Reaper Bones Next

[Zurai]

This is quickly reaching ludicrous levels of "good deal". Those Storm Giants that got added last night to the $100 pledge level are Huge-sized minis, which are pretty expensive individually (generally at least $40 for metal versions). We're getting them at prices rapidly approaching $0.40, assuming you average the price over every mini equally.

I personally have basically zero use for quite a few of the minis we're getting (the two space marine sets would only be useful if for some reason I was playing Shadowrun with minis and the party ran into serious military forces, and the other modern-ish minis aren't much better because Shadowrun is the only non-medieval-fantasy game I play), and it's still blowing my mind how much of a deal I'm getting.

[TiLT]

I have a bunch of inks I use as washes (I use Pelikan brand drawing inks.) 75% of everything I do involves my sepia and black inks, so the two are a great start. Besides, if you need a wash of a specific color, it is easily made out of your other paints with any of a number of recipes (I use a mix of four parts distilled water to one part Future floor wax.) Put a little in a bottle cap, add a few drops of paint, and instant wash.

Brand names are mostly useless to me as they are usually not available in Norway. I have no idea what "future floor wax" would be in Norway for example. I could go pick up something that sounds similar, but there may be something special about that brand which isn't replicated by whatever I pick up, destroying my paints or miniatures in the worst case.

Googling it a little bit, I'm starting to wonder why you're using the wax. Are you specifically going for the shiny look, or trying to varnish the miniature at the same time as you're painting it?

One thing you didn't mention is a palette. Working with acrylics, I strongly recommend a wet palette. There are links all over the place on how to make them. Example. Example.

I'm not sure I'll need anything as fancy as a wet palette. I suspect those are most useful to those who paint entire armies, and thus need to keep the same colors for a long time. I'm going to be painting lots of individual minis with different color schemes, so preserving the paint for hours upon hours isn't really that important. A plastic palette of some kind is probably a good idea though. I'll check local hobby stores for something I can use.

[Zurai]

Googling it a little bit, I'm starting to wonder why you're using the wax. Are you specifically going for the shiny look, or trying to varnish the miniature at the same time as you're painting it?

It's used to break the water tension and enhance the flow of the wash, IIRC. You can buy specialized flow enhancers and such from several of the bigger miniature paint manufacturers, it's just that the price is marked up (as is the price for everything they sell).

[Chaz]

This deal is just insane. The only things holding me back from signing up for this are that I don't have anywhere to really store them, have no use for them unless I painted them all and made a cool display (I don't do tabletop RPing or wargaming), and I know that I won't wind up actually painting them. Plus, the fiance would give me all kinds of looks when I unpacked the boxes.

[EzeKieL]

This deal is just insane. The only things holding me back from signing up for this are that I don't have anywhere to really store them, have no use for them unless I painted them all and made a cool display (I don't do tabletop RPing or wargaming), and I know that I won't wind up actually painting them. Plus, the fiance would give me all kinds of looks when I unpacked the boxes.

same here ^^

[Cylus Maxii]

In at the vampire level. I'll find a place to store them and buy paints. I've been wanting to get back into painting miniatures.

[TiLT]

Googling it a little bit, I'm starting to wonder why you're using the wax. Are you specifically going for the shiny look, or trying to varnish the miniature at the same time as you're painting it?

It's used to break the water tension and enhance the flow of the wash, IIRC. You can buy specialized flow enhancers and such from several of the bigger miniature paint manufacturers, it's just that the price is marked up (as is the price for everything they sell).

From what I'm reading, the Reaper paints actually have quite a bit of flow enhancer in them already. Citadel paints on the other hand don't contain any.

In fact, where Citadel paints are almost useless for direct application on a miniature, Reaper paints are supposedly thin enough to do just that, though extra thinning is recommended.

[Zaxxon]

This deal is just insane. The only things holding me back from signing up for this are that I don't have anywhere to really store them, have no use for them unless I painted them all and made a cool display (I don't do tabletop RPing or wargaming), and I know that I won't wind up actually painting them. Plus, the fiance would give me all kinds of looks when I unpacked the boxes.

same here ^^

Ditto.

[Carpet_pissr]

I assume everyone reading this thread has seen the movie below. If not, get thee NOW to Netflix, or your preferred movie consumption medium, and watch that shit. Seriously. Right now.

