fulfilling Stone Skull's 28mm Tabletop Gaming Miniature Furniture by Stone Skull Studios

[Caleb]

If it's really a older veteran (in his 40s-50s) why are there NO names on the kickstarter video.  (There is a name on the very bottom of the kickstarter)

 

I have never met anyone that age who cares about using their real name on projects like this.

 

Also tons of mentions of the crew of people who will be painting the products but literally none of the pictures or videos have the prototypes painted or have custom painted minis.  As far as I can see it's only prepainted newer Pathfinder or D&D stuff in the Kickstarter video.

 

So an older gamer who apparently has a "crew" of painters has NO pictures of any painted miniatures anywhere?

 

He has been doing this for that many years and commented many times that he has used custom miniatures on his table but has no pictures of them?

 

So yeah a guy who is proud of his hobby doesn't have any pictures of his gaming table?  And won't use his real name on the KS video?  There are a bunch of names on the website but we don't know which one is the dude commenting.  (ONLY has his name on the blog.  Not listed under contributors.)

 

I mean again I just don't understand why any of the prototypes weren't painted.

 

It seems like a complete scam to me by someone who took some college classes in 3D printing and was able to create those files but has no idea of what is involved with making molds for resin castings.

 

I mean the wagon?  WTF.  The cost to Print ONE copy of that thing on a very high end printer and then Make a MOLD out of that monster?  For RESIN casts?  Holy Moly.

 

I feel like I am taking crazy pills here.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Caleb

[Ravendas]

Yeah. Though he does say "So.. who am I? The one called Christopher Caporal and creator of this Kick Starter?" towards the bottom.

 

Searching for that, you get his site/blog: http://www.stoneskullstudios.net/blogs/news

 

Someone mentioned this 'great deal' of a kickstarter in the Reaper Bones KS3. I responded with a link to this thread...

[TheAuldGrump]

Yeah... even I have dropped out at this point - if he had stuck to the furniture, or even just the Gothic furniture, I would have stayed... but... dang!

 

The Auld Grump - it's not that I have a large pool of optimism, but.....

[Caleb]

Yeah. Though he does say "So.. who am I? The one called Christopher Caporal and creator of this Kick Starter?" towards the bottom.

 

Oh yeah.  I totally missed that and the blog!

 

Very strange.

 

Also Robby Crawforth is mentioned in the Artists and Contributors area of the website.  But Christoper isn't.

 

So yeah.  That makes it seem like less of a scam but just someone who is very much over their head.

 

However that first blog...

 

"Just a day before launch of the digital products. Hoping all goes well. It's a tough crowd out there and last thing we want to do is disappoint them. With the advent of 3d printing we want to be able to offer everyone access to our products via any possible medium. Getting some of our product printed at a site such as Shapeways can get a bit pricey and we really don't have any control over that. We try to make our models in order to optimize 3d printing and to avoid needless waste. So we think a mix of traditional hand sculpting along with digital is the way to go! -C"  Jan 29, 2016

 

So yeah.  It sounds like they tried to create a business selling their digital stuff and stuff printed from Shapeways but that didn't work out.

 

So....now there is a Kickstarter where the only ACTUAL stuff that people might get is digital stuff.  All the pictures of that digital stuff looks like it was probably printed from Shapeways.

 

Uh....

 

Honestly this seems way likely that this is just a way for them to "sell" their digital sculpts.  They clearly have no experience with resin casting.  No proof that they have ever 3D printed anything themselves.  Again no sign of any "Crew" who is going to paint all the FREE KS minis with no painted prototypes to be seen.  (Again this bugs me so much.  Literally the ONE part of this kickstarter that would be easy to do if you really knew people who had the time to paint hundreds of these things.)

 

It looks to me like the whole Kickstarter is just a front for a failed business model for digital sculpts that went belly up a few months ago.

 

My prediction -

 

"Oh we are so sorry that we couldn't deliver any physical goods but here have our ENTIRE catalogue of digital sculpts instead.  (You know the ones we tried to sell back in Jan but couldn't)".

 

Of course there is always a chance that this is just some VERY out of it person who just doesn't understand how deep of a hole he is getting into.

 

The smack talk about other failed kickstarters just reeks of not understanding basic concepts of resin casting or sheer price of the molds needed to mass produce these insanely complex and large miniatures.

 

If that is the case then hopefully someone close to him will talk him out of the hole he is digging for himself.

 

I am not going to back this one.

[Ravendas]

He says he's contracting out the furniture casting to Valiant, and doing the walls himself. And because he's doing it himself, it's pretty much free, no worries!

Let's just ignore mold making materials are expensive, it's difficult to do with zero experience, and resin is $$$$$$$$$.

