Trying to get back into it, few Qs

ShaneScouse

Hey folks, used to do warhammer/GamesWorkshop a little when a kid, mainly the lord of the rings line when it came out as was massive lotr fan, never actually played just loved to buy and paint the really complicated ones, I wasn't toooo bad at it either :P

For reasons unknown to me, probably due to finding all my old stuff in the attic(and about 25paint pots all dried up :rolleyes:) Ive been having an urge to get back into it, but as I said I just like painting and collecting no interest in the games really.

I checked out the threads here done some googling and noticed its alot dearer then it used to be, the blanch store is gone and going into town I tend to avoid, so would like to get stuff outside town or online. Is there any sites that do good deals and prices for Ireland and people can reccomend(From my googlings I found 1 site that seems good value, totalwargamer.co.uk, only prob is read more stuff about them having daftly slow delivery to the UK so id fear how long it takes to get here, and didnt see anything overly positive about them)

I have to get fair few paints and stuff now to even get started so is there other ranges of paints and spraycans I can use, that will suffice.

And a more important Question is there other hobby ranges like warhammer that I could take up for painting, that are cheaper but that have the quality most of the gamesworkshop models have, or is that the one you have to do here?

tks alot

richie.c

I am very similar to yourself, just recently decided to get back into the hobby. Wayland games have evry good prices at the moment because they have free shipping if you order over 20pounds until the 28th. I made 4 orders last week 2 of which have already arrived, 1 is dispatched and the other is waiting stock. One of the orders that arrived yesterday was missing a Sprue of 10 miniatures so I contacted them and the missing sprue has been shipped this morning. So they seem to have excellent customer service too.
Like you I have found Games Workshop prices very expensive so I have went for the mantic miniatures from Kings of War. Very good value in comparison and excellent quality, I got Elves Dwarves and the Undead. Also I have bought Army painter paints and brushes. The game itself seems much simpler than WFB (having said that it's over 20 years since I played WFB). The miniatures could easily be used for WFB if you were so inclined.
Hope this helps.

Rcihie

ShaneScouse

tks richie
How are the army paint supplies, you get them from wayland? and are they as good as the gamesworkshop/citadel stuff?

Like I said id just like to paint the models for as cheap as I can, but still good quality of models/supplies. I'm sure everyone wants that ofc, but the fact I don't want/plan to play the games themselves id assume I'm a bit more free to shop around.
What are them mantic ones like, they plastic or metal, they look very similar to the GW stuff in the screenshots but less 'detailed' but that could be the low res screenshots ofc.

That wayland does seem like a good site, don't ship paint cans it seems though so might have to lug into town to get a black or white base spray, or maybe try use a primer from halfords or B&Q or something, not sure if they would work :P

richie.c

Well I only started using the paints in the last couple of weeks and so far so good. They seem a bit watery compared to my old GW paints which are still good by the way, but they are 20 years old so were made by a different group than the GW paints today.

I do prefer the dropper bottles from the army painter compared to the tubs from GW. Also they contain 18ml of paint compared to 12ml in the GW paints

I have been painting the dwarves I got so far and I think the detail is very nice. You may need to pick up some green stuff as the fits aren't perfect on some of them when assembling. The sprues come packed with extras, like a dead dwarf, dogs, beer tankards etc.

All the models I got are plastic, but they have metal miniatures too.

I got the KoW starter on ebay and the Elves warhost from Wayland, in total 167 miniatures for approx 65euro (about 40c a miniature) . I ordered the paints and brushes and some basing materials from Wayland and picked up some white primer in town.

Very happy with everything I got so far.

In all probably spent about 160-170

mitosis

What about http://www.princeaugust.ie/

If you are not into brands, maybe they'd suffice. They also do paints etc

Branoic

For top quality miniatures take a look at the Infinity range - some fantastic models there.

ShaneScouse

wow them infinity range look really nice, there actually a little dearer or not far off GW stuff, but look really well done. And actually look more expensive, some seem really small and dainty though, prob hard to paint :P

I assume you have painted some of them branoic, are they metal or plastic hard to tell. have to admit I always liked the metal models, and thats gone now in GW i think replaced by resin which is meant to be as good, I just never loved the basic, cheaper plastic models like the ones u got in packs of 10/20 soliders as always found the detail to be less and just not as easy or fun to paint them, never got a really good feel or look to them, and loved the weight of the metals

quozl

The Infinity models are metal and have won TTGN's sci-fi mini of the year the last 4 or 5 years running, IIRC.

They're beautiful - if you're into painting and like their aesthetic then I'd strongly recommend them. There is no higher quality mini range out there, IMO.

Gamers' World on Jervis street stock them, so if you did decide to risk a journey into town you can check them out there.