[hepcat]

I'm just going to have Seppe add the minis I wanted (chronosphere, IMF Marines, etc) to his order.

[Blackhawk]

Brand names are mostly useless to me as they are usually not available in Norway. I have no idea what "future floor wax" would be in Norway for example. I could go pick up something that sounds similar, but there may be something special about that brand which isn't replicated by whatever I pick up, destroying my paints or miniatures in the worst case.

Perhaps Pledge Klar Polish? This discusses Future in detail, including international variants. It is essentially a clear acrylic medium. It isn't too different from the medium the paints are made out of already, and helps, as mentioned, with the flow when diluting a paint into a wash. Anyway, it is only one option - there are lots of recipes for washes out there.

I'm not sure I'll need anything as fancy as a wet palette. I suspect those are most useful to those who paint entire armies, and thus need to keep the same colors for a long time. I'm going to be painting lots of individual minis with different color schemes, so preserving the paint for hours upon hours isn't really that important. A plastic palette of some kind is probably a good idea though. I'll check local hobby stores for something I can use.

The problem with acrylics is that they generally won't stay wet even one hour, and require a lot of blending, which spreads them out and leads to even quicker drying. It also means you don't have to finish the whole piece in one sitting, which can be a big problem if you aren't using the pure colors right out of the bottle. That red-with-a-little-blue you made to shade the cloak would have to be redone afterwards, and wouldn't match the original color mix. Also, most people paint two or three pieces at a time, switching back and forth to allow one coat or section to dry before applying the next.

[Blackhawk]

Added as of now. Next up at 2.44 million: Golems, which fills a hole in my collection.

[Zaxxon]

Warning: extreme ignorance ahead!

So if someone (a hypothetical someone, of course) was, say, completely new to the whole miniature scene, not sure if he really wanted to get into it, but saw the Vampire level as a nearly-irresistable gateway...

1) How much ancillary equipment costs would he be looking at for this 200+ miniature Vampire set? eg brushes, paints, anything else that's required and is obvious to you folks but not even on his radar?

2) How much space is this Vampire set gonna take? The best option would be a couple of figure cases plus a large box or two for the larger items?

3) How difficult is it to paint a miniature competently? He's not very artistic and wonders whether he'd just butcher them all.

4) Is there any sort of reliable resale market for this stuff? EG if he ordered the set, painted a miniature and didn't enjoy it, is he stuck with the rest until THE ENDS OF TIME!?

Help me OObi-wan: you're my only hope.

[Zurai]

Specialty miniatures paints run $1-2 a bottle. You'll want at least 8-12 different colors, minimum. More if you're like some of my friends and don't want to mix colors to get the one you want (there are merits to both approaches).

You can buy expensive speciality paint brushes (sable and all that), but a set of cheap hobby store starter brushes are all you're going to need as a starting painter. In fact, if you take to drybrushing, you're going to need cheap brushes.

That's all you need as far as supplies. You can use the bottoms of soda bottles as palettes, you don't need flow enhancers or paint thinners, these minis aren't supposed to need primer, you're not going to want to get into greenstuffing and converting right away, etc.

It's really hard to say how much space they're going to take up and how many cases you'll need to keep them in. However, if you ask me, I wouldn't get their cases. I'd get a tacklebox or two from your local fishing store. They come with a bunch of trays, partitions, and so on, and are usually pretty cheap. They won't hold the Huge storm giants, but then neither will the cases involved in the deal. If you have minis that are still shifting around too much, packing peanuts are dirt cheap (in fact, you'll probably get a bunch for free with the minis!).

Painting minis is really not too hard. Your first couple will probably look like ass, but that happens to everyone. Paint the skeletons first; you can get away with a simple color scheme and get used the process without being able to really totally ruin them. Once you're comfortable with the process, move on to something like the coffin or the stone golem from the latest stretch goal. As you get more comfortable, move to more complex minis. As I mentioned before, there's several really good training pieces in the set. Honestly, the most important thing for table-quality (as opposed to showpiece or contest quality) minis is a steady hand. If you can make your lines smooth, you'll do fine.

