Can kickstarter revive Car Wars minis

[MongolHorde]

I never played CW with minis (even at the one GenCon event I participated in,) but wouldn't mind minis. But, I would think a better (ish) option would be to go with plastic / resin minis, rather than pewter. Both from a cost standpoint, and a packaging standpoint.

Pewter minis would either bang around the box and damage each other and the box, unless additional funds were spent to package the minis in protective foam or the like.

Injection molded plastic minis could possibly be left on the sprue (reducing banging into stuff) and even if they weren't would be less likely to take damage. Yes, plastic wouldn't take the fine detail pewter would, but it'd be minis. Heck, mold them with a "notch" in the middle for people who want more heft to add material (scraps from old pewter / lead minis, lead tape, or fishing weights mushed with pliers.)

[ak_aramis]

Plastic and Resin, in GOOD molds, hold as much or more detail than pewter. (And both more than the old lead-antimony mix used for most minis prior to the lead ban.)

The thing is, durability of that detail. Both on the minis, and on the molds. The detail level for 1"=15' ("x1") scale is low enough resolution that most weapons can just be painted on anyway, and/or barrels made from guitar strings, glued into drilled holes. A G string would be a decent size for MG-class barrels...

[philreed]

If I get a vote those old minis won't be used. They were okay for their time, but we could do a much better job today. I learned some tricks in China that could make minis a lot more realistic an option.

[swordtart]

I do not want stuffed kittens in sailor suits in my boxed set ;)

And I could have gone soooooo many other places.

[Kenigma]

I think the minis are cool, but that market will be a (likely small) subset of the Car War community, which is itself pretty small. SJG would have to find a way to make then and turn a profit. I think counters are the way to go with minis being something to make for the die-hards willing to play it. I'm sure scale will come into play there too... if they go with the old school tiny scale I'm sure the minis would be cheap to make... you'd also need a magnifying glass and tweezers to move them!

[owenmp]

I wish the cars (and the Dreadnought!) from Death Race would have been released as die cast metal miniatures in 3X Car Wars scale.

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by philreed

If I get a vote those old minis won't be used. They were okay for their time, but we could do a much better job today. I learned some tricks in China that could make minis a lot more realistic an option.

I'm glad to hear that, Phil. I wouldn't buy the old minis. They look like metal blobs.

I would buy new minis if they looked sharp (or could look sharp when painted) and didn't break the bank.

I had thought that the best route would be to choose a scale (perhaps N model railroading scale) that would let Car Wars players find a lot of vehicles from other sources. However, if you can affordably offer a good selection of vehicles for Car Wars, so much the better.

[Pacey]

Depending on scale*, 3D printing might be an option.

* Scale here could be one or both of the following: Game scale; Scale of production.

[Kenigma]

Originally Posted by Pacey

Depending on scale*, 3D printing might be an option.

* Scale here could be one or both of the following: Game scale; Scale of production.

That would be really sweet... made to order minis! Many of the 3D printers are becoming more affordable. I've considered one in the past, but had not real cause to buy one.... however if I could buy the files and a printer I could mass produce cars in the size I wanted... and conquer the world!!!

OK, maybe not that last part...

[KWScott]

Originally Posted by Kenigma

if I could buy the files and a printer I could mass produce cars in the size I wanted...

...sell them for profit using someone else's intellectual property.

I think there's a lot of legal wranglings before selling and distributing 3D design files.