papercut

The penciller great George Perez once *stated "First you get good, then you get fast, then you get good and fast." I think this would hold true in painting minis as well. *Stated in an interview in his 90s Avenger run. Hmmmm, it may have been Dave Sim: http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/artists/nftp/171.php

Sounds great Bryan. Please send any failed castings to 31204, GA. I'll PP ya'll some money to cover postage!

Wow, that is a cool idea. It might be worthwhile to do a small set of big head kids in the next KS. Even if all fails, they could pass for halfling/gnomes. Gotta have an Ice Princess!

You can have alot of fun with Oogoo (basically Vinegar type silicon + starch). Its great fun! http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/

Just guesses really, normal LFGS/publishing model is ~50% return of retail to the publisher/producer (there are many many factors involved, and I do not know actual Reaper's arrangement, so there could be a wide range of 40%-60% or possibly even higher). I do know that online discount mini vendors have prices of up to 26% off retail, and at such a deep discount they need at least a bit of profit to keep the lights on. As to Bones being too expensive at $2, well they are just potentially mass produced plastic and the molds are already pretty much paid for via the KS (yes there are lots of overhead factors as well). So there is room for Reaper to do mega packs at a discount (even 50% off retail), but this may not really be in their interest as it could canibalize their singles sales. It is actually worth a test run, there is no reason ebay vendors should be enjoying extra profit off Reapers backs. Maybe this could be saved for the periods between KS to inject some extra cash. Reaper dudes are pretty smart though, I am sure they have thought all this though. *Jus to be clear, I am not saying Reaper is ripping anyone off. They should charge as much as they can get away with!

Well, that is both interesting and sad. The USA materials base seems to have fallen behind and I doubt it will catch up. But, there hope that Mexico could advance in its manufacturing base and then Bonesium could be acquired across the border. Is this being pursued? You guys ever check with Formosa Plastics in Point Comfort, Texas? They are a major plastics supplier in the world and have a big PVC plant in Texas: In addition, Reaper could import the required PVC, but then again with only 1 machine they might not be able to scale up enough to make it profitable. There is also the issue of only having 1 physical mold, it cannot be two places at once. Logistically this would need to be balanced. Having all the molds in China allows Reaper to more easily fill up a container and get the # of units batch produced to keep costs low. It would be cool to see Made in the USA on the bottom of some Bones, but it seems not to be for the moment. Hopefully in the future though!

Frankly I think Bones are a little over priced in retail, they should in reality be even cheaper. In the KS they are a great deal for sure, but $2+ a pop is still kinda steep. Of course, Reaper only grosses 50-60% of retail I would expect, so to go any lower on the retail and you have some stock/shelf space and cash flow issues. Having them priced around a pack of MTG cards is probably the correct price point. I would love to see mega packs offered at a bit of a discount. Orc/Gnoll/Bugbear etcs pack at 25% off (then another 25% from online discounters) would be a smooth idea. Cheers

Are any Bones now made it the USA?

I have 4 low translucent white IKEA bins filled with fantasy minis split up by monster type and some baggies. I need to figure out a bit more specific system as of now the undead are mixing with the constructs with the planar types. The day of reconning will come, but it is not this day!

100% fact. They are indeed a gateway drug. Take this from someone who was completely against minis in rpgs and now sees them as having great utility in many situations. I am still not a fan of metal ones and do not really want to paint minis either. After pickingin up Bones 1 (preceded by a few first wave Bones [with international shipping]) I now have a very robust collection of: 1. Bones 1 & 2 plus various addons 2. Bulk and cherry picked Dreamblade (very cool minis!) 3. Bulk Mageknight (so so, but a nice compliment to Bones really) 4. Bulk World of Warcraft commons, they make great bigger monsters (125 for $30 shipped lol) 5. Cherry picked cool sculp, bad stats Heroclix and HorrorClix figures (thus cheap). 5. Lots of animals, dinos, and insects picked up here and there on the cheap 6. Odds and ends (54mm Retro Vikings as frost giants, Russian 54mm Dwarves as fire giants, cheap bagged 2-inch skeleton minis off Amazon, etc etc, ) Add to this ~$550 spread over the three DF KS and I can rock and roll when needed! I am probably about $1100+ in on the minisystem, but being robust plastic they are also great kids toys and educational tools. Thus they get double duty and can be generational toys and tools. 10 years ago I picked up bulk Heroclix, but over time they dissapeared. I still wish I had them :(, to be honest though the early ones were kinda junk sculpts.

I just got my 2 sets plus stretch today. Very impressed! I traded a vampire set for the 2 sets and the nice chap even arranged a cooworker to bring the tile to Asia. Free shipping!

More fantasy Bathalians.

Why not use cheap craft paint as base coats (with minimal mixing) and then hit the upper layers with better paint? The right tool for the right job I say. Craft paints should have maximum binder and filler (cheap) and minimal pigment (expensive). I have a degree in painting (oil) and after awhile you learn it is rather important to understand what is in the paint so you can understand what you are doing. Mixing mystery paint (that has lots of fillers and binders) with "glop" and too much water should negatively affect the coverage of the paint. <p> To add to this, some pigments are much weaker mixers than others- for example ultramarine violet will fail to most blacks- especially mars black (iron oxide) which is a monster! Pthalo green is another killer! Knowing your pigments will help one immensely- unfortunately craft paints probably do not list their pigments IIRC. It is possible that one part of a blue (Pthalo) can completely overwhelm twenty parts of another color. But another blue (Ultramarine) will mix with much more harmony. <p> Another matter is fugitive pigments- ones that change color or fade quickly. Again, unless you know the pigment, it is hard to predict this. <p> In addition, there are transparent to opaque pigments. Mars Black is super opaque and ivory black is semi- transparent (optical transparent blacks can be mixed or purchased as well). With the proper mediums one can bring these out further. Layers with transparent pigments will work much better than opaque, and I gather that craft paints tend to be on the opaque side (due to pigment or opaque increasing fillers). Mixing a transparent with a opaque can lead to interesting colors- a masstone of opaque color and a undertone of another (and when mixed with white another color). <p> Also- mineral pigments and organic pigments react differently when mixed. Mineral pigments tend to grey out a bit when mixed while organic stay high chroma. Gamblin oil colors website should have more info on this-it is useful to know if you want to make a high key green, purple or orange, but are having trouble mixing it. <p> Lastly- stay away from student grade acrylics- they are more suited to painting broad thick layers of color, not delicate thin layers on minis. Pro grade acrylics are fine as they have less filler and more pigment. Oil paints tend to be limited to few ingredients while acrylics often contain +/- 20!

Money talks! If you can pony up a large enough order, I am sure Reaper can be very accommodating... Especially if they already make black figs for the Legendary Line.

$399? Really? Wow.