There's not much resale value unless you're a really good painter, I'll be honest. There are people out there that can buy $2 minis and resell them for $10-15 after painting them. That said, you could probably ebay just the storm giants, unpainted, for $8-10 each. If you give them a competent but not stellar paint job you could probably get twice that with some patience. So yeah, given enough time, you could probably make your money back, mostly because this deal is so insanely good. It's not hard to make back $0.50 per mini. At the very least, you could just ebay them as a bulk "200+ Reaper minis, some painted, $50" type thing and get a good chunk of it back. Someone will go for it.

[Zaxxon]

Hey, we're not talking about me here.

Thanks for the input.

[Seppe]

Warning: extreme ignorance ahead!

So if someone (a hypothetical someone, of course) was, say, completely new to the whole miniature scene, not sure if he really wanted to get into it, but saw the Vampire level as a nearly-irresistable gateway...

1) How much ancillary equipment costs would he be looking at for this 200+ miniature Vampire set? eg brushes, paints, anything else that's required and is obvious to you folks but not even on his radar?

2) How much space is this Vampire set gonna take? The best option would be a couple of figure cases plus a large box or two for the larger items?

3) How difficult is it to paint a miniature competently? He's not very artistic and wonders whether he'd just butcher them all.

4) Is there any sort of reliable resale market for this stuff? EG if he ordered the set, painted a miniature and didn't enjoy it, is he stuck with the rest until THE ENDS OF TIME!?

Help me OObi-wan: you're my only hope.

Depends on how much they want to commit to it. I use the cheap craft paint like Apple Barrel with some stuff to thin it. You can get those for under $1 at places like Hobby Lobby or Micheal's or even Menards home center. For metalic paint you will want to use special hobby paint and not the cheap craft paint. You dont need that many brushes, the lower to mid-prices are fine.

2) dont know how much space. I have a bunch of (badly) painted mines wrapped in towels in a box in the attic and they are fine. My good stuff get nicer foam stuff in a hard case.

3) There are plenty of ways to paint a decent level. If he wants look up the dip method (you paint the mini then dip it in polyurethane stain like Minwax chestnut). The 2 easy techniques he should learn is washes and drybushing. Washes add depth to the mini by letting darker colors settle into recesses (this is what the dip method does). Drybrushing is used to create highlights, you take the brush, let a little bit of paint 'dry' on it (or wipe it on a napkin) then lightly run the brush across the edges of the model. It will ruin your brushes so dont use new ones with it. With those two he can get good tabletop painting level.

4) he can sell the figures, probably not at a profit, easily.

[TiLT]

It's really hard to say how much space they're going to take up and how many cases you'll need to keep them in. However, if you ask me, I wouldn't get their cases. I'd get a tacklebox or two from your local fishing store. They come with a bunch of trays, partitions, and so on, and are usually pretty cheap. They won't hold the Huge storm giants, but then neither will the cases involved in the deal. If you have minis that are still shifting around too much, packing peanuts are dirt cheap (in fact, you'll probably get a bunch for free with the minis!).

I disagree, at least as long as we are talking about painted minis. Keeping painted minis in tackleboxes will likely lead to chipped paint, and that's not fun after spending potentially hours to paint the miniature in the first place. The advantage to the case you get in this Kickstarter (which is cheap too, IMO), is that each mini you put in there will be individually protected by a layer of foam. Chipping is nigh-on impossible like that.

All my old painted minis are chipped today because I haven't stored them properly. I'm not going to make that mistake again. In fact, one of my old minis is currently swimming in paint remover, and I'll brush off all its old paint later tonight so I can repaint it with my newfound knowledge of painting. I looked at it today and realized just how many things I had done wrong with it.

[Carpet_pissr]

OObi-wan

Nice. Did you just make that up?

YOINK

[Zaxxon]

I made a funny!

[Blackhawk]

In fact, one of my old minis is currently swimming in paint remover, and I'll brush off all its old paint later tonight so I can repaint it with my newfound knowledge of painting.

I've no idea what it's called there, but I've stripped a good number of metal miniatures, and have found that, hands down, the best thing is Easy-Off oven cleaner (sodium hydroxide is the active ingredient.) I have an old jar that I'll toss a few miniatures into, spray them until they're covered in foam, and put the lid on. 30-60 minutes later and a light toothbrushing and there isn't a flake of paint left on them. Don't try it with plastic miniatures, though, as you're liable end up with liquid minis.

