[Kickstarter] Shieldwolf:War is coming (Battle Orc Wyvern review page #11!)

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

A warm welcome to all!

For those that may have not heard of us yet, Shieldwolf Miniatures is a company producing an army tabletop game played with 28mm "heroic"/bulky scaled miniatures. The materials used are the best worldwide; polyurethane resin for our characters and HIPS for the troops. We are trying to change ALL our troops in HIPS, something that is very hard to do due to the high costs of tooling. It is not by chance that only 2 companies worldwide keep on tooling 28mm "heroic" scale fantasy miniatures in HIPS!
In order to make things work, we have put on hold ALL planned regiments that were destined for resin production (you are welcome to check out more in our Facebook page where we already have more than 5,000 followers).

A crowdfunding project was not in our initial plans. As Dott. Angelos Margaritis (owner and founder of Shiledwolf Miniatures) has said however: "the possibilities of a crowdfunding project can allow our Community to access an entire new range in a matter of months instead of years!"
Since April 29, 2014, we stopped everything (even if it was a finiancial blow to us having sculpted all these miniatures and not putting them into production) and changed our strategy towards what the Community was asking from us: Make more miniatures in HIPS and keep up with the innovation.

Not being a KS company (by any means, ) we put more almost 9 months of work and commissioned top of the line professionals to bring this forward. Gearworks studios is responsible for the grafics/video, Georgios Konstantopoulos and his Team are in charge of the concept artwork (you will not be seeing any "sketches" from us) a whole new top-class group of sculptors is working from Summer on this, while Golden Daemon painters have already worked (and keep on working) for the better presentation of our project. Some of the sculptors recruited include the evolving talents Paolo Fabiani and Davide Tedeschi from Italy, the experienced Olivier Bouchet and MIKH from France, the veterans Patrick Keith and Sean Bullough from the USA, etc. In conclusion, we believe to have done our best to prepare for the upcoming Kickstarter, which we are now slowly revealing.
A very ambitious program that with your help we can speed up.  

First amy revealed is the Valley Orcs, hoping it will follow our success of the Mountain Orcs!  
As you can see from the fluff below, we have an entire different vision of not-dumb/ape-like/scrap-wearing Orcs. We would like very much for you to share your thoughts on this!  
 


"...At times the King himself would take a handfull of faithful warriors and head over to the Kingdom of Talliareum to pilage the villages. But what made this Orc different, was that instead of killing everyone in his path, he kidnapped Humans of certain crafts, like blacksmiths and architects.

He enslaved them and had them work for him. This was very strange behaviour for the Orcs and they initially thought the King was going mad. Aburgoth wasn't called The Terrible for no reason however and obviously no-one dared challenge him.

As time passed, the Valley Orcs came to appreciate what they were learning. Their weaponry became better and their towers didn't risk crumbling any longer when a fierce storm hit their settlements. With time, the greenskinned warriors developed such an arsenal that no other Orc faction could match. Heavy armored warriors who would create an impenetratable thick shieldwall and when close enough would engage the enemy to deliver them death... "

Second army revealed are the Talliareum Mercenery Ogres, another innovative army/vision from the Shieldwolf Team. This is the only army out of the 5 planned that will not include any HIPS, everything will be in polyurethane resin. We hope you like these big fellas as much as we do!  



"...No one remembers how long ago these huge brutes decided to live among the Humans in the Kingdom of Talliareum. The Ogres do not go unnoticed, standing more than 8 feet tall and weighing some 400 pounds each! It comes as no surprise that they took advantage in the past of their natural strength and physical structure to beat people up, steal, abuse; there was a time they practically did as they pleased. But as the Kingdom of Talliareum slowly formed, the Ogres soon found out they couldn't deal with the better organised Humans. Highly outnumbered, they consistently got arrested, beaten, imprisoned and even executed. Some Ogres left for far away lands, but many stayed, choosing to obey the Law. Well, in a certain sense at least..."

On Monday 8th of December we are revealing the 3rd army we have been working on, hopefully you'll like it as much as we do!  


As for the concept artwork our sculptors will be working on, here's a teaser of one of our centerpieces. What you see is 20' of work condensed in 30", this particular one took 4 hours non-stop work  



We saved the best for last. The work put into this is truly a lot and the number of projects we have looked into for deeper comprehension of how a campaign works (both the very successful ones but also the mserably failed ones even if easily funded) has brought us to a point of responsability towards our future backers, that we have decided to offer a money-back guarantee, meaning that if for any reason you do not like the final miniatures received, you can mail them back to us for a full refund, no questions asked. This is how serious and committed we are in this project.

