OK, Jamie. Well, you're here on the podcast to talk about yourself initially and then we're going to talk about this very exciting Kickstarter that's been highly anticipated by many who follow you on Facebook for a number of years now. So before we get there mate, let's talk about yourself and and about your company. Yeah, definitely. So I've been wargaming since I
was about nine years old. I started with Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring when that came out in cinema, and I always wanted to work in Wargaming. And when I was growing up, I always wanted to work for Games Workshop because I love Lord of the Rings. I loved Warhammer Fantasy 40 KA little bit. And I guess about eight years ago I started working in Wargaming for a company called Rubicon Models. I don't know if you've heard of them. They make 28 N scale plastic
tanks. Yeah, not out of them, mate. No. Oh, they're they're really, really cool. They make World War 2 tanks, and in the last couple of years they've been doing Cold War stuff as well. Really enjoyed working there because I got into like Bolt Action and World War 2 War gaming after I left there. I've done like bits of freelance work for different war gaming companies, but for the last nearly six years, it was six years in October.
I've worked for a company called Amar by Mook MNS who produced paints and weathering products and all that sort of thing. And in the background to that I've been trying to make my own little war gaming company and produce my own figures. I started with some 28 Nile scale World War 2 Polish figures, but then I released those on Kickstart.
It was a lot of fun and I wanted to do more figures since and I got really nostalgic during lockdown for like square bases and the 6th edition one on a fantasy and metal fantasy figures. Figures that are like super heavy and bulky and have that like old school aesthetic. And that's when I started the Dwarfs that I'm about to release. I was like browsing Facebook one day and saw a sculptor in Spain called Sergio Alonzo Leon. He was sculpting models that kind of remind me of the models
from when I was younger. And I was like, oh, I've got to try and do something. And luckily I wrote to him and he was up for sculpting some dwarfs for me. Nice, man. That's great. Excellent. Yeah, they're they're fantastic. I I immediately was attracted to them because they reminded me of the old Perry Old Hammer 3rd edition dwarf models. I think he even replicated some of the aesthetics and designs of those earlier figures, like the Imperial Dwarves for example.
Like I started the hobby in 6th edition Wuhan Fantasy with the the Orcs versus the Empire as the box set, but I always really loved the metal miniatures from before that period. But I couldn't afford them as a kid somehow. I'm older, I've kind of got a little bit of money and it's a bit dangerous because now I can Commission schools and go a bit crazy. So like, obviously we took inspiration from like the Perry range of dwarfs, which were
awesome. The Marauder miniatures range of dwarfs I always liked like Norse mythology as well. So some of the dwarfs have like a Norse feel to them, like a Viking kind of feel, but a little bit. They they don't take themselves too seriously. They're not like it's that old school aesthetic where fantasy was a bit a bit jokey and not so grim.
Dark if that makes sense. That's what we've tried to capture and we've done two different types of dwarf for the Kickstarter. We've done like N style dwarfs and then we've done, I've been calling him feudal dwarfs, so like Knights and Archers, like classic medieval * dwarfs. And then we've done a couple of random ones, like we've done like a miner. I've done one that I've kind of
called like in my head. He's like a foreign dignitary at the core of the dwarf king and he's kind of got Polish attire on. So he's got like a curved Sabre and he's got like the the Polish colt and the Polish hat from the Renaissance period. Just because I had this idea that maybe in the future if the Kickstarter was really successful, then people really liked Slim. We could branch out and do dwarfs with themes from all over the world and or different elements of fantasy and tie them
into one range. Which I think like one of the cool things about fantasy is you can kind of just do anything and mix stuff together and make interesting figures that hopefully people like to paint. Yep, for sure, mate. Yeah. I think your range of dwarves are going to be released on Kickstarter.
Now this is going to happen. It's currently now, Saturday the 11th of May, but it'll be for you tomorrow, I suppose it's it's, it's evening now when we're recording this, so maybe tomorrow morning it it it it launches. Is that right? Yeah, it's, it's half, it's just past half 10 now and it will launch tomorrow morning at 10:00. Right. OK, I'm. A little bit excited, little bit. I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight. No, mate, I don't think so.
