This time the Mudskipper. Do not be fooled by its cutesy name. The Mudskipper is one of the first vehicles developed with Bot Technology after King Gills defeat in the first Atlantican War. Fast, agile and armoured the Mudskipper is the primary Atlantican infantry support vehicle. Armed with the deadly Magnetic Disruption Gun the Mudskipper will fillet a Bot almost instantly at close range.
We have been working hard to finish up base models. All models have been done save the flame demon. We will be adding some details new poses and finishing up the test prints.
We also posed the shedu as suggested. Pictures of test prints next week most likely we will have painted some for you. coming in 10mm and 28mm.
Please note these are renders. some have a chain in them this will not be on the models 100%. we do plan on giving chain for 28mm and wire for 10mm to add this if you chose. Also please note the mounts are not connected to the dwarfs. you will be able to mount most other 28mm models on them or use without riders. Also Large wolf face needs touching up we just wanted to share and didn't wish to wait. been working all day.
The art for three of the stretch goals has arrived!
Really fantastic stuff again from Christian.
I am sure you will agree that this concept art is first class. It really is worth the expense to get original art done. I love the process of seeing the miniatures come to life, from the initial discussions, through the art, the sculpting and final the magic of spin casting. The 10mm Demons are coming!
Going to have to get the beastmaster sculpted, as he is too good a figure not to. It will be included as an additional free extra miniature in the Demonic Hounds pack, so the 12 hounds (3 of each sculpt) plus a free beastmaster for £7.50 a unit.
Looking forward to the next piece of art coming in, this really is one of the best bits of the process.
Let’s take a trip to the Commanderverse for today’s WIP Wednesday!
The Battle for Earth is approaching, and all factions are taking part!
Yes, even those meddlesome space hedgehogs the Shaltari.
I took a trip down to the resin room to see what they’re working on. They wouldn’t show us everything, but while their backs were turned I stole this mysterious alien part.
This is a piece straight from the 3D printer. The orange is the printed resin, and the resin team have attached the feeds ready to make a master mould of it.
I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but it’s definitely a Shaltari gun of some sort. Not sure what exactly it attaches to, or even whether it’s for Fleet or Zone. It looks like Zone, but with such a long barrel it could be a very formidable space ship weapon!
We’ll have more soon, but for now I have to pop back down to resin and sneak this back into the production queue.
Cad from 4Ground chats to us about their upcoming 10mm film-sim game set during The Seven Year War, World War Zero, and how you can get involved with the beta.
This will be the second game from 4Ground. but unlike The Legends of Fabled Realms, the miniatures for World War Zero will be made in partnership with 10mm masters Pendraken.
The game doesn't require an in-depth knowledge of the period, it is designed to give people all the information they need, but for those who like to delve deeper Cad recommends Kronoskaf for a wealth of details about the armies and nations involved.
Prolific Italian artist and author, Bruno Mugnai introduces the Dutch Army of the third quarter of the 17th century in the first of a new 8 volume series that covers the armies of early years of Louis XIV reign.
France and the United Provinces represented opposite models of state government during the 17th century. The contrary nature of their political structure led to conflict on several occasions during this period. Military Historians have focused research onto the final phase of the conflicts such as the Wars of the Grand Alliance and the Spanish Succession, which coincides with the beginning of the long decline for both countries.
Mugnai examines the evolution of the Dutch Army, its equipment, weapons and tactics, along with its uniforms and flags and ensigns. The book is lavishly illustrated and contains 8 specially commissioned colour plates that depicts the Army of United Provinces during the nation’s ‘Golden Age’.
During the Cold War, the T-54/55 series of tanks represented the most serious threat to Nato land forces in Europe.
Available in huge quantities, it formed the core of the Warsaw Pact armoured warfare doctrine, which envisaged massed tank attacks against the weakest point in Nato's front-line defences. Yet the T-54/55 could be stopped by smaller numbers of tanks which had the benefit of better technology and training, as was demonstrated during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 when Israeli tanks dealt out appalling punishment to T-55s of the Syrian army.
