"Watchful I Studio announces Warring States Miniatures" Topic

Hello everyone. I am happy to share with you that my friend and I have started a new gaming company and our first project was to design 28mm miniatures for the Warring States and Qin Dynasty Periods. I posted pictures of our digital work to date and we will be using Kickstarter to hopefully raise enough money to produce the miniatures in plastic. Please follow the link below and check out the pics. I hope you enjoy and more information to follow soon.

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If you are not on Facebook we are looking at other sites to post our progress as we move forward. Eventually we will have our own website but one thing at a time. :)

Joe

looks very interesting…Hell I can't get going on the projects I want to do now, much less think of another…

Good luck, they look very nice.

Thanks guys. I am excited about the project and we are working on some new stuff to go along with the warriors and developing rules for the future.

Joe

These look fairly promising. What's your experience with plastics manufacturing, who would you plan to go with on the mold-making side?

-Will

Hello Will. I worked 15 years in the gaming industry with 2 companies that produced plastic and our sculptor has extensive plastics experience. We are currently discussing the manufacturing process with a well known company in the marketplace. I don't want to divulge who they are until we have a signed agreement.

We are in the somewhat early stage of the process. I am sure the 3D sculpts will see some alterations in order to make them 'plastic friendly' and we have to work out sprue layout and all that logistical stuff.

Overall, the process has moved along quite smoothly and we wanted to show you our progress when we were in a comfortable place.

Thanks for your inquiry and keep your fingers crossed for us as we move forward. :)

Joe

Joe, thanks for the answers. Totally understand about keeping things under wraps until the contract is worked out. I like the idea and just wanted to get a sense of your general experience level.

So yes, I really like these concepts and I'm definitely interested (very interested in this period of Chinese history), so I will keep on eye on things as they develop!

-Will

I have a warring states army but they are all Jenkins figs and not available anymore. Nothing else really matches them well so I'll be excited to see how these hold up, they look like a match style wise.

These look wonderful. My only advise/ask is please don't make them too skinny as it does not work well as 28mm model soldiers for gaming.
I would certainly buy some of these going by work so far. Are chariots planned in some form.

Thanks for the feedback and I hope we don't disappoint you or anyone for that matter. I know we won't be able to make everyone happy but we are trying our best to make the best Warring States / Qin Dynasty warriors in the marketplace.

Our current plan is to have a comprehensive range of miniatures allowing customers to collect an entire army using Watchful I Studio's toy soldiers.

Over the coming weeks I will be posting more pictures and updates on our Facebook page and when we launch our Kickstarter we should have a nice core of miniatures or perhaps the whole range. I guess it depends on how quickly we can get things done.

Thanks and stay tuned. :)

Joe

Looks great, since the Jenkins range went oop I've yet to find a decent range for my tastes. These are looking very promising, are you planning on cav, chariots etc etc?

Want 10mm Warring States Chinese, please!

Ohhhhh, this looks good.

@ McWong73 – We would like to do a complete range of Warring States so you can build an army and the miniatures all look cohesive. I am not sure what material we will use for what at this stage (metal, resin, plastic) but we are pushing forward to get all the stuff sculpted digitally and 3D printed. From there the sky is the limit. :)

@ Sobieski – We talked about doing a 15mm range along side the 28mm range but sorry no 10mm.

Thanks for the interest guys and keep an eye out for more in the coming weeks.

Joe

A range with a mix of materials probably makes the most sense from a logistics stand points (since some models will sell far less than others and making them in plastic makes less sense), but a boxed set of plastic chariots would be rather amazing. :)

-Will

This is great news! There are a few of us in Melbourne, Aus, who have long been searching the intramaweb for a decent Warring States/Han-dynasty/Three Kingdoms range of chinese. Tried contacting John Jenkins, Renegade, and even looked at the Old Glory Han range – without any luck. So, definitely will have quite a few supporters from Melbourne for any KS/crowdfunding.

What sort of timeline are you looking at for getting the KS up-and-running and, in turn, when do you think you will actually get product out to market?

@ Will – Thanks for the comments and ideas. We thought along the same lines. The big questions is whether to do the smaller selling stuff in resin or metal. I think metal is the better option just because the price point is lower and could allow us to enter into some retail or distributor markets. If we did the same with resin it would sky rocket the costs which is something we are trying to avoid. We would like to make high quality miniatures at a very fair market price. I could go on all day about this so I will stop there. :)

@ hongihika – It really does make me smile to know that we are hitting the mark on what we are doing. I hope we make your group very excited about this project like we are. We are looking at launching the Kickstarter during the 1st quarter of 2015 (February-March). There are two scenarios that we are thinking about playing out:

Scenario 1: Kickstarter is successful and we launch the range with the core product being plastic. I suspect if this happens the product will be released towards the end of 2015 maybe if everything goes well in the Fall of 2015.

Scenario 2: Kickstarter fails and we consider if we want to release the entire range in metal/resin. If this happens then we are looking at an earlier release, probably summer of 2015.

This is the 40,000 foot view so time, places, dates, etc. are subject to change. I don't mind being open and honest with the public as long as everyone understands that business is very fluid and there are several factors out of my control. Please have patience and understanding with us and I think you will enjoy the rewards when you see our products. My business partner and I are creating this business to fill the gaps that we see in the industry and are trying to do so using our 20 years of customer experiences to make everyone happy. We will sometimes fail but we will do everything in our power to communicate and keep that smile on your face.

Thanks,

Joe

Joe, have you thought about launching the ks as a metal or resin product, with plastic being a stretch goal? I'm keen to see the range happen in any material, and am worried that it's such a niche subject that it may find it a challenge to hit a big target to fund a plastics range. Going first with non plastic could mean less mess if you don't hit the plastic funding target.

Just my two cents…I'll get my coat.

@ McWong73 – Very good thought process and yes, we have absolutely considered that idea. We are very keen on releasing this product since its our first product range and would love to build some income and momentum because our long term strategy is very exciting and will hopefully cover some armies that are not very well covered. We are hoping to throw in some surprises that will build interest to a wider range of gamers. Of course a good battle plan never survives first contact. :)

Thanks for the thoughts, kind words, and constructive feedback.

Joe

Ever since the Jenkins range dissapeared I've been kicking myself. I've got a 3000 pt WAB list in desperate need of figures, so if the figures look as good in real life count me in for any medium – plastic, resin, metal.

Thanks McWong73. I tried a 3D printing company that didn't give me the detail I wanted but I can honestly say they will cast up beautifully. If they are done in plastic there will be some slight changes to allow the miniatures to be pulled from the metal molds. As soon as I have some quality 3D prints I will post them on our Facebook page. Thanks,

Joe

We are happy to continue along our path of producing a Chinese range of miniatures and show off our general. Check out our Facebook company page to check out the digital images of our 28mm Warring States / Qin Dynasty general. I am curious if you are interested in purchasing this range would you prefer to see the general in metal or resin? Thanks and enjoy….

We will post more updates as we get closer to our Kickstarter launch date (Monday, March 23, 2015 at 12pm EST)

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