[Zurai]

It's really hard to say how much space they're going to take up and how many cases you'll need to keep them in. However, if you ask me, I wouldn't get their cases. I'd get a tacklebox or two from your local fishing store. They come with a bunch of trays, partitions, and so on, and are usually pretty cheap. They won't hold the Huge storm giants, but then neither will the cases involved in the deal. If you have minis that are still shifting around too much, packing peanuts are dirt cheap (in fact, you'll probably get a bunch for free with the minis!).

I disagree, at least as long as we are talking about painted minis. Keeping painted minis in tackleboxes will likely lead to chipped paint, and that's not fun after spending potentially hours to paint the miniature in the first place. The advantage to the case you get in this Kickstarter (which is cheap too, IMO), is that each mini you put in there will be individually protected by a layer of foam. Chipping is nigh-on impossible like that.

And I'm going to disagree with you

I have a Warhammer 40k army that I painted up and put into a high quality foam carrying case. Not only does the paint still get chipped, the highly flexible foam also causes lots of parts of the plastic minis to snap off as the minis rub against each other through the foam lining, plus all the pokey bits get stuck in the foam, making it a real chore to put them in and take them out without damaging them further.

Meanwhile, my friend carries his varnished minis in a cheapo Wal-Mart tacklebox and none of them have been chipped to date.

Anecdotal, but that's what most advice is.

Edit: Maybe it's just the carrying case I have (the Army Transport case from the above link). Ideally I'd want a case with firm plastic walls lined in some sort of soft non-foam (so that pointy bits don't stick in it) material, but I havn't seen anything like that for sale. All the foam cases I've seen are just all-foam trays with squares cut into the foam. My experience is that pure foam is really not too great.

[Zarathud]

I like the BattleHive boxes from Crystal Caste. I hear they're finally back in stock.

[Blackhawk]

Ok, goal met. These fine fellows have now been added to the Vampire and Undertaker levels:



The next level, 2.84 million, gives us a set of necromancers AND a free .pdf of Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules by Frog God Games. As I recall (and I may not), this was intended as a recreation of the original D&D rules.

Another 400k is a big jump. We'll probably hit this one, but it will likely be the last one we get.

[TiLT]

Another 400k is a big jump. We'll probably hit this one, but it will likely be the last one we get.

If my calculations are correct, it took us about 6-7 hours to get the previous 200k, and this thing is only building momentum in its final day. I'd say there's a very reasonable chance we'll be able to reach another level of rewards, and I suspect Reaper will place it so as to maximize that chance without looking cheap.

Man, it's going to be hard waiting until March 2013 to get these miniatures. I'm glad I have my unpainted metal ones to entertain myself with in the meantime.

[Isgrimnur]

I'm working my way back into scale modeling. I have a 2005 Takata Dome NSX car to build. I've finished half of step 1, which is building the rear suspension. Of course, that half a step required ten pieces, eight of which are painted (two in two-tone), and the application of two decals.

This weekend, I'll be attempting my first airbrush paint job to paint the suspension pieces that contain the two brake assemblies that are not finished. Step 2? The front suspension.

[TiLT]

For anyone worried about the chances of getting more rewards, we've already gone up 30k in pledges in the 50 minutes since the last stretch goal was reached.

[Zurai]

Yeah, we're almost certain to hit this next goal, but unless the stretch goal after it is a real barnstormer or they don't increase the threshold by another half a mil, I wouldn't bet on reaching it (edit: or on not reaching it; it's kinda up in the air IMO).

I'm not upset by that at all; the necromancers look great and it's not like I'm not getting value out of the pledge And of the three projects I've Kickstarted (this, Shadowrun Returns, and Banner Saga), this is the only one with basically guaranteed results. Reaper is proven both in metal and plastic minis and they're a long-established company. They'll give us exactly what they say they're going to. There may be delays on some of it (March seems generous for, what, quintupling edit2: actually closer to heptupling or octupling the product line? plus there are a dozen or so entirely new sculpts in there) but I doubt they'll be excessive.

[Blackhawk]

I look at it this way: Yesterday they did 419,000 in 24 hours. Today we're headed for about 600,000 in 24. The auction only has 22 hours remaining. We can absolutely do 400k before time runs out and get the necromancers. Another 400k is possible if it accelerates (800k in 22 hours) and they don't bump up the interval. It just isn't a guaranteed thing.