Hope you like what we have prepared and support our passion.
Thank you!  

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

3rd army has appeared... 

First sculpts will be revealed (from all armies) very shortly, in the meanwhile we hope you like them and enjoy as much as we do! 



"...they had long defied their male counterparts and exiled themselves to the coldest territories. At first, these were but a handfull of women that had stood up, they had confronted the men and resisted their destiny; after having been beaten up and abused for centuries, there came a time they decided to face the lethal wilderness of the Northern Alliance Territories than endure the puny life the Gods had designed for them.

Many of them got captured or killed, while others simply perished in the perilous journey, their corpses still preserved in the ever-lasting ice. The few that survived however gave birth to one of the toughest factions the Shieldwolf world ever knew. And after so many centuries of total isolation these female warriors are seen ever more often, having enhanced their breed to a point they can field entire armies. And they can match up to anyone..."

Next (4th) army to be revealed in the next days, probably Monday 15th... 

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

And the 4th army has made their appearance... 



"...In times of darkness and despair, some races perish and others -somehow- survive. The Race of Humans was one of these. Although they were numerous, they lacked physical strength and were often picked on like the weaklings they were. Ogres did as they pleased with them, Orcs often raided and plundered their villages in the south while the Barbaric tribes pillaged their small towns up north. The neighboring Elves were the only ones who didn't bother them nor were they willing however to assist them.
The Humans saw their lives dominated by fear and their numbers kept dangerously thinning. As times went by, they inevitably realized they stood better chances through unity. That was a hard step for Humans are very hard to overcome their personal weaknesses, and have more often than any other Race challenged reasonable thinking due to their arrogance and pride. Their will to survive however overcame all vanity and personal ambitions, creating overcrowded centers which later formed huge cities.
The Humans were lucky enough to have strong and wise leaders who created the Law, took taxes and used them to build huge fortifications and outposts, while for the first time regular patrols guarded their borders and exterminated the numerous thieving warbands that had long ravaged their lands.The Kingdom of Talliareum had been formed and with it the Race of Humans survived..."

Hope you'll like them as much as we do!

Thank you.
The Shieldwolf Team.

[Timbor]

This is the first I have seen of this, and it looks promising!  I am glad to see that you are making plans for your fundraiser, I hope it goes well for you.  I will take a look through your website to see what stuff you have already.

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Thanks Timbor, we have perpared some awesome stuff for this Kickstarter, we hope we'll be getting as much of it unlocked as possible! 
Ah, you can add Olicvier Nkweti on that sculptors list above

[Vermis]

Hello 'Shieldwolf Team'. You might or might not remember my slightly unimpressed comment from Dakka. Reading through this, I haven't changed my mind much.

As you can see from the fluff below, we have an entire different vision of not-dumb/ape-like/scrap-wearing Orcs.

Absolutely. It's the pauldrons-like-washtubs/unliftable-weapons vision that people use when they want to copy Blizzard instead of GW.

Second army revealed are the Talliareum Mercenery Ogres, another innovative army/vision from the Shieldwolf Team.

It probably was innovative when Foundry, and to an extent GW, used it.

Years ago.

"...they had long defied their male counterparts and exiled themselves to the coldest territories.

Where they developed their special thermal bikinis.



I don't care how many pop up here to lecture me on "it's just fantasy!", this is a ridiculous, skeevy trope that needs to be a bit less overdone. Have yer tribal ultrafeminist self-sustaining all-woman society from the frozen wastes, even; just make them a non-booby-flashing tribal ultrafeminist self-sustaining all-woman society that dresses like it's from the frozen wastes.

The last lot I have least problems with, but even spanish-themed not-WFB-empire are not new (to say nothing of minis of the real-world guys), and judging by the style, I dunno if you want to go the GW-style route of a big block unit full of individual, dynamic, 'bulky' he-men. Just mucks up ranking, and worked out worse than that for Mantic's basileans.

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Hello Vermis,

we do remember your comment over at Dakka, it was not the comment itself I believe but the manner with which it was stated. 
We have nothing against your writing your opinion and I don't think anyone will jump against you, I'm sure we can't please everyone, it is quite impossible to think so anyway. 

