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.

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.  

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. 

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! 😀

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!