Painting minis?

Clint_L said:

The reason they are so expensive, and I write this as a survivor of years in the GW trenches, is that it's basically a pay-to-win scheme. They cultivate an in-store and tournament culture where only GW miniatures are allowed, and of course charge an arm and a leg for the best (as in most powerful) miniatures. Yes, and defnitely FOMO.

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As a battered survivor of GW, I've got some thoughts on this as well. (I spent more than $1,500 on Imperial Knights alone within a 12 month period.) While I do think GW makes what are arguably some of the best miniatures on the market, you pay an unreasonable premium for them. A single, regular sized Space Marine Captain retails for $43.50 on the GW website which is outrageous. Oddly enough, it isn't the price of GW models that finally got me, it's not being able to keep up with the frequent rules changes. Even though I can afford it, I started to resent being nickel and dimed.

Clint_L said:

You can back a D&L Kickstarter and get 100 similarly detailed miniatures for the price of one GW showpiece.

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Archon Studio's Dungeon & Lasers line is pretty darned good. I'm pretty sure I learned about them from you, and I've painted several of their miniatures. Here's a side by side comparison of a GW and D&L miniature.



The D&L giant on the left set me back $20.

The GW Son of Behemat model on the right has to be purchased in a boxed set of 3 for $170. That single model is $56.

To be fair, the GW model did include a lot of little extras like arrows, cattle, even human sized victims you could use to customize your figure a bit more. Is that worth $36 extra?

In addition to D&L, there are other companies producing models of similar quality to Games Workshop.

GothmogIV said:

this is all super helpful, and I am grateful for the advice and ideas. I don't know if my 57 year old eyes are up for minis, TBH. Even with a lot of light and a magnifying glass.

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I'm pushing 50 and am starting to experience some difficulty with some of the finer details. I may end up getting a magnifying device of some sort soon to see if that helps.

I got that D&L giant for free, along with a massive tarrasque (!!!) and a raft of other miniatures and terrain, over a hundred I think, as stretch goals for backing their outdoor encounters KS, which was amazing value even without any SGs. I think I paid about $200 in total. Mind you, I had to wait a year.

Free tarrasque!

Clint_L said:

I do not paint at your level! I was thinking more in terms of beginners and enthusiastic average painters, like me. I ain't gonna argue with you about best practices for high level work - you know what's what!

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Let's not oversell my skill. I won a couple of demons at the Toronto game day more than 20 years ago. I look at what some folks are capable of these days with the same stunned incomprehension as everyone else. Decent brushes are best practice for almost any painter.

My stance on brushes, and this applies to airbrushes as well, is for new people to avoid purchasing expensive brushes. I wouldn't spend $18.00 on a single brush either. You're new. You're probably going to do a lot of things that aren't good for the brush or even clean it properly. I do recommend the brush sets you can get from a place like Michael's for $10 or so. Are they great brushes? No. But they're fine for beginners. Find out what type of brush you like to use (size and shape) and how to maintain them before you spend real money on them.

It's the same advice I have for models. Don't start with a $125 model festooned with tiny details. Start with something less expensive. You're new. You might end up deciding you don't even like painting.

When my kid wanted to try painting, I got him a Shambling Mound for his first go. It turned out great! Hard to go wrong, really...

Clint_L said:

When my kid wanted to try painting, I got him a Shambling Mound for his first go. It turned out great! Hard to go wrong, really...

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When the 7 year old wanted to paint minis too, I had an entire box with a bunch of Bones I-V minis I knew I'd never paint and I let him have free range on those. His eyes lit way up. That alone was worth it. There are several like this

Clint_L said:

There is SO much variety with 3d painted minis, and I have painted quite a lot of them.

1. Get resin printed miniatures. They are kind of brittle so you have to be gentle with them, but they have much finer resolution than plastic printed miniatures, which IMO are not really worth painting due to the obvious print lines and low resolution.

2. Exception: Reaper's new siocast minis use a new plastic and printer that is pretty good. Still not as finely detailed as plastic injected, moulded miniatures, so some print line are visible. They will absorb more paint and are harder to do some techniques with.

3. That's awesome that your local shop does that! Games Workshop also used to also have a free painting - don't know if they still do. Etiquette is to paint miniatures that you bought at the shop, not bring in your Amazon order or whatever. Basically, they are doing it to bring in business and reward their valued customers, and they sound like a pretty cool shop!

These are 3d printed, resin pieces from my collection. They look fine on the tabletop but if you zoom in close you can see a fuzziness that you wouldn't get with moulded plastics:

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great job on the painting!

Just wanted to chime in and say thank you for everyone who has thrown their two cents in. Lots of great advice! Similar to the OP, I've been thinking about getting back* into painting as I have a Bones kickstarter still in the box as well as a number of random minis I've bought over the years with the intention of painting. This thread has given a number of rabbit holes to go down. I'm thinking of going down the 'slapchop' path, at least initially.

*previous painting was maybe six miniatures in total over 20 years ago so effectively starting from scratch

soviet said:

It isn't 'research the chemical composition of each plastic miniature'. It's 'don't buy Bones'. I've never even seen Bones miniatures in a shop! You're scaring people away from the easiest and best way to undercoat normal models just because you got some cheap rubbish from kickstarter.

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I have. In several shops in Portland, and one in Corvallis, Oregon. the KS's had retailer bundles.

Clint_L said:

The plastic isn't anything special. It's good quality HIPs plasic, basically the same used by model-makers worldwide. And plastic is about the least expensive cost in making miniatures; it's literally pennies.

The reason they are so expensive, and I write this as a survivor of years in the GW trenches, is that it's basically a pay-to-win scheme. They cultivate an in-store and tournament culture where only GW miniatures are allowed, and of course charge an arm and a leg for the best (as in most powerful) miniatures. Yes, and defnitely FOMO.

Yes, they do excellent work. But the exorbitant prices of the miniatures have little to do with the supply costs and everything to do with their carefully cultivated demand.

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Their carefully cultivated demand and intentionally limited supply to play on that FOMO
I remember when a $9 box was a whole Sergeant +9 men squad of polystyrene line marines... and a $10 box was available for the assault squads, and a $10 for 5 terminators. Still, they were not cheap then...
comparable minis for GURPS and Traveller were $0.50 to $1 per mini.