It's an especially wonderful Thursday here as we have just shipped out the last few Dragon's Hoard Remastered pledges (minus those who haven't completed their backer survey yet and a few that have been requested we hold for the time being while people are away on vacation). Thank you to everyone for your patience as we moved through getting all the pledges packed up and out the door.
As a final note on fulfillment, if you have any issues with your pledge please contact us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to assist you.
If you missed our Dragon's Cache campaign that we ran over on Kickstarter in July, we have recently opened up the pledge manager/pre-order store for it here on Backerkit. Happily, the funds that have come in already have unlocked an additional model for the project - the Bloodscale Basilisk.
Check it out today so you don't miss out on the collection of new minis at a sweet price!
And with that, Dragon's Hoard Remastered is a wrap. A hearty final THANK YOU to everyone who backed the campaign and supported us, it truly means a lot to us. We're always cooking up new minis and we'll see you all again when we're ready to unveil our next project!
Hello everyone! We hope this update finds you happy and healthy. We've just returned from GenCon and we are getting the final things prepped to start fulfillment of Dragon's Hoard Remastered!
First order of business is to give everyone notice that you have 24 hours to make any shipping address changes before packages start going out. So if you've moved since you originally completed your pledge please contact us ASAP at [email protected] to get your address updated.
If your pledge goes to an old address we may not be able to recover it and you will have to pay for a new pledge and shipping to receive your rewards. If we are able to recover it, we will have to collect any costs associated with doing so and a new shipping fee before we can re-ship it. We don't want this to happen to anyone so again, please update us without delay if you need to.
Next, we want to make sure everyone understands how we handle fulfillment. We handle our own fulfillment in-house. We don't use any third-parties. As such, it can take us up to a few weeks to get everyone's pledge shipped. So if you don't see your shipping notification email right away over the next few days, just hold tight and know we're working on it.
Speaking of shipping notifications, please be sure to whitelist emails from @nextlevelminiatures.com so your shipping notification does not get sent to spam.
Since we've been asked about it before, please note that we don't ship out packages by backer number order, we ship out based on our own internal system that helps allow us to get everyone fulfilled the most efficiently and quickly. We also don't prioritize shipments based on country, which means whether you're in the USA, UK, Australia, or anywhere else, it has no bearing on what order your pledge ships.
Hopefully that helps make sure we're all on the same page so there's no confusion for what to expect as we begin the fulfillment of the project. If you have any questions about fulfillment we didn't cover above, please email us at [email protected] or comment below.
Happy Thursday to all you lovely backers! We hope this update finds you in good spirits. We're going to go over where we're at with finishing up production and our plans for fulfillment.
As the handy-dandy graphic above shows, we're right at the final days of production. We ran into a bit of a hurdle when we discovered one of the molds had an issue we hadn't noticed earlier and we were forced to rebuild it so we could more efficiently complete the remaining production needed for that model. It stinks that it happened so late in the process, but it happens sometimes. While that last bit of production has been in progress, we've been making headway on assembling pledge contents. We're approaching 75% complete on that front.
So what this means is that fulfillment is very close at hand. The snag is that GenCon is right around the corner. We've still got work to do to get everything ready in time and packed before we leave for the big event in just a little over a week. Rather than start fulfillment just prior to the event and then pause it for a week until after we return, we're going to just hold off on starting until we get back. This will make everything run smoother on our end and eliminate potential confusion for backers. We were hoping to avoid this, but unfortunately things just didn't line up as we'd hoped.
If you think this small delay may affect you in terms of your shipping address needing to be updated if you are planning to move in the very near future, please contact us at [email protected] so we can assist you.
Speaking of GenCon, we're going to have a couple of special releases at the event - our Acidic Oozes and Whip Jellies are getting a makeover in translucent green! We will have these at the booth in limited quantities and eventually they'll make their way to our webshop for purchase at a later date. If you'll be at GenCon, please swing by the booth (#2811) to checkout our selection and chat!
Finally, we want to make you all aware that our Kickstarter campaign for Dragon's Cache is ending tomorrow. It's only $49 (MSRP over $90) for a bunch of all-new minis, including a Roper, Giant Bat, Ettin and a lot more. We also just unveiled another stretch goal for the Bloodscale Basilisk!
If you haven't had a chance to check it out, make sure to swing by before the special campaign pricing ends!
That's going to be all for this one folks. We'll be back again in early August as we get fulfillment going. See you all in the comments and thanks again for reading!
Hello everyone, we're back with another regularly scheduled production update along with the final installment of How They're Made and other news and tidbits. Here we go!
And here we are, at the final couple days of production for Dragon's Hoard Remastered! We're getting the last few molds that need some extra casts knocked out and as we mentioned in our previous production update we had already begun transitioning some labor towards assembling kits. On that front we're approaching 40% completed, so we're in great position to begin fulfillment in fairly short order, probably around the time we're posting the next campaign update. Huzzah!
As a reminder, we'll be locking addresses in the days before we begin fulfillment so please, please, please get any address changes done before then if you need to. You can log into Backerkit and update your address or you can email us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to assist. Also, if you're a backer from outside the United States we highly suggest making sure you have a phone number listed. It greatly helps ensure your pledge makes it to you in the event FedEx has issues finding your location as they will be able to contact you directly to arrange to get your shipment to your door.
