Kickstarter for World War I Tanks & Vehicles

[sglancy12]

Looks like there's a new Kickstarter up looking to crank out some 28mm Great War miniatures.

Might be worth checking out. Anybody have any experience with this Trenchworx outfit?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/610277926/tanks-of-wwi-in-28mm-by-trenchworx

A. Scott Glancy

[styx]

I got one of the test FT-17 tanks and wow, great detail! Also had the magnets in it to change out  the MG and cannon barrel as well as one for the turret and body. A good guy to back, he shipped my prior stuff timely and he was working on the molds at that time.

[CorvetteK225]

styx,
 
Can you provide me some insight as to the vehicles surface. It looks rough and textured from the printing process. Is this true? Is it distracting? Does it make it hard to paint?

[Infman]

These look good. The Kick Starter prices are very reasonable as well.

[carlos marighela]

They do look nice but I do wonder why they chose to do three vehicles that every other bugger does already. More the merrier I suppose.

[aircav]

No one except brigade does a MK5, though originally he was doing a MK4!

[Wirelizard]

It occurs to me that there are probably more model A7Vs out there than there ever were full-size ones. Didn't the Germans only build 18 or something like that?  

More visibility for WW1 is never a bad thing, though!

[fred]

Indeed there are!

They actually reflect this in one of their pledge levels, where you can get the full production run of A7Vs

[carlos marighela]

Indeed there are!

They actually reflect this in one of their pledge levels, where you can get the full production run of A7Vs

The fly in the ointment for any potential monomaniacal collector being that not all of the 18 were identical, in fact there's a fair amount of variation in detail, larger armour plates/ smaller ones etc.

[Kommando_J]

Look good but not sure about the textures as CorvetteK225 has pointed out, the printing has left the textures a bit rough, quick question though seeing as the kickstarter offers it, anyone else do the ft-17 with command turret?

[fred]

The fly in the ointment for any potential monomaniacal collector being that not all of the 18 were identical, in fact there's a fair amount of variation in detail, larger armour plates/ smaller ones etc.

Good point, I was recently looking at photos to try to work out how to mount the guns on my A7V and got quite confused as things seemed to keep changing. Also the two sides aren't identical, which caused even more confusion !

[CompanyB]

Look good but not sure about the textures as CorvetteK225 has pointed out, the printing has left the textures a bit rough, quick question though seeing as the kickstarter offers it, anyone else do the ft-17 with command turret?

Brigade Games has the command turret fir the FT-17.

Quite a few options for FT-17's now.  at least 6 companies making em...  I do find it strange though that they did focus on models already available.  In our experience, if you release a model that is already available by 4 or more outlets, it sits on your inventory shelf and takes up space.  Its one thing if it's cheaper, or has all the add-on options.  But most of the time it just means you have to sell it at cost eventually, and then write it off!

The 3D print texture is an slight issue.  We switched to high resolution ceramic/resin prints, as the other printers have too much residual texture to be able to cast good copies from them.

Brent
Company B

[Rabid Monkey]

Hey guys...

I just found this topic and wanted to come on and say thanks to anyone who's supported the kickstarter already. 

I also want to clarify a few things because it seems as though there is a lot of concern over the texture that comes with 3D printing.  Its true that the 3D printer we use leaves a layering on models and if you buy a 3D printed model from us you'll see this.  I've painted many of these and its noticeably different than the models you're used to but from all the feedback I've received from customers, it hasn't been a deal breaker.   

That being said, the process we've developed to create the master models for our molds is very clean and smooth.  In fact, on our first test run I was afraid that the resin wouldn't take primer very well due to the slick surface.  The painted models on the kickstarter page are 3D printed prototypes that do indeed have some surface texture on them but I can assure you that the resin casts do not reflect that at all.  I'll do an update on the kickstarter soon with higher resolution pictures of the resin models.

I gave out some samples at Historicon last weekend so there should also be some blog reviews showing up soon.  I'll post links as soon as I see them.

As far as the choice of tanks we selected to start out with, all I can say is that the pool of choices are pretty slim to begin with.  I already had the FT-17 designed to use in WWII games when I decided to switch gears to WWI.  As Aircav pointed out, I was originally going to do a MkIV but several people mentioned that the market was slim for MkV models so I went with it instead.  After that I thought I needed to round out the selection to cover all the major powers so the A7V was an obvious choice even though there are several manufacturers doing them already.

Even if the kickstarter doesn't reach the lofty stretch goal level to unlock new designs, we'll eventually do them to fill out the WWI line (the Schneider CA1 is halfway done already).  I'd also like to do some interwar designs as well.

Thanks again for your support.  I'll check back here as the kickstarter progresses to answer any other questions that pop up. 

[brigadegames]

I will never understand the reason for duplicating great models that already exist. The A7V, MK4 & 5 from my company and Great War Miniatures are all awesome models.

There is so much other stuff that could be done so why just duplicate?

Makes sense to someone.

[CorvetteK225]

The texturally cleaned up models are up on the Trenchworx web page: http://trenchworx.com/tanks-of-wwi-kickstarter/


Here is the MkV in beutepanzer raiment:




Rabid Monkey was truly accurate in his description of the final casts turning out sans the rough texture. I am truly impressed by Trenchworx's product and will definitely be pledging!

David