SMOG RIDERS The War Ensues
By Scale Games LLC
Country of Origin: Madrid Spain
This project end on Thu, Dec 3 2015 6:16 AM EST
Status: Funded
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/298260359/smog-riders-the-war-ensues
Model Material: Resin
Model Style: 32mm Chibi

Scale75 is a relatively new company when it comes to the modeling community, at least over here in the united states. They are out of Madrid Spain and primarily are known for their line was well received, but expensive, paints and metallics. They also released a series of collectible figures used to improve your painting skill by way of Kickstarter called Smog Riders.

From their website: (http://smogriders.com/what-is-smog-riders/?lang=en)
The Smog Riders line is a series of figures aimed to improve the painting skills of amateurs. The Smog Riders figures come with explanatory leaflets including step by step guides to paint them in a simple but effective way. There is also a blog where we will be uploading additional content to extend the techniques explained in  the prospectus. These tutorials for improvement or “Level ups” will allow the fan to learn more advanced techniques than those included with the model.

This Kickstarter is an expansion to the main set of figures that brings in mechs and vehicles. I watched their video (which I will issue a volume warning for) and learned in 3 minutes what the first line of this paragraph tells you. They do show some pictures of what two of the models are going to look like, which you can also find heavily scattered throughout the Kickstarter itself but they fail to have any physical models, even in rough form.

The models look good, at least the 3d renders from their sculpting program do, and I think the models are going to be of a fair size when they are done. It’s also nice to see a company actually working on expansions for their existing lines instead of moving onto new things and forgetting their old properties. There is also free shipping for everyone which is somewhat nice when figuring in how much you are going to spend buying models.

The Kickstarter itself is flashy but shows you little more than a few renders of each model, over and over. They do a poor job of explaining the models as a whole, so there is little for anyone who has no idea what this system is. The intro video while pretty, sounded horrid and was way over volume, seriously, did no one listen to this before it went up? After the intro video I had no interest in watching any of the other videos they had out because I value my hearing. Also I am completely discouraged that there were no prototype miniatures to see and stand up next to the rest of the line. I would think in this day of rapid prototyping this should be an easy thing to do, right?

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room to anyone who went and looked at this kickstarter, the price. In a day and age when everyone complains about Games Workshop being overpriced and the less expensive games ruling supreme why would you create a series of models with a cost on par with that of Games Workshop, if not more? Even with an earlybird special ($58 instead of $60, thanks for those discounts eh?) you get 1 small model, 1 standard model, and 1 vehicle, for $58. Now this may not be earth ending expensive, but damn, this is GW pricing. The only thing you get by buying it on Kickstarter instead of through the store is free shipping. Also you can buy the regular factions in this Kickstarter which is a good thing, until you realize that the models are $10-14 EACH, for chibi sized models. What. The. F*$#!

Overall the models look great, but the value isn’t there. The lack of a prototype to show us is appalling and the price per model is on par with what Games Workshop gives us. I can not recommend this to anyone unless they have a lot of disposable income and really, really love chibi models. Apparently at the time of writing this there are 76 people who fit that role and have backed this. More power to you.

The TL:dr

Overall verdict: niche, expensive, in a hobby filled with niche and expensive things that offer an overall better product. Games Workshop while expensive at least has a game with their miniatures and a paint by numbers system like this.

This Kickstarter lost an entire grade for not having a game attached to it, rumors have it that there is one in the works and I’m confused as to why they released these instead of the game. It would have made these and the previous models more desirable.