Next Level Miniatures is on Kickstarter (Rappan Athuk, a giant dragon, fantasy minis galore)

[1dunnj]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:13 AM, R2ED said:

@GuyraI wish I knew what it was.  The way it peels is strange because it looks like it's part of the model until it bubbles up and starts to peel. I fear more models have it, but I can't see it yet.  It would kill me to find out after I paint something that it will peel once I'm done. I hope that is not the case. 

Did you ever figure our what was peeling off? 

[R2ED]

@1dunnjbest I can tell is it's just resin. strange that it had like a bubble.  It was on a couple models so far.  

[Marc]

Has anyone else found this with Next Level minis?

[bearsman6]

7 hours ago, Marc said:

Has anyone else found this with Next Level minis?

I have had no such issues with mine.

[BlazingTornado]

Seems there's been enough late backers and extra pledges on Gamefound to unlock the Skulleton mini.

 

Also we're already getting a few physical samples showcased, on their 25mm bases so you can better tell the scale.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nextlevelminiatures/next-level-miniatures-dragons-hoard-miniatures-vol-2/posts/3804894

 

Their Intellect Devourer is significantly bigger than Wizkids' ones that came with the Nolzur Alhoon. 😆

 

 

I really like the addition of a small integral base for these models. One of my gripes with Vol1 was that since the bottom of the feet was also the injection point, you're always worried about breaking a foot when trimming off the excess material.

Edited May 28 by BlazingTornado

[Grumpy Gnome]

The more I work on these the less I like them. I have seen the peeling issue when trying to clean up mould lines. I have seen bubbles/missing chunks. I have seen print lines. The material is generally pretty soft and bendy but then suddenly a Gnoll flail haft snapped in a surprisingly brittle manner. It is like the worst of several different mediums going on at once. 

 

The human figures are mostly too small for me, being generally more 25mm instead of 28mm but I can work with sizes of the other minis. 
 

Customer service and communication has been disappointing but at least we finally got our pledges fulfilled. 

 

For me, this KS has really put a number of other products into a different perspective and rates as one of my biggest KS disappointments. I am glad we decided not to back the second KS but hope that the company learns from this KS and backers get better products in the future. 

[Jeronimus]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Gnome said:

I have seen the peeling issue when trying to clean up mould lines. I have seen bubbles/missing chunks. I have seen print lines.

I also saw one of those odd 'peeling' bubbles on the back of the ogre. I was concerned about how to 'fix' it so I left it for the time being. No paint on him yet, though I was hoping to turn him into a large orc.

I've been doing some clean-up, and came across some pretty poorly placed mold lines, weird flash, bad details... and not sure if it's stuff worth spending a lot of time on. Generally though, the sculpts are quite good, but some of the casts did turn out a bit messy. Quality is just a bit all over the place - some parts very good, some parts not.

 

2 hours ago, Grumpy Gnome said:

The human figures are mostly too small for me, being generally more 25mm instead of 28mm but I can work with sizes of the other minis. 

I agree on this one too. I do like all the ones I ordered extras of - spiders and stirges and gargoyles, all good "bulk" miniatures and really usable imo. I haven't really gotten back into painting since moving house, so I'm not sure if that's where I want to start.

The humans are smaller than most, for sure. Some still work, most of them feel 'paintable' at least, or usable to some degree.

Edited May 15 by Jeronimus

[R2ED]

I'm glad, but not for the Issue, that others are validating the problem with the bubbling I had.  I haven't gone through all of them yet, but I found around 4 that had it and sadly you might not know until after you primed to find it.  DO NOT PRIME OVER in the hopes it will be okay.  It gets worse. Make sure to pop and peel it.  The surface underneath is really glossy, almost wet looking.  Clean it well and hit it with primer after.  It was a bummer to find mine on the model after layer 2.

 

 

[1dunnj]

2 hours ago, R2ED said:

 The surface underneath is really glossy, almost wet looking.  

 

odd: i wonder if there was excess moisture or machine oil in the plastic mix before injecting, or an unmelted piece of recycled sprue.

Whatever the reason, from the warped pieces, poor fit for assembly joints. i feel like these pieces were rushed and the injection process wasn't honed in or closely monitored for the production run.

I did inspect all my models when I took inventory and didn't notice any of the issue you had.

[BlazingTornado]

I haven't seen that on any of my models either.

Have you guys tried reaching out to their customer support email?

[R2ED]

@BlazingTornadoreally not something i intend to buy or deal with further so I'm not wanting to invest the time.  Just good for other consumers to be aware of. 

[BlazingTornado]

Well, for the vol.2 backers, production is apparently already at 18% done.

 

And they've posted a bunch of pics of some of the models, not only in comparison to vol1 models (that Owlbear is definitely a bigger beast than the vol1 troll or minotaur!) but also with comparable Nolzur's models, to show they'll be better to scale this time around.

 

 

If this changes your mind about the project, I think late backing is still open.

[BlazingTornado]

Another update.

Production seems to be progressing along smoothly. It probably helps to know what worked and what didn't in Siocast from the first KS so they don't have to make revisions to the sculpts this time.

Looks like the Rat Swarm was severely reworked from the render presented in the campaign.

 

 

There's also a new addition for backers who pledged 50$ or more.

[BlazingTornado]

Our first look at the upscaling of the Vol1 minis just got posted.

[bearsman6]

They definitely made the sizes better in those images. I'm kind of excited again for these. The sculpts have always been decent.