How They're Made Part 3
Alright, let's get into the final steps in how we take a miniature from concept to reality. If you missed any earlier installments: We covered how we come up with a concept for a mini and then design and sculpt it in Part 1. Next we covered the mastering, molding and vulcanizing processes in Part 2.
Two halves of a mold
Now that the mold has been vulcanized and cooled, we'll remove it from the SioFrame that it was built in. The two halves of the mold will then need to be pried apart and separated. Next, the masters and sprue channels will be removed as carefully as possible. When we use metal masters we won't have any issues during this step, but if 3D printed masters were used, they may have cracked due to the pressure during vulcanization or may crack while being removed from the newly vulcanized mold since the silicone has now transformed from a sort of putty-like consistency to a fairly rigid form with less flexibility.
We didn't touch on the sprue channels in the last installment, but essentially they are pieces made out of metal or teflon that we arrange in the mold to set how the plastic will flow through the mold when injected to reach all of the model cavities. Once everything has been removed from the mold and only the two silicone halves remain, we'll then begin to "cut" the mold to ready it for production. This entails trimming out any silicone that seeped between the channel pieces during vulcanization, which would hinder the flow of plastic through the mold. We'll also punch holes in the top of the mold for the plastic to be injected into and for the vacuum pump to suck air out of during injection (to prevent air bubbles from getting stuck in the cavities). Lastly, we'll cut air vents from the cavities to connect to the vacuum line and mark the mold with our internal reference code for that model.
Screens for calibration and production cycle
Now we're ready to begin calibrating the mold for use in the SioForm machines. Calibration consists of dialing in (as close as possible) the amount of plastic that will need to be injected to fill the model cavities. To do this we start at baseline settings for injection time, injection speed, cooling time and the closing pressure placed on the mold during injection. We'll start with a small amount of plastic and see how it is filling the cavities. The goal is to balance the cavities so that they fill at the same rate. So if one cavity is filling at a slower rate than the others, we will need to open up the channel connecting to that cavity by trimming off a little bit of silicone with a knife to allow for quicker flow to that cavity. After a few rounds of this the mold will be balanced and we can then dial in the amount of plastic needed to fill the mold to about 95%.
Once we're there, we will then introduce compaction into the process which is essentially force being applied behind the plastic after it is injected so that it fills all the little nooks and details in the cavity and helps any trapped air hopefully escape. This is important because it is what allows for us to capture all the little details we pack into the models in the final product. However, too much compaction will cause "flashing" (plastic escaping the cavity and getting in between the two halves of the mold) so it is a delicate balance. We'll then do some more rounds of adjusting the injection time/speed and compaction time/speed settings so that everything is filling acceptably and the mold is ready for production.
Production in progress (gotta tell those guys to organize those molds!)
Now that the mold is ready for production, we'll add it to the production cycle for one of our SioForms. Since the plastic is being injected into the molds at 235 degrees Celsius, we can't just inject one mold over and over and over again. If we do this, the mold will become incredibly hot and casts will begin to exhibit worse and worse flash. It also speeds up the degradation of the mold. So we need to be running 8 or 9 molds at a time in a cycle to ensure the molds are able to cool down sufficiently between injections. Some particularly thick molds will even be placed under fans to assist in cooling.
Our plastic mix that is melted and turned into minis and "Aerosmith"
Throughout the day our employees will monitor the various factors in production, such as ensuring the plastic in the melt tank is at the right temps, cycles are completed in the appropriate times, molds are sufficiently cooled between injections and also spot checking casts as they are removed from the molds so we can fix any problems during the day if a mold is having issues. To be frank, the SioForms can be pretty fussy with all these factors involved so keeping a close eye on them ensures we stay running efficiently.
The casts for the day are organized and set aside to be broken down, quality inspected, counted and stored. Any minis that fail QA will be collected and re-ground so we can melt them into new minis.
And there we have it, the full process of how we make your minis! We hope you enjoyed the series and if you have any questions about how we do what we do, let us know in the comments and we'll answer as candidly as we're able.
Dragon's Cache
As any of you who follow our updates is probably aware, our new Dragon's Cache campaign over at Kickstarter is live. We've reached our funding goal and the first stretch goal for the Night Hag has been unlocked! If you haven't yet, please check it out!
That's all for today. We'll be back in a few weeks with another update which should signal fulfillment is close at hand. Thanks for reading and we'll see you in the comments!
Good morning folks! We're sending out an off cadence update just to make sure you know that our latest project, Dragon's Cache is now live over on Kickstarter. We've already funded in just 7 hours!
It features three themed warbands (goblins, savage orcs and vampires) and an assortment of monsters to boot! At only $49 it's a great deal for any minis enjoyer. Here is a gallery of the goblins included, along with some comments from ol' One-Armed Joe in the Outset Tavern.
So far the Giant Bat and Ettin are garnering a lot of attention. The Night Hag stretch goal is close within reach as well!
We'd love it if you all would check it out and support the project if able! Check it out here: Dragon's Cache on Kickstarter.
Anyway, that's all we have for this one. Next week we'll have a normal DHR production update out just before the July 4th holiday. See you all then!
Here are some photos of Dragon's Cache models in the master stage:
