Tabletop Time presents the Kindred of the Abyss - A new dark nautical themed faction of STL miniatures for printing and playing with the wargame of your choice. The Kindred are also the first faction in a unique miniature universe being developed by TTT.
From the mind of David McLennan (Tabletop Time), with art by Alysha Lowery (Tabletop Time) sculpted by Jackson Jewell (Golden Dragon Games) the Kindred of the Abyss have coalesced from the depths of our imagination and are the first faction in a range of miniatures we hope to produce. Designed for use in 28mm gaming, with a range of usability options considered, the Kindred will be the perfect addition to your warband or roster if you need void proof, nasty nautical themed warriors.
After the success of our Space Bears Kickstarter, a project stemming from Jazza's personal custom army of Space Marines, the team at Tabletop Time began brewing ideas for a game world they could all be a part of. Not only did we want a to create our own world and wargame, but we also wished to create a stable pillar of support beyond the fickle youtube algorithm, and a range of fantastic products we could be proud of.
So Dave, Jenn, Murray, Vaughn and Alysha sat down and began brainstorming, after presenting and putting forward some ideas for factions, we boiled these down to a core few that we felt could really become something special, and from here it was decided that we would choose the Kindred of the Abyss to be our first foot forward.
We then took these concepts to our Patrons as well as the wider Youtube community, determining what people would like to see next... So we are excited to declare that if this campaign is successful, Jenns 'Sisters of the Old Blood' will be next on the production line, as chosen by viewers!
The initial campaign includes three units, Kindred Reavers, vicious close combat infantry armed with harpoons, shock sticks, blades and pistols. Kindred Scourges, aggressive boarding forces, with shotguns, slab shields and rifles to hold up the stern. Finally, the Kindred Malformed, those genetically twisted by the depths to grow to unnatural size, goaded into violence. The malformed can be equipped with mine launchers, harpoon cannons, clubs or an assortment of claws and drills to be as multipurpose as possible.
All of these models have been designed by David McLennan, Alysha Lowery and Jackson Jewell, and sculpted and supported by Jackson Jewell from Golden Dragon Games. We are really proud of our partnership and our work promoting Golden Dragon Games' own IP - Marcher, Empires at War - And our work together on the Kindred has been an amazingly productive collaboration.
These miniatures are all shown below, but also represent the tip of the iceberg. With your support, we hope to reach many of our stretch goals, allowing us to produce units that expand the usability of your Kindred. From light submariner infantry that would be perfect for entire rank and file naval themed armies, to vehicles to fill in battleline roles. All the way up to our final stretch goal, the massive Landsub, the only model in our range designed purely for our upcoming game, without any known proxy options.
Our favourite campaigns all have amazing stretch goals! Where we can match the communities enthusiasm for a project with the appropriate resources to find the perfect balance - Another wonderful reason why crowdfunding is an amazing platform for these projects - We will let you take a look, and go into a little more detail below...
So... About those Stretch goals...
We wanted to take the opportunity to go a little deeper on the stretch goals, and why we have structured them the way we have. Our initial offering we believe is a fantastic selection of models already good to go and absolutely fit for purpose, but we do not want the Kindred's journey to end there. We hope that this is the very first step upon the road to creating our own miniature universe, and eventually wargame, a setting rich in characters, lore and art.
As a Youtube studio, we have a lot of responsibilities, producing weekly videos and also developing games on the side is a dream, but one that must be approached sensibly. We need to carefully balance our resources and ensure we don't lose sight of our goals. We want to be fully transparent on this development process, sharing the journey through Kickstarter updates and also videos on our channel.
Because of this, our goals are balanced between new models for the Kindred, fleshing out and expanding their range into what we envisage for our future, currently hypothetical game, and partly goals that focus on the development of this game and world. We want this to become more than just a set of miniatures, this means paying for art, lore, graphic design, pdf/book layout, even just time dedicated to game development. We are both hopeful and excited for the future we will all be creating together! We hope there's something in there for everyone to be excited about!
One of the amazing things about crowdfunding campaigns is the community support, interest and hype around a project. Often with STL campaigns, people who may wish to support the project further have no where to go and no way to. We wanted to offer a way to continue to support the project by picking up some of our previous designs and bundles at a great price. These prices will only be available as part of a Kickstarter to help fund our newest projects!
Space Bears Kickstarter Bundle
Launched last year, our Space Bears kickstarter was a massive success. Funded in a day and smashing through every stretch goal we set, Space Bears captured the heart of many a wargamer. As final stretch goals are being delivered as this campaign is launched, the Space Bear late backer bundle is going away forever. However, the ENTIRE Space Bears Kickstarter including all stretch goals will be available as an add-on for this campaign! And not only that, it will be available at its lowest price since the campaign ended at $99 AUD. All files are STL digital downloads, no physical models included.
