Akiosama
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Posts posted by Akiosama
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Is there any chance that more 'How to' stuff could either be posted here, to The Craft, or something similar? I'd like to hear more from some of the people who do regular painting and/or sculpting for Reaper professionally.
It's been a while since Anne did a 'How to', and looking at the pictures in The Craft, I know Derek's painting has improved - and it was great back when he did those articles. I've seen Jen Haley's tutorial, which was great, though I'd love to see something more on her painting with a colored palette - her video was about painting a monochromatic figure. And sculptors, too - for bases or for actually sculpting parts/figures. Anything they'd be willing to share with the community would be great!
Not that there're aren't great tutorials out there on the web, but many of the regular Reaper painters have been inspirations for quite a while, and learning a bit more about their style would be terrific.
Here's hoping.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
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I can understand and accept the idea of a mass-battle game like WHFB - I do collect that game and understand how that works. However, in the most recent edition, it seems to be taken to a new level - 'horde' rules for frontages of 10+ models, massive amounts of ranged fire, counterattacks, and destructive magic - more so than any edition before it. This is good in some ways - it can be more exciting to watch, and the number of models on the board seems to be higher than ever. But it is just that, more models on the board - so many that the game feels like it's losing some of its tactical nature since troop blocks are so unwieldy and large now. For example, I think this is the first edition I've seen where a block of 40 Skaven Clanrats is a small block - the few players at my local store run multiple blocks of 60-80 now. And many of those are there just for wound markers, so to speak, as maybe 60% actually make it into combat. I guess that seems like a lot of figures to buy and paint for models that actually don't contribute to the game other than as placeholders in their unit.
Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily - those huge units look impressive on the board when done right. However, it seems to lead to a lot more unpainted or half-painted/built forces where I play as the players themselves don't value the models enough to see them as worth the effort to model and paint... And that doesn't seem right to me for a game that is such a significant investment of money to play. And don't get me wrong, I do like Skaven - I have a lot of them. But despite how much I have from previous editions of Skaven, this new edition makes my Skaven collection feel insufficient, and that's despite having the original army box, a battalion box, the 25th anniversary Skaven box, and many other individual models.
And 40K case feels even worse. Despite it being a skirmish game, troops there, too, are seen as wound markers that are primarily there to keep the special/heavy weapons troops alive. I've heard Ork boyz squads described as a 20-wound Power Armor Nob, for example, or regular Space Marines just there to shield the Missile Launcher Marine.
Maybe the people I see playing see the game differently than intended, but it just seems like the average trooper is there only to screen wounds for the few troops that really matter on the board, and that seems odd to me for a wargame. I dunno.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it feels inefficient to pay $40 for 20 wound markers that you have to build and paint? It just didn't seem to feel as extreme in previous editions...
Don't get me wrong - I do still enjoy the game. It just seems that the number of models needed to play ramps up each time the game is revised.
But this IS just what I see in my local games. Maybe it's not like that everywhere. I'd like to hope that there are games that still feel tactical out there for WHFB, 'cause most of the games I've watched just seem like two lines of large blocks of troops running straight at each other, with a couple lines of missile troops behind them trying to whittle them down before they run into each other. It just doesn't seem as maneuverable as it used to be.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
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Glad to hear that PP's still a bit more cost-effective overall than GW - though I will have to admit, the sheer number of figures on a GW gameboard CAN be impressive at times. But given that, especially in WHFB, figures act like wound markers for a unit, a large force of figures may not actually ACT as impressive in action. Skaven anyone? (Actually I like Skaven, but the usefulness of an individual figure leaves a LOT to be desired from a modeling point of view.)
Still, $50+ for five rather unremarkable plastic Space Marine Terminators has ALWAYS irked me, and will probably do so 'til the end of time.
And, it's unfortunate, but it's hard to get people to try a new system these days. Money's tighter, the hobby's more expensive, and games go extinct so quickly... I'm a little surprised that Privateer was able to get its foot in the door, sometimes.
I really hope that Warlord/CAV are able to garner a bit more support. I'd like another game with good figures to explore. (Confrontation was really disappointing in this regard - and it has such nice figures, too.) Though I might have to start proxying for GW games - I'm not keen on a lot of their sculpts these days. (Want... to find... previous edition... Daemonettes...
)My 2 yen,
Akiosama
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Project AKon is a decent-sized anime convention, btw, in TX.
I hear it's a good one.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
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It will be interesting to see which way GW goes on this hobby. I'm inclined to agree on the posts regarding resin FineCast models - they haven't yet lived up to their name. However, in all fairness, I haven't seen PP or Reaper's Resin kits yet, but given what I've experienced in the past, I'm thinking they'll be better. I've had very little trouble with either company in the past with miscasts, missing parts or the likes. Though, GW's customer service used to be decent (they replaced a couple miscasts for me with no problem), but that was in the days of the Trolls.
Interestingly enough, I came across an opinion on a YouTube 'podcast' that gives a reasonable possibility of what GW might actually be up to... It was posted by Chris of AG Productions, and it goes a bit like this, to paraphrase...
