On the horizon ... and a Kickstarter rant

Sorry for the quick update this week. I've been a little under the weather as such, no photos to share at the moment but I don't want to break my record of posting each week with some type of update.

Currently I'm working on the following projects with some groundwork being laid for some new commissions which should be underway soon. It seems March has been a pretty green month, which is appropriate.

Bayou Gremlins – This Malifaux project is progressing smoothly, just had to take a short break for some more pressing work. Expect some photo updates before month's end. I've been playing with some water effects to really make the bases appear swamp-like. 

Dark Angels - Received another batch of models. Keeping with the green theme these are Devastators as well as a pretty pimped out unit of jump pack marines modeled like a Deathwatch kill team. Again photos to come of the progress before month's end.

Twilight Ravens - On hold due to commission work. I have a few tactical squads left to finish up and should have photos posted soon. Most of the bases are done with the names applied. I also picked up two Storm Talons which I'm hoping to assemble soon and post a review of the kit.

Slaanesh Daemons - Having read through the book I put together what I hope is a solid 1500 point Slaanesh list. I want to get a few games in with them before I commit to finishing the project. I may alternate between them and the Ravens so I don't feel bogged down. 

Upcoming projects: I've had quite a few inquiries recently about my painting service and it sounds like I'm going to have several Malifaux crews on my table shortly. Depending on when the client(s) is(are) ready I'm going to have a boat load of Ten Thunders, Guild and Neverborn to paint up.

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In other news I recently picked up Zombicide. I haven't played it yet but the rules seem solid and the models are pretty slick. I'm a little bummed I didn't back this on Kickstarter as the bonus models look pretty cool. However the prices on ebay are outrageous to get them so I'm going to just be happy with the basegame. They're currently running a campaign to fund two expansions and have a bunch more exclusive models available. I'm probably going to regret passing on this one, but honestly there's only so many games I can play.

Also on Kickstarter is a second book for Hell Dorado. If you want to get into this game the Kickstarter has some ok deals on box sets with the old and new book. For the most part the add-ons seem to be just slightly less than retail. It took over a year for Cipher to re-release all the models from the first book, so I'd assume major delays on delivery for the project. Of course that's being pessimistic and maybe with the funds they raise from this they can put some real support into this amazing game. Hello Dorado has a great setting, interesting rules and beautiful models. However in a market flooded with small scale skirmish game it struggles to rise to the top. Let's hope Cipher can change that with this campaign.

KICKSTARTER MINI RANT (There's probably a pun here):

Last year I was really gung-ho about Kickstarter and the great deals you could pick up. Now as I wait patiently for updates on the rewards for the various projects I can't help but feel slightly disenfranchised with the whole thing. Some project creators are really great about sending updates (Impact sends them weekly) others like Sodapop and Wyrd seem to send very little in the way of updates (monthly, maybe) some one man operations almost disappear once the campaign wraps. It's not that any of these approaches is wrong, however with the drastic difference between the way project creators handle updating backers is unnerving. 

Most businesses have weekly/monthly meetings to discuss the status of projects. This gives the "team" a good idea of where things stand and if there are any hiccups in the process. It also allows the "team" to trouble shoot missed deadlines etc. 

I really feel Kickstarter should require weekly/monthly updates on project status as part of the user agreement. Not only would this help keep the project on track and keep investors up to date, but it would also help future project creators to recognize challenges ahead of time.

It also seems that Kickstarter should not allow a company to start another project until they've fulfilled on the previous campaign. This might seem harsh but honestly the companies that are running multiple campaigns prior to delivering are the ones with the worst delays. Dedicating resources to running a new campaign before you deliver on the previous ones seems to be bad business. Especially when you consider many of these companies have 10 or less office staff.

Sure once you've turned over your product to China for production you'll be waiting at least 8 weeks for delivery (more if you're on a slow boat) and a week or more in customs waiting for them. But just because you're waiting on product to arrive doesn't mean you can't be preparing for it's arrival head of time. Getting together PR for the release, confirming shipping info etc. It sounds like many of these companies don't take this into account until they have more pallets then fit in their warehouse to sort and pack. Surprise, you had a million dollars in pre-sales, did you really think it'd fit in your basement?

Limiting projects would also save Kickstarter from the bad PR when one of these companies overstreches their capabilities and leaves their backers high and dry. It's bound to happen eventually and the bad press will be difficult to recover from.

Anyway that's my rant for the week. Probably not really fair to most of the campaign creators out their, however in this era of instant gratification patience has become less of a virtue.