Painting minis?

[MGibster]

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

 

[Clint_L]

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!

 

[Fenris-77]

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!

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.

 

[MGibster]

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.