Yeah, I think you'll be very much quite nervous or not nervous, but just just, just, yeah, slightly anxious about everything. And that must be a I've never run a Kickstarter, so I can just imagine the the level of, well, not maybe not stress, but just like you just don't know how it's going to go. And you know how successful, you just pray it's going to be successful and a lot of people jump onto it and start supporting you on it.
It's it's it's definitely different to my last Kickstart, which was like historical figures. So doing fantasy is completely new. And you mentioned that we started sculpting these in 2020. Well, Sergio started sculpting him in 2020. I just sent over this is what I would like, please. And long lists of. I would like him to look like this and to be armed with this weapon and to be in this pose. And Sergio somehow turn those into actual nice figures.
But we had a little bit of bad luck along the way, which delayed it a bit. So I'm I'm half excited that we finally got to the point where I can go to Kickstarter tomorrow and also very, very nervous about how the response is going to be once the kick start is actually live because you kind of you don't know how many people are going to back, are you going to be successful? But I hope that we've done everything that we can do to this point to try and spread the
word about them. I managed to get some really nice paint jobs, which you've probably seen on Facebook and Instagram by a guy called Interstellar Simeon who's in New Zealand. His painting style has really the the figures looked great, sculpted and cast. I think his painting style has really took on to the next level because it's kind of reminiscent of the old school style of painting, but we've kind of like modern techniques and a modern twist, if that makes sense. Yep, I just.
I just started following him back. I didn't realize he was following me on Instagram. So Interstellar, I'm now following you back. Yeah, he's really a great painter. I didn't realize he's from New Zealand, a very, really talented painter. So I'm glad that your dwarves are in the hands of someone who's as talented as Interstellar and he's doing us absolute superb job on those. So well done to him. And yeah, like I said, it's just taken to the next level, absolutely.
Yeah, there's there's a part of me that obviously I want them to fund because I want to be able to sell them and stock them and get them into the hands of gamers. But also, I'm really excited to see him paint the other SO yourself because he hasn't done yet, just to get them in my own collection and get them on the tabletop as well. Yes, they're they're a range of dwarves that you know.
Looking at the various different types of dwarves that Sergio has sculpted and beautifully so they can be used for role-playing. They could be used for your games of Whammer Fantasy Battle. You could rank them up on the square bases, and you could easily fit them into third edition, 4th edition, 5th edition, 6th edition Armies, and so on. So there's there's a great range of different types of sculpts and different, you know, adventurers or heroes or just
rank and file guys. But they all have their sort of individual flair and character to them. And they're beautifully detailed but not overly detailed. And I like that about these monitor models as well. They have a simplicity to them. They have lots of big long beads and, you know, big gloves and big hand weapons. They're nice, iconic emblems or something on top of their Helms.
They have the the sort of chivalry look, and they have other other models that look very reminiscent of the drunken dwarves, for example, with their big beer steins and that kind of thing. So yeah, there's there's a great, wonderful array of different types of models where people could use them for various different things, but I could definitely see them used in role-playing games and board games. Yeah, like that.
Yeah. Interstellar Simeon took some great pictures of them with his Hero Quest set up and they look really good in Hero Quest They do. Personally I had in mind more time because I really love more time. I loved it when I was a kid, like dwarven treasure hunters, but there are a couple of figures in there that there's a couple of Wizards. So I just have Frost Grave in mind as well because I've I've really wanted to try Frost Grave for a while.
So I thought, you know, I could do a more time war band. I can do a Frost Grave war band. They can fit in with my 6 edition dwarfs. Yep. I think yeah, no, I think there's there's, yeah, there's there's lots of different avenues we can take these dwarves and if anything that is beautiful to collect and paint for a For a painter out there who's just interested in dwarves, I'm a I'm a I'm a huge dwarf fan.
And yeah, like I said I was just, I was just straight away just drawn to the style of Sergio's sculpts. I think they're just they heart back, like you say back to the earlier days of when dwarves were done by Michael and Alan Perry and then later by Ali Morris and those kind of ranges from Citadel and Marauder miniatures. So they have that kind of aesthetic values which I really resonate with a lot, but done in a very sort of modern style.
Now they're all hand designed, they're not 3D sculpted, these are designed with green stuff by Sergio's hands and they're just beautiful. They've got lots of character, lots of wonderful little details in there, even though they they look on the surface nice and simplistic, which I love about them. They're all single piece models, but they have little little intrinsic details in there which capture their spirit I think which is lovely that Sergio
captured in those models. Yeah, we've tried to make everyone have a little bit of a character and a little bit of almost a back story when you look at them. One of the things we found hard was we've done a few nights and we wanted them all to have like an animal on top of their helmet, trying to clean with animals that feel dwarvish. So like, one of them's got a ball.
One of them that I really like has a hedgehog, and then he has a Mace, which kind of matches the hedgehog, which I kind of like that. We went all out with the the dwarf king. So he's got a lion on his helmet, he's got a crown with a lion on top, and then the lion's got his own little crown on top of that. So I just feel like super dwarfish. They're just crowns on crowns on crowns.
And obviously it's just it's really, really cool to be able to go to someone like Sergio and go, I really want to make a dwarf. I want to make him look old school and he's into it as well because he loves dwarfs and he loves old school Warhammer fantasy. So he was like, oh, what? What about if we do this? We've we've got to figure out a wizard that kind of looks like Merlin with the with the big hat and a little walking stick and a
little crystal ball. Like some of those ideas that he came up with for the range when I was like, how can we make a wizard but make it a bit tongue in cheek and make it a bit fun? And Sergio was like, oh, let's try this. And then it it works way better than what I probably would have gone for. Because it's kind of nice that because he's into Warhammer Fantasy, he's into old school miniatures, he's into that kind of aesthetic. It's really nice to bounce ideas off each other.
Yep, no, I think Sergio is the the perfect person to undertake this project and then you've got the perfect painter also to to visualize this in colour. So it's a wonderful project. Now obviously the the, the scale of these miniatures suit perfectly with the older existing ranges of third edition, 4th edition, 5th edition. So they fit on 20 mil Slaughter Square bases perfectly and they all sort of rank up and that kind of thing which is nice.
And also they are coming in metal and I I I presume you have a resin range also available for people in the Kickstarter, is that right? Actually initially we planned to do resin and metal, but due to cost we've decided to just stick with only metal for this range. I kind of like metal because it it feels old school. I really like when you pick up a movement tray and it's really heavy with the figures on top. There's just something nice about it.
Yeah, when you're carrying a carry case and your army is a bit of a workout. At the same time, I've always, I've really enjoyed just ranks and ranks of metal. I've been really lucky actually, because the cast is, I live in just outside Birmingham and the cast is in Birmingham. So I've been really lucky in the sense that I've been able to get cast quite quickly and they're really high quality and I'm
really proud of them. And I can't wait for people to to see them in real life and put their own spin on how to paint them. Because right now we've had the obviously the majority of the range has been painted by Interstellar Simeon. I don't know if you saw we shared a paint job by Angelo Dicello. He recently sent him one of the characters and Angelo instantly for it looks like a dwarf from Warhammer Quest. He gave it a paint job and it was really cool to see it
painted. Not how I imagined it in my head, yeah, but still looking absolutely awesome. Yeah, he base. He base it off one of Dave Gallagher's artworks of the White Dwarf, and he did a beautiful job on it. I I must admit. Yeah, he's really, really nice, very another talented guy out
there. So it's great to see so many people coming together that you've met or connected with that really enjoy and love your products and then really want to, you know, showcase those in the best light possible with these amazing paint jobs. Now, of course, we're talking a lot about these things and it's a very visual medium, obviously, these miniatures and the paint jobs that we're talking about.
So to see them before the Kickstarter, if you want to get a glimpse of what these miniatures look like, would Facebook be the best place to go to check them out, Jamie. Yeah, mostly. Most of the images are uploaded to Facebook. I've kept a few back that I'll share during the Kickstarter. There's some on my Instagram
page with not quite as many. It's kind of playing catch up, and obviously on the Kickstarter itself there'll be tons of images, including scale comparisons, some images of them on the table top, some images of the greens before they get casted, just in case you're interested in seeing, and obviously the paint drops. Yes, that's how I discovered you through infamous JT on Facebook and on Instagram as well. I'll leave links for people in the the description and show
notes for the podcast. So then go straight down there. They can click on those links, they can be redirected to those sites so they can actually see and visualize the miniatures straight away. And hopefully by the time they listen to this, then the Kicks Kickstarter will have launched and they can go straight away to the Kickstarter page, which I'll leave a link in there for as well.
And then they can be. Then they can decide, oh how how many of these models can I get for my money and have them delivered in beautiful cast metal? Now the metal they're they're using, is it sort of like a hard metal or soft metal? It's a hard metal. It's the first time I've worked with this caster and I was really impressed by how just how sturdy the metal is.
Like, it's not easy to, you know, sometimes when you order a metal blister pack and the swords are bent and you've got to bend them back, that's not really an issue with this metal. And they did mention to me that it has a very, a very, very low almost lead free alloy, which is also good. If you're concerned about those sort of things like there's going to be no lead rot or anything like that and there's
not that much clean up on them. Obviously, you've got a little bit of a mold line here and there like you expect, but the the casts are really clean. I'm really proud of them, to be honest. Yeah mate, that's great. They saw them with a cast in white metal, so that that's a nice sturdy metal, which is what you want. So that's really. What should be a dwarf should be inside? Absolutely. That's right. They're rock hard mate.
That's all their beer they'd been drinking I think so now that that's a really wonderful range.
I'm really happy just for you mate to see this actually out as a Kickstarter because it was kind of yeah, this is these are the greens Sergio designing for us and it sort of just like I said went from 2020 now in 2024. So it's a it's a long term project, yeah, but obviously you need obviously funds to fund this and it's not a not a not a cheap endeavour to do something like this to have someone sculpt the models for you and then you know organizers for a Kickstarter and everything.
So it's been a long journey, but now it's been. Now it's been realized, mate. Yeah, I mean we, we estimated when we began 2020 that it would take us maybe two years. We had a bit of bad luck, without going into too much detail, that. When they initially arrived in the UK, quite a few of them were damaged by customs and they had to get sent back to Spain to be repaired. And in that time one of the original casters I was using was
not only the casting. So then I had to find a new caster and I also like I got hit with like a massive VAT bell by customs, which was really, really harsh when it's possible they broke the miniatures, we're not sure if it was customs or post. So to to them get hit, so they had to be sent back to Spain and repaired. Then they came back to the UK and we got them cast.
And then it's really been, it's almost been a little bit of a blessing in disguise because I think the hype around the old world and what I'm a fantasy at the moment has kind of driven a lot of traffic to them on the Internet. Yeah, so maybe it was meant to be that way. It was just, you know, perfect timing. Now people are interested in fantasy again, People are
interested in square bases. One thing I'll mention is all the paint jobs by instead of Simeon are on circle bases, but every sculpt does fit on a 20 mil square, because that was really important for me because to me, 20 mil squares, that's the perfect base for rank and foe. Yeah, that's. A good That's a good good topic too. The bases, Will they actually be supplied with bases for the for the?
Miniatures. So they won't come with bases, because when I asked on Facebook, some people were like, I want them on 25 mil circles. Some people were like I want them on 25 mil squares. Some people were like I want
them on 20 mil squares. And some people like the the kind of lit bases, the 30 mil ones for like skirmish games like Malophile and War Machine. What I'm going to do is I am going to stock bases on my web store so that when people actually after the Kickstarter, once they've pledged and paid and they tell me exactly what they want, if they want to, they can add a pack of bases of their choice for maybe just a couple of quid, do you know what I mean?
So in that way you choose the exact basis you want because it's kind of annoying when you get a if I have to build the pack of the cost of the bases into the park and then not the bases you want, it's a bit of a waste on your side. That's right. Yep. No, that's a good idea mate. That's a good idea, Jamie. I think that's a great idea and people get what they want and then they can base them how they how they want. So that's a very nice idea in in the kick startups.
So, so we've gone through all of that. We've gone through the and now there's A and then the the entire range. How many models are going to be presented on Kickstarter for people to purchase? So there's going to be 41 miniatures in total. One of them is a pony, one of them is a dog. I do like to try and get an animal in every range, yeah.
And that the rest of the dwarfs, obviously, yeah, they're in, they're in. List the packs of three for the most part, except for the pony who's in a pack of two, just because the the pony metal really does weigh quite a lot. So you get the pony and the hand there in that pack and there will be different pledge levels. So there'll be like a pick and mix pledge level where you can just pledge.
If you want 4 blisters, you pledge for four blisters and that's it. It's at a discount on the Kickstarter. There's like a starter warband which is 14 models, and then there's like a one of everything played, which is at an even bigger discount. One thing I wanted to do on Kickstarter, which is maybe not normal or like a bit different to most Kickstarters, is there
aren't any stretch goals. What I really wanted to do was go. We've done 41 models, people have been waiting for them for a long time. We're going to release all 41, but as a thank you we're going to give discounts of between 7 and 15% depending on how much you buy. And by not having those stretch goals, it means that I can have like a clear target of exactly how much I need to raise and we can just get them into people's hands quicker because they've already been master moulded in
metal. Some of them have been production moulded in metal already and there's a handful of packs that still need to be production molded and then quality control checks and then it's just fulfilment, so it should touch wood, be quite a quick fulfilment process. Because we haven't had stretch goals, we're not delaying time schools in more models and making more molds. We've already started the process. OK, that's great mate. Well, I think that's a good
idea. I think that's a good way to approach it. And like I said, a lot of people have been waiting for a long time. I know Jerry from on Tabletop has been chomping at the bit to have these models in his hands. So I know Jerry would be very, very happy to see this he gave. Me, the idea when I was talking earlier about some of the Knights, One of the Knights has a squirrel on his helmet and that's because Jerry's profile pitch is always a squirrel. He's right.
One day. He popped up one day and I thought, oh, that's a great animal to to go on a little dwarf's helmet. So cheers for that, Jerry. Well I'm, I'm happy that Jerry's you know, Totem animal has been embedded in one of those dwarves. So he'll that'll be his favorite character. No don't no doubt. And his games of whatever he's playing. So that's excellent.
That's great. So yeah, like Jamie said like I'm really happy it's it's coming to full fruition for you and then you know it's going to be a launch tomorrow. You're not going to get a lot of the sleep, but I'm sure people will appreciate that this is now an official thing, a physical thing that has been produced. I can see the miniatures, they can see it's been they've been cast, it's a it's a real thing if they go to your Facebook group or you go to Instagram.
I'm just looking at a a scale comparison. So people just worried about the the size of these miniatures, because, you know, because a lot of modern miniatures are sort of upscaled compared to the older figures. But you have the classic Warhammer Quest dwarf alongside one of your dwarves, which kind of is in inspiration of that white dwarf I guess. And then you have one of the plastic Hira quest Chaos Warriors.
So you get a nice sort of very look at different sort of scales of different periods, and your dwarves sort of blend in and match in perfectly height, wires and size to those old classic models. Yeah, on the Kickstarter we'll have some more scale comparisons as well with some more modern Games Workshop skeletons, Some Frost Grave miniatures. There's a metal necromancer. I can never say his name, I think it's Kemla or Kremla. I don't know if you remember him
from 6th. Edition The Heinrich Kemla. Yes, there's a we've got a scale comparison with him because he's quite a good representation of a human figure from that period. So people would be able to hopefully look at them and have a good idea of how they'll scale up with their existing collections. Yes, I'm looking at that right
now. So it's got yeah figures from various different manufacturers like modern GW through to you know independent you know model companies your models in there and then highlight Heinrich Kamila is right at the end there. So that's cool. Yeah that's a that's a great looking another another great example of size size comparison and scale. So people should go and check that out.
