Way back in 2012 Troll Forged Games ran Kickstarter for their Assimilation: Alien Host miniatures range, the project page being here:
The project was funded successfully with 399 backers and was meant to ship starting in 2013. This did not go according to plan. As of 2019, somewhere around half of the backers (including myself) have received their figures, Troll Forged Games is closed, the owner has left the gaming industry, and Impact Miniatures has taken over fulfillment efforts with the main sticking point apparently being postage costs.
This is unfortunate, albeit not a complete debacle as many crowdfunding projects wind up being. The figures I received were creative, well-sculpted, matched the concept art well (mostly), and had a lot of obvious appeal for use in a variety of scifi, horror, and fantasy RPGS and minis games. It's a shame the minis are probably still years away from going on general sale, and that so many backers are still waiting on their rewards seven years after donating.
Since I've painted the majority of the alien figures at this point it seems like this would be a good time to put up a gallery page showing off what the models look like. I've still got a few things that I haven't done, and a few others that were painted and sold a while ago that could use better images, so I'll be updating now and then as I finish more, with the newest stuff at the top of the images. Some of the figures are available for sale here:
Sadly, I never ordered any of the "alien hunter" models so I can't help with images of those. Perhaps one of the other lucky backers who did get them will do their own gallery page so this range will be preserved online if they don't make it to retail after all. One of the problems with kickstarter projects is the way limited run and exclusive miniatures can fall through the cracks, leaving us with holes in the internet's historical record of what was once available. Must drive the Lost Minis wiki guys crazy. Consider this page to be my effort at preserving their sanity. :)
Without further ado, the pictures:
There are more images of some of these models on this post from the end of 2022, for anyone browsing this far back.
Carnage Hound on 60mm base
Drone & Larvae Swarms
Cannon Drone & Eggs on 120mm base
Alien Wyrm on 60mm base - a slightly modified build with the mandibles moved around and the tentacular "hair" left off.
Alternate take on the build from a mispack (they shipped it with no head) and some spare parts.
Fiend on 120mm base - another modified build with some parts moved around or left off.
One of two Goliath Worm types, very heavily modified into a burrowing creature with its tentacles based separately as grasping limbs coming from below. The base build is a mess to assemble and full of gaps and badly fitting parts, but the parts are handy in different configurations.
Converted Overlord on 45mm base. This one's had a head swap from one of the warriors and an alien egg added to the base, and is up for sale. You'll note the KS page says he's meant to be big enough to need a 120mm base, so this is one of the models that wound up being not quite on spec in the end. Still, a neat mini overall. Comes in six parts, body, two arms, two wings, choice of one of four head variants.
A pair of Queen Guards on 45 bases, also for sale. This is the stock model, and comes in five parts - lower snake body, upper snake body & torso, two arms, head.
Queen Guard #2.
This one's a bit of a cheat, since the majority of the model is a Deadzone Stage 1 Plague mini from Mantic, slightly reposed and with a head swap from the Alien Host Overlord. Many of the Host figs include multiple heads and the Overlord's the best of them with four variants. The coincidence of the sculpting style of the carapace on these two kits is a happy one, and this is by far one of my favorite conversions of the last few years. A big model standing on a 45mm base.
Sky Hunter on 60mm base. Comes in six pieces IIRC - head, torso, snake body, two wings, and the chest tentacles. No variant parts on this one.
Grub Worms, including the KS exclusive "Big Grub" mini. The little guys are on 25mm bases, the big one on a 45mm. All are two piece minis - head and body - and the regular Grubs have many, many head and body variants.
The actual Alien Host figures that gave the project its name. Pretty much infested zombies bloated with growing larval worms. There are six variant sculpts of the standard type on 25mm bases, and a KS Exclusive version that's about ogre-sized and sits on a 40mm base. All are single piece figures.
There are currently 30 of these for sale through the blog's Items For Same page.
Swarm Adults on 25mm bases. These are two piece castings - body and one of several head variants. Taller than a human but not huge.
Swarm Warriors on 40mm bases. Four piece models again - body, two arms, one of several head variants. These are armed with ranged and melee bioweapons, and are much bigger than a human.
Stealth Warriors on 40mm bases. Pretty much melee-only warriors, albeit with entirely different parts. Four pieces - body, two arms, one of several heads. You could probably get even more figure variety by swapping parts between the Swarm Warrior and Stealth Warrior figs as they're quite similar in size and style.
Swarm Master on 40mm base. A four piece model - body, head, two arms. Don't remember there being variant heads on this one, but I might be misremembering.
Queens and Eggs on 60mm bases. The eggs are single piece models and have about four variants, mostly quite similar. The Queen kit is seven pieces - two pairs of legs, two arms, abdomen, torso, and one of two head variants.
Alien Wyrm on 60mm base. I've altered the assembly on this one - the two long limbs on either side of the mandibles are meant to be attached to the lower body where the two small tendrils are, but I preferred this look. Comes in many parts - upper body, lower body, head, mouthpart tentacles, "dreadlock" tentacles, two forelimbs, and eight or ten individual tentacles, some of which are spares.
MORE TO COME - WORK IN PROGRESS
i wanted these so badly. for awhile there was an ebay seller selling the entire lot but, alas, the economic disaster resulting from the pandemic prevented me from purchasing them.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing the brief history and pictures. wonderful paint jobs all around.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
ReplyDeleteThanks, although I doubt it really serves much purpose beyond satisfying curiosity. Been more than four years since this post and the prospect of this range ever going into production for sale is dimmer than ever.
Delete