To each his own, but to say we are copying someone else is at least wrong imho, we have done almost everything in order to avoid that. We copy Blizzard you say? I didn't know our Mountain Orcs faces looked anything like Blizzards. Copying GW has already been discussed, immagine we had different people who actually messaged us that we should copy them instead of doing our own thing because it would be easier for them to buy our minis to integrate along with their current armies! So, I think with comments like these it's crystal clear everyone agrees copying GW is very far from SWM. 

You said we are not "original" and you are unimpressed.
Do our Death Deceivers look like anything else you've ever seen? I don't think so, and mind you they were our first kit! 

Foundry Ogres look like our Talliareum Ogres? I highly doubt that, but when we start revealing our first Ogre sculpts we can gladly have pic comparisons if you like

Sexy "bikinis" on our females... Yes, I presume you are refferring to our light clothing... well, there isn't really anyone else ever doing something similar to actually compare these (correct me if I'm wrong), so there's another innovative idea from SWM. But in order to answer your "bikini" comment, as far as their plastic kit is concerned, and since we will be asking people for a respected sum of money in order to produce it in the quality we are known for, we have 2 alternative versions, which we will be asking our backers to vote for if necessary. One "bikini" version as you call the light armored version and one "heavy armor" version. So, even that has easily been forseen and taken care of. 

For the Human Guard of Pramendes, yes, we know there are a very few others who have spanish/conquistador themed models -not entire armies. That's why what you'll be seeing from us in the Kickstarter will also include things you have not seen from any of them, also because the "conquistadores" consist only half of the Pramendes Guard! 
As for the Basileans, that was Mantic's idea of fantasy humans and we respect that. Please do not confond us with them however, we have no affiliation with Mantic nor have we ever used their materials in our products. 

If you don't want to support us, we can obviously not force you to. But I think everyone -including you- will admit we are among the few army-making miniature companies worldwide who can offer such quality of both service and product.

Thanks for reading, there has been no sarcasm/irony in my post and I hope we will produce something to your liking so you'll find it in your interest to support us! 

[twrchtrwyth]

Nice illustrations, if the sculpts are similar they will be nice miniatures. They may not be as original as you think though. Why 'heroic/bulky' scale by the way, why not just normal 28mm? And the women do need more clothes and armour.

[Bloodsbane]

Sounds like you've got a great lineup of artistic talent hired. Best of luck with your project. Even if your brand of bikini barbarian fantasy isn't my cup of tea, I'm sure there's a market for it.

Your reply to Vermis' post makes you sound incredibly arrogant btw, you might want to look over your social media marketing strategy. Maybe put someone else on forum duty?

Once you have some finished casts, I'd love to see some size comparison pics.

[Marauderman]

Good luck with you line of miniatures shieldwolf, when does your kickstarter go live?

[LeadAsbestos]

Your reply to Vermis' post makes you sound incredibly arrogant btw, you might want to look over your social media marketing strategy. Maybe put someone else on forum duty?

Disagree. Sounds like someone defending himself from an unwarranted attack when he was making a post about a new product he was launching. Maybe Vermis has a personal problem w/ this company, but this post is no place for it. If I want it, I don't care if someone else thinks it is unoriginal, and if they don't like it, don't buy it.

[Gallahad]

Vermis' vitriol seems hard to shake, he's made similar comments on other forums where you post.  Just move forward and don't waste your time with comments better suited to frothers, 4chan, or other internet armpits.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Gentlemen, let’s stay polite and friendly. The last thing we need is an aggressive attitude against an upcoming range of figures. Let’s wait till we can see the greens and then let’s talk about but again -> polite and friendly. Thanks.

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Nice illustrations, if the sculpts are similar they will be nice miniatures. They may not be as original as you think though. Why 'heroic/bulky' scale by the way, why not just normal 28mm? And the women do need more clothes and armour.

Thank you. We have done our best to ensure that the miniatures are going to be as faithful as possible to the illustrations and to what people are going to receive in their hands. The "money-back guarantee" our project offers was decided for that exact reason, we cannot tell people we offer X and deliver Y. We have searched and we are aware of the legal bounds that don't exist with crowdfunding projects, but there is a moral issue at hand and we hold ourselves responsible towards our backers.
As for the 28mm "heroic" scale, with the minor exception of the females where -we have written that elsewhere too- they can't be "too heroic" for the sculpts would look silly/awkward, that's our standard scale. Actually, we try to use "heroic"/bulky in our descriptions, since we tend to have a bit more "realistic" proportions in our sculpts.

