JustKim said:
How so? I said that most of the high end figures don't sell for more than $30 and you challenged that by asking for examples of figures less than $25-$40. Well, only one of them is more than $25 and none of them are more than $30. I think this supports what I said.
Well, you also left out some of the biggies I mentioned, like the Beholder. $24 is still too much for a single figure to me, even if it didn't fit my hand-waved criteria of "$25-$40". Also, I had never seen that particular website before, and was basing my prices off of the dozens of eBay sellers/stores I've been to.
I can give you some idea, although the amount of money I truly need to spend on anything D&D-related is highly subjective.
A set of brushes: under $10. I've spent $30 on brushes of several different sizes. They are mostly sable brushes- camel hair is cheap, but you will leave brush hairs on your model and they don't hold a point. The rest are disposable brushes for drybrushing, priming, sealing and painting with metal paints, all of which will ruin brushes for detail work.
Paints (1 oz btls): $0.87 each. No, they are about $3 each.
Ok, see here is what I'm talking about. You really don't need to spend that kind of money to get decent brushes. At any craft store, you can get the 3-4 quality brushes you need for under $10, and the crappy camelhair you can get at Wal-Mart for under a buck apiece. I've been painting for over 20 years, and I've never paid more than $5 for a brush, and that was because I was paying for the name stamped on the side, as I discovered.
Paints are only $3 a pot if you buy Reaper or Games Workshop paints. While they are good at having the really esoteric colors and metallics you might need for just the right model, you can get Apple Barrel brand at Wal-Mart, a full 1 ounce bottle, for about $0.87. And trust me, they are every bit as good. I'd say i have 3:1 of these over the fancy stuff. The ONLY thing, really, that the "name brands" have over the generics are inks and premade washes, which are really more advanced techniques, and not really needed for rank and file mobs (and you can still work wonders with a simple black/dark grey plain homemade wash for these anyway).
Every figure has also cost me $4 to $12. Since DDM has left me with way too many humanoids, I mostly want the big monster figures and scenery, which has added up to quite a lot of money.
Oh, I thought you were saying you paid $300 just for the materials to
begin painting your own. I didn't know it included the minis themselves. Once you have the set up, and it's easy to add a bottle of paint here, a brush there, etc, individual Reaper minis are usually a good bit cheaper for the big monster minis than trying to find the equivalent DDM. Now for orcs/zombies/mooks etc, the DDMs are the way to go
IF you can get enough of them. I think this is where I'm annoyed with the randomized marketplan. I don't see why WotC can't take 3-4 of their already existing orc molds and make a non-randomized "orc warband" pack with a dozen or so guys and sell them for $20. Same for animals, undead, summoned critters/elementals what have you. They don't have to invest in new sculpts, just re-inject what they have, give it the same half-arsed paintjob we've come to love from their line, and sell them.
There isn't any part of this I can disagree with! Please try to be more controversial next time or I will have difficulty arguing with you.
LoL! Thanks, I'll try to be a more professional disturber of the fecal matter in the future!
But seriously, painting metal minis is a hobby all to itself, running parallel to gaming (or, it IS gaming if you do the wargame thing). I understand why WotC does the randomized pack model, and I'm ok with it. It's the whole "it's not a profitability thing, it just can't be done any other way" story I don't buy. And now that several other companies are out there trying it anyway warms the cockles of my heart, especially for games I'd love the figs for anyway (D&D and Deadlands).
