his hand, he just won't take no for an answer! Keen lad! :)

Gregor's Gebirgsjäger!

Oh, and because we do spoil you... Well, actually, because Will spoils all of us...

He sent us a surprise! I rather LOVE it.

Troglodyte Gorale!

Lots of funky little details that we will bring to the miniatures! I'm very excited for these!
Right - well that's a wrap for this week! We'll keep you posted!

Gnome Buildings Funded!

The Gnome buildings have been funded and is now unlocked on the Kickstarter...

Gnome Bakery Funded!

Our first piece of Panzerfäuste scenery, the Gnome Bakery sculpted by Tony Harwood, has been funded and is now unlocked on the Kickstarter...

Gnome Bakery

The incredibly talented Tony Harwood has kindly lent us his hand to create some truly stunning scenery for Panzerfauste. Our creative leader, Steve Blease has painted up one of the pre-production prototypes of a Gnome Bakery. 

This will eventually be part of a range of buildings created to fit into the setting of the game, just like the figures, merging a little 'history' with pure fantasy. 

Check out Tony's fantastic blog for more information and be bewildered by buildings!

Gnome House

Panzerfaüste has a tidy new home, just like the Gnome that decided to set up inside this discarded Giant Snail Shell!