"GW seems to be making it harder for non-GW retailers (online store or their own brick-and-mortar shops) to sell GW product by restricting online sales (strange sales conditions and the restriction of using their product image on websites) and making stocking brick-and-mortar shops more awkward (due to 'flavor-of-the-month' non-40K/WHFB release games which are heavily advertised at their release and then abandoned quickly, release patterns/edition changes that affect current stock sales, restrictions on order sizes/contents, etc.). The purpose of this might be that GW wants to become the only retailer for their own products because as a retailer their margin is much higher than simply as a producer.
"How this might work is -
"Say GW gives a 50% wholesale price on an item to a store. For example, the new price for Assault on Black Reach is roughly $100. They sell it to the store for $50, which means in order for them to make a profit on it as a producer, it has to cost less than $50. Let's hypothesize that it costs them $40 to manufacture a set. Meaning, each one they sell is a profit of $10, if they sell to a store. However, if they sell the set themselves to an end customer, that profit is $60 instead of $10, the equivalent of selling 6 boxes to a retailer for resale. Thus, if they can cripple the ability for people to buy GW stuff at non-GW retailers, yet (somehow - it might be a stretch, IMO - Akiosama) maintain the 'fanbase', then their profits multiply significantly, practically overnight.
"If they could pull that off, their stock price would go through the roof - and it's all about shareholders, now that GW is a publicly traded company."
There was more to be said in the original piece, but that was the gist of the argument. Seems plausible to me.
THERE IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, so to speak, BETWEEN GW AS A PRODUCER AND GW AS A RETAILER. And the FLGS's will be the ultimate victims, I believe. It's sad, since this hobby wouldn't be what it is today without those very FLGS's.
While I'm disappointed that PP couldn't keep their prices lower than GW's going forward, they have a good game going, and while it's model heavier than the previous edition, I'd say that they're relatively even with GW on army cost on the average. And so far, they haven't had edition changes cripple armies yet, like GW has (as evidenced by talking to Wood Elf/Beastmen players in the current edition), and left armies with very little current updates (Necrons are from what edition? Chaos Dwarf Army Book, anyone?)
And I wish that Reaper's game systems were accessible enough that the systems could actually support their figures. Warlord and CAV are nice, but not many people play them at all compared to GW and PP's games, unfortunately.
[And I'm in a bit of a quandry, too. My local GW store has a great crowd and a good guy running the store, while my local (F?)LGS's staff leaves a lot to be desired, and most of the guys who play these games won't hit the LGS due to the staff, so we only have a reliable place to play GW games...]
But the future of the mini-game world is shifting. PP's not going away, Reaper's still generally making better, more affordable minis than the other 'game companies', GW's making significant changes to their product and sales policies, and the economy still hasn't stabilized in regards to supporting an industry that is purely entertainment. I hope that improvements come over time, and that this remains a hobby worth it to stick to.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
P.S. - One other thing I'd like people to keep in mind... FLGS's give a lot to this hobby. The space they offer for people to be able to play is not free for them, so please, if you do play at a store, support the store by making purchases at the store. I don't think the trend of 'play at the local store, buy online cheaper' is necessarily a good one, and I even purchase things from that LGS I meantioned above, because I use their tables from time to time. Those tables are a courtesy, not a right. If it weren't for the fact that the community is so accustomed to the idea of the free gaming area that it would hurt the store more than it would help, I'd feel that a reasonable table usage fee wouldn't be out of line, especially since they tend to supply table, terrain, lights and (sometimes) AC.
Again, please support your FLGS if you use their space for gaming.
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Hey all,
I saw the ad for Origins and I'm sad!
Living in California, it's a bit of a stretch for me to get there. And that code deal looks fantastic!
If someone would be willing to help me out, I'd really appreciate it. I especially can't find a copy of "Monterey Jack" anywhere online right now.
Let me know if I have any takers and what I can do in return for it!
Thanks all!
Akiosama
Wanted: Pro painting tips from the Reaper crew!
in Tips & Advice: Painting
Posted
If we're talking about specific topics, I'd like to know a bit more about blending, like say Derek Schubert's blending technique, a bit more about highlighting and colored shading (how to better make it look like it's supposed to - both in shade and in placement), advanced skintones, object-source lighting, and most of all, what goes through an artist's mind when developing a color scheme for their figure, and executing it.
I think it's the first and the last point that are the most important to me. I've read articles regarding color theory, and while they give a basic about complementary colors, warm and cool colors, etc., they talk less about putting that color theory into practice. I'd love to hear how others create color schemes that work.
I'm very interested in the thought processes that go into this artform, as well as technique. I do think that palette planning gets overlooked in favor of actual technique, but color selection and shade selection are a very integral part of this art.
That, and I like knowledge. Other people's experience and tips are great inspirations for me, and after the last painting competition I entered, I could use the inspiration.
And thanks for looking at this thread, Jen. I like your work as well, and would love to hear what you're willing to offer. :)
Here's hoping.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama