The Second Kickstarter is Underway...

So far, the response to the Mounted Dwarf Musketeers Kickstarter has been encouraging. About half of the backers were supporters of the first Kickstarter. It is gratifying to see so many supporters returning. Thanks to you all.

You can find the new Kickstarter here. It will run until noon on Friday, September 11. The money raised will be used to put the Mounted Dwarf Musketeers into production -- and the premiums are nice, too.

As with the dismounted Dwarf Musketeer Duelists, there are 24 variants of the Dwarf Mounted Musketeers -- more if, like me, you like get creative with the separate-head variants and special hands. Here are a few images of painted precasts, just to whet your appetite.

The above figures use the same separate-head system as the Dwarf Musketeer Duelists and, since the heads are compatible across the entire range, you can have mounted and dismounted versions of the same figure, if you like:

The following Mounted Dwarf Musketeers are modeled as pistoleers using the Pistols and Saddle Holsters hand set.

I'm particularly pleased with the ponies, although I cannot take credit for them in any way. They were originally sculpted for White Knight Miniatures and are used with his kind permission. At Iron Mask Miniatures, we call them the Four Ponies of the Apocalypse:

And we've introduced some new Personalities as well. These are being given away as stretch goals, although they can also be purchased as add-ons.

First, there is the mounted version of the halfling duelist Dart Onion:

And, of course, a mounted version of the Dwarf Cardinal:

And finally, both mounted and dismounted versions of Basile le Fou.

Basile is a fun figure. Mounted, he has his reins in his teeth as he fires away with both pistols. Dismounted, he holds a rapier in his left hand and fires a pistol with his right.

Second Kickstarter

The second Kickstarter is almost ready to submit to KS for approval. Although I've had the master castings and precasts in hand for nearly four months, there was still a lot of waiting time while things came together. I wanted the riders to sit more upright, so John reworked the bodies to give them a better fit. Also, although the ponies were near-perfect as is, we needed to level the seat to help maintain good dwarf posture for the riders. You'll be pleased with the results, I think. Finally, the saddle holsters were a bit too large, so they had to be redone. I'll put aside the masters for the larger holsters in the hopes that I'll be able to use them for the dwarf duelists in civilian dress. Finally, I had to give Terry Matheny of Sword and Palette a reasonable amount of time to get all that painting done. (Terry is a saint.) And then the photographing... Don't get me started.

I took advantage of my marathon photography sessions to add pics to the price list on this blog. There are now painted examples of  nearly all of the figures.

The rest of this blog is comprised of images I won't be using for the Kickstarter but are not quite bad enough to throw away. These vignettes are part of  my history of  the War of the Halfling Succession (about which more later).  Enjoy...

The Musketeer Company deploys for battle...

The Dwarf Musketeers break the charge of the Walloon Boars:

The Skirmish at Le Royale:

Enjoying the adoration of the crowd: