Bombshell Miniatures

Lots of progress on the Counterblast 2.0 book layout was made this week! The introduction and rules sections have been blocked out and formatted with all of the paragraph and object styles.

I built the table of contents so that it automatically updates as pages are modified.

Frank is still working on filling out the remaining crew list items so we’ll be formatting the stat blocks and cards soon. Blank space will be filled with diagrams and photos of models.

The Missions section has been formatted to make it easy to print the pages from the PDF so players can cut them out for easier reference.

Later this week I will be tackling the crew list sections which will be full of tables and nested layouts so it will be pretty labor intensive. More pics as it comes along!

-Patrick

Many of you are understandably chomping at the bit to get your new Counterblast stuff, and it has been very distressing to us at the huge delay in getting the game out. Many of you know our track record for fulfilling our seven Kickstarter projects in a timely and efficient manner. What we weren’t expecting this time around was to be able to move the production facilities to its new home at the time we launched the pre-order “Bookstarter” campaign last May.

Since purchasing the new property in September, there was a huge delay from the contractor in getting the building constructed in the first place. We weren’t able to start work on the interior until late November. While we were building out the interior in December and January, Vicky an I both became deathly ill thanks to the particularly resilient strain of influenza this season. That, coupled with torrential rain for the majority of February, has made any more progress on completing the interior of the shop impossible. This has been especially difficult to do since we haven’t been able to install our gravel driveway at the shop yet and access to the building has been ankle-deep mud.

This is the view looking south from the shop. Here the water has finally receded and allowed us to get inside, rather than sinking into the mud around the building.

We have had about 3 dry days last month where we were able to continue to move boxes from the garage at the old house to the new shop.  So, we set up a temporary station for Vicky to continue to take web store orders once I got the satellite internet system installed and working.

The contents of Bombshell Miniatures, including all of the Counterblast materials.

Satellite internet completely sucks when there is severe cloud cover and rainy conditions. Unfortunately we are at a remote location outside the city limits and there is no broadband or fiber service where we are, so we’re stuck with satellite for the foreseeable future.

Vicky’s temporary shipping/receiving area.

As for my working area and sculpting studio, there was supposed to be walls and an HVAC system installed by now. Currently I am working from a make-shift folding table in our master bedroom of the house until we can manage to finish building the interior of the shop. This task will be even harder now since we will have to constantly move and build around the contents of the shop.

My proposed corner of the building where the sculpting studio is to be set up.

This area is where I will also be setting up the photo pad and my computer equipment, which is still packed up at the old house and has yet to be moved to the new location. All of this will be necessary to shoot pics for the Counterblast rulebook as well as the scenic pictures and do all of the page and card layouts for the game.

So, as much as it has been stressful for you to wait as long on the Counterblast release as it has been, it’s multiplied even moreso for us here at the Bombshell Factory. Counterblast 2.0 is foremost on my mind right now and is a huge priority to get it completed and out to all of the waiting fans. It is huge disappointment that all of these delays have forced us to cancel our presence at AdeptiCon this year. We will miss seeing all of our fans and industry friends that mean so much to us.

But – hang in there. The sun is out today and March looks like it will be drying up enough for us to continue working on everything. I will do my best to post more frequent updates as progress continues both on the the Bombshell Factory, and the new Counterblast 2.0.

— Patrick “The Sculptdude”

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Happy New Year, Blasters!

Bombshell Miniatures being moved to its new home

The web store section is active again for Counterblast.

– Patrick (The Sculptdude)

Many of you have pre-ordered the new Counterblast book, lunch-box edition, and new miniature releases, and have been eagerly awaiting your items since May. Those items were projected to ship in September.

As with so many other small companies with limited resources, we have met with delays on this project and are still working to bring you the best Counterblast experience we can produce. Here is a summary of the status on the project.

• Photos are still in the works and the web store section will be active again soon
• The corrected foam inserts for the lunch box have arrived
• Text for the core rules have been completed
• Text for the background fluff has been completed
• Editing on the interior of the new book(s) is underway
• Production molds for the new miniatures are still underway

All of the other items and components are in and we are really only waiting to wrap up the “printed” material, such as the Core Rulebook, the the Quick Start booklet, and the new statcards. Fortress updated me with the status on the miniatures and said the production casting would start soon. All of the masters had been cleaned and the productions molds were just about done.

Cause and Effect

Many of you know we have been looking to relocate Bombshell Miniatures and build a dedicated production facility to expand our operation since about February or so of this year. We initially began looking at Columbia, MO as an option, along with surrounding areas, as it would be centrally located to the shows we regularly attend. Since then, we have opted to remain in Texas to look after our family members who are elderly and may be needing care somewhere down the line.

At the end of August we finally found just such a property about an our away from our current home, but within 30 minutes of most of our family. We began demolition on the existing house to determine it’s suitability for renovation while at the same time, supervising the construction of the new dedicated 1200 square foot shop where all of Bombshell Miniatures would live.

If you are interest on the progress of our relocation project, you can see our photo albums here for pictures of the progress.

• Bombshell Acres
• Bombshell Factory

All that said, it took us way longer to find a suitable property and it has taken us way longer than expected to get the Counterblast project completed. However, we are determined to get get everything printed, packed and shipped out before the end of the year. It would be much more desirable to complete fulfillment before moving. That would avoid the inevitable packing up all of the components, moving them to the new shop, and then unpacking them to send out the orders.

As I write this, I am a week from turning 50 and Bombshell will be celebrating its 5th anniversary. We are dedicated now, more than ever, to relaunch Bombshell and Counterblast into something none of us thought possible only a few years ago.

Thanks again for being part of it and for helping us to grow and continue to create, while so many more established companies have had to close up or shut down.

–Patrick (The Sculptdude)

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