Landsknecht Zweihänder sculpts (Great Swords)

[Ivan]

Also, and I should have thought of this before, why not submit a news item to TMP?  That will get a lot more visibility than a a mere thread.  Just be sure to do it several days in advance if the close of the kickstarter, because there is always a lag between when the stories are sent in, and when they get posted.

[Dave]

I tried, TMP doesn't accept news any longer from non-advertisers:

http://theminiaturespage.com/faq/news.mv

[lawhock76]

Great job Dave,

I'm in for 8-12 in a few days time :0)
I think I need two sworded skirmishers, pike and shooters more than the
Swordsmen, esp as I missed Wm before it was discontinued!

If we don't make it to pike, when will you likely start a new kick starter
For it? Need halibardiers etc too...

I'll post up links on warseer and taccoms soon :0)

[Dave]

There's already threads on TC and WS, but more publicity wouldn't hurt.

We'll see how the first KS works out. They take 10% in fees, I'm curious to find out what that really nets you in terms of advertising though. Only two of my backers were direct from KS.

[forbes]

A couple of  hidden benefit of using KS may be:

1) Backers will see a KS as more 'trust worthy' than directly backing an individual, see even if the KS hasn't brought in a lot of new people, it probably has allowed people who have seen the figures on forums to be more likely to pledge for them.

2) You will get the promised money - Pendraken did a self-organised set of funding for their recent Mongols, and while they got a good amount promised - they had a high (40% IIRC) of backers who didn't follow through their pledge with actual payment, which made the whole thing rather less successful financially.

[Lex]

You also got a mention on "Out of the Box" at BoLS, because you ran a KS

[Dave]

1) Backers will see a KS as more 'trust worthy' than directly backing an individual, see even if the KS hasn't brought in a lot of new people, it probably has allowed people who have seen the figures on forums to be more likely to pledge for them.

I don't know if I buy in to the whole "trust worthy" thing. I haven't been burned on KS but apparently others have. There's a guy over on my recent TGN post saying that that's why I need more "hand holding" updates, which I've avoided because I personally loathe updates that say absolutely nothing has changed.

I can see your second point about getting the money though, the closest thing I can come with with that mimics the Kickstarter model would be a "the more you buy, the more you save" sale to help fund a new unit, and when that new unit is available you would get it shipped to you (free) for the sale price. That would mean I'm affectively absorbing the second shipping cost, which may or may not be cheaper than the 10% fees.

In any case, it's been a learning experience. If I do another one I don't think I'll be announcing any stretch goals ahead of time, if only to see if it reduces the number of cancellations/pledge reductions.