SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1

Update - overview on Project
over 6 years ago – Sat, Jan 06, 2018 at 03:41:25 PM

Good Morning all,

I've prepared the following update with where we are at with every component of the KS. I don't believe i've missed anything out - its been tidied up so that its easier to read but will give you an idea of how much work has been accomplished so far. 

 http://darumaproductions.com/ksupdate/Daruma_KS_Update_106.pdf

As you can see, we already have an awful lot done. The Main items however - the most important part of the entire Project are the 2 rulebooks ; the A5 which will allow you to play the game, and the A4 Hardback which will be a lavish publication (and also have the rules). Once we have the books in print, that is when we can really start to launch the game properly. 

 We are bringing all of the components under 1 roof shortly - so if any of you want to meet up with us at any shows or events, or have a mail order and would like the KS stuff so far sent out with that; please let us know. Gary was over from Japan and popped in to grab a load of his Kickstarter Goodies as well as a few other bits n pieces, he will be whisking those back off to Japan next week where he plans to torture a few of his player character Operatives!

 We will be putting up a plan for 2018 post KS fulfillment on the Facebook page over the weekend. I'll also copy that to an Update, so that you can see that we have some good long term plans to grow the range. At the moment, we are a small company and taking baby steps - but we very much hope to go into 2019 with a much expanded range of miniatures and a growing player base for both the CS1 Wargame and the RPG. 

++ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PROGRESS ++

Art Update
over 6 years ago – Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 12:41:21 AM

Good Morning all, 

We are working on an entire product update for you all, this will be up over the Xmas period - Daruma is a very small company and we don't have a great deal of extra time, especially at this time of year where we are busy with work, families and getting ready for Xmas. We have managed to get 100% of all (non pre order) Mail orders out the door though, so everything on the online store is up to date. I'll be pulling together the Full Product Update over the festive period and putting in a nice easy to read format. 

 We have a few insane value Christmas deals live right now over on the Daruma store - they are still up until after Christmas, they are all for existing products but are crazy good value and will be dispatched immediately.

 Ok, so.. onto more cool stuff! Dave and Jared have been putting out a Diary of what they are up to - and the teasers Dave has shown us are awesome! Here are a few snippets for you to enjoy;

 In addition to the hundreds of pieces of artwork like above, Dave has also completed several hundred of what he calls the "headshots" - these are (among other things) for the Stat Cards, etc. 

 Dave has completed several hundred pieces of art, he and Jared have already written thousands of words and are in the process of writing thousands more.

 The Rules section is complete - has been edited and checked and spell checked by several 3rd parties and Jared has already begun planning the grahpic layout of the A5 ruleset. He has shown us a teaser of it, but wants to hold it back until he's put a little more polish on it. Myself and Brad (the Rules guru) are now completing the Graphics Images list for Jared to get on with (i.e. where samples of play, etc are included in the rules - Jared has a kick ass idea for these..). 

There is a fair bit happening here, and several components will be on the home run to completion very quickly now. As soon as Jared lays out the A5 rulebook and sends it off for Printing (very early 2018) we will also put it up as a PDF for download. 

So, keep an eye out for the product update list over the Xmas period - and we'd like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hogmanay!

A quick look at a Resin Joe Fade
over 6 years ago – Thu, Nov 16, 2017 at 08:30:29 PM

 The Resin Joe Fade is 1 of the miniatures we already have sat in the Warehouse ready for the KS dispatch. We thought we'd take a few photos to show you the quality of the miniature. This is a production cast, taken at random from the box of Minis and is representative of the quality you can expect from your miniatures when they arrive. 

 - Please excuse the quality of the photographs, they are taken in a light box with my Iphone camera. We have access to a great quality camera but they don't let me near it as i am something of an anti-tech. 

 You can see straight away that the Miniatures are crisp, well detailed and well cast - even small details like the indentations on the armour panels show up nicely (those panels are maybe 1mm-2mm across so that gives you an idea of how small those indentations are). You can even make out the bullets on his belt around his waist. The model is clean and has little flash (we've done absolutely no prep on this example) and will take only a few minutes to clean and build - we will get this one sent off to our Head Operative, Steve for a few licks of paint shortly. 

 One of the main things that we like about the miniatures, is that they match the artwork. Very closely match the artwork in fact, every 1 of the miniatures completed so far looks like the original image that Dave drew for the Kickstarter and is unmistakably whom they are supposed to be. 

 We take along a scattering of painted KS miniatures to every show we attend - as well as the full range of regular Retail minis. We believe in letting people handle them, take them out of the cabinet to check the details, grab snapshots, etc and so far.. we have had nothing but compliments on the quality, detailing and concept of the miniatures. Many existing customers purchase them for  a range of uses - from the SLA RPG, to playesting CS1 to dropping in as proxies for a wide range of other game systems. To us, the ultimate test for a miniatures worth is what the fans think - so why not come along, meet us at some forthcoming events and handle the miniatures for yourselves?