Good luck with you line of miniatures shieldwolf, when does your kickstarter go live?

That would be mid-late January/early February, with latest date being Tuesday 10th Feb.
We have 2 reasons to stretch it a couple of weeks. (you might find them dumb but that's what we think best)
1. We are aware of Monolith's Kickstarter and since we believe the same crowd will be interested in both projects we do not want to collide with them, also because we like their project and hope they do very well!
2. It's right after X-mas holidays and it would mean straining people's finances.

Sounds like you've got a great lineup of artistic talent hired. Best of luck with your project. Even if your brand of bikini barbarian fantasy isn't my cup of tea, I'm sure there's a market for it.

Thanks, we are hoping all 5 armies will have fans so we'll have something for everyone  

Your reply to Vermis' post makes you sound incredibly arrogant btw, you might want to look over your social media marketing strategy. Maybe put someone else on forum duty?

I'm sorry if it sounded like that, I fail to understand which part of it gives that impression however  
My name is Dott. Angelos Margaritis, and the post above was written by me. I monitor most of the comments written on the forums by the other members of my Team and am so dedicated on my company's good performance on this crowdfunding project that I will probably be taking it exclusively on me to answer everyone's questions during the KS, so responsability will be entirely on me.

Why do you think I was arrogant?  
Correct me where I'm wrong please.
a.The materials we use are world's best and -with no surprise- most expensive.
b.The prices we have are considered very fair. In our history, we have lowered twice the prices on some of our products. Both times we refunded the difference to the people who had already purchased the items at the higher RRP! We weren't obliged but that's what I considered fair doing.
c.The customer service till today has a 100% perfect track record.
d.The P&P we charge are smaller than those usually charged (besides the Free Shipping option).
e.Everything produced till present day has been without any crowdfunding money whatsoever.
f.True, our initial sculpting Team was not world's best (we had never claimed that), but -with a lot of patience and funding from our part- that has been adjusted, and we now have what is needed for top-quality product.
g. We hire GD painters for the best presentation of our models, besides our 360 views which few companies bother with.
As for the "innovation", after so many mails about us not doing a "good job" copying others and how stupid we are for not replicating another Company's style, it's extremely frustrating hearing/being blamed also for exactly the opposite!  
I think you'd agree with me if you placed yourself in my shoes  

Once you have some finished casts, I'd love to see some size comparison pics.

The only teaser we have revealed is directly from the image taken for the Guard of Talliareum pictured above, sculpted by Olivier Bouchet.
We will reveal multiple sculpts however in the next time period, before launching the KS. Not only that, we will have size comparison pics with other brands and we think we will make it on time to also have painted 360 versions on our webstore, so people will know exactly what some of our sculpts look like from all angles.  



We'll leave it to the rest of our sculpts/artwork speak for themselves, hopefully you'll like them! We'll be very happy to hear more comments from the people in the forums, it has been almost 9 months we have changed our PR Policy and interact directly instead of simply monitoring the forums, I find it has been a very good decision so far  

Thanks for reading.
Angelos.

[Timbor]

I appreciate your civil responses, Angelos.  I did not find your responses 'arrogant'.  I am going to assume english is not your first language, so perhaps there was a bit of intonation lost in translation which was mistaken for arrogance?  I dunno, but I think you are doing a fine job to promote your product,

While some of the criticism is warranted, there is only so much you can do differently when designing a 'classic' fantasy figure like an orc.  They have been around for so long with so many different versions from so many different manufacturers, there's bound to be some crossover unless you invent a completely new race.  While that could be a good idea in theory, you might have a hard time convincing buyers to pick up a completely new race that has no crossover value in genres.

As for the fur bikini issue... it is rather cliche, and I as well would much rather see more 'realistic' attire, like the photo linked in Vermis' post.  However, judging by what I see being sold successfully, I doubt you will get enough support to fund the production of hard plastic, properly attired women.  Most customers would prefer the scantily clad type, IMO.  A shame, really, but it's reality.

I am looking forward to more WIP shots, hopefully you have a good selection of sculpts ready before the campaign starts.  I can't guarantee I will be able to back your KS, but if you have lots of pictures of the actual figures to be produced, then I will be much more likely to join in.