They looked so alluring.
Who wouldn't want some beautifully painted, and sculpted, 1/250th scale, resin, Traveller spaceships, for battles in space, or just to serve as player aids or scenery for your Sci-Fi, RPG games?
I'd seen that some of the very expensive, prepainted, Limited Edition vessels were a little behind on their scheduled deliveries, but that's to be expected, right?
Still, despite that, they looked very nice.
Of course, I coveted those, but couldn't really justify them, since they were way too much, sadly.
However, when I saw a listing on the D20 Entertainment website for unpainted resin ones, at far more reasonable prices, and they were listed as "shipping", at the end of last Spring, I jumped at the chance to purchase a three vessel set. They looked nicely detailed from the pics shown, and sounded like a good deal, compared to other options.
I figured I could do a bit of cleanup, if needed on them, and add a decent paint job too.
So, 3.5 months later, and I'm still waiting for the minis, or a reply to several e-mail inquiries I've sent out about them.
I see now, after doing a bit of research, and reading on-line, that I'm not the only one waiting still. Some paid for their Ltd. Edition models a year or more ago, and still haven't received them, and others that purchased the unpainted resin models back in Feb. and April haven't received their ships, or any replies either.
Then, I ran across this info.
The guy has two blogs dedicated solely to him by others, about the various scams he's run, and/or is running, in order to try to alert people to the issue, so they don't lose their money on failed projects:
link
link
As you can see below, it appears he's raking in a lot money, but people are getting very little, if anything in return. He's had a lot of Kickstarter's in the last year, and appears to be raking in some serious dough:
link
The quote below about the failed Kickstarters was dated May 9, 2015, and comes from the link above.
"Now some people will be of the mind that it's the fault of the backers for not looking into the creator and going in blind. But at some point you have to point at the creator and say hey you know you're in the wrong. As of this blog D20 Entertainment had over the breath of their six Kickstartes just shy of 3 thousand backers ! And $177 USD thousand dollars in funding received.
Then last night after speaking with Jolly I decided to write this blog and tell people about it.. And something shocking happen. As I was pulling all this information together something changed as I was looking at the comments listed by the creator. They all had a header of Deleted. I was confused for a moment and clicked on the creator's name only to find in bold header the following..
". Sorry! This person is no longer active on Kickstarter."
2979 backers , 177,095 Dollars And 6 projects in the wind. Not a word from Ken Whitmen or D20 Entertainment on any of their channels of communication. Did Kickstarter Delete him? This seems unlikely as it would then cut off communication to all of their backers of outstanding products. Could it be innocent or a misunderstanding. Only time and Ken or D20 Entertainment speaking up will tell".
It appears that the Resin Spaceships are no longer listed for sale, but if you wish to see them, you can do so through Google Images. I won't be doing any advertising for Ken, or his ship miniatures.
Apparently, D20 Entertainment/Ken Whitman had plans to release 20 Traveller spaceships in resin, over time, but the delivery dates have seriously slipped.
It's apparently so bad that they've been pulled from the D20 Entertainment website altogether, and are no longer available for sale (if they really ever were).
The latest update on the unpainted resin ships is that they were in stock, and "shipping", as of early August of this year, when he posted photos of boxes of them, with that claim, on the Citizens of the Imperium, Traveller Forum.
Not sure why it takes two months to pack and ship three, little resin spaceships when they're in stock, and "shipping".
I'll let you be the judge on that.
Perhaps he needs to devote his time to another Kickstarter scam.
Anyway, I suggest extreme caution on purchasing anything from the D20 Entertainment website – some stuff is still for sale there, as well as considering funding any Kickstarter, or other venue projects where Ken Whitman may be involved.