Let slip the Hogs of war!!

So, I tend to get more into painting than blogging. Mostly because when I have the energy to feel creative its more fulfilling to paint up some lil dudes than to post a blog entry that may or may not get any responses ;) So, if you want more updates & such- you guys gotta feed my inner attention whore with compliments. And I wouldnt be averse to bribes either!

Anyhow- heres the first of my Hordes Farrow beasts. I did a bit of converting on each one since I dont think Arkadius would be all that meticulous when making them- nor did I want 3 of the same pose on the table. Some of the posing is very... daring. Particularly the one legged running pose that required drilling through hte length of the entire leg to sink a pin into its body and anchoring it with some hardcore epoxy in the base.

If theres enough interest on how I did any of it I can do some posts about the conversions later :)

I'll get pics of my minions Warlocks, solos and infantry in a day or two. Right now Im back to painting my Trollbloods!

Can Reaper do plastic better than GW? Bones!

Now, once you get done watching that:

http://www.reapermini.com/miniatures/bones

3$?!! For a brand new mini that ready to paint, thats pretty damn awesome. How many new mini painters will now get into the hobby because they can afford one or two of these guys every week? Its nice to see some of the manufacturers understand that keeping things affordable wont bankrupt them.

Now- the price point beats GW. Will the Reaper plastic beat Finecast? If the points in the video hold true, with its durability- that could be one up on Finecast. Will you have to check the product in the store to avoid miscasts and bubble infestations? Probably not- it looks like Reaper has invested in the proper tech for the material they are using(not forcing new materials through old tech to save money).

Next- the poke in the eye. Like the other mini producers using plastic- Reaper is doing so and lowering the sale price- not raising it.

So, I know my blog is mostly followed by wargamers, and the Reaper lines mostly are aimed at the Tabletop RPG's. But for us painters that play both, lets pick up a couple of these when we see them and find out if Reaper has a win, or just a 'they're ok'.

Its obvious the sculpts aren't in line with the Finecast stuff. But if the material is superior, its just a matter of time before they learn how to cast it better and we see better sculpts. Eventually, one of these companies will hit upon the magic plastic mix that will be easy to work with, durable, and cast crisp detail reliably- and can hopefully become an industry standard rather than a proprietary material :/

The terrible things people do to nice miniatures!!

You know you've seen it yourself, heinous mistreatment of what some of us consider to be small sculptures. Sometimes its the kid at the game shop just tossing his miniatures into a bag without a care. Or the guy assembling that new awesome tank or warjack- and his lack of skill tells him MOAR GLUE!!!! will make the little bitz stick better. Maybe its the guy that sells on ebay, or trades stuff, and is a total moron when it comes to safely packing them.

Lets talk about Crimes against miniatures!

Several months ago I found a smoking deal on ebay. Is was mis-listed, so the usual Warmachine shoppers didnt see it. 78 Retribution infantry. With blurry pics, and no list of what there was. I ended up getting it for 84$ 'including foam carrying case'. I knew it was a bit of a gamble, but hell, at about 1$ per miniature and a carrying case....

Well, it was a gamble lol. It took 10 days longer to arrive than it should have, the seller seems to have gotten arrested and was in jail, and sent the stuff once he was out on bail. How awesome is that!?

So, the 'foam carrying case' seems to have turned into 2 sabol foam trays. ALL of the flimsy little metal elf minis were piled into one tray, a couple handfls of the plucked foam bits thrown on top. Then the second tray placed on top, and wrapped with brown packaging tape. This amazing foam and crunchy pewter sandwich was then placed into a box that was about 5 sizes too large, with nothing to stop it from bouncing around.

So, If any of you ship stuff frequently, Im sure you can imagine the sort of carnage the poor elves endured.

ebay wasn't much help, so I decided to just keep the minis. I have an abundance of spare time, and the skills needed to fix them. So I figured it would be good practice and some opportunity for conversions I wouldnt try otherwise.

But thats just one atrocity I've witnessed over the years. I decided I should just list the myriad of abuses minis sometimes endure.

Glue monkeys. These are the guys that think more glue is always better. Gap filling super glue is how they 'convert' stuff. To most people these 'conversions' often look like the miniature was dipped in glue and rolled through a bitz box. Or they use the thin stuff- and it runs all over the mini, seeping into the crevices and just erasing all the fine details.

AII's. Assembly impaired individuals. This is were you see stuff like dudes with thier legs on backwards, 2 left arms, backwards heads, 5 guns glued together to make it a 'gatling' bolter... Then the vehicles...GW- spend an extra 13 cents with your chinese printers and give these guys some damn instructions! Tread sections glued on backwards, one backwards and one forward, hull pieces so poorly aligned that the troops inside wouldnt need hatches to get in and out. Crooked seams. Bitz glued in oddball places, like searchlights glue to exhaust stacks and missle pods poking out of the drivers hatch.

Little Johnny. This is the kid seen at the shop, he's probably 9 or 10. He thinks these pricey little miniatures are really cool toys. He never has the right minis at one time to make a playable army- mostly because they just dont survive long enough. His mommy buys him more minis and then leaves him at hte shop while she goes shopping or does her girl stuff. On the upside, sometimes little Johnny outgrows smashing his Rhinos around like hotwheels and turns into an avid gamer. But that only happens if they avoid being strangled when they lay thier little mitts on other peoples miniatures.

The repainter. This is the guy that paints terrible(but at least he paints them right?), and decides he hates the color he used- so he just paints over it. And over it. Stripping the old paint is either 'too much work' or they just dont know how. But the minis eventually get 4 or 5 layers of heavy paint and end up looking like blobs shaped like guys. The paint fills in all the details and sometimes is bad enough you cant tell what the original miniature was. Like chaos space marines dipped in purple latex house paint. Yes, really. Purple house paint. Dipped in the stuff like a fat kid dipping smores in a chocolate fountain. Except smores in a chocolate fountain are actually tasty and its a good idea.

Im sure there are a myriad of combinations of the types I list above. One heinous abuse is usually like a gateway drug to the rest of them.

Fortunately, the numerous internet forums with painting and modeling sections have really helped spread the skills and knowledge. Its gone from a dark & obscure skillset to a plethora of information thats available for those willing to look for it. And that, that is what makes it so maddening to see people still doing this sort of stuff.

So, fellow gamers- don't condone miniature abuse! When you see it happening, see of the vile offender is willing to learn a better method. Preach the good word of 'Less is more!' when it comes to glue. Teach somebody that feet face toes forward, that space marines have a right AND left arm(possibly including a lesson in right vs left).

Until then, I'll keep up the good fight of trying to resuscitate the unfortunate victims and returning them to the tabletop ready to do battle in which they may die- but they get to remain intact ;)

What Crimes against Miniatures have you witnessed?