28mm Miniature Tabletop Wargaming Thread

If you are looking for a game that is significantly cheaper, Warmachine is not that game. I love Warmachine, don't get me wrong, been playing it for 11 years and just got back from Templecon but the cost is about the same as owning a 40k or Fantasy army.

Ninja Division | Relic KnightsRelic Knights is a solid game. The rules and stat cards are available for free download -Soda Pop Miniatures | Relic Knightsand the game is played with 5-10 models per side. There is currently a decent following for a new game and it is expanding slowly but surely. The game play centers less around killing things and more around scenario play. I'm obviously biased because my name is inside the book but I think it's a fantastic game.

As far as the "come and play" feel, any game can get there locally pretty easy. It takes people to make people. If you find a couple others to play with and play once or twice a week, others will eventually say "Hey, these dudes enjoy and play this game, let me check it out". Communities for a game start with two people.

Palum_sl said:

This is just to fill my quarterly 'fuck you GW' posting requirement, FYI.

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Keep up the good fight. I understand needing to make money on things like rule books and I wasn't even mad that they essentially "Fixed" the cluster that was last editions 40k rules, but the mini codexes that only have a warlord trait and fluff is asinine. You know it is a rip off if GW shrink wraps those things so people can't actually open them up to see what they entail.


The thing with Warmachine is that you can play a "healthly" game right out of the starter box with enough model variety to see if you like it or not. With 40k you usually have to go big (I want to say 1,500pts but I guess 1,000 isn't too bad) to see how it "feels".

I am sure there are some great games out there that are much cheaper but one of the biggest hurdles to tabletop playing is finding other people to play against. If I didn't already have WAY too many points in my Imperial Guard and Dark Angels (starting buying back in '99) and have my two brothers to play against periodically (realistically once every 6 months to a year) there is no way I would still be playing today.

I also feel that the ruleset for Warmachine is more streamlined and easier to pick up. Hand a new player the big red book and watch his eyes glaze over. If anyone decides to start any type of tabletop army, I do suggest picking something up via ebay first to see if you like it. I am all for supporting the FLGS, especially if that is your main place you play) but until you find out you like it and there is other players in the area, don't buy new. Just get the starter army and rules online, and then if you decide to stick around, support your store.

P.s. Fuck you GW. #BringBackRambo (Sly). My IG army NEEDS him against my two brothers termie armies and 3 Russ Executioners can only do so much.

I just recently started playing Warmachine. I'd been looking to get back into a tabletop game and a local place just opened up and offered a free 15 point army to demo the game to help build a community. So I got my little Cygnar battlebox ($50 retail) for free just for trying it out and I enjoyed the game. The rules seemed pretty easy to grasp and that Saturday they had another demo day with a chance at a $100 store credit raffle for showing up and playing. Well, I managed to win the raffle and now I have a pretty decent army (probably about 30-35 points worth) for basically no investment. Now i have to spend time painting them all up the way I want, but I got sick last week and been busy so haven't had time to assemble and paint them all yet. It's definitely a fun game, but I wouldn't say it was on par with the cost investment of 40k. I've seen people selling their 40k armies for 300-700 dollars. I have $150 worth of minis and I could easily play a good decent size game with that investment. You can get these minis for much cheaper online, and I know for a fact I could save 30% cost if i bought online so even if i didn't get the free $150 bucks, i could still be where i'm at for 100 bucks. I think Competitive Warmahorde use 50 points as the standard point cap with the large Iron Gauntlet tournys at 75 points. It's definitely not cheap, but not as cost intensive as 40k in my opinion. Although Warmahordes have their new "colossal" models that will run you about 100 bucks alone, but they aren't really needed even though a lot of folks use them (they look cool as hell though).

As far as a cheaper alternative I know Malifaux has a strong presence and the cost for that game is a lot cheaper too. I was interested in that game as well, but there wasn't much support around the area here for it so i went with Warmachine. The community is what drives games though and as stated earlier, if you can generate some interest and/or loan an army out for people to try, you can play just about anything if you generate interest.

Chanur_sl said:

Not much chance of finding any games where I live now unfortunately.

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That's not always true. I know guys who play Warmachine in almost every country in the world. Where do you live, we shall see if we can hook you up with some people

I really wish Infinity had caught on.

