A Kickstarter project that aims to make kitbashing Warhammer miniatures much easier began funding on November 20. ‘Dead Animal Bits’ is a project from YouTuber Pete the Wargamer, and it provides a range of plastic bones, horns, teeth, and bits to spruce up your armies with.
Dead Animal Bits is a set of hard plastic 28mm heroic scale conversion pieces, with each piece designed to replicate parts a regular kitbasher would frequently use – or find hard to track down. “Every individual component within the collection features a high level of detail and has been meticulously designed to seamlessly complement a wide variety of 28mm scaled miniature ranges”, the Kickstarter page says.
Pete the Wargamer tells us the project was partly born from a love of working with plastic. “3D printed resin, cast resin and metal parts just aren’t as forgiving as plastic is when it comes to making trims and adjustments”, Pete says. “But, even though plastic is great to work with, it’s very expensive to get set up with. Which is where Kickstarter came in.”
These pieces aren’t just designed for Warhammer 40k factions and Age of Sigmar armies. According to the Kickstarter page, all the Dead Animal Bits are “setting agnostic” and designed to complement a mini from any system or genre.
The Kickstarter page lists 26 different animal bits as part of a sprue mockup. This includes feathers, horns, skulls, teeth, spikes, and various bones. “While the set features an assortment of 19 distinct pieces, some of which will be available in various sizes, each sprue will contain multiples of each part”, the Kickstarter says.
“While I would have loved to have filled up the kit with as many unique parts as possible, one of my main goals with the kit was to provide a good amount of each part on the sprue”, Pete the Wargamer tells us. “This meant that the parts I did choose to be included in the kit needed to be as flexible and useful as possible. So I sat down and made a list of all the parts that I’d struggled to find over my years of kitbashing and steadily whittled them down into the final 26 components that you can see in the project.”
“Having to scour the stock of bits resellers or even buying whole kits just for a few parts can really put a dampener on the kitbashing experience”, the Kickstarter page further explains. “This can be especially frustrating when it comes to those commonly used parts like bones, horns and grisly trophies.”
“The components found within the Dead Animal Bits set will allow you to add that extra layer of intricacy and personality to your miniatures, bases and terrain”, it continues, “making them the perfect addition to your tool kit whether you’re a kitbasher or not”.
By the sounds of it, many in the wargaming community share Pete the Wargamer’s views. Pete tells Wargamer: “From the comments I’ve received, it appears that there are a lot of people who share the same frustrations as I do and just want an easy way of getting the bits they need”.
You can pick up one sprue for $12.76 (£10). The Kickstarter also offers three sprues for $31.91 (£25), six for $57.44 (£45), 12 for $108.49 (£85), 20 for $159.55 (£125), /or/ 40 for $287.13 (£225). The crowdfunding campaign ends on December 18.
If you’re feeling crafty, here are some tips for painting miniatures – including the best paints for miniatures and the best miniature paintbrushes. Or, for more wargaming news, now’s a good time to keep an eye on updates to Warhammer: The Old World.