Did Prepainted Minis Get You Into Minis?

[NewJeffCT]

With the ease of prepainted minis, and their initial low price back in the day... (something like $7.99?), there were a lot of buy ins.

Did anyone find themselves going to unpainted metal figs after a while?

I've always mixed and matched. I have thousands of unpainted figs scattered in boxes and enjoyed the ease of use of the prepainted figs.

Never stopped with the unpainted ones though because I enjoy painting them, and there are a lot of new companies out there keep doing awesome stuff.

Kind of the opposite for me. I had a pretty good collection of Warhammer & Reaper minis I either painted myself, bought painted off of eBay, or had painted on commission. This was before D&D prepainted stuff ever came out.

Most of the prepainted stuff has generally been a turn-off to me because of the poor quality of the paint jobs - I had a local highschooler painting some of mine for $1.50 each that were better quality, and then had some minis painted to very good quality in China or Sri Lanka as well for not much more than that (the highschooler went off to college). Then, I can get them painted how I want as well: so my red & black themed Empire army can be the town guard/watch, and also the same kingdom's knights and "professional" men-at-arms. (or, the evil empire's minions instead)

I've bought a few random boosters of the D&D prepainted (lucked out & got a pit fiend in one!), but have mostly bought a few here & there for my D&D campaign off of enworld, or eBay. even then, it's hard to tell. I bought 7-8 medium gravetouched ghouls, and one other ghoul that I was hoping to use as the ghoul leader/ghast, but the one solo ghoul was way smaller than the gravetouched ghouls. Kind of ruins the image at the table.

 

[Lars Porsenna]

Like some others, I also was using minis before prepaints were a glimmer in some game designer's eye. I remember a time when the "go-to" minis came from Grenadier, with Ral Partha supplying a lot of PC types (RP was never very good for monsters though), D&D minis were being put out by TSR (never even saw them in stores, the shame), and Citadel were those odd over-sized minis from Europe.

I bought a few prepaints, but generally don't use them. An Hour in the basement with my brushes can turn out a better mini than any of these (more, if I do things assembly line), so I only bought minis for which there were no metals, or the metals available were impractical (like the Bullette)...

FYI for D&D minis, check out: OTHERWORLD | Home Page

Damon.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Basically yes.

I bought perhaps a half-dozen of the unpainted lead figures in my first fifteen years of gaming, mainly because I did not need them. Plus the learning curve (and expense) for painting was more than I was interested in. I have always been on the playing side of the hobby, not collecting or more niche pursuits.

I bought about a hundred figures and bought another 50 or so as singles. But I am done , unless I find a good place to buy singles again.

I have enough to play with and I am fine with that.

 

[El Mahdi]

...and then had some minis painted to very good quality in China or Sri Lanka as well for not much more than that (the highschooler went off to college). Then, I can get them painted how I want as well: so my red & black themed Empire army can be the town guard/watch, and also the same kingdom's knights and "professional" men-at-arms. (or, the evil empire's minions instead).

Was this a service you used to get them painted? If so, do you have a contact or link for the painting service?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Was this a service you used to get them painted? If so, do you have a contact or link for the painting service?

Blue Table Painting

I haven't used 'em myself and they ain't cheap.

But I use their gallery for inspiration on my own minis.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Emphatically yes.

Prepainted minis got me into minis and D&D in general, and from there I learned to paint metals and plastics. I'm currently finishing up a batch of custom pirates using the GW Empire Militia, Chaos Marauders, and Catachan Jungle Fighters sprues.

I enjoy painting, but I vastly prefer painting plastics to metal due to weight, ease of bonding with glue, and ease of conversion.

 

[darjr]

No, not yet. I don't have enough. And if I get interested in painting again, well, It'll be a long time until I do have enough.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Emphatically yes.

Prepainted minis got me into minis and D&D in general, and from there I learned to paint metals and plastics. I'm currently finishing up a batch of custom pirates using the GW Empire Militia, Chaos Marauders, and Catachan Jungle Fighters sprues.

I enjoy painting, but I vastly prefer painting plastics to metal due to weight, ease of bonding with glue, and ease of conversion.

And the ease of reconstruction if tragedy strikes.

When I was a young man back in the preteens, I had an open multi-layer shelf with dozens of monsters on it; undead dragon, undead war mammoth, undead giant, etc...

My mother, saint that she is, 'fluffed' my bed and the sheet smashed into the open shelf sending miniatures sprawling everywhere.

Into many little pieces.

The horror....

The horror....

 

[NewJeffCT]

Was this a service you used to get them painted? If so, do you have a contact or link for the painting service?

Here is a link to a couple of services in Sri Lanka...though it seems the price has gone up a bit. I'm guessing because of the weak dollar these past few years.

Paintedfigs.com - Main Gallery of what you get for the lowest miniature painting rates on Earth

Fernando Enterprises - miniature painting service - Sri Lanka

I would recommend going in with a few friends and doing it in bulk, as the cost of shipping there & back again is expensive.

I've used both services, but prefer the first since they flock the bases for you and communicate better along the way.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Miniatures got me into D&D back in 1980 - pure lead goodness - yum!

Now that I have pre painted minis I doubt I will buy any more unpainted ones. I have 1000's of these now and am pretty much done with minis in general.