The question about B-side figurine.

[pavaro]

I know that I little release sets (I hope it change). I have vision about my figurines and I would like it come true. My sets are very time-consuming so I thought to myself what do you think about one side figurines?

Example
Are these figurines having chance on the success?

[oldschooldm]

That's two questions:
1) Would I buy Pavaro one-sided figures?
No. I only buy two-sided figures. I also only buy pre-made figures with black borders. I make no claim how many others (market share) are like me, but there are some.

2) Do the figures at printableheroes likely to be successful (sell well, if they were sold?)
Since the business model at the site is "free", the Star Wars ones are probably downloaded often. That may be a predictor of potential commercial success, but on the other hand, OBS won't carry unlicensed Star Wars material.

[Rhannon]

Jul 11, 2015 8:10:30 GMT -9 oldschooldm said:

That's two questions:
1) Would I buy Pavaro one-sided figures?
No. I only buy two-sided figures. I also only buy pre-made figures with black borders. I make no claim how many others (market share) are like me, but there are some.

2) Do the figures at printableheroes likely to be successful (sell well, if they were sold?)
Since the business model at the site is "free", the Star Wars ones are probably downloaded often. That may be a predictor of potential commercial success, but on the other hand, OBS won't carry unlicensed Star Wars material.

Indeed.

1 - You're right. I also don't buy ( except for an exception ) paper minis with only one drawn side.

2 - printableheroes has exceptional paper minis. But they are free. I support him with his Patreon. But I support him for his artistic qualities ( I really like how this guy draws and colors ), not for buying his paper minis.

Of course this is just my personal thoughts and personal preference. I prefer a half number of sets with figures with front and back art rather than the double of sets with only front art.

[cowboycentaur]

I would also be unlikely to pay money for a figure with artwork on only one side. I would probably use free ones like printableheroes but when I get to that point in my miniatures backlog I'll be drawing my own backsides for them.

Yeah it's time consuming, but it makes the miniatures look so much better. It's worth the extra effort in my opinion

[pavaro]

You're right but I have two problems.
1. The B-side figurine makes me many difficulties in drawing....
2. Alone I create my figurines and I would like create big armies with different figurines. It is ambitious plan but probably too difficult for one person...

[berneart76]

I personally much prefer figures with a proper back, I know this makes things more difficult.  I know when i start moving onto doing buildings, that I will be making them with interiors, as I know a lot of people like that as well, even though this will also create more difficulties and take more time.

All I can say is practice just drawing the backs of figures for a bit, and then try to draw the front  rather than drawing a front and then a back, and if you want large armies to limit the number of poses to 2 or 3 different ones.   I know from personal experience working with my harbors, and now with the breakwaters that there is a tendency to want to include lots of different options, so I've actually been practicing on not getting carried away with all the possible configurations, and try to distill it down to the essence or a minimal amount of options.

[wyvern]

Basic problem here is I can make single-sided paper minis very easily myself for personal use, using scanned artwork images or photos. If I'm expected to pay someone for paper minis, they need to have produced full, two-sided minis. It's like being asked to pay for a cast mini where only the front of the figure has been moulded otherwise!

[aaron]

I love the models and art from printableheroes they have some of the best art I have seen and I downloaded everyone of them. However, for the models I want to use I have to go back and draw a b-side to each one and I'll tell you why ...

I don't play RPG's. I have no use for games like dungeons and dragons or pathfinder. I play Table top war games like Infinity, malafaux, War Machiens, Warhammer Fantasy battle and 40k (except for age of sigmar but we won't talk about that one unitll it's fixed).
In most if not all the good table top war games model facing is a large part of the game. You have to draw line of site from the front ark of the model with no b-side and hundreds of models on the table you get confused as to who was facing what direction.

Also if you are looking to mass produce huge armies you are not making models for the RPG crowd (which makes up a vast majority of these forums btw), they like small sets of unique heroes, and townies they can implement in their games. With an RPG, models are nice but not necessary. Most of the game is played in your head. the models are just tokens to keep things on track and front facing with a b-side is more of a preference than a requirement.

