I’ve been running SLAP Miniatures for some 3 or 4 years now, having taken the initial decision to produce niche figures for table top gamers and painters, the sort of things most manufacturers would not consider. The main reason was that such figures were not available to people and therefore I’d be plugging some missing gaps in the market. (Some of you might even have heard about the infamous Pewter Ponies…a rather niche subject if there ever was one).
This business plan has worked out fairly well so far, there has been just enough interest to keep me busy and to make a little profit, but it seemed to me going forward that I should also be aiming at a bigger audience of table top gamers. I still desired to create something that would also be of interest to me personally, and having bought and enjoyed gaming with 15mm figures recently I decided that was the route to take! As a result of this new initiative, Dropship Horizon who are one of my favourite websites, have generously allowed me to post here.
I’ve just launched a new Kickstarter: “Global Defence Forces – 15mm Sci-Fi Table top Miniatures” which I’d love for you to take a look at, comment on, and hopefully join in with.
It’s a result of wanting to do something a little different with 15mm figurines. Unlike the larger scale plastic kits of soldiers where posing is easy to do, 15mm figures generally come as one piece castings, and often limited to about 10 or so poses, sometimes even less. To counteract the issue of many figures being a duplicate of one another I’ve created a starting army with 60 different poses available straight out of the box!
As rifleman are more often than not the mainstay of any army I’ve created 30 of them, trying to get in some classic poses from a well-known range of figures I used to collect and love (the older metal Cadians and Mordians) plus hip firing and aiming poses.
And then to mix in with your squads of rifleman are what I’ve dubbed specialists. All the specialised weapons and equipment any infantry force might need such as rocket launchers, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, chainswords and communications equipment.
So far I’ve sculpted one of each specialist to show what the range will be like, and there will be a further 24 specialists produced as part of this Kickstarter launch.
So ultimately even with larger armies, every squad has the possibility to appear unique once you’ve bolstered your rifle squads with the specialist troopers.
As you might have guessed, there is a little background ‘fluff’, a timeline of events and even a game behind these figures. My cousin, Michael Keown (who is an avid gamer himself) who I have been in league with has been working on a full-blown game and set of rules - needless to say when we get it finished you’ll be sure to hear all about it!
On the Kickstarter site there are some more photos of unfinished figures from other factions I am working on, and additional information regarding the future of this range if you’d care to take a look.
Stuart Powley, SLAP-Minis
