We've finally herded these goblin models on to a few layout pages to show how they are built. It took us a while because we overlooked this very important step during our project. We build models all the time at our shop and we didn't realize that there are a few assemblies that just weren't intuitive enough.
Our thinking was that the parts were packaged together and we had marked items with the names on sprues as well as matching the mating points (like the spider legs). We also tried to keep the part count to a minimum where possible so assembly was a bit easier. That really wasn't good enough at all!
The backers who had printers and used the digital files had a fairly easy go with the models because they can print the complete model without assembly! Not to mention, if they wanted to assemble the models, they could view the complete digital file in a 3D viewer to help them along.
Lesson learned!!! And YES, we will have these ahead of shipment for the Hobgoblins and Kobolds. We also didn't build a crazy a** spider model this time either!
With these Build Guides, we tried to show the part in proximity to the mating location. All of the parts for a specific model are packaged together in the various materials. Its best not to open too many sub-kits at once, and if you do, be sure to keep them separated.
So without further delay... You can find the guides at this link...
This update wraps up the last major deliverable we've identified. There are bound to be a few questions about these guides so please reach out to [email protected] and we can get you any answers you need about assembly.
We got the last Jagged Edge Hideaway package sent out this morning! Most were sent in early and mid October with a few wrapping up this week. A big THANKS to all of you for your support, questions and comments on this project.
Problems with your order???
If you need anything or have questions, please contact us at [email protected] and we will get you sorted.
Build Guides
We are looking to make some build guides and photos for these models in the next week. Our staff builds 1000s of models a year so we sometimes forget that these kits can be pretty intimidating if you are new to the hobby or not sure how something goes together. We will get that published next week in an update.
Next!
If you like this project from Trenchworx, please consider joining us for our next project launching tomorrow morning at 9:00am MST. Hobgoblins, Kobolds & Goblins Too!! will add even more monsters to the worlds created by MCDM and usable in Draw Steel! You can join us HERE!
We have crossed to less than 100 packages to go! About 450 of you should have seen your notifications go out by now and about half that should have the Jagged Edge goblins invading your homes as I type this. Aside from a few stragglers that are missing some information, we are looking to be wrapping up most of the shipping by end of week and the stragglers by next Monday/Tuesday.
Your packages are starting to ship. Watch for updates on your emails as we slog through the boxes of minis heading out. It will take us a few weeks to get this all complete but we are very excited to have these goblins leave the building! They are all over the place and in every nook and cranny like goblins tend to be. Nearly 50,000 components went into the physical build. By all counts, THAT'S ALOT!
As we wrap this project up, if you are interested in a Queen Bargnot Trophy for your wall after your PCs defeat the Hideaway, you can order her HERE. We still have a few castings from the first run of the mold and she looks amazing! We will match her to your shipment at no added shipping cost. If you are outside the US, use code BARGNOT_TRAVELS at checkout for Free International Shipping.
Watch those email boxes and be sure to share your paint jobs!
We are spinning a tangled web of spider parts at the moment working to finish this project. Marrowgnaw ended up requiring larger silicone molds than we expected and is caused us some capacity problems in resin. Although her final parts aren't huge, to make sure the parts are cast well, we needed thicker mold walls. We could only fit about 1/3 of a full spiders worth of parts in a resin pot at a time. Each pot takes about 10-12 minutes to turn so we would be looking at 30 additional working days of casting spider parts in resin!
What we are did to remedy that lead time was move her legs and howdah mud flaps over to Siocast and the howdah railings over to 3D prints. We've got more capacity in those manufacturing work cells and they can run parallel with resin casting and keep us on track. That will leave us with only the chunky spider butts, bodies and the howdah in resin which really is the best use of a resin process.
Butts, Bodies and a Howdah too!
New Spider Leg molds that will last 500 shots!
Comparison of silicone mold that last about 25 shots to the siocast spider legs. So much less material required.
Moving the railings from resin to 3D print saves a lot of wasted material for the tiny parts too. The mold only lasts about 25 shots and 3D prints have no parting lines. Printing is great for smaller things like this. The following picture is a comparison of the larger mold and 2 master sprue castings to the 3D print sprue. We get about 30 prints on a tray and will will finish these parts in 2 days in our printer module. As opposed to the week of mold making and another week of casting 500 parts.
Material conservation at its finest!
MANUFACTURING
We are about 80% done with all the other castings and packaging of the characters and larger number of warrior and lackey packs. This will dovetail in with Marrowgnaw manufacturing so we can finish this project in September. Below is a compilation of various stages of parts from mold masters, resin casting, siocast printing and packaging. I built this from various photos of the process during the shop walk around this week. As you can tell, there is a lot that goes into making 18,000 goblins and 600 spiders!
And finally, Ainsley conducts a careful inspection of Looty the loot goblin...
PHYSICAL FULFILLMENT
Reassigning the parts to different processes puts us delivering to our original plan of September, but it is sure aggravating moving along at a nice clip and all of a sudden slowing down to a school zone pace.
We've already locked the addresses and intend to start shipping this month. We will start with the simple goblin boxes since they don't have a spider. There's about 50 of those and their contents are complete. Then we will move on to the full kits right after. The shipments will proceed in this order...
The basic goblin boxes will start shipping in the next week. There's about 50 of those.
All Australia shipments will be bundled and sent to our partners in Sydney. It takes about 3-4 weeks for those to get to the backer so we want those going on their way. There's another 50 in the batch.
We will proceed with shipping the rest that have Marrowgnaw and go by Backer ID in order. The caveat being we will likely ship internationals on a specific day of the week because the customs forms can be tricky and we don't want to make any mistakes. Fortunately there are only about 50 of those too.
DIGITAL FULFILLMENT
The digital fulfilment of the project is complete and if you are missing your invitation emails please let us know. Everyone who backed this project received a digital invitation from MyMiniFactory for all the files.
That wraps up this update. We are excited to start the physical fulfilment process and finish this project up. If you have questions, don't hesitate to send an inquiry to [email protected].
