Post a Comment On: Nate Miller's Tabletop Games

Hello wargamers! Nathan “Ironworker” Miller here with some questions. I've developed a set of very tough and attractive hills for wargames. I've been using my set for about 9 months and have played dozens of games on them not to mention that my 11 year old daughter drags them out several times a week and plays on them with miniatures while I'm working so they get a lot of use and after nine months of hard play they still look as good as new. I'm been playing miniature games for over 20 years and this is the first set of hills I've owned I have been truly happy with and that have held up to this kind of abuse.

I'm a bit of a mercenary gamer. I've sold a lot of painted minis and some terrain and I've even done a few greens for a small miniature company though I don't really sculpt at this time. I've never really considered offering regular products for sale until recently. Now I have several product ideas I've developed based on projects I have done in the last few years. These projects were all hand made terrain projects and the products I'm looking to sell will all be hand made as well just produced in larger numbers. The hardest thing to figure out is what kind of prices I should put on these products so I'm trying to do a bit of research on that.

The first product I'm testing out are my hills.
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This is an example of what I'm calling my “Skirmish” set of hills. It's a six hill set. Three small single level hills roughly 8”x12” base size. Two medium double level hills roughly 12”x16” base size. One large double level hill roughly 16”x24” base size. I may go up to a triple level hill on the large one when these go into production. These hills are made from Styrofoam and will be mounted on Masonite (MDF) board. The ones pictured are mounted on chipboard but they are just prototypes. The hills are textured with terrycloth (the stuff towls are made of) and sand and painted with latex paints. This makes the hills much tougher than flocked hill. Miniatures stand up on the surface quite well and they haven't damaged any of my minis during play.

What do you think of these hills as a product?

How much do you think a set of 6 hills similar to the above hills would be worth?

How interested are you in owning a set of hills like these?

Do you think wargamers in general might be interested in owning a set of hills like these?

If your not comfortable answering these questions in public would you please pm me or e-mail me at: theborderprinces@yahoo.com

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Here is a nicer shot of the largest hill I took just after I finished my 10 hill test set.

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Here is a closeup of a miniature on the lower tier of the large hill.

I'm currently planning on setting up a merchant booth at a local convention this fall with these hills in sets and some other products as a public test run. If your interested in details on that please e-mail me at the above address.

Thank you!