Desert of the Dead, fantasy wargaming miniatures!

Santa has been delivering pledges all over, happy new year!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Jan 02, 2021 at 01:52:12 AM

Hey all

Hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Great to see lots of pledges are arriving now, please send me pics of painted minis as soon as possible!

Not all EU orders have made it out of the warehouse yet due to the chaos caused by the border closures last week. Our couriers refused to take any EU post as did Royal Mail. Once they reopened they said they had too large a backlog to deal with and so delayed pick ups even further only taking small amounts of extra shipments. Nightmare! From what we understand regarding the trade deal it is unlikely any packages will see a duty charge within the EU but please let us know via messages if you are charged anything so we can raise it with the delivery company and hopefully they will do something about it.

We are all back in the warehouse from Monday and will continue to deal with the last orders that need picking. If you are still waiting then hopefully the great feedback we are getting from people who have had their pledges helps to know it will be worth it :D

Laniston has been posting some photos of models they have built!

Oh and a video unboxing too!

See you all next week

EU orders all fulfilled
over 3 years ago – Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 02:08:29 AM

Hey all

While we still aren't quite finished with everything (sorry if you are one of the people still waiting) we have managed to get all of the orders facing a potential Brexit issue down to the packing room. If you are in the EU (and not in the UK) and your backerkit is not showing as dispatched by end of play Monday 21st (actually updating the pledges to shipped is taking Katie quite a while today!) then please get in touch via messages or [email protected] so we can check on it.

Now we can focus on the UK and Non EU orders that remain, roughly 160 of them. The last orders from the 1200 are here, part picked and awaiting the last pieces to be built and checked off. If you are part of this then I am sorry for the continued wait to get you your models but we really are sorting and posting as quickly as is humanly possible. The white tickets on the front of each box detail what is still needed for that order. Scanning over them some say nothing more than 'winged sphinx' which means we literally just have to pick that parts for a winged sphinx, check the other items off and get it down to the packing room. However some say dead army, elf army etc which means there is a little more picking involved. As an example of how these boxes can grow when those items are added below is one that evolved from this box into an ultimate pledge.

We've been getting awesome feedback on the miniatures as they have been arriving. It really gives us all a boost as we check that 130th elven spear in a row for a bubble! A couple from yesterday were real smile enducers!

-------

'Greetings ladies and gentlemen, actually I dont want to ask something, I would like to give you a feedback about your really amazing miniatures. Yesterday I got my order by surprise (actually forgot about it because of other projects...my bad). And the miniatures were really amazing I sat there after building in awe for the whole evening. You did a really fantastic job. Thats also why I made instantly a new order today, I am really looking forward to this. You are doing absolut stunning work, keep on going.'

-------

'Hello,

 I received my order tonight, and these models are... AMAZING !!!

 Is there a time limit before the "preorder" is over on Kickstarter ? I'm eager to buy more from you but my bank account is asking for mercy at this point.

 Cheers'

-------

No planned update next week as the team are all off Thursday - Monday for Christmas. While some of us will be in to do a bit more picking the postal companies aren't collecting until the following week.

If you are one of the people still waiting! Sorry again, if I could get it to you faster I would. I can only thank you for your continued patience, forgiving my repeated misjudged optimism when trying to set dates for getting this completed and I am in the messages should you want to yell at me or ask me any questions!

I wish you all a very merry Christmas from myself (Louis) and all at TrollTrader/TTCombat

Pick, Pack, Ship, Repeat
over 3 years ago – Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 02:57:07 PM

Hey all

Same ol' same ol' this week. We are picking, packing and shipping!

I have seen a few comments asking what items are holding up the orders. None! We have all the resin made its now just the time it takes to pick it, check it, pack it and ship it which is creating the bottle neck. With it being mostly the larger orders remaining (there are some small ones too) we just struggle to check everything off in good time. Once the models are made we still have to then make them into units. Making 10,000+ miniatures (Elf Spears) into 20 model regiments with command and bases is actually super time consuming.

Then its onto the next 10,000 miniatures (Elf Crossbows). Then someone comes along and picks those built regiments for an order and then someone else checks the order has been picked correctly before someone else packs the order and it goes onto our courier men (Rich and Fin) who check lots of companies daily to ensure the best viable options are used to get your package to you. If you are still waiting to see your order move over to dispatched on backerkit then it really won't be much longer. Thank you for your continued patience. I'm in the messages if you need to get hold of me!

Not quite finished but almost!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Dec 04, 2020 at 05:56:36 PM

Hey all!

A few weeks back I laid out how I thought we could have all of the pledges out of the door by today. It has proven to have been a little optimistic but wasn't too far off. The time for picking was a bit of guess work as we had a lot of orders partially made up and I didn't correctly factor in the time it would take to have a second person check each of them prior to shipping! Rather than tell you all its on the way and sneakily ship the remaining packages over the coming weeks I think its important to be open and honest with all this stuff. As it stands we have a few hundred (3-400) orders left to ship (from 1200 or so) and many of these are already partially picked.

We created a whole new picking area downstairs so the moment people who work in other departments are free they can lend a hand to our DOTD team to check orders and get them into the packing room. While we didn't get everything out the door by today as hoped we are SO close.

The postal companies informed us that the 21st of this month is the last day of shipping to get Europeans their goods before Brexit at the end of the Month. We are going to be well within that when it comes to these last packages. We shipped 80 yesterday! Keep an eye on your backerkit statuses!

I have handled a lot of these miniatures over the past couple of months and I have to say I am super proud of the figures this campaign has produced. While there have been delays the two models above are examples of how a little extra time allowed us to improve upon original sculpts to arrive at a far better final product.

So your orders are on the way, what to do next

Rejoice, pat yourself on the back, you made this happen! Open your package and enjoy your models. Check them over and let us know if there are any problems with what you have received. No issues? Then get painting and send me photos! [email protected]

If you have a problem with your order

Email [email protected] with pictures of any problems and we will sort it!

Coming to a close

Even though we are now in the end game and there isn't a lot of production info etc to share. I will be back next week and each Friday for a couple of weeks yet so that I can share images of peoples painted models. I'm always in the messages each Friday and the comments too! I will also give you some counts of total models produced, total moulds we had to make etc etc :)

Black Friday
over 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 09:55:23 PM

Hey all!

Happy black Friday everyone! Sorry that I haven't had time for a proper update today. It has just been too busy in the warehouse for me to get on here with anything substantial! I will come back on earlier than normal next week!

I did spot this awesome RUMBLESLAM team on facebook though

I also snapped a pic in the mould room earlier. See anything you can identify? Shout out if you do!

Wouldn't leave without a spoiler!