Stormguard Kickstarter – Meet the Mind Behind this High Fantasy Kickstarter

Stormguard Kickstarter - Large Ruins

RM Studio Terrain is a new company in the 3D market that has created big waves with their first release.  This is one I have been talking to the owner, Marc about for a number of months.  I knew his vision was ambitious and looked great, but it is always a little scary making that leap of faith to commercial product.  With over 2 weeks to go, I’d say that the leap of faith paid off.  With well over 200 backers, this Kickstarter is already very successful, and still has 2 weeks.  He’s an amazing painter, and was burning the candle on both ends getting this Kickstarter ready to launch.  I’m honestly looking forward to some of his painting tutorials as time goes on.  

I’ve been lucky enough to have some of the models sent my way, and they print really nice.  I’ve had some filament jamming issues on one of my printers, the one that has all the sliced models for this, so I don’t have everything printed I wanted to, but I have a few models, and one BIG one to the right is simply gorgeous.  I printed it on an Alfawise U30, the equivalent of an Ender 3.  

Stormguard Kickstarter

  • What miniatures games do you play?
    • Over the years I’ve played, Mordheim. Blood bowl. Frostgrave. Warhammer. Age of Sigmar. Infinity. Necromunda. War master. Battle fleet Gothic. Lord of the rings. Inquisitor and Warhammer 40k. Currently I’ve been interested in the reboot of the Lotr SBG and Age of Sigmar.
  • How long have you owned a 3D Printer and been printing terrain?
    • I’ve only owned a 3D printer for about a two years now. In that time it hasn’t stopped printing terrain. I now have 3 going 20 hours a day printing my terrain for local clubs, leagues,  shops, and youtube channels.
  • What printers do you use to print terrain?
    • I use an Ender 3 for a lot of the pieces, and for items that are larger than their print area I use a pair of cr10s. The ender 3 is stock, with only a fan shroud added, and the Cr10s are also very close to stock, just some squash ball feet upgrades, some larger bed leveling knobs, and some Capricorn tubing.
  • Do you have a favorite model?
    • Out of my set, The fallen tower is probably my favourite. It’s unique, blocks line of sight, and can count as cover terrain while in the rubble. It’s just an interesting piece for so many games. 
  • What are some of the challenges you run into, starting your first Kickstarter?
    • Not knowing how much there really is to do for a Kickstarter. There are so many things I never knew you had to do, I thought you had an idea and got someone to help with things you couldn’t do. I had no idea how many hours would be spent even looking at fonts for subtitles or how to word what each pledge level would contain. Or how to balance the excitement of day one launch and not trying to post every 10 minutes about how grateful you are for each and every pledge.
  • Stormguard KickstarterTell us about the vision this Kickstarter?  How did you come up with this idea?
    • There were gaps for great ruins terrain in files out there, one that you put on a table and really stood out and with the new reboot of the lord of the rings strategy battle game I knew I would need some amazing terrain, so I started there. Which started to get me thinking I would also need some ruins terrain for all my games like frostgrave/mordheim/ and aos. I went to the usual sites and I couldn’t really find what I wanted. So I got to work watching movies and looking at books and thinking about what makes a great terrain set for a game table and started sketching. I knew I needed scatter, small buildings, medium buildings and large buildings and things that stood out from the other modular ruins sets that currently exist. 
  • Did you paint all the models you show off throughout the Kickstarter?
    • All of the models featured on my page, and in the Kickstarter I actually painted by myself in a week (so far). I only used regular primer, craft paint, home made washes, and some model train snow flock to get the job done. I wanted to be able to support a local gaming club tournament (OSBGL, Ontario Strategy Battle Game League)  and made sure I could supply a table for the day of the event. I gave up sleeping for about a week and went to work. When the event was done, I also had the benefit of the photos to share with everyone. After the kickstarter I’m hoping to create some video tutorials as well on “how tos”, showing how you can paint ruins in different ways other than just your typical grey stone and dry brush. 

I want to thank Marc for his time to do this interview.  I know he has been busy with this Kickstarter and getting the stretch goals aligned.  I’ve been lucky enough to be talking with him since this project was in its infancy and have seen it grow.  I’m really excited to see how it does overall and if you are sitting on the edge on this one, I hope you give it another look.