Despite these limitations, the T-54/55 was one of the most successful tanks ever produced, and this volume in the TankCraft series by Robert Jackson is the ideal introduction to it. As well as tracing the history of the T-54/55, his book is an excellent source of reference for the modeller, providing details of available kits and photographs of award-winning models, together with artworks showing the colour schemes applied to these tanks. Each section of the book is supported by a wealth of archive photographs.
Tiger tanks were among the most-feared fighting vehicles of the Second World War and they gained almost legendary status, yet they never fulfilled their potential because they were not produced in sufficient numbers and the tide the war had turned against the German army by the time they were introduced.
Often they were deployed in difficult circumstances and in defensive battles, struggling against the odds. Nowhere was this more true than in western Europe during the Allied advance across France and into Germany, and it is the Tigers of this phase of the war that Dennis Oliver portrays in his third volume on the Tiger in the TankCraft series.
He uses archive photos and extensively researched colour illustrations to examine the Tiger tanks and units of the German Army and Waffen-SS heavy panzer battalions that struggled to resist the onslaught of Allied armour and air attacks during the last days of the conflict.
A key section of his book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales.
Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined providing everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of these historic tanks.
New General Duke is cast! New War Duke is cast!! - Aidan even has one to paint up!!
Valiant sets 2,4,5 all marked as being discontinued on the website 17th of March.
Deceiver Shadow Duke is printed
Speeder, Bouncer, Saucer, Apax, Dustwind, doubleback, stiletto, destructor, astroshuttle, blitzkreig, Alkane, Lazorwing, Redwarp, Octo and the Sandcrawler are all printed!
So importantly the core mechanics for Bot War are not changing. Energy cubes and activations are staying as they are.
New rules -
There are new rules for transports. How they work with infantry etc.
New rules for model classifications. This includes units and infantry.
About 10-20 new Special Rules
3 new scenarios
Fluff elements to help background the game
Some of the biggest changes are quite subtle. For example removing the “Always counts as long range” from the Air Support Super Ability makes models with Air Support very dangerous indeed. Especially in multiples.
Adding maximum range 18” to dedicated flyers stops the backboard shuffle to an extent.
These small changes to existing rules make the game a little more brutal in my opinion.
Infantry rules have changed quite a bit as I was originally limited in how these behave. We can all accept that alone single infantry should be no match for a Bot. But in groups this changes things up a lot.
Infantry have 3 sizes now. Sections, Squads and Platoons. These are different base sizes. On the whole infantry sections have been downgraded a lot. They can’t even claim objectives unless there are 3 of them. However team infantry together and the focus fire rule is nasty. Easily able to deal damage to any Bot. Still they are a little squishy and they don’t move that fast.
Transports can help the movement but like everything in Bot War there is a balance of risk and reward. Lose the transport, lose the infantry. Same goes for hosting cassettes as well by the way.
The Special Rules and Companion/Upgrades in Bot War are where many characters get their flavour. And there are a lot of these.
Melee weapons are quite desirable now but it all Special Rules are good and beneficial. Some like “Inventor” can make you powerful or a pauper for instance.
As with all rules. It’s about balance. A fair few ideas didn’t make it because of balance. I like to write rules in a way that players must measure risk vs reward in choices. Also I removed “weapon upgrades” because I felt it was just too many choices however I may add these in later down the line as the game is more established and people are more used to it.
Anyway I’ll load the new rules onto the site this week. I hope you enjoy playing Bot War Second Edition.
In the year AD 9, three Roman legions were crushed by the German warlord Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
This event is well-known, but there was another uprising that Rome faced shortly before, which lasted from AD 6 to 9, and was just as intense. This rebellion occurred in the western Balkans (an area roughly corresponding to modern Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro and parts of Serbia and Albania) and it tested the Roman Empire to its limits.
For three years, fifteen legions fought in the narrow valleys and forest-covered crags of the Dinaric Mountains in a ruthless war of attrition against an equally ruthless and determined foe, and yet this conflict is largely unknown today.
The Great Illyrian Revolt is believed to be the first book ever devoted to this forgotten war of the Roman Empire. Within its pages, we examine the history and culture of the mysterious Illyrian people, the story of how Rome became involved in this volatile region, and what the Roman army had to face during those harrowing three years in the Balkans.