[Baroquen]

The deal is crazy. I've never gotten into miniatures and I still almost bit. Amazing watching it just balloon and steamroll the stretch goals.

[Blackhawk]

I'll post in more detail tomorrow after I've slept, but I've been researching, and a huge, huge number of these miniatures are from Reaper's Warlord line, designed for their tabletop wargame of the same name. It would be a great opportunity to buy the core of an army and get started in tabletop miniature gaming. A couple that stand out:

The Necropolis army has six units in the default Vampire level, plus one in the original bones line. One of the six actually has two copies (the zombies), plus there are many pieces that could substitute for other miniatures (three other zombies, all those skeletons.) Unlike Warhammer, Reaper allows substitutions of other Reaper miniatures.

The Kargir army has six figures in Vampire, one in the optional sets, plus one in the original Bones line, plus the entire Orcpocalypse set comes from the Kargir army. If you're getting Vampire plus Orcpocalypse, that alone is 26 figures, which is larger than some complete Warlord armies.

/edit - I take that back. I just read on the Reaper forums that Vampire plus Orcpocalypse plus a single $2.49 figure will make a 1000-point army. 500 points is considered a beginner army. 1000 points is a full sized army.

[hentzau]

I was conversing with Tommy20 how, despite a) not playing fantasy for years besides D&D, b) we haven't played D&D seriously for over 2 years now, ever since my daughter hit high school and didn't have time to play, and c) I have more lead minis in my basement than I will EVER get around to painting (especially since I haven't tried painting anything for at least 4 or 5 years), I was (and am) still incredibly tempted to bite on this one, just because of the inherent value presented by this deal.

But he talked me off of the ledge. Thanks, Tommy! I can take that $100 and buy dinner at DisneyWorld now. My kids won't starve!

[hepcat]

I can take that $100 and buy dinner at DisneyWorld now. My kids won't starve!

Splitting a burger 5 ways is gonna be tough...

[Blackhawk]

Good morning. I woke up late this morning. I was up late last night wearing out my F5 key for some reason.

Anyway, this morning, added to the Vampire and Undertaker levels:



And



I did some more reading, and Swords and Wizardry looks a lot like the original D&D box sets, pre-AD&D. It has generally received good reviews (and a silver Ennie in '09), so it isn't a bad thing to have, although I doubt I'll ever use it.

I'm pretty happy with the necromancers, too, as the one in the upper right is Malek the Hated, a caster from the Warlord Necropolis army (which is what I've been working on building for the past couple of years.)

The next goal, at 3 million, is a .pdf novel. Yeah, I'm not too excited, especially since I can't read books on my PC (I have no idea why - I can reference them, but sitting upright in a desk chair I can't get through more than a few pages of actual reading.) Still, it is a mini-goal, $160,000 from the previous one when we had been getting things at $400,000.

[Blackhawk]

Reaper did an oopsie and updated to the wrong main image, giving us a sneak-peak at the stretch goal after the book: A dozen familiars. I already have a few of them, and they're great.

[coopasonic]

Yeah, they should easily breach $2M. Kicktraq projects between $2M and $2.7M.

I think they may get more. $50k off $3mm now.

[Zurai]

Yeah, the projection math is still a work in progress, and it's hard to project a project with an inverted bell curve for pledges.

$3M is pretty much assured, but there's only going to be 4-5 hours to get any further goals.

[Zaxxon]

Well, after finding a friend to split the Vampire level with me, I'm in.

[Blackhawk]

Whoo!

FYI, with all the folks getting into minis because of this, once things settle down I'm going to post a bunch of info on painting basics in the painting thread - tools, basic techniques, links to videos done by painters that are a hell of a lot more competent than me, etc.

[Blackhawk]

Two days later:

Two Million Dollars!

Three! Three million dollars!

HA HA HA HA HA!

[Blackhawk]

Ok, added to Vampire and Undertaker:



Next up, as hinted, familiars. This time a 3.34 million. It is possible - things have really been speeding up over the last couple of hours, but it is still $340,000 in four hours. They did $608,000 in 24 yesterday, and have done $333,000 in thirteen today.