If they if they, if they're kind of worried about because it's it's one of the concerns I suppose most people have. You know, are these miniatures going to fit in with my old school miniatures? And the answer to that is yes, they definitely are. Yeah, I mean with this we wanted to do everything old school. That's why we went to kind of a traditional sculptor as well, to get that old school feel where things aren't quite perfect but they have a lot of salt.
If that makes sense. Because I do like digital schools, but sometimes they can be so perfect that they kind of lack the old school feel a little bit. So we kind of I wanted an old school sculptor. I wanted them casting that, or I wanted them to match my old school figures. I wanted them to be the models that I couldn't afford when I was a kid and I'm pocket money.
No mate, that's great. I'm really happy for you like I said and I'm just going to wish you all the all the very best and I hope you make a million bucks out of it mate. So try try to get a little bit of sleep before tomorrow and at tomorrow it's 10 AM GMT, European GMT time is that when it launches the? Kickstarter 10 AM GMT. All right. OK mate, so. About 11 hours from now. 11 hours. You got time to get some 40 winks in there between then and
now or now and then. So look mate, I hope, hope everything goes well for you. I'll be following the campaign along. I don't think I can afford to pledge on anything, unfortunately, but I'll be. I'll be trying to help promote the Kickstart as much as I can for you through the podcast as it's going to be released today.
So people have a bit of a heads up and they can, they can know about it, they get notified, and then hopefully that'll drag a few more people, a few more eyes onto the Kickstarter for you. And then they can sort of think about whether they're going to pledge or not. How long is the Kickstarter going to go for? So it's going to go for 28 days,
4 weeks. Oh wow, OK, they've got plenty of time then, so it's to save their pennies or to sell stuff they don't need and to refund it for this project. So I really wanted. To Yeah, no excuse guys. I really wanted to give as many people the opportunity to pledge and take advantage of the discount as possible. So that's kind of why we've gone for a bit of a longer campaign.
Because one thing that I should probably mention is the Kickstarter is EU friendly, which is exclusively for the Kickstarter. Normally orders placed through my web store because I'm not that registered, they're not EU friendly and there might be customs charges.
But for the Kickstarter, they're going to be dispatched from within the EU and the you need like customs or VAT charges will be covered by by me, I guess by infamous JT, just to make them a little bit more accessible to gamers in Europe. Because that was one of the biggest kind of feedbacks we've had since 2020. Is, am I going to have to pay a fortune in customs? Am I going to have to pay a fortune in VAT? So luckily for the Kickstarter, at least they are EU friendly. Excellent.
Excellent. OK, that's really good to hear. And that, yeah, that's always a concern, isn't it? With Kickstarter, you know, how much do I need to pay when it gets here? You know, that's the that's the other concern. So you've answered that, which which would be a relief to many of dwarf lovers out there who are eager to get these models into their hands and to support you on Kickstarter. So Jamie, so look mate, thank you very much for coming on The Chronic and a podcast.
And like I said, I'll leave links for everything that people need to know about the Kickstarter and about your infamous JT pages on Facebook and Instagram and a website if there is one. Because it's not only dwarves you do you do other other models as well. Historical ranges and and which are really nice actually. I love the paint jobs on those models also. So yeah, you got a wealth of great products there that I think people should check out if they haven't seen it already.
Thanks so much for having me and for all the support and the shares. I really appreciate it. No problem, Jamie. All the. Best mate. And yeah, let's see those dwarves in people's hands and get them painted on the table, mate. Let's do it. OK mate. Take care. Thank you. Cheers. Bye.