Update on "The Last Decade" from Black Army

[Doc Twilight]

Hi, folks,

Thought you  might be interested here as well. Just posted this over at Forum Noir.

Finally heard from the caster on the last of wave 1. (He's been a very busy fellow with my stuff, and a bunch of other customers, so no slight on him intended.) All is done and inbound to me.

Our painter for the sample figs dropped out after painting the first four figs, so I'm... err.. painting them myself, with Mina's help. Should have some sample photos of the first few releases for you soon. Some of the new packs to be released, to whet your appetite. Each will have approximately four figs, or one vehicle. More stuff is in the works, but this much is either here already or inbound from the caster:


"Armored Schoolbus(!)" (Sculptor: Tony Harwood)
"Armored Sportscar"  (Sculptor: Tony Harwood)
"Eurotroopers"  (Sculptor: Leandro Ventic)
"Last Decade Objectives #1"  (Sculptor: Brian Cooke)
"Mir Virus Ghouls" (Sculptor: Brian Cooke)
"Nannuk" (Ok, still being sculpted, but this one will be COOL. Our first "big guy" for the range. I expect him to be the first out after these initial packs. Being done by Leandro Ventic.)
"Smilin' Pete and Friends" (Sculptor: Leandro Ventic)
"The Patrol" (Sculptor: Brian Cooke)
"The Swarm" (Sculptor: Brian Cooke)
"The Workshop" (Sculptor: Leandro Ventic)


Finally, and this is pretty cool, I have reached agreement on the license for the engine that the miniatures rules will be based upon. I will announce that when we release the first wave of minis, but it's probably a system you've heard of. Still need playtesters. Have a few onboard rom the LAF/Here, plus a couple locals. Still looking for others.


-Doc

p.s.

I am finding myself in need of a reasonably priced painter to do up some of the new releases for the book. I've had very little luck locally, as most are either strictly historical painters or scheduled through the end of the year. If you've any recommendations, I'd be most grateful. By reasonable, I mean that I can afford to pay you a good rate, just can't be promising you Golden Daemon painter rates at this point, as we are still a fairly small company.

As the samples I'm doing are finished, I'll post them here, and over at Forum Noir, for your perusal.

[goon3423]

Hey Doc, glad to see you putting out more stuff! Little off-topic but any word on the re-sculpted Doc Twilight? I have been really looking forward to that one  !

[Doc Twilight]

Goon -

Thanks for the interest and the continued support.

The resculpted Doc Twilight has a sculptor - Leandro Ventic. Beyond that, I'm afraid that I can't give you a specific release date yet. We do still have the old one in stock, however.

To put it plainly, we had support and funding for a mass market Pulp era skirmish game last year (think something Malifaux size, but set in a Pulpy Shanghai of the 1930s); this would have involved the resculpting of several of the Shanghai 1930 miniatures.  Unfortunately, when we floated this idea at various conventions, and in numerous forms of wargamer media (including here), the reply was... not good. Pulp simply doesn't have enough draw to support a major endeavor like that - it's too niche. The miniatures weren't the issue - nor were the rules we were playing around with - it was the genre. Folks either want Interwar, or WW1, ior maybe Steampunk. They just don't want Fedoras, Tommy Guns, and Gasmasks. (With the possible exception of Cthulhu, but even then, that area is very heavily saturated at the moment.)

Perhaps if it were given a boost by popular media (as VSF and Steampunk, which previously were even worse off in terms of niche interest than Pulp) that might change, but much to my regret (and shock, actually) there simply isn't any critical mass for this type of thing. It's one of the reasons we went ahead and moved up some of the ranges I'd planned to do "down the road", since Pulp specific minis just... aren't selling well in many places. I know of only one fellow who's figured out how to focus exclusively on that kind of genre and make a go of it, and so far as I know, he still has a day job.

Anyway, the point is that Doc was to be figure number #1 in that relaunch of Shanghai, 1930, so his release was delayed from "Early 2011" to... "when we have the funds available." It's not just about the money with me, really! But I've got to pay the bills, somehow.

Don't depair, however. I still love Pulps, still collect miniatures and still intend to do more with the Shanghai, 1930 range. The Second American Civil War Project, at least, is still a realistic way to get some "Interwar" Jollies in, and it's a good excuse to do some of the more "pulpy" pieces. So Doc is coming, resculpted, as are others. Leandro is very interested in doing them (he also likes the genre).

I think the first realistic thing you'll see from the Shanghai 1930 range in the near future will be additional support weapons for the Japanese, as well as some new poses. That will probably be followed by new SMP and, yes, Doc Twilight to help them in the good fight. You can look at third or fourth quarter of this year for those releases. (Maybe earlier if the new range really takes off.)

-Alex

[goon3423]

Thanks for the reply Doc. No worries, I like to support the little companies when I can (your Walking Ghost is still one of my favorite minis in my collection  ) so as long as you keep making cool minis I'll keep buying them!