Just in time to be part of the 2011 Christmas Sale, I've added 6 oldie-but-goodies to the Ebbles Labs section of the catalog.

The most popular bits of the Outpost Echo line:











Note to customers who already bought them back during the Ebbles days: these are all the original files from 2007-2008. If you bought them from Ebbles Miniatures before now, then you already own them.

Last, but not least, the Guncrawl game is back with a massive content boost and a huge price cut:



I've combined the core 1st Edition game with all of the Ambient Elements props packs, the original Guncrawl basic tile set, plus several assorted goodies like character figures and extra props. As with the other Ebbles Labs releases, these are the original files from 2007-2008, and you do not need to purchase them again if you already bought them from Ebbles Miniatures.

Are these Robo-Ready? or where the Camp, Farmstead, Habdome Robo ready before?

Just bought the Shahad Zigurat and it did not contain cutfiles (not surprised) or registration marks (surprised about that).

I'll probably start on these over the weekend, all the time wishing the WWG kibash policy would let me just post the cutfiles here. :: sigh :: Given all the talk about "quality" requiring this policy, I'm kinda shocked that there aren't at least registration marks on these files. How long could that have added - 5 minutes per page?

Not all of them. I took pains to ensure that the descriptions reflected which sets had support for machine cutting and which didn't.

I thought I was going to refresh and convert everything, but in practice, it's not something I have a lot of time to devote towards when I could be working on something new instead. So, I could either put the old stuff up now, or never get around to it. (I've been over here for months now and have barely made any progress bringing my old stuff over. Yeah.)

The final straw in the machine cutting issue is the fact that Quickutz/Silhouette USA discontinued the Silhouette SD and older Silhouettes in favor of the new Silhouette Cameo, which uses a different registration mark setup. Since I don't own a Cameo and have no way of personally validating that the output would work flawlessly on a Cameo, I didn't see much point in reformatting the PDFs and creating separate GSDs for them.

In fact, going forward, I'm probably going to be experimenting with completely decoupling PDFs from cutting files so that people who own those hobby cutters would be doing all their printing and cutting directly in Studio and there wouldn't be any surprise incompatibility issues in the future. Hand cutters would carry on as normal with PDF files. I haven't had a chance to have an in-depth conversation with Denny about that, though, so don't take any of this as official word.

Ah I hadn't read the descriptions, I knew some where, but if all had been made robo-ready it would have been a reason to re-buy those that weren't. I think I own most of these...

This would be fine with me and many other robocutter folks, but the current kitbash submission guidelines pretty much squash it's implementation. Most places allow fan-created cutfiles to be put up immediately on Forums after release (as long as they don't contain the PDF contents in any way.)

How do we appeal for an exception to the long submission and review process for cutfiles? We're willing to do the work, as long as we know it can be used by our fellow modelers in a timely fashion. It just seems like wasted effort to require us all to re-create each others work during the days/weeks/months the review process can take.

After all, the designers are busy people, am I right? Let us do the work!

Well, most of these items predate my acquisition of a machine cutter--I didn't actually acquire one until late 2008, and the first model I did with cutting file support was the Sandmaster. I was also using a different software suite and workflow back then, and not everything from those days is straightforward to convert. If it were that straightforward, I'd have already had most of my catalog converted and up by now.



Did you catch the part where I mentioned that I hadn't had a chance to really sit down and discuss the ramifications of the recent Silhouette issues with Denny? Ripple effects caused by format changes would have been one of the things covered in that upcoming conversation, and that would certainly include discussion of modifying the kitbash submission guidelines in response to new developments.

The story as presented in the pictures;
A group of prospectors makes an important find on a remote planet and establishes a frontier community. The community grows and prospers until a strange artifact is discovered in a nearby valley. A team of scientists is called in to investigate and they find the entrance to an ancient underground complex....


In space, no one can hear you scream.
Unless they're on the same com-channel, and then they really wish they couldn't hear you as your screaming is creeping them out.
(stolen from Floydski )

Cool!

I saw that but didn't read-between-the-lines. Thanks for the supportive clarification.

You and Denny are evil evil men. Posting these brand new goodies for the holiday aright after pay day.

Hey, they got to afford their gifts somehow...

I finally have my chance to get the Sandmaster! The rest I already have. And the hab domes are getting revisited for some Planet Namek scenery....

I love these sets! They work great for 40k. Combine them with Mars Station or Hinterlands and your armies can fight over a science camp or a beginning colony. I've even kitbashed a two story version of the HabDome.

OHHH, I would like to see that one.

+1 Highland_Piper, would love to see that. Pics?

So happy those found their way to the catalog, because I was toying with the idea to buy them back then when they were available at Mel's place, but never had the opportunity to before the site went down...

The Sandmaster has a pink version. I know some grand- and g-grand children that will thank you for that.

Say Mel, any chance of that brown desert tile begin available. Aside from going well with the sets, it make would nice colored paper desert board to replace my lost sand desert board.

Everyone:

ehisey: Did you look in the "bonus" folder in the field camp, farmstead, or ziggurat?

I am very excited to see the stuff here. I cannot wait for more, both new and old!

Dear diary: Things I've learned about myself today.

1) My partner is right. Accesorising is fun.
The farmstead pic and the field camp one didn't sell me. However, looking at the little bits and pieces once I bothered to look at each page certainly did. I think it's great value for my pennies when I can use little things elsewhere, especially from the smaller sets.

2) There's no escaping Nostalgia
Still get a lump in my throat looking at the little repair team robots. I'll be watching Silent Running in a matter of days. Got a grip of myself and picked up the handyman instead.

3) Room with a View
There's a picture in the Titan Control that looks out to something that could be the cousin of Ebbles Labs' Shahad Ziggurat. As if Titan wasn't tempting enough, without me trying to link it to another product. Must...resist... must..resist...

Thanks Christopher!
Just picked up the Farmstead, Alternate Habdomes, and Ziggarat - will pick up more later.
Glad to see you re-released these.
Still waiting on the [hoped-for by me] eventual re-release of that old air/raft [or 'antigrav sled' by whatever name] of yours... or a new one! [Skywalker needs a ride!]
Thanks again.

Hi,

In trying to find what else was available from the old site, I came across a list on Dungeon Crawlers. The pics are still working, so I had a nose round. There are quite a few really cool looking models there. If I could have my pick, my favourites would be:-

Type - 18 Gun platform, C4 Sentinal, Command Drone, Attack Remotes. Not the vehicles, nice as they are, so much as the things I could selfishly get most use out of.

I see them now. That is almost the same idea I had for for hooking flat tiles together. Any chance something like this will show up in t Swift scenics? or is that another kitbash?

I don't have any sufficiently high resolution imagery of any of the old stuff from that timeframe to use as splash or promo images here, so I'd have to build them all over again and stage a new photo shoot for each of them. As that competes for my time with working on new content, it's not something I can give any firm timetables for.



Same situation as above.



I originally only did those tiles so I would have something nice to photograph/render my models on back in those days, and I made them available mainly so people wouldn't fill up my inbox with requests for the backdrop/ground cover. I only included them with the recent re-releases because they happened to be rather prominently displayed in the field camp's parts manifest thumbnails, and I didn't want people to be confused by their absence.

In practice, the interlocking tiles aren't well-suited to gaming usage because maps larger than 24x24 or 30x30" are difficult to lock together without losing the will to live. You'd be better off investing in a conventional gaming mat or using TLX tiles.

Just realized the brick versions of the Habdome are be ideal for Victorian experimental industrial/science settings. Ebbles steampunk - Yeah!

My thoughts, exactly

I actually was planning on printing some for my Eberron campaign for just this reason. Great minds think alike.

Ooh - so many great uses for the habdome - once I get back into building (after xmas...) I think I'll try to retexture the habdome with some hinterland textures... Maybe make a variation that grafts right into the side of a cliff, or sprouts a big tree out the center...

Ohh! Pictures please! I'd love to have a non-scifi forest dome...