Games like Hero Quest and their Ilk along with all good table top war games models are a necessary component of the game and a b-side is critical to game play. their are different genres of TTWG's most of the fantasy or old world stuff is regimented units that form up and slam into each-other (like armies did back in the day) they have square basses and movement trays for that purpose. Most modern and sci fi games are smaller skirmish type because guns fundamentally changed the way we did combat and the way the games play. Typically they have round basses and though most squads have to stay together in some fashion it's loose and each model is a fighting force of it's own. In all cases model facing is very important. The B-side as you call it will make the difference between a usable model and not usable model. hope this helps.

I'm making huge armies by myself BTW check out some of my free stuff here! cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/thread/6978/looking-specific-rat-men if you need any help in that department I would be more than happy to show you how I do it. if not I will shut up and go away

[pavaro]

All help is welcomed! I would like create armies but I do not want her to be an army of clones. For example, squad of infantry where each soldier has different pose and look. The squad will be contain 20-30 figurines.


I would like sell my sets but I don't know how and in my country it's not worth it .

[Vermin King]

Cowboyleland is the King of the Backsides. Okay, that doesn't sound real good, maybe 'the Reverse', but that doesn't sound any better. He has a couple posts on how he does it efficiently.

[aaron]

I understand how you feel. here's something that may help since you and I have similar style of creating. in Photoshop make your units modular. make a helmet design then copy the designs and do something a little different to the next helmet and so on it make the heads all sort of unique but still they are all apart of the same army. then you can swap heads on any model. I found that if you make 4 or five different heads then you can intermix them on many different models and they all look unique from each-other and you still have that regimented look. Like all space marines have the same basic helmet like all high elves have the same basic helmet but some have battle damage some are marked with personal touches and some have blood stains that sort of thing. it only take a few minutes to do and you have several variations on the same head. make all the bodies modular as well have a few pairs of arms and a few pairs of legs and boots and so on. It may take a little longer than just making a clone army but not much and the results can be pretty fantastic. When I was making Temporum Oblitus I was drawing a unique character for every one of the militia and I found that was taking A LONG time! so when I got to the core of humanity I started making interchangeable unique parts... I did the same thing with the Ruskins and now that I am working on the Obbs they are getting the same treatment. and if you want to be crazy complex like Dave Okum you can make multi layerd PDF's and the customer gets to mix and match the parts creating an un-ending variety of soldiers.

the biggest part of this is making stuff for yourself. I have a blast playing Temporum Oblitus with family and friends. if I never sell a copy to anyone it will still have been worth it for sure!!.

the other part of this is know your target market and find out who you are going to be selling this to. I can tell you right now it's not this crowd, LOL like I said most of these guys are RPG players and don't want to invest in huge armies. I say most, there are some but not many. If your going to make it your business then you need to know a few things I have learn.
1. random paper armies that aren't associated with any kind of game don't sell well.
2. creating a game is a long sometimes arduous process that may or may not ever generate money and will almost always be a labor of love.
3. only 1/10th of the people who say they will buy your stuff will actually buy it.
4. you have to create a core group of player who are willing to invest in your game both in time and in printing, (I have lots of people who love T.O. none of them will print it.)
5. Strong advertising is essential to any business and this is no different. Plan on spending lots of time and money on networking and advertising
6. people will give you TONS of advice it's cheep and easy, but if they don't' know what your doing specifically they will inadvertently give you lots of BAD advice. be selective about who you listen to and
first and foremost follow your hart. ( that includes me)

[pavaro]

Thanks for help. I don't want to do any game. There is already plenty of them. I love create figurines and I would like to share this love. I think about background story only for my minis. I know that long way in front of me (I do figurines for quite a few years). Drawing a separate limbs I worry that models will be look like unnaturally. With this process of drawing I don't know how match two side of model and it seems to me that I limit my imagination. I hope that you know what I mean.

[Vermin King]

For my main figures I like Front and Back, but for fill-ins I like figures with mirrored reverse. Mirrored reverse isn't a lot of effort.