The bundle includes an entire Army's worth of STLs:
Multipart Makwa Marines, Assault or Rifle Variants.
Makwa Devastators with Heavy Weapons
Kodiak Heavy Armored Elites
Oosan Ursa, Lord of the Space Bears character sculpt
Veteran Kodiak Lorekeeper and Shaman
Veteran Makwa Medic and Engineer
Dreadbear Cybernetic Assault Beast with Melee or Ranged options
Bear-Back Rider Bear Cavalry
Biker Bears from M-... Makwa Land (Space Bears on Bikes)
Bear Cub attack squad
Werebear Warriors
Bear-O-Plane hovering Gunship
Astra Primursa Hover IFV Vehicle
A Giant Bear (Still to come)
Lucevera Renaissance Creatures of Myth
Sculpted by Frekkie from Fleshcraft Studio ( https://fleshcraft-studio.com/ ) this amazing range of 23 miniatures are inspired by medieval and renaissance era paintings of mythical creatures from their era. From Vitruvian men to a classical Dragon, these minis will be perfect for painting, roleplaying games and more. Available at $40aud for this kickstarter, down from the collections usual price at $60. All files are STL digital downloads, no physical models included. To check out the collection in full, here is a link to our website: Lucevera Minis
We might not have had these models in our hands long - But we wanted to paint a handful up and share them with you all. Murray painted a fantastic version of the Kindred, showcasing how amazing the models look in a cleaner more sci-fi setting. These can be void troopers as well as depth dwellers!
Meanwhile Jenn went for a Kharadron Overlords inspired take on the dive suits, but included some lovely beach basing to get on theme! Lastly Dave tried to smash out multiple models, painting them as Breachers for his Traitor Guard Army!
Finally for our very local painters - We asked a close friend of the channel Lawson Kenny - MrMass if he would like to paint a model up - He obliged - And we love his extremely gritty realistic approach to the dark nautical aesthetic ... and then hidden behind the model is a tiny Patrick and Spongebob - Which is just outstanding.
We reached out to the local Australian painting community and asked if anyone would like to paint our new models - A few brave souls put their hand up and volunteered! We'd like to thank the Melbourne Figure Painters Collective community as a whole before diving into the individual paint jobs so you can get an idea of what these models could look like in your hands painted by regular (amazing just like you) hobbyists and painting enthusiasts. Some fantastic paint jobs completed in an extremely short amount of time so well done everyone! We are linking everyones Instagrams/socials to their name so please go check out their other amazing work and give some love to this small, local Aussie painting community!
Jason Poley - Paintingsmolfrens based the colors on a Giant Crab (Pseudocarcinus gigas) and to quote: "one got a bath of Streak n Grime because it wouldn't be a Tabletop Time mini if I didn't" - We love that! Looks amazing
Seamus Meadows - Kragzog Studios has painted up two delightfully different samples of Kindred here. Both displaying grimy alternate paint schemes. The orange jump suit reminds us of an oil rig worker and its perfect. While the khaki tones of the other diver feel like a more classic vintage divesuit - Amazing work!
Sarah Ireland - Prettyflyshyguy has painted a moody, dark interpretation of the Kindred in their home environment. We love the bright, sickly green spot light creating a contrast that sells the lightless depths of the abyss.
David Hauser - Kitbashercommunity has impressed by smashing out an ENTIRE SQUAD of Kindred models in a mere matter of days. We love the vibrant and striking glows contrasting the worn and dark metals and dive suits! Well done David!
The initial fulfilment of the campaign will begin as soon as it concludes. The files are digital, and the initial offering of Scourges, Reavers and Malformed are all ready to be downloaded and printed right away. We will be exploring delivering these files via Backerkits pledge manager, taking on lessons from our prior campaigns and moving to a more simple system.
If we are lucky enough to meet the stretch goals, each will have different timelines. We have discussed with Jackson from Golden Dragon Games his expected capacity to work on our miniatures while also sculpting for Marcher, his own game system. We anticipate a rate of 1 unit a month, with more complex units such as the landsub requiring two. However life can be busy, and with a small team, it is possible there will be delays here. Nevertheless, we plan to release each squad as it is ready, and fulfilment of the stretch goals will roll out over 2025. Our optimistic best case scenario is one per month, which would mean complete fulfilment by mid year if we met every goal.
For the art and lore goals, if met, these will be prioritized and worked on over the first quarter of 2025, released as a pack of wallpapers and a PDF document respectively. As mentioned earlier, much of the campaigns drive will then move towards developing the wider world and game, which we will showcase occasionally on our youtube channel and keep you all up to date with development.
Overall, we are confident we will be able to promptly and professionally deliver this campaign if it is funded, we now have the experience of running a campaign on kickstarter under our belt and are ready for any curve balls that might come our way.