We will be attending Battlegrounds in Teesside next weekend, Saturday 25th November and running demo's of the CS1 rules - Asylum games will be supporting us and carrying a large range of SLA Stock. The following weekend, Saturday 2nd December, we will be running a full Retail stand at Dragonmeet in London - unfortunately we won't have space to run a demo game at Dragonmeet but will take along plenty of sample miniatures and a well stocked retail stand. We hope to see you at either (both) events and you can have a look at the KS Sample Miniatures for yourselves!

++ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PROGRESS ++

A few photos of what is ready!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 05:19:45 PM

In addition to the bags, tee shirts, dice, etc and other merchandise which we showed photos of a while back - we thought we would share a few pictures of some of the Characters which are now ready to go.

 Our own Operative, Steve Winwood was kind enough to paint these up for us;

 My son couldn't resist putting a little paint on this monster!

 Also in storage, with examples off for painting are;

McNultie 

Joe Fade

Manchine

Feaney

Rooker

The resin runs for all of these (other than Digger whom is well underway) are complete, and ready to go out. The metal moulds for all of these are also complete and scheduled for spinning in the next few weeks. 

 The other big news is that after exhaustive playtesting, polishing and refining - the rules are complete. We have spent, literally, hundreds of man hours on these rules and want to thank the dozens of Operatives and Playtesters whom have helped us get them ready for gaming with. We transferred the files to Jared last night and he is starting work on the A5 rulebook imminently. Meanwhile, Dave has completed hundreds of pieces of artwork and thousands of words in form of Storyline, Articles, RPG content and more.. Once Jared completes the A5 mini ruleset he will then alter the files to fit into the A4 book layout - there is a lot more work on completing the A4 book but it is a labour of love for Dave and Jared and will be stunning once finished. It is our earnest intention to have it completed and ready for early 2018. The A5 Rules will go to print as soon as they are ready.

 If you want a sneak peak at the level of detail that Dave & Jared are putting into the book.. they are even doing adverts for product placement.. such as Piggy Wiggy in Spicy Ketchup. 

 So, are we behind schedule? Yes.. we are.. but we are moving heaven and earth to ensure that we get everything out to our backers as soon as possible. We are reluctant to give specific dates, as experience this year has taught us that the best laid plans.. Let us say however that the A5 Rulebooks are very close now, and that the A4 books will be lavish and not too far behind them. 

 We will be giving far more regular updates and will have photos of the rest of the painted miniature samples as well as the metals when they arrive back with us. 

 Thank you for your patience so far - and in the meantime, please download the Ruleset and give them a once over! We have worked very hard to ensure that they are fun, a little different and very much feel like SLA. They are tactical and can be played both competitively as well as narratively, with no faction being clearly over or underpowered. I think we have accomplished the goals we set out to and look forward to your thoughts on them.

A little update on where we are at!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Nov 01, 2017 at 01:28:27 PM

Kickstarter update – 24th October 2017

Hi all,

It's time for another update and we'd like to apologise for the slower rate of updates lately. Firstly, I, became a father again a little over two months ago and my time has been devoted to that. Secondly, there's been a lot of work going on, but it's not the sort of work we can show you as it's just the grind of getting the stuff we have already told you about done. Jared has stepped in to take some of the workload off when he's not busy on writing the book with Dave and doing the layout. Dave is still busy on writing and art, both of which are progressing. The art drives the writing, so getting that finished first is a hugely important task, and the hundreds of pieces of art needed are down to just dozens. So, what else has been going on? Let me tell you.

The master moulds for the first half of the Kickstarter miniatures are now complete. As you can see from these photographs, the quality of the miniatures is superb – for those of you whom have never seen one before, this is what a master mould for metal casting miniatures looks like. This is dropped into a special casting machine (like a big centrifuge) and when you apply the right mix of molten white metal at around 250-300 degrees.. you get toy soldiers!

We have fitted all the currently complete miniatures (other than McNultie – he got leery and was late to the party, so there was no room on the moulds for him; he’ll need to wait until the next wave, once his hangover has receded to human levels) on 3 sets of moulds to reduce wastage. Those are heading to the Metal Caster who is starting work on them as soon as he returns from the Essen and Antwerp shows, so expect to see buckets of cast Miniatures in November. Meanwhile, we have completed the resin casting runs of the entire first wave (other than Digger who is slowly steadily ongoing) and have many bags like these in the warehouse. The miniatures are bagged up, ready for bases to be added and will then be good for dispatch soon So, when is your Kickstarter coming, I hear you ask? The Rules have been edited, as a result our Rules Writer, Brad, has made a few last minute adjustments. Those will then be carefully worded and re-edited before being signed off on and passed over to Jared for Layout and Graphics. Initially this will be for the A5 Rulebook for reasons that we’ve gone into in earlier updates. We are aiming to get this completed and the majority of the KS shipped as fast as possible now – with the rest of the KS and the gorgeous A4 hardback following as quickly as we can get them completed and out!