 

But he's doing it himself, so it's free.

 

Someone should contact Valiant and ask about this.

[ced1106]

Of course there is always a chance that this is just some VERY out of it person who just doesn't understand how deep of a hole he is getting into.

 

Yeah, he can join the other resin KS creators I've backed!

[Ravendas]

Ok, so uh he just changed everything around.

 

Gone are all the tiles.

 

All of the freebie bonuses have changed. Now it's choose a mini / choose 4 seated minis / choose a door or trap / cars or wagon or thrones or lab / bunch of random items for a location / more random items for a location / 4 goblins AND 4 dwarves / (Soon to be unlocked:) tree stumps and forest stuff / dwarven tomb ruins?

 

So, at least the tiles are gone and it seems slightly more believable. I just feel like he hasn't priced out how much each individual thing will cost to both print on a very high end printer, and then make molds of. There's dozens of items here to create.

[icarus231]

Just to play a little devils advocate here but KS is not a store. If he was to do this business traditionally he would be making all the molds and everything else with all cost out of pocket. So while he might not make any money or even lose a little he still will have funding for these things which in the end he will continue to use after fulfillment and still will come out ahead. Just because other people have failed to complete there promises does not mean everyone will. With that said I do the same thing with this KS as I do any. Don't spend any money you cant afford to lose.

[Doug Sundseth]

So while he might not make any money or even lose a little he still will have funding for these things which in the end he will continue to use after fulfillment and still will come out ahead.

 

Assumes facts not in evidence. And frankly, the available evidence indicates to me that he will not fulfill timely and perhaps won't fulfill at all.

 

It's possible that this will end up being a brilliant success, and I hope that happens both for the creator and the backers. Not the way to bet, though.

[Ravendas]

Just to play a little devils advocate here but KS is not a store. If he was to do this business traditionally he would be making all the molds and everything else with all cost out of pocket. So while he might not make any money or even lose a little he still will have funding for these things which in the end he will continue to use after fulfillment and still will come out ahead. Just because other people have failed to complete there promises does not mean everyone will. With that said I do the same thing with this KS as I do any. Don't spend any money you cant afford to lose.

 

Exactly, it's not a store, where you're guaranteed to get what you paid for.

 

It's a gamble on someone, and this one looks to have poor odds. Though, the odds have improved recently since he completely revamped things.

[Knight of the Dinner Table]

I printed one of his 3d files (for free on his web page) - the monk bench ... not totally bad, but nothing of the ornaments that his picture has is showing in the print.

[Glitterwolf]

Just read all this.

 

Furniture would be awesome, but this is likely to fail..

 

So alas, I'll wait if such stuff becomes available through normal shops.

[Ronald X]

The initial furniture was interesting, but the stretch goals are *frighteningly* ambitious.  I don't see this one working out.  I *might* back at the $25 level but even that seems like throwing money away.  If I'm proven wrong, then good for the guy, but I'm thinking it's best to wait for when and if these make it to retail.

I suppose this reminds me of the Dice of Awesome campaign with a guy who got in way over his head when his campaign blew up and overfunded by something like 8500%.  He was another serial entrepreneur who had multiple failed businesses and couldn't scale his little in-home shop up to anywhere near the level of production required to make the thousands of sets that got pledged for.  It's over a year late, only a handful of backers have their pledge rewards, and he's still struggling to scale up his production.  He's going slow, but at least he's still solvent and can work another job to pay out of pocket when necessary.  I have a feeling the Stone Skull guy is going to bankrupt himself before he gets ten percent through casting all this stuff.

One only needs to compare it to the Zealot Twisting Catacombs KS making resin terrain which was far more expensive (if also higher quality), also massively overfunded, and is also massively late, even though that was run by an experienced casting company who've been running a solvent, reputable casting business for years.

 

Long story short, I'm extremely wary about this.  Very low likelyhood of success.  Back at own risk.

 

Edit: Clarity.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Ronald X

[Adrift]

 

So while he might not make any money or even lose a little he still will have funding for these things which in the end he will continue to use after fulfillment and still will come out ahead.

 

Assumes facts not in evidence. And frankly, the available evidence indicates to me that he will not fulfill timely and perhaps won't fulfill at all.

 

It's possible that this will end up being a brilliant success, and I hope that happens both for the creator and the backers. Not the way to bet, though.

 

Based on comments I've read, and the fact that this creator's vision keeps changing throughout the KS, I'm going to trim my enthusiasm and just let this one pass. This isn't worth the gamble to me.

[Arkady]

After a bit of Google-Fu, I'm extremely curious if David Soderquist (Bronze Age Miniatures) thinks Christopher Caporal can actually deliver on this. Might be worth asking.