Could someone explain to me the Chainmail/Miniatures Handbook issue?

[Altalazar]

I'm sure stripping off the paint would be unnecessary anyway - you could just prime it with two coats, and then paint it over - that might work - certainly worth a shot.

I like painting miniatures too, but I already have way more than I'll ever have time to paint, so I wouldn't mind having some pre-painted ones for use in the game. I'd still buy and paint my own as a hobby, but I'd utilize the plastic ones too - as it is, I sometimes have to make cardboard squares to use for combats because I lack the approrpiate type or number of figures for something. A plastic, painted figure is better than a scrap of cardboard in combat.

 

[Krieg]

the good folks at WalMart.

Seeing "good folks" & "WalMart" associated with one-anothe gives me the heebie-jeebies!

 

[kengar]

I'm sure stripping off the paint would be unnecessary anyway - you could just prime it with two coats, and then paint it over - that might work - certainly worth a shot.

Assuming the paints used at the factory were acrylics it could work (they probably were). If you try to put acrylics over oil, however, it doesn't bond. Also, each layer of paint or primer covers that much more detail of the sculpt. I liked the Chainmail minis because I liked the fairly detailed sculpts of the monsters and races I was using for my FRPGs. I also enjoyed painting them. Now I just look to Reaper if I need a "D&D" style figure.

 

[ledded]

I'm sure stripping off the paint would be unnecessary anyway - you could just prime it with two coats, and then paint it over - that might work - certainly worth a shot.

I like painting miniatures too, but I already have way more than I'll ever have time to paint, so I wouldn't mind having some pre-painted ones for use in the game. I'd still buy and paint my own as a hobby, but I'd utilize the plastic ones too - as it is, I sometimes have to make cardboard squares to use for combats because I lack the approrpiate type or number of figures for something. A plastic, painted figure is better than a scrap of cardboard in combat.

I agree, though usually the soft plastic minis have so much less detail than an equivalent metal one that the primer will obscure what little detail is left, though I have done this with good results on several occasions.

I am a minis painter and I have fielded several plastic minis, from some clix guys to some SW minis from the Epic Duels game. The plastic did ok, but not worth what the secondary market is going to gouge you for to get the really decent ones. But for fielding mooks and rarely-used creatures, a little touching up with an occasional little conversion/addition of putty and most worked out pretty well, but nobody has ever fielded one as their PC because they just dont have the quality.

Hey, you guys who keep yelling at the mini guys about how this stuff isnt aimed for us... please, keep buying it up like crack. And when you have 47 goblin minis that you paid over a buck for each and dont need, I'll buy 'em off ya for 20 cents a piece. Then I'll spent a few minutes on each one and they'll look 10 times as good as they did when they came out of the box. Then maybe I'll sell 'em back to you for a dollar each, so you can save money and know what you are getting, and field something that looks halfway decent

Also, there have been several people touching on the failure of the Chainmail line, and a lot of good reasons for it. IMO, the biggest reason it failed is that it made an inferior product at inflated prices, which is always a recipe for disaster. People were buying Reaper and other manufacturers at lower prices and getting better sculpts/quality. Also, WotC in famous fashion never listened to what people said they wanted till it was too late... the same thing they did with SW minis. You really need to try and give people what they want.

Will I get some of the new plastic junk they are hawking? Sure, probably, but I'll wait until there is a box of 'em on the gaming store's counter with the 5 for a dollar sign stuck on it. Or trade some guy a big handful of 'em for a couple of my nice painted ones.

 

[Gez]

Insightful bits about quality of paint and use on a combat grid.

 

[kengar]

Insightful bits about quality of paint and use on a combat grid.

Ick!

Clever, but ick!

Seriously though, as someone who puts a bit of effort into painting minis, maybe my eye is more critical (and I don't mean that in a good way), but even at a distance those look like junk to me.

 

[ledded]

Ick!

Clever, but ick!

Seriously though, as someone who puts a bit of effort into painting minis, maybe my eye is more critical (and I don't mean that in a good way), but even at a distance those look like junk to me.

I vary in effort (sometimes a lot, sometimes very little), and to be honest with some practice most folks can paint faster and better with a brush than that. I know I can, though I understand many folks dont want to.

Yeah, Sean K, while a good game designer, is *not* a very good miniatures painter, although doesnt seem to know it . But he does try, which is a good thing.

Also, one reason his minis look kinda bleh is that he finishes his minis with a high gloss, which all but obscures any detail he attempted to put on them if any kind of light actually hits the minis. I know, I know, a lot of people like to spray gloss and think that it protects better than matte (and will swear to it in a court of law), but I absolutely despise the way it looks. Even when you spray matte over the gloss, the gloss layer is still evident (to me).

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I have to second the "ick". Although that would probably work when done with superhero miniatures, sticking with some brown/green/black/white/silver pens would have been a little more fantasylike. I would probably rather just put the model on a sturdy base and put a dab of paint on the base so I can ID the blue skeleton vs the green one vs the red one etc. I have an almost unlimited amount of pewter hordes ready to take the battlefield, as it usually takes me 2-3 hours to paint one mini.

However, the main point of the minis in DnD is really just to proved a marker indicating where your characters are standing. If that solution works for your group, then great. If you still use quarters dimes and nickels, thats great too. Really its all a matter of personal taste. Thats why I have never understood the internet and its propensity for people to shout from the rooftops "I don't like that, so its crap".

Lastly, to remain somewhat on topic, I never had any interest in chainmail since I own Mordheim (the Games Workshop fantasy game). I do have interest in the new minis because I really have always wanted a huge box'o'orcs or box'o'kobolds or what-have-you. I now have a huge box'o'orcs filled with a mixture of completely unpainted Games Workshop plastics from Warhammer Quest as well as a bunch more pre-painted DnD minis to go with them. Them orcs is gettin' too big for their britches.

DS

 

[Xeriar]

The new minis, on the other hand are plastic. Much cheaper all around. Plus, they're collectible, which solves a number of logistical problems for them, such as less shelf space required of retailers. Even if they sold in the same volume as Chainmail, they'd make more money from the lower overhead.

Plastic casts have a much, much higher overhead. I forget the exact figure, but something like $20,000 per mold.

Of course, per unit they are much cheaper, but the initial investment is quite significant.

Still, given the popularity of D&D and Mageknight I wonder why they didn't go down this road to start.