I'm out of tabletop and places that play them so I don't know what's popular around here. Do know a work friend that's playing Infiniti if by some random chance you are in CO..... I liked some of the models if just because of what blatant ripoffs of Appleseed/GITS and others some of them are. Initially hated it as I hated the art theme for some, either far too anime/Japanese pop whatever looking.


WARMACHINE: The pc game now has a steam demo that sounds like it has a fair bit of playable stuff. 3 or so singelplayer missions + even multiplayer but limited army building. I havnt tried it yet but did get it DL'd.

I am looking to get back into painting.. I have old space marine and lizardman armies that i am planning to re-paint starting in the next months. Any suggestions for where i can buy cheap paint online? whats the cheapest way to strip the paint off everything including tanks. or maybe i should just repaint some stuff without stripping it first?

I would really love to get back into tabletop gaming but i live up in the colorado rockies, and the closest gaming store i can find is a few hour drive(colorado springs). anyone had any luck finding games using the internets?

i need more first-person gaming in my life.. getting back into painting is a first motivational step.

Always strip models before repainting them, the paint builds up faster than you realise and obscures the detail. As for stripping them, it depends if they're metal or plastic. For metal you can use nail varnish remover which should strip it clean in a few minutes. Plastics will be melted by the acetone so you need to use something softer, here in the UK people use dettol disinfectant which takes about 24 hours of soaking. I think the US equivalent is called Simple Green?

Yeah, Simple Green is what people use to strip plastic.

Pine Sol also works for stripping mini's and smells good too

I tried using pine sol back in the day and it was piss poor at removing primer. Only tried once though. Be careful trying to strip tanks and multi piece models though. It's an absolute nightmare to get all the crevices clean enough to repaint. The one time I stripped a tank I just threw away the old treads and stole some from another tanks sprue. Fuck that.

My mom is just now getting back into it as well. Oddly enough she has Dark Angels and Lizardmen. She's done a lot of research and I've helped her a bit. We actually picked up a bunch of paint at Hobby Lobby today. She said it's some high end stuff that a lot of folks who paint by commission use and they are dropping the line so it's clearanced atm. She also said they have a number of colors that are exact matches to some GW paints. I'll try to remember to ask her what brand it is tomorrow. I looked into primers a bit and apparently Krylon Matte Primer is very highly regarded. I also found a lot of people who swear by artists gesso. It's harder to use but retains much sharper detail as it shrinks when it dries. It's what I plan to use if I feel like painting some of my old shit but my motor control is fucked so I'm just kinda meh. I'd probably just end up pissed off with some fugly models.

On an unrelated note it makes me cringe so hard to see our almost $10,000 collection of little plastic and metal army men. Who would have I'd fly to Seattle for WotC summer camp as a kid and come home with an even more expensive and obscure hobby..

Kelthar_sl said:

Always strip models before repainting them, the paint builds up faster than you realise and obscures the detail. As for stripping them, it depends if they're metal or plastic. For metal you can use nail varnish remover which should strip it clean in a few minutes. Plastics will be melted by the acetone so you need to use something softer, here in the UK people use dettol disinfectant which takes about 24 hours of soaking. I think the US equivalent is called Simple Green?

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Use simple green + sonic cleaner. Soak in simple green, toss in sonic cleaner. I bought one for maybe 25-30 on Amazon. The acrylics fall off the plastic/pewter easily, but enamels take a few runs. Most of it you can just sort of rub off with your fingers (recommend gloves), you may have to go in with picks on certain details. If you're dangerous, you can soak them in simple green concentrate in the sonic cleaner. Godspeed.

But it's really not that bad compared to spending 500+ on replacements...

Amazon.com: iSonic? Professional Grade Ultrasonic Cleaner P4820-WPT with Heater and Digital Timer, Plastic Tray: Electronics

+

Simple Green

is what I use for mine. You can't dump an entire army in there but you can fit quite a few models. That paint sloughs right off under a hot water rinse + toothbrush.