Yes we have been working every Sunday. We will have the riders soon for this and the Great Taurus. Then the fire demons and were off to finishing prototyping adding details and removing some things that didn't work in the prints.
Then the kickstarter we will also do a few things as stretch goals but this should cover basic army's for most 10mm and 28mm army's that field these guys.
It only took 3 hours to confirm my hope that the world wanted some 10mm Demons.
Christian is busy delivering the art for the stretch goals and I am planning what to do if we do break the £5,000 stretch goal. I have some ideas.
One thing I need to make absolutely clear. The 100 backers limit is a final, fixed number. No late pledges, no second wave. 100 backers total. This decision may cause me some problems in the future but they will be first world problems if they occur. I know how much I can produce and still keep to an honest time frame and so that is why the limit on backers exists.
Let's keep it going, please remember to adjust your pledges as stretch goals are achieved, and tell your Wargaming friends about the Kickstarter.
Welcome to the Kickstarter for 10mm Demon Infantry from Black Gate Miniatures.
The Demon Infantry unit will consist of 13 individually sculpted models, supplied in packs of 24. The 11 variant troop miniatures will be duplicated and the final 2 miniatures will be a musician and standard bearer. They are cast from Lead-free Pewter and scaled at 10mm.
I now need £1000 to cover the remaining sculpting and production costs in order to bring these terrors of the tabletop to life.
The price of £7.50 per unit is exclusive to this Kickstarter.
As I am a one man production plant, this Kickstarter will be limited to a maximum of 100 Demon Overlord backers.
If you are worried about backing then look at my previous two Kickstarters, both of which were successfully delivered and my website where you can see the Ogres on sale.
The creative team from the previous two campaigns has been recommissioned, Christian for the Art and Robi for sculpting and so previous backers will know what quality to expect.
Once the Demon Infantry fund, I will get Christian to produce the art for all four of the listed stretch goals and put them on display.
Hopefully you can find room in your life for some 10mm Demons.
STRETCH GOALS:
Stretch Goal 1: £2,000
Unlocks the deadly Demon Hound models. 4 variant sculpts. Supplied in packs of 12. Available to all Demon Overlord backers @ £7.50 per pack.
Stretch Goal 2: £3,000
Unlocks the devastating Demon Chariot models. Supplied in packs of 3, each pulled by a pair of Demon Hounds and supplied with 2 crew figures per pack. Available to all Demon Overlord backers @ £10 per pack.
Stretch Goal 3: £4,000
Unlocks the disgusting Demonic Swarm models. 4 variant sculpts sized 20mm x 20mm. Supplied in packs of 6. Available to all Demon Overlord backers @ £6 per pack
Stretch Goal 4: £5,000
Unlocks the devious Demon Flyer models. 4 different variant sculpts. Supplied in packs of 12. Available to all Demon Overlord backers @ £7.50 per pack.
Other stretch goals to follow.....
DELIVERY:
Based on past experience (of us and others), we will be charging shipping after the Kickstarter concludes based on the actual costs incurred to ship. We will collect this via Paypal after the campaign ends. This is so we can be fair to all our backers (shipping is rarely one size fits all).
UK The costs are likely to be between £2 and £4 for 2nd class delivery depending on weight.
Europe The costs are likely to be between £5 and £13 depending on weight.
World Zone 1 (North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and South East Asia) the costs are likely to be between £8 and £20 depending on weight.
World Zone 2 (Everywhere else) the costs are likely to be between £9 and £21 depending on weight.
CREDITS:
Production - Barry James Pittman
Sculpting - Robi Baker
Art - Christian Schwager
Painting - Christof Simons (Ogres in Video)
Painting - Richard Bowker (Demons)
Video music is "Into the Storm" by Brandon Liew
Risks and challenges
This is my third Kickstarter and so I am much more aware of the potential pit falls.
The production is all being done in-house and so the only real hazard is the time needed to get the sculpting completed. Once I have the sculpts then I need a few months to complete the moulding, casting, packing and shipping.
My best guess will be the end of 2019, but it could be earlier depending on how quickly I get hold of the sculpts.
I am limiting this Kickstarter to 100 Demon backers to prevent becoming overwhelmed with the amount of production needed and to help keep the delivery date sensible.
