Winter War Kickstarter Wave 2 News and Arena Rex

I have had two lots of Kickstarter news this week but lets start with Winter War from Baker Company here is the bones of the email.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say I have just packed up the last of the second wave parcels to be posted and couriered on Monday :)

So you should all have received them by the end of the week (or beginning of the following week for those further afield).

Please note, if you received a second wave early on with fewer items than recently advertised, don't worry, you will be first on the list to get the third wave where these will be included.

Third Wave and Bulk delivery

As mentioned in the comments a few days ago, the third wave and Bulk deliveries will be starting to go out in a weeks time once I have made a few more moulds and caught up a bit with casting. This will take a month or so at least to complete, but I will keep you all informed of the progress. Photos soon once I have recovered from completing the 2nd wave...

Lee received his last Friday so again has had his before me even though he ordered his a month after me. This does bother me a little, the sense of fairness seems to be the main reason. When it was the first lot and Lee had had his well over a month and I was still waiting I had notified Gavin. Actually I notified Gavin two or three times but to no avail, seems me agreeing to have mine taken to a show to save him postage was a big mistake, not least because most of us failed to get them due to a hitch at Baker Company. So yes I am disappointed that I again have been left to the last batch when I was further up the chain but it's really irrational as I have not touched wave one yet! 

I also know that other than a look at them and a quick post these will also be assigned to the wait for another day pile. Indeed they will only heap shame on my mountain in a section I have little expectation to get down the huge pile in the near future. Maybe keeping track is a bad idea LOL.

The other kickstarter is my Arena Rex from Red Republic Games. Famously late and until recently without a shipping date. Well the date is yet to be cast in stone but they are looking at September to October for the majority of the figures along with rules, tokens and dice. Just a couple of the more difficult and larger figures will be sent on at a later date. Looks like the whole of my set will be sent together and so I am expecting these in the October to November period and wincing at the customs hit I may take.

So two kickstarters both late but both looking to deliver, how have my views changed since first looking at kickstarter in general and these in particular? 

Arena Rex was the first I backed and I backed it as I went back to work when really I should not have as funds were still stretched. I admit that this did put the whole project under strain for me but I really liked the figures and wanted in. Unlike many kickstarters the stretch goals were not actually that good in comparison to others, indeed rather tight but that did not stop it achieving it's goal and beyond. It was disappointing that delays have made it now more than a year late and the updates stopped almost altogether at one point and I was ready to write it off as a bad experience. However whilst late it looks great, will the rules work well, I am not sure but if they don't work fully or suffer unbalanced gladiators then tweaking may sort this. I have high hopes on this and the figures look fantastic so if only for the joy of painting it will still be great. 

Winter War, Gavin has had far better coms and better reasons for his delay. Also the task was far greater than that or Red Republic's who gave reasons of moving house, new job and baby for the three guys making delays whilst Gavin had a long running problem with his casting machine.

Other than having delays the two could not be more different, Baker Company gave huge additions as stretch goals and I think he just got carried away with the giving. It was hugely successful raising many times more than the original goal and became a victim of it's own success. The time frame became impossible simply down to the amount of figures that needed sculpting due to the additional figures added to the pledges. Unfortunately sculpting was rushed and standards slipped so far below what is acceptable. Whilst Gavin has many supporters who will be positive about the project the truth is that too many of the figures are so badly sculptured as to be a real negative to the project. The vehicles are fantastic and some of the figures of wave two are much better but plenty are not. The net result will be that I will paint up some of these and offload all of them possibly keeping some of the vehicles. I plan to make back my money and walk away meaning we will not be wargaming the Winter War. Instead we will probably go with WWII in 28mm as the Winter War project has at least caught our attention.

So where am I with Kickstarters now? Actually this could be seen as a good record, backed two and receiving two. Both late as is very often the case, one will deliver what it promised the other less than was expected but still massive in quantity. 

Timing though is the key, if you want to see results soon it's going to disappoint. Mantic have a Dungeon Crawl up at the moment which I was tempted to back but have decided to walk away from. That would have a good chance to arrive when expected but I don't see that as a true kickstarter as most of the work is done. It's a glorified pre-order system and as such works very well.

Lack of immediacy kills that excitement from the projects first showing and whilst I look forward to the Gladiators I know it's now a back burner project. Since committing to buy these I have since started six new periods or scales some of which are small such as WWI Planes. Others are much larger such as the Saga and Cowboys as these will take a life of their own. Delivery will tell if this will jump back up the painting queue or be like the Winter War and still be in it's box months after delivery.

The more the items are conceptual the more likely you won't get what you expect. Gavin did show us some of the finished figures both painted and as castings, these were not great and I amongst others chose not to see them for what they were. I was blinded by what I wanted to see and many a kickstarter backer falls into that home made trap.

Yes I may well back other kickstarters but not now and not soon. I need to get done some of what I already have in the wings done first and really I don't need to look further ahead than where I am right now. I will be a little wiser in future (I hope) but don't feel I have had a bad experience from either project but would now be happy to have not backed either and actually if offered my money back on both would do so without a backward glance. That's not meaning they were bad choices but I could have made better ones.