Once again... WOOHOO!!!
After more than three years, closure has been achieved in the CSM Tome of Horrors I & II Kickstarter/Ponzi -Scheme boondoggle. I got a box of miniatures yesterday.
In fact, I got a box of outstanding miniatures and took many pictures of same. Worth the wait? Let's not get crazy, folks. Three years is three years, after all.
Still.. some great sculpts, unusual subjects, & quality casting. Behold:
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| Babbler |
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| Basidirond |
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| Blindheim |
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| Boneneedle |
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| Bullywugs ( AKA Tsathar) |
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| Cassomolar, President of Hell |
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| Catterwaul |
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| Dire Corbies |
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| Disenchanter |
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| Flumphs |
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| Gorbel |
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| Iron Cobra |
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| Jaculi |
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| Kamadan |
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| Splinterdrake |
Overall, casting quality is excellent. The only exception being the flanks of the Disenchanter, just below the hump, on both sides. Here the mini's surface is deeply pitted. A picture on Pacesetter's Facebook page shows an example with the same issue so mine's likely typical in this regard.
Cassomolar may be the best sculpt of the bunch. Fine work by Patrick Keith. Its small size was a big surprise, however, in view of its price ($16.95). I can't complain though, technically it was one of my free selections.
The Dire Corbies, on the other hand, are larger than expected... absolute brutes.
In making my selections I focused on certain sculptors (Keith, Kline, Williams, Prow) and subjects tied to the old Fiend Folio (11 of 15).
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| Very seussian |
Finally, a word of gratitude to Bill of Pacesetter Games. He really pulled the fat out of the fire here. Well done, sir.
PS - Love the flumphs.
PPS - WOOHOO!!!
Thanks for posting these pics. The flumphs look absolutely gorgeous for painting. Kudos to Kline. And I just can't wait to run the dire corbies in my Jade Regent campaign, nasty looking bastards.
ReplyDeleteI've been following your paint jobs on the fiend folio, can't wait to see more additions (finally). Keep up the good work!
I share your appreciation for Mr. Kline's work. Everything he did for this project is spot on.
DeleteThe Corbies are a bit oversized IMO, but definitely nasty looking.
Mine just came today!!! I agree with the Corbies being a little oversized, although I think that's perfectly fine given the creature. All these sculpts are so detailed up close. I've found the Corbie's head on the right doesn't fit so easily to it's body, so a little bit of sculpting putty is required
DeleteThree years IS a damn long time! Nice figures, though. Its exciting to see some of the weirder Fiend Folio monsters in metal. Dig the disenchanter; he makes my painting hand itch. Thanks for sharing these!
ReplyDeleteThree years and two months... but who's counting. ;)
DeleteThe disenchanter is darned near perfect (outside of the casting issue). Wouldn't change a thing.
I'm absolutely delighted for you Finch. Having been burnt a couple of time by Kick Starters myself I can imagine how happy you are to finally get hold of your goodies - and my word they look impressive too! I'm really looking forward to seeing you paint all of these up over the next few weeks ;-)
ReplyDeleteClearly you're using some sort of backwards "Wrath of Khan" code where "weeks" means "years".
DeleteI can play along...
Sure, They'll be painted in a "few weeks" (wink, wink).
Technically the projects failed, their creator (CSM) went belly up, and all the backers were left holding the bag. As a backer, however, I was able to get the minis at a deep discount from the outfit that eventually gained the rights to them (Pacesetter).
In a sense I payed for these twice. Still a satisfactory conclusion as Pacesetter was under no obligation to do anything for us.
"Khannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!" :-)
DeletePaying twice, albeit at a reduced rate, isn't good. But the minis certainly look very nice indeed, and hopefully you'll enjoy painting them as much as I know I'll enjoy seeing you working on them.
Have you decided which to go with first? The Disenchanter is my fave, athough there's definitely a strong hint of "Shadows of Innsmouth" in the Bullywugs which makes me like them a lot too.
I have visited the "Pacesetter" website (thanks for tempting me!!!) to see what else is on offer, and wondered whether you own the Axe Beak. There are certainly some very nice-looking minis on offer... and I see the Disenchanter is one of them...
All those teeth move the bullywugs away from "frog" and towards "fish" a bit. Now that you mention it, they do have the "Innsmouth look".
DeleteI don't have the Axe Beak. I was spending still more money on this & kept it to a minimum as a hedge against things blowing up in my face again.
As the poster-children for both the Fiend Folio and my involvement in the ordeal that was CSM's Tome of Horrors, the flumphs deserve to be first.
Some nice looking metal, there. And there's certainly some interesting creatures amongst the group. I really like the big cat body of the Kamadan, but how do the snakes fit to it?
ReplyDeleteThe snakes are meant to sprout from the shoulders. After dry-fitting the components it seems that some work with a motor-tool will be needed to give the snake-bits proper channels in which to sit.
DeleteOh my, they look amazing, but now the big question is where to start?
ReplyDeleteThat's always the question, isn't it?
DeleteAs a wise man once said, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single flumph".
Woohoo, indeed! Some lovely stuff!
ReplyDeleteIt was an ordeal but the resulting minis are first rate.
DeleteFinch,
ReplyDeleteThank you for supporting the TOH effort. This could not have been done without your help as well as the others who took a leap of faith and trusted me to get this done. There were some stumbles, but more than 70 Tome of Horrors figures are now a reality.
There is a great deal of work to do still; improving our web site and better miniature pics are on the list. I just wanted to say thanks for posting. I have not made any efforts to commercially introduce the figures yet, but that will begin soon. We are just starting to package them for commercial sale (blister packs). Again, thanks for the kind words and for supporting the TOH effort!
Bill Barsh
Pacesetter Games * Simulations
Bill,
DeleteThe strong Fiend Folio/Tome of Horrors parallel made me receptive to the project from the start. Later it turned into a long, aggravating slog. Thanks again for carrying it over the finish line.
Great looking minis despite the loooooong wait
ReplyDeleteThey are definitely great looking minis.
DeleteThese miniatures look very very promising. Three years IS a long time but they do look great. As for WooHoos ... only Homer can pull them off. :)
ReplyDeleteD'oh!
DeleteBelated thanks for the photos. I've recently been painting a few of the (now) Pacesetter figs for a commission customer and having some good images of the bare metal unassembled is quite helpful. Sorry to hear the KS thing was so fouled up, although it's a common enough problem. Took me four years to finally get my Alien Host stuff from Trollforged Games' KS, although in that case I'll have to say it was worth the wait. Mind you, there are still other backers waiting...
ReplyDeleteHi Finch, I just bumped in top your post and I wanted to thank you for the positive comments you made about the sculpts I did for the project! Its nice some good came of it - it was so unpleasant for me I gave up on sculpting for a few years. Did you ever get a chance to paint those flumphs or other critters? Id love to see your rendition of them. I recently picked up a bunch of these minis from a second-hand retailer and I finally have my very own copies of the flumphs painted up. Best Regards,
ReplyDeleteEnos