Taloo_sl said:

I tried using pine sol back in the day and it was piss poor at removing primer. Only tried once though. Be careful trying to strip tanks and multi piece models though. It's an absolute nightmare to get all the crevices clean enough to repaint. The one time I stripped a tank I just threw away the old treads and stole some from another tanks sprue. Fuck that.

My mom is just now getting back into it as well. Oddly enough she has Dark Angels and Lizardmen. She's done a lot of research and I've helped her a bit. We actually picked up a bunch of paint at Hobby Lobby today. She said it's some high end stuff that a lot of folks who paint by commission use and they are dropping the line so it's clearanced atm. She also said they have a number of colors that are exact matches to some GW paints. I'll try to remember to ask her what brand it is tomorrow. I looked into primers a bit and apparently Krylon Matte Primer is very highly regarded. I also found a lot of people who swear by artists gesso. It's harder to use but retains much sharper detail as it shrinks when it dries. It's what I plan to use if I feel like painting some of my old shit but my motor control is fucked so I'm just kinda meh. I'd probably just end up pissed off with some fugly models.

On an unrelated note it makes me cringe so hard to see our almost $10,000 collection of little plastic and metal army men. Who would have I'd fly to Seattle for WotC summer camp as a kid and come home with an even more expensive and obscure hobby..

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I use Gesso. It's not harder to use. I like it but many don't so if you go for it then buy a small bottle and try that out. you can get a small bottle for like 5 bucks.

As far as paints, honestly man, stick to the hobby stuff that's meant for hobbying. The stuff from Hobby Lobby that people use, they do all sorts of things to it with matte medium and such before actually using it. It won't paint out of the bottle. Unless you plan on doing commission stuff and practice combinations for years, I would say stick to the GW, Reaper, PP or Vallejo.

Exact same sonic cleaner can be had at harbor freight for cheaper, esp w/ coupon/sales. (Funny as in gun world, Lyman also sells that cleaner for 80 or 120 when it's the same cheap HF with a lyman sticker)

Arcaus_sl said:

I use Gesso. It's not harder to use. I like it but many don't so if you go for it then buy a small bottle and try that out. you can get a small bottle for like 5 bucks.

As far as paints, honestly man, stick to the hobby stuff that's meant for hobbying. The stuff from Hobby Lobby that people use, they do all sorts of things to it with matte medium and such before actually using it. It won't paint out of the bottle. Unless you plan on doing commission stuff and practice combinations for years, I would say stick to the GW, Reaper, PP or Vallejo.

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The paints I was talking about are Vallejo Model Color. She gave me some info but TL/DL so I just had her write the cliff notes.

"They have 3 lines.

Game Color - Limited range of 72 colors. Comparable to GW colors. Non-toxic so appropriate for kids(like GW).

Model Color - Wide range of colors. Has true artist pigments so some are toxic (eg cadmium red).VERYfinely ground pigments so it dilutes and blends very well.

Model Air - Same as above but made for airbrushing

They also make great pigments for weathering etc."

FAQs

I did a couple quick searches myself. Vallejo does contain cadmium etc but is considered non-toxic based on the levels "5 ?/m3 (as Cadmium)". Still wouldn't lick my brush. The bottles are also droppers which keeps air out of your paints and makes blending and mixing much easier ie 2 drops red 1 drop green will always give you the same color. The model colors are thicker and best thinned with water or matte medium butgame colorsare intended to be used out of the bottle. The model colors she picked up were $1.79 per bottle on clearance. Not dirt cheap by any means but damn cheap for high quality model paint. She's a very experienced and skilled painter so prefers to use the higher quality model paints and thin them herself since more often than not she will be mixing/blending anyways. YMMV but please don't use GWs bullshit that has done nothing but go up in price while going down in quality over the years.

That's like a dollar off per bottle so a pretty good price. You said high end stuff so I figured you meant more then "normally priced model paints".

Vallejo Model Air are absolutely fantastic. I use them in my air and standard brushes, but they are a bit thin so I do have some of their model line to use for specific items. GW paint quality is OK but not great and way overpriced (if there was any doubt there). That said, certain GW colors can't be beat and I do have some. Unfortunately most of those are no longer in production, so I have a few bottles left sealed and that's just got to last me forever, I guess. Notable exceptions are metallics... GW metallics are very, very good overall. Tough to find anything quite as good out there.