Ichiban Studio Miniatures Indiegogo – Interview

Zweischneid: The Ichiban Miniatures Studio team seems to be an unusual mix – split between Japan and Germany. When and where did you guys meet up and decide to start a miniature company?

Hugo: You are right on that one! We are an unusual mix! But it certainly does not slow us down, that’s for sure.

Me and Dennis meet each other over on YouTube. He subscribed to my YouTube channel and I subscribed to his YouTube channel in return. A couple of weeks later, he posted a video of a sculpt he had made, which was the Mean One bust.

I must say I was blown away and left a comment on his page saying it would be such a cool model to paint. On that, he simply replied with: “Cool. I will send you one!”

When I actually received the Bust, I was blown away even more.

From that point on, we started to work together to bring these awesome products to the market. He has sculpted tonnes of cool stuff and we are constantly brainstorming together for even more cool ideas for the future.

Zweischneid: The miniatures offered on your Indiegogo are unique. You are mainly offering busts and plinths. For someone who never painted a bust, what are the advantages of painting a bust? For what reasons would you recommend a bust over a regular miniature?

Hugo: Yeah. The products that we have now are busts, plinths and one full size miniature (230 mm). The reason is simple. This is what we had to start with. However, I am now working on adding three new products, which are terrain pieces.

Still. Why busts? That is a good question!

Busts are so cool to paint. They allow you to begin painting at a bigger scale, which gives you the chance of doing so much more in terms of details and in terms of technique.

Busts are an amazing medium to learn and perfect your airbrushing technique, as well as to practice your shadows/highlights theory on a large miniature.

So, if becoming a better painter is one of your goals, grabbing a bust could really help you a lot in achieving just that.

Zweischneid: What is it with “The Mean One”? That guy seems huge! How did you come up with making a monster-miniature like that? Will there be more miniatures of his size in the future (such as the Samurai previewed on Indiegogo)?

Hugo: Lol. He is huge, indeed. He is standing 23 cm tall. That is one big bad boy!

Me and Dennis were always on Skype, talking and working together. One day, I told him: “Hey Dennis! Can you make the Mean One bust into a full size model?” He simple answered: “Sure, why not!”

Two weeks later, it was done! It is such an amazing model It is crazy. So far, I have painted three and I am still not tired of it. Actually, photos are coming soon of most of the fully painted models.

We are unsure about the samurai. Currently, we are debating between making him into a 20 cm or 10 cm model. We haven’t decided yet.

To be honest, we are not yet sure what the reaction will be to the full size “Mean One” and if people are truly interested in these huge models. Therefore, taking a decision right at this moment seems a bit premature.

Zweischneid: If your Indiegogo is a success, what are your plans for the time after? Do you plan to specialize in busts, plinths and large miniatures? Are you planning different products too? What else does Ichiban Studio Miniatures hope to make?

Hugo: Basically, what we want to do is to have four ranges of miniatures:

1. Full size models from 20 cm to 30 cm
2. Bust from 10 cm to 20 cm
3. Gaming and terrain accessories, and
4. 28 mm miniatures

So if our Indiegogo is successful, we will first concentrate our efforts into securing a 3D printer and a die cut machine. This will allow us to produce miniatures faster and with greater precision. This should cost us about 4000, – US$. But with this equipment, we can then make a lot of new models.

Dennis will concentrate into sculpting new busts, full size miniatures and 20 mm minis. I will concentrate more with the terrain and gaming-accessories range.

We do have big plans, but a lot of it rests on our Indiegogo campaign.

If we can reach our first goal of 5000,- US$, that will cover a lot of expenses and up-front investments we have already made. An even better result would be 10.000,- US$, which would propel us into a place, where we could afford the things we need to produce new models a lot faster and with even better quality.

Be sure to check out the YouTube channels by:

• Les from AwesomePaintJob
• Chung from WGConcortium
• Dave from Miniwargaming
• Joey from The Joey Berry, and
• Temps from Templarscrusade01

They will all have reviews and comments in the coming weeks about the current miniatures available on our Indiegogo. Also check out Phil from the Shell Case, our wargaming blogger and twitter guru, who will also have articles about the minis!

[Check out Phil’s recent review of “The Mean One” – Z.]