Another possibility is Malifaux. They're fantasy/steam-punk and Wyrd Miniatures used to be a company producing minis for painters that then created a game - Malifaux. I think the Infinity minis are nicer but the Malifaux ones are some of the best fantasy minis out there. They're also metal. I don't find them particularly difficult to paint - they have so much fine detail that they take washes and thinned paint very well. Some of them are a PITA to assemble though - they're more realistically proportioned than heroic 28mm like 40K/WHFB so arms and legs can be thin.

I hear that Sedition Wars minis by Studio McVery - http://www.seditionwars.com/ are very nice. I've not seen them myself though.

Check out http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/ for 28mm sci-fi squad level stuff too. I like the minis - not as fantastic as Infinity but they're much cheaper. I have their Kolony rebels and militia.

As for other paints being as good as GW's - typically they're better than GW's IMO.
Vallejo in particular are the ones most commonly used by professional miniature painters. My mini-painting man-crush Angel Giraldez seems to use them exclusively - http://studiogiraldez.blogspot.ie/ - he's the official Infinity painter. Many other professionals use them too. BTW check out his blog for some beautiful Infinity & Anima tactics minis. He even lists the paints he used on a particular mini and will answer questions on them or technique in his comment section.

Privateer Press's line is imo excellent, except for some of their metallics.

I don't know Army Painter bottle paints but I'm sure they're fine and you can find reviews of them online. I use their coloured primer sprays - mostly just white but I also have their brown and pink for the odd purpose.

GW paints historically have been mediocre at best IMO although they did a re-working of their entire paint line recently. From what I've seen so far, I still prefer PP and Vallejo.

I have a mix of paints from all the lines as they're all good enough but I do try to get PP or Vallejo where I can as I know them and think they're excellent.

ShaneScouse

Well think im gona order a handfull of army paints and some infinity and prob 1 or 2 GW finecast/metal units and try get stuck into it again

Gona use that wayland site, Ill let yas know if my delivery gets lost at sea.
Just one little Q about the army paints do they have the stuff like Inks that GW used to have, GW have renamed there whole line and it confuses the hell outa me, but I used to have like 20 normal colour paints then these few Inks Id use to kinda seap into grooves and stuff was a very nice effect.

richie.c

They do inks but only three different shades never tried them though. Some good reviews online for them.

I've read some poor stuff sbout the finecast models, never had one myself so can't comment. Worth having a read before handing over your money.

ShaneScouse

Ironically enough had to go into town for work today with the van so was able to just park in loading bay beside gamersworld :P

Got some infinity metal miniatures and handfull of army and citadel paints, spray cans and brushes etc.

Have to say the stock in there was rather dire for what I was looking for, they had next to zero lord of the rings stuff and way the stock is stored is pain to find what you want or even browse,esp when theres a bunch of teenagers playing games taking up half the store and the staff act as if your being rude when you try buy or ask a question about prices on unlabeled items cause they are having a big convo about something

Went over to GW afters and its the polar opposite lol, they ran over and tried to sell me the kitchen sink. They have much better stock but alot dearer then the online stores so Ill defo be doing all me buying online from now on.

Wish me luck with the infinity yokes, they look tricky

ShaneScouse

Dont wana bump meself but an edit will never get seen :P

But been painting away on the stuff again, forgot how relaxing it can be if a little effort to set up and clean up afters.

painted whatever was left from my old lotr metal stuff and they turned out grand, im missing alot of paints and washs and stuff so kind making up my own colour schemes that dont really match what Im painting but look fine when done regardless.(ganderf I just finished sec ago, srry bout the dire phone camera)


The infinity models are really nice with alot of detail, But I cant see me buying or painting more, I done 2 models and just didnt turn out very well, prob just dont suit my painting style couldnt get motivated for em, there to thin or something with to much details, so I cant do nice shading or drybrushing its more just 20 diff colours on a small model so looks bit to colourfull and bland colours or something, just comes down to them being great models but not suiting my painting, not good enough perhaps

Looks like im my own worst enemy, I wanted to paint good value stuff yet seem to only like painting GW stuff -.-
tempted to buy some warhammer stuff the elves or bretons or something, I really like the medieval style stuff, but I want metal wary of this new finecast lark

MarkHall

Not a bad start.

If you want to branch out from GW.
The Warmachine/Hordes Range have some amazing minis
http://privateerpress.com/

And they are great games to Boot.

Where are you located?
Might also want to check out local clubs. And see if folks have parts of collections they want to unload.

http://w-ired.org/forum/
Has a sale forums that might prove useful.

Gunmonkey

Two good websites I use for browsing miniatures are CoolMiniOrNot and Fantization. Both have large web-stores with minis from dozens of companies, both for gaming and just display pieces. no idea on shipping as never ordered, just looked :pac:

Recon

Give at look at this thread. The Kickstarter is over by now but in a couple of days they're going to allow people to buy miniatures at the 'vampire' level (watch the videos at the top of the Kickstarter page for Reaper).

Including shipping to Ireland, it works out at $125 for 240 plastic miniatures and 1 metal one, plus maybe a bit for VAT and customs. Still a lot cheaper than any other miniature offers I've seen.