"expands his knowledge" by venturing onto the high frontier.
The first batch of Albedo miniatures, plus terrain sets, are available to pre-order from 24th September, to ship early October. We are making the first two unit packs available prior to running the Albedo Kickstarter for two reasons.
Firstly, we would like gamers to be able to check out the quality of this new range of miniatures prior to backing its development through Kickstarter.
Secondly, we want people to be able to start gaming using the free introductory rules that will be available to download once the Kickstarter is live.
We are also making available nine different packs of anthropomorphic heads and tails, to enable figure converters to transform a wide range of existing miniatures into critters.
What is Albedo?
Albedo is a world invented 30 years ago by Steve Gallacci in his comic series, Albedo Anthropomorphics. This world is populated by sapient mammals and avians. There are two main factions: ConFed, whose forces include Extra-Planetary Defense Force (EDF) (these are peace loving, socialist societies made up of a wide range of species) and the Independent Lapine Republic (ILR), a ruthless, capitalist, expansionist grouping of rabbits and hares.
Albedo Miniatures
Albedo miniatures are 28mm Heroic Scale miniatures, designed to be used with the Albedo Combat Patrol miniatures rules, or with a wide range of roleplaying games such as the Albedo RPG, Traveller, GURPS, Gamma World, etc. The miniatures in the range have been designed as multi-part metal castings consisting of a body (torso and legs combined), a pair of arms (where possible a pair cast onto the weapon), and a head-and-tail sprue.
There are a range of body types in development, including EDF Heavy Infantry, EDF Light Infantry, ILR Skirmish Order, and ILR Special Assault Order.
Each body type is then converted into multiple poses, such as Male: Patrolling, Female: Patrolling, Female: Running, etc.
Each faction has a number of weapons available that their troops can be equipped with. At the moment, we have made the following weapons for the EDF: LAKW 1 to 56 (a powerful assault rifle), MPKW 2-18 (SMG type Machine Pistol), MAKW 3-60 (versatile machinegun that can either be set up as LMG on bipod or on tripod as a sustained fire MMG). We have made the following weapons for the ILR: ML 199 Carbine (a short barreled basic carbine), AW 191 Assault Carbine (with underslung Grenade Launcher), MG 202 (versatile machinegun that can either be set up as LMG on bipod or on tripod as a sustained fire MMG).
Finally, the miniatures are designed to accommodate a separate head and tail. A growing range of heads have been sculpted, including EDF uniform helmets (Cat, Dog, Fox), ConFed Home Guard style berets (Cat, Dog, Fox), ILR forage caps (two rabbit variants), ILR garrison peaked caps (three rabbit head variants), bare headed (Cat, Dog, Fox, two Rabbit variants). The head-and-tail sprue also contains a square patch. This is because critters can elect to have their tail inside the uniform, in which case, this represents the Velcro patch on the uniform and is glued on in place of the tail.
The last point to note about the miniatures is that they have been designed to be easy to glue together. Prior to designing this range, I have not been a fan of multi-piece metal castings, as I have had bad experiences of pieces that have flat joints which are difficult to align, and move when you hold them for the glue to dry. We have overcome this problem by casting arms with a pin at the top that matches a recess in the shoulder. Similarly, heads are cast with a pin at the bottom of the neck that matches a recess in the body. The miniatures have also been digitally sculpted, so the fit is very accurate.
Using the components that we have manufactured so far, it is possible to construct over 160 unique miniatures by mixing the components together. We are planning to add many more uniforms, poses, weapons and head/tail combinations, both through our Kickstarter and as monthly new releases.
Miniatures are supplied with 25mm round MDF slot-bases and 25mm clear bases. Unit packs include a unit reference card.
Pack 1 EDF Heavy Infantry Unit Pack RRP – £30.00 GBP for 8 figures. The pack contains 8 Heavy Infantry Bodies in 3 different poses, 8 head-and-tail sprues, and the weapons to make a standard EDF Squad (6 x Rifle, 1 x LMG, 1 x SMG)
Pack 2 ILR Skirmish Infantry Unit Pack RRP – £26.00 GBP for 7 figures. The pack contains 7 Skirmish Infantry Bodies in 2 different poses, 7 head-and-tail sprues, and the weapons to make a standard ILR Half Squad (6 x Carbine, 1 x LMG, 1 x Carbine with Grenade Launcher)
Figures will also be available in one-, two- and three-figure blister packs.
Availability
Initial release of miniatures, including these unit packs, is October 2018.
Miniatures will be available to pre-order from acp164.com and sally4th.co.uk from 24th September.
The Kickstarter runs from 15th October to 19th November 2018, to fund the next wave of development of miniatures, rules and campaign sourcebook.
