Fighting the Gray Tide (Miniature Painting)

Zardnaar · Jul 19, 2026

MGibster said:
That's a good deal. Archon Studio makes great miniatures.

Details very impressive. Gamestores doing 50% off.

Owner gave me tge campaign setting and monster book for free along with pro acryl white and italieri pale gray.

Staffan · Jul 19, 2026

Zardnaar said:
Well 99 minis for $70. Not used to assembly.

Deuslair Core Set

The lands of Deuslair are strife with conflict, with various factions vying for dominance. From the Magic Smiths of the Fortress of Dragsa to the Jannah of the...

archon-studio.com

I've been considering buying some Dungeons & Lasers minis, but after my experience with assembling the Goblin Warband from Wargames Atlantic I've decided that miniatures assembly is not for me unless the minis are clearly slotted for it.

Zardnaar · Jul 19, 2026

Staffan said:
I've been considering buying some Dungeons & Lasers minis, but after my experience with assembling the Goblin Warband from Wargames Atlantic I've decided that miniatures assembly is not for me unless the minis are clearly slotted for it.

Most of them are f8ne and its my first.

Can take a while. 75 page pdf. And I'm not used to it.

Staffan · Jul 19, 2026

Zardnaar said:
Most of them are f8ne and its my first.

Can take a while. 75 page pdf. And I'm not used to it.

Hmm. How do the assembly points look?

With Reaper's miniatures, they usually have very pronounced assembly points (I'm sure there's a better term for it), that both make it clear how the mini is supposed to fit together and provide a certain amount of internal friction that helps with holding it together while the glue sets. I couldn't find any good pictures online, but this is from a video showing someone assembling a large dragon:

But with the goblins I bought, there basically weren't any defined assembly points. The torsos just had vague depressions at the shoulder joints, and the arms ended in rounded stubs. I think the intention was to allow the arms to be in whatever positions you chose, and to not predetermine which arm went with which torso, but to me the effect was to make assembly a lot more difficult because you had to actually hold the mini together for quite some time while the glue took hold.

So, are D&L minis more like Reaper's or more like the goblins?

Zardnaar · Jul 19, 2026

Staffan said:
Hmm. How do the assembly points look?

With Reaper's miniatures, they usually have very pronounced assembly points (I'm sure there's a better term for it), that both make it clear how the mini is supposed to fit together and provide a certain amount of internal friction that helps with holding it together while the glue sets. I couldn't find any good pictures online, but this is from a video showing someone assembling a large dragon:
View attachment 442655

But with the goblins I bought, there basically weren't any defined assembly points. The torsos just had vague depressions at the shoulder joints, and the arms ended in rounded stubs. I think the intention was to allow the arms to be in whatever positions you chose, and to not predetermine which arm went with which torso, but to me the effect was to make assembly a lot more difficult because you had to actually hold the mini together for quite some time while the glue took hold.

So, are D&L minis more like Reaper's or more like the goblins?

Ive has some minis be both. Some are dead easy. Others are get a 3rd bit and see how part A connects to B+C vs B.

MGibster · Jul 19, 2026

Staffan said:
I've been considering buying some Dungeons & Lasers minis, but after my experience with assembling the Goblin Warband from Wargames Atlantic I've decided that miniatures assembly is not for me unless the minis are clearly slotted for it.

I haven't put anything together by Wargames Atlantic. Some of the models I've had the most difficult time with were made for Malifaux. They use something closer to true scale so items like hands and feet are scaled where they should be and gluing tiny parts was a chore. Some of Games Workshop's Necron troops were also a big pain in the rear to glue together.

The D&L minis I've assembled thus far have been fairly straightforward. The only one I had any difficulty with was their Phoenix model. It had some fiddly flame bits that just didn't make any sense to me and I left them off.

Staffan · Jul 21, 2026

Back home, got some paint and numbers on the bases, and slightly better photos:

Clint_L · Jul 21, 2026

Staffan said:
So, are D&L minis more like Reaper's or more like the goblins?

They're more like Games Workshop. They are much more involved to assemble than Reaper miniatures, but they also come with detailed instructions. Still, large miniatures can be a beast to assemble.

I don't know anything about Wargames Atlantic, so they are almost certainly a small business with a lot less experience in creating miniatures sprues than GW or D&L. The challenges you describe fit that hypothesis.

There's tradeoffs. I like sprued miniatures, especially for smaller miniatures, because you get better quality plastic with sharper detail and much less bending. This also allows for more dynamic poses. On the other hand, they are more fragile and take a lot more effort to assemble compared to Reaper, where assembly is minimal or not required at all, or Wizkids, where even the largest miniatures seldom require assembly.

I also quite enjoy assembling miniatures, though. I find it satisfying. It's not for everyone.

Edit: I looked up Wargames Atlantic. They seem like a nice little boutique business. The sprues I'm looking at seem a bit basic compared to D&L or GW, so D&L miniatures would be more involved, not less, but also have a lot more detail and variety. These kind of remind me of second generation GW sprues.

If you didn't like assembling those miniatures, I don't think D&L ones would be for you.

Mad_Jack · Jul 21, 2026

Re: sprues... Plastic sprues require metal molds to cast, and thus the price of manufacturing the mold can often influence or even dictate the shape and arrangement of the sprues for a particular figure. Those <bleep>ers ain't cheap...
This is why Reaper does Kickstarters - the majority of the money they generate goes towards manufacturing the new molds for the figures... If they didn't, they'd only be able to put out maybe a dozen new figures per year.