Adventures in Warhammer

[jurann]

     So my roommate has been wanting to get back into painting miniatures again for a while, it used to be her hobby before making fursuits replaced it about ten years ago. And I've always been fascinated and curious about Warhammer. In years previous though, the barrier to entry for me had been price. Well, I make oodles now, so I figured I don't

Comments

[theflamecrow]

I don't even want to play the game.

I just want the models. o.o

They seem like they'd be fun to paint up, and since they're so tiny the work is most likely less than my usual model kits. Maybe. :P Those details will probably make it difficult, but it's nothing I can't handle.

I just don't know what sets are cheap/affordable for me. I like lizardmen, so I guess I should just do research on those guys. (And most likely any other furry sorts of awesome critters.)

Since I'm not army building I assume I can just buy a few and be happy. I hope. o.o

[jurann]

Well, they usually come in large packs of models, like 10-20 per box. Because they are mostly meant for building coherent army units, so they don't sell many individual models except for "Characters" which are Lords and Heroes - but those cost more because of the detail, increased size, and importance of the model. Individual Character models vary from $15 to $66 each (usually $66 is a MAJOR hero/lord on a large mount) and single units of models range from $25 to $50 with the average unit being about $35 in cost.

In Warhammer Fantasy the furry-ish armies are Skaven (ratmen), Beastmen (satyrs, minotaurs, centaurs) and Lizardmen (name says it all). In Warhammer 40K the furry-ish guys would be... Well, none. =/ But the Space Wolves have a strong wolf lore among them and wear furs of bears, wolves and other critters and ride wolf mounts. The Tau also have some animal-type beasts and units mixed in amongst their battle armor units. And the Orks from Fantasy also ride boars.

[theflamecrow]

Ah well, the armys wouldn't hurt if I had to buy a whole unit. :P Would still be good painting times.

And I assume the bigger dragon sorts are the more expensive kits? x.x I guess I'll browse around on ebay, but I don't plan on buying anything/anyone too soon,

[jurann]

Yeah, what few dragons there are usually cost between $50 and $100. The Chimera's pretty darn cool too. Check out www.games-workshop.com for the full product line. eBay is a great place to find older models and bits and pieces of stuff, but they tend to not have much in the way of current stuff or complete pieces. =/

[theflamecrow]

Yeah, I saw a bunch of incomplete looking stuff.

Also I was wondering, how do you paint/glue the metal kits? That's always kinda confused me. x.x

[jurann]

Super glue. And if that's not enough, then you use a process called "pinning" where you drill a super tiny, deep hole into each piece and then use a metal rod and super glue to hold and "pin" the pieces together more firmly. For some larger pieces to join you may have to use 2-3 pins. And then you fill gaps with "green stuff", which is a 2-part molding epoxy that can be shaped and carved while stile curing and then once dry.

[theflamecrow]

I do pinning for resin kits. :P I didn't know you could do it on metal kits. o.o

[jurann]

I didn't know you could do it for resin, lol. =D I didn't figure you'd NEED to for resin since it's super light-weight. Though there's different types of resin, the resin GW uses in their new Finecast line is super light, and nicely porous so it soaks up superglue and creates a super-strong, super-fast bond. Downside about their new Finecast resin models is that they are full of bubbles and have a lot of flash in strange places that's just GOBBED on horribly. I've had unrecoverable issues with every Finecast model I've bought now. =P Which is about 10 of them.

[theflamecrow]

Really matters on the resin kit, some kits are HUGE. I do it just to make sure things line up right, and to get it all together easier after painting. Do small hand drills work for the metal kits?

Urg, you make "Finecast" sound like Thai recast resin... I'd rather not work with it. o.O

[jurann]

Well, the detail is beautiful and the material is a breeze to work with - it's just that the number of defects is outrageous right now. Rumor is that 75% of their casts are being sent back as bad, so they are working hard to improve the quality right now.

As for drilling and pinning metal, yes it works with small hand drills, that's exactly what you use. You're supposed to do the drilling and pinning before you prime (and paint) the models though, at least for GW stuff.

[theflamecrow]

Well yeah, though I admit I skip the priming step for my kits... Possibly a bad habit?

Pinning for me is almost like making the resin kit into a snap together kit.... (Except I have a tendency to wear out the holes from too much test fitting... derp.)

I need to finish a resin kit and possibly take progress shots this time... Been slackin. >.

[jurann]

Oh, and as for painting, there are primers that work for both metal and plastic/resin and then there are also specific primers for different materials. If you use the official GW primers (Skull White and Chaos Black) then they work for all three.