Pendraken Plans for 2020!

Started by Leon, 11 January 2020, 09:32:50 PM

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Leon

Welcome to a new decade!  After a virus at Pendraken HQ wiped out the past 3 weeks we're back on track and looking ahead again! 

We've got some big plans for the next few years so 2020 is going to be the 'Year of Getting Stuff Done!', getting the decks cleared a little so that we can push on into the open water beyond.  Let's have a look and see what's going to be happening at Pendraken HQ:

Greeks/Persians
Our first release of this year will be the Ancient Greek and Persian revamp.  All of the Greeks have been moulded and are ready to go, while the Persians just need production moulding.  The plan is to get that done over the next fortnight and have these ready for release before the York show (and before the price increase...!)

Price Increase
There's a small price increase coming on February 1st, more details on that here: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,19346.0.html

Revamped Samurai
Following on from the Ancients will be our revamped Japanese range, which was previewed here: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,18880.0.html  This new comprehensive range will be a huge improvement on the existing figures, and once we've got the Castle Arts buildings back into production alongside them, we should have the best Feudal Japanese offering in the 10mm market.  We might even have a look at some rules for the period as well...

TB Line
The gift that keeps on giving, we'll be trying to get the last two TB Middle Ages ranges back into production, with the Islamics and Mongols still outstanding.  Those should be completed by the summer, all being well.  The remaining ranges are all Ancients and are a slightly older sculpting style to the later figures.  These will probably benefit from some work to the sculpts themselves, making them a bit more detailed and better proportioned, so we'll be getting that done before moving to new master and production moulds.

Not-Kickstarter
We'll be running another Not-Kickstarter project around March/April time, to produce comprehensive Napoleonic Peninsular ranges covering the British, Spanish and Portuguese.  We're working on the range lists for this at the moment and we'll have more news once we're closer to launch.  Sculpting on these will take 3 or 4 months so we'd be looking to get them into production in time for Christmas.

Other Ranges
Looking forward to new ranges to be sculpted...
Crimean revamp - This will be our first range after / at the same time as the Peninsular stuff.  We were hoping to have started this already but the illness has scuppered our research time.
Napoleonic French Guard - These have been hanging around for far too long now so we'll definitely get them sorted out and released.  Timescales should be sometime after Salute, while the sculptor is working on the Peninsular project.
Post-1950 MBT's and trucks - Martin has been working on these over the past few months and we should start to see them soon.
Korean artillery - We're a bit behind on our plans here so we'll have a chat with the sculptor and see where we are with timescales.  We want to get these finished off so that we can move on to the WWII Italian artillery.
Fantasy - We've got a lot of Fantasy work coming over the second half of 2020 probably, adding some new Amazon and Ratmen ranges, while also expanding some of the other races and monsters.

SCW Supplement
This will be our first BKC supplement to cover the Spanish Civil War.  We'll have 20-30 army lists for the different factions, as well as some historically based scenarios as well.  We're getting closer to having this complete so we should be able to release it before Salute.

Korean War Supplement
Once the above is done, we'll be moving on to a Korean War supplement as well.  Both this and the above will be released as pdfs through Wargame Vault for a small fee.  Hard copies are not planned at this stage, but we can look at a print-on-demand service if there's enough interest in it.

BKC Online Army Builder
We've got a brand new army builder currently under construction, with a view to release around Salute time.  This new software will completely replace the old BKC Battlegroups software and provide more features for a lower one-off cost.  You'll be able to save, print and share your army lists, as well as convert them to a buying list for the Pendraken website Basket.  There may also be an option to store your current armies/units and then the software will be able to calculate which new items you need to complete a new army list. 

For the longer term, this new software will be able to host multiple rulesets and lists so all of our future rules will be run through this same software.  We'll have more info on this as we get closer to launch.

Cold War Commander II
With BKC-IV complete and out there, Mark Fry has turned his attention to CWC-II.  The initial draft of the rules has been put together so we'll be checking that over before putting it out to a group of players for the first round of feedback.  A small group of people have been working through the army lists as well to expand the attack values into Anti-tank and Anti-personnel stats.  The plan for this rulebook will be to print the rules and scenarios into a hardcopy, while the army lists will be available as free pdf downloads through the Forum here.  This will allow us to update the army lists whenever we need to, without the need for additional errata lists or reprints.

Dungeon World
Another job that's been pending for far too long now, we'll finally get the Dungeon World rules revamped and get the Dungeon Sets back on sale.  We need to do some remoulding work on the monsters and furniture, as well as putting together some nice Hero groups, so this will all be a 2nd half of 2020 timescale.

Forum
Sadly the chap who looks after our Forum has been extremely busy with his day job for a long time now and hasn't been able to do the maintenance and upgrade work needed here.  Things like the apostrophe bug, new member registration, the order of the boards on the homepage being all scattered about, the newsletter function being broken, etc.  We need to transfer the Forum over to our own hosting account and then we can find a new webguy to take on the Admin of the site.  This is something I want done asap but our hands are tied until the existing webguy can transfer the domain/files.

Website Photos
With 1375 photos to be added to the website, we've still got a chunk of work ahead of us.  There is good news though as we've got several ranges away with pro-painters at the moment:
- The French-Indian Wars range is over with Kev Rouse in Hungary and should be back with us in the next few months.
- All of our WWII vehicles are with JAD Designs and he'll be sending them back up to us in batches.  The first to arrive was all of the Sdkfz 251's, which I'll be photo'ing later this month.
- The WWI British range is over with a new chap in Spain and will be coming back to us after Salute I'd expect.  We'll then be sending the Germans and French over for the same treatment.
- While that's going on, I've got all of the Dark Ages ranges blackwashed and ready to be photo'd later this month.  The Late Romans and ECW ranges will follow that, and then the GNW codes.

Minibits
On the Minibits side of things, there's not a lot planned at the moment.  We were due to do another 28mm modern Kickstarter but we lost our sculptor to the evil empire (!) and need to find a new one.  I've put that on the backburner for now and we'll start looking about in the summer I think.

We've got some new stuff coming from RedVectors though, including 28mm Wild West Wagons, 6mm Mono-rails, and then some WWII/VBCW buildings in both 20mm and 28mm options.


And that's about it I think!  There's no doubt a bit of optimism involved with a list of this size but with a larger team of people at Pendraken HQ now we should be able to move quickly through a lot of these jobs.  Let us know if there's any queries!
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

mollinary

Wow! An ambitious plan - best of luck!   
2021 Painting Competition - Winner!
2022 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up!

paulr

A really impressive list of plans, it covers a wide range of periods and looks to fit together really well :-bd =D> :-bd =D>

I hope the majority survive contact with your customers and the other vagaries of life ;)

Quote from: Leon on 11 January 2020, 09:32:50 PM
...
Greeks/Persians
Our first release of this year will be the Ancient Greek and Persian revamp.  All of the Greeks have been moulded and are ready to go, while the Persians just need production moulding.  The plan is to get that done over the next fortnight and have these ready for release before the York show (and before the price increase...!)
...

<:-P <:-P <:-P <:-P <:-P
This will let me get my Punic Wars project underway :)
And save me a bit of money which I can use on my next project
Lord Lensman of Wellington
2018 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2022 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2023 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Steve J

Well you are going to be busy this year, which is great to see :).

fsn

12 January 2020, 08:21:36 AM #5 Last Edit: 12 January 2020, 08:40:29 AM by fsn
Lots to go for there ... the one I'm most excited about is the Amazons!

Surprises me too.

That is, of course assuming they're wearing armour ... or something anyway.



Having said that ...the Greeks may need some investigating ... and the Korean war and post 1950 stuff, of course ... and Peninsula War has got to be of interest and I definitely need some more Italian artillery ... and I may just have to dip my toe into the water with the Samurai.

So ... everything apart from the Crimean War range then.

Dammit. I'm never going to be rich.


Oh, and far be it for me to disagree with the Obsidian Majesty of the Dark Lord, but it's the last year of a decade, not the first one.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Techno

Quote from: fsn on 12 January 2020, 08:21:36 AM
Lots to go for there ... the one I'm most excited about is the Amazons!

That is, of course assuming they're wearing armour ... or something anyway.

Yes...They are, Nobby.

Not SO far different from the image you posted.......But they've mostly  got 'scale mail' rather than the 'one piece' breastplate.

Cheers - Phil

FierceKitty

Sarmatian head-hunting lassies?
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Raider4

Quote from: Leon on 11 January 2020, 09:32:50 PM
. . . 6mm Mono-rails . . .

Mono-rail! Has Lyle Lanley been around with his smooth-talking patter and catchy tune?

This intrigues me, and I've no idea why? What on earth would I do with such a thing?

And yet . . .

Techno

Quote from: FierceKitty on 12 January 2020, 10:58:35 AM
Sarmatian head-hunting lassies?

I don't know. X_X.....They could be. =)....Probably...If I knew what those looked like. (Sigh)

I just get sent pretty pictures from various sauces (sic)  to 'artistically reinterpret.' and use as a 'base' :P

Cheers - Phil   ;)


Shedman


Leon

Quote from: fsn on 12 January 2020, 08:21:36 AM
Oh, and far be it for me to disagree with the Obsidian Majesty of the Dark Lord, but it's the last year of a decade, not the first one. [/size]

:P

If 2000 was the start of a new millenium then I'm going with 2020 being the start of the 20's!

Quote from: Raider4 on 12 January 2020, 11:29:48 AM
Mono-rail!  This intrigues me, and I've no idea why? What on earth would I do with such a thing?

It's a 6mm Sci-Fi set, but I'm not sure if it was designed to go with a particular game though.  I'll have the check with Mick at RedVectors and find out.
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

Morty

Looking forward to your Crimean range

Last Hussar

Will there be an "adventuring party" dungeon set, rather than having to buy multiples of each kind in a pack?
I have neither the time or the crayons to explain why you are wrong.

GNU PTerry

Leon

Quote from: Last Hussar on 13 January 2020, 02:18:14 AM
Will there be an "adventuring party" dungeon set, rather than having to buy multiples of each kind in a pack?

Yep, same as the Heroes pack we had previously.  The old one was made up of some figures that we don't sell anymore so we need to pick out a few replacements from the newer ranges.
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!