Mechadrome

[dwartist]

28mm? You have my attention...

[Necros]

Yep .. I just gave my 3D printer guy the go ahead to go ahead and 3D print the light mech 2x bigger I should have the prints in time for the campaign launch around the 20th. And then I'll see what the interest is like from there if it's worth doing bigger other mechs. I just never planned on 28mm stuff, I designed & balanced the game rules for 15mm. If there is enough interest I may consider doing all models in 15 & 28mm in the future and updating the rules to allow folks to choose either scale to play.. I think all it would really take is to double all of the movement and shooting ranges. But, that's probably something that would have to come later on or as a "Season 2" campaign after all of the rewards for the first one are sent out. Don't have the funds right now to go back to the sculpting board with the models right now, so for now the 28mm light mech will just be an exact replica of the 15mm version, just 2X bigger.

[Inso]

I'm interested in the 28mm mechs  but only if I can buy them after the Kickstarter as well. I prefer to buy in small numbers regularly than to shell out all at once...

If they turn out to be limited edition or con/show only, I'd probably not buy any at all (because I know I'd want to buy more but with no way of doing so).

Also, If I just want the 28mm mechs, I don't want to have to buy the game and 15mm stuff to get them. I don't game and don't buy 15mm... so I'd like to request that there is an option in the Kickstarter that allows people to just buy the 28mm mechs (please  ).

It all sounds really selfish but the mechs are something that have struck a chord with me... I like them a lot  ... and now they are going to get a 28mm outlet, I am properly stoked (because I thought I would miss out on their cool designs by them being too small )when I like something I tend to obsess about them. Take Vulkans, for example...







... please don't make them limited

[Necros]

Well, the reason I said limited is I really don't know a lot about resin production. I have a company that can do it, but I want to make sure i can always make a quality model and I know resin molds can wear out pretty quick. I guess, worst case, I could always print a new master sculpt for them to make all new molds. So I'll start with the light mech and take it from there I also have no idea how much the 28mm versions will cost. I'm just taking a wild guess at $20 for a light and $30 for a medium.

I sent an email to my sculptor about the large models to see the best way to handle it. maybe we could do the medium or heavy mechs where the knees and legs have joints that can move so they are more posable.. so the 15mm version would be more static, but the 28mm would have a few more options. But I don't want to do something that will mess up his workload and cause delays or tons of extra costs I can't afford. Either way it shouldn't be a problem to just enlarge the 15mm mechs, adding extra detail to the bigger models could end up being pricey though. So I'll see what my sculptor says and take it from there

[Inso]

To be honest, the 15mm versions look more than detailed enough and if you could replicate the (3?) different poses in 28mm, that would be plenty. I wouldn't start mentioning any pricing yet... you don't want to be held to estimates when you are new to the game.

Direct copies of your 15mm Light Mech set in 28mm would be perfect

I look forward to hearing what your sculptor comes up with... hopefully, a simple scale up

You have made me happy with your 28mm news

[Necros]

Now that I thought about it more, it shouldn't be a big deal to keep the 28mm stuff as "showcase models" and just sell them in my online store indefinitely, not for retail unless there ends up being a big enough demand. I don't think I want to change around my game rules, but we'll see how it goes once I get the bigger models made and can start testing out larger scale rules.

I originally planned to have the game as a 28mm scale game with foot troops and all, but I was afraid I wouldn't really be able to do any sci fi power armor soldiers that haven't already been done 100 times before. so that's why I made to move to all mechs and then the smaller scale meant I could get the same amount of models I originally planned to do for for the 18mm foot solder version with an average team around 7-10 minis. So the light mechs became the foot troops, mediums became elites and heavy mechs took the place of the original light mechs. The smaller scale also makes it easier to have even larger games and possibly add in super heavy mechs some day too.

If the large scale stuff ends up being really popular I could always do a "Mechadrome Extreme" campaign next year for multi part posable 28mm scale mechs and special rules. If I sell a kidney I might be able to afford plastic too

[Necros]

And here's the new art for the Terran heavy mech

[Necros]

Got another updated medium render. He's pretty much done now, just have to finish doing the enlarged versions of all of the other weapons. This guy has 2 missile pods, a Railgun and a Crusherfist



Lots of things coming together now for the campaign. I'm still hoping to launch it on the 20th. I'm going to build the page over the weekend and hopefully KS will approve it in time, if not I'll launch it as soon as they do. I expect to have my metal master minis delivered on Friday, so I'll have a few painted examples when the campaign launches plus pics of the 3D print for the 30mm terran light mech. I'll also have 3-4 different plastic terrain kits from Proxie Models for add-on items and we're chatting about making other plastic stuff too

In other news, I'm going to be publishing the game myself, but working with Game Salute for warehousing and retail distribution later on, and KS shipping using their new ShipNaked service. So I'll build everything, and they'll ship it wherever it needs to go. That means shipping will be much cheaper all over the world since they ship lots of stuff and get volume discounts. Here's a chart of what the shipping charges will be like. I think the average sweet spot pledge of 4 squads and a rulebook will be around 2-3 pounds but I'm not totally sure just yet... I'll weigh everything when I get the masters on friday



What I'm going to do is when the campaign funds, everyone who pledges $100 or more gets $5 bonus credit that you can use for shipping charges or for add-ons. Then there will be stretch goals mixed in to add another $5 here and there, so the more funding we get the more bonus credit you get to use on whatever you want. So, you'll still be charged shipping, you can just apply your credit toward that, or toward extras and just pay for shipping later in the pledge manager. The bonus credit will be treated like store credit in the pledge manager.

[Mr.Marx]

Some of the concept art looks really interesting. If those two anime inspired ones are 25mm+ I'd really rather like to get my hands on them.

Does anyone know if this is a kickstart of a new company (that I can buy the miniatures once they are ready) or one of those flash-in-the-pan pay-in-advance Kickstarter deals?

MM.

[Necros]

Not a new company, but a new game My first game was Blackwater Gulch, a wild west skirmish game. Mechadrome uses mostly the same rules, it's just about giant robots instead. It's definitely not a pre-order type of campaign like the bigger companies do. So far I've spent a lot of my own cash getting to this point and I need the KS to fund so I afford to make more than 1 kind of mech

Also I just heard back from the casting company today. They haven't seen the print for the large scale light mech yet, but they gave me a guesstimate price based on a similar model they made and it looks like the price for that is going to be $20-25 for the campaign but it might have to be $25-30 if I sell it retail due to box printing and all. They think it will be better to make it in metal rather than resin. We'll see what they say later next week when they finally have the 3D print in hand.

[Necros]

Just got the samples for the light mech .. here are all the parts



You can click on it for the gallery pic to zoom in.

Top row from left to right we have Missile pods, chainguns (2 styles), plasma guns, railguns, blasters, booster jets. Next row  is Booster Jets, Jackhammers, Siege Drills, Crusherfists & Buzzsaws. Then all 4 bodies and the shoulder armor plates. They have the plates reversed on the sprue though with the right pad on the left and the left pad on the right.

I was surprised that there are pretty much no mold lines and just a few little bits to file off. Gonna clean these 4 up and start painting!

[Inso]

Those look great 

[dwartist]

Those look great 

They certainly do!

[Necros]

Put a few together and now I'm about to go a-priming.

One thing though, I think I'm going to have the shoulder armor plates be an equipment piece for Reinforced Armor. So each pair of mechs will come with 3 sprues of weapon arms, 1 equipment (missiles, jets or armor) and 2 bodies. This was mostly because as I was building them, before I added the plates on I decided I kind of like the look without them. It makes the mechs look a little more slender and agile. Here's a quick pic I took of both kinds.. wadaya think?

[YPU]

Makes sense to me. Like you say they are small pieces but they do influence the model quite heavily.