1 minute ago, Joker2007 said:

I remember when I was a kid, going to the hobby store on a Saturday and sitting down talking to the owner and a bunch of regulars for hours...everybody sharing tips and advice, showing off their work...sigh...that store has been closed for 30 years. I miss that...those guys got me excited for the hobby and were happy to answer a million questions from a kid who knew nothing (me)...

Now's your chance to open a hobby/gaming store! If you don't, who will?

Sorry if that last post is straying from the thread...

1 minute ago, Kubernes said:

Now's your chance to open a hobby/gaming store! If you don't, who will?

I would love that! Of course, my wife and kids might have something to say about that...

S'why I hang around (kinda) here, but mostly over in Armada.

Even though, basically, every person I teach to paint their own stuff is one less person who will order something from my Commission Painting Service.

At least we have much better minis now...back in those days, some of the Grenadier and Ral Partha stuff was a little rough...

Speaking of which, I just opened an old box of mine and found a pile of older miniatures - mostly townsfolk, some voodoo priestesses, some werewolves... They all appear to be the same sculptor or game system... But theres no caster mintmarks.... So these are going to confuse me fora while...

White metal or plastic?

White Metal.

A Bit of an involved search has found them... Old Glory miniatures... (Specifically, seems to be the Gothic Horror / Vampire Wars line... So, fun stuff for the next few weeks)

But, enough of my Rambling... This is a Painting Thread, and thus, I shall paint until I have Runewars to paint....

... Oh, and going to answer questions when I can, too.

7 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

White Metal.

A Bit of an involved search has found them... Old Glory miniatures... (Specifically, seems to be the Gothic Horror / Vampire Wars line... So, fun stuff for the next few weeks)

But, enough of my Rambling... This is a Painting Thread, and thus, I shall paint until I have Runewars to paint....

... Oh, and going to answer questions when I can, too.

A grand idea...have a box of deadeye walkers from, uhhh, some other game that I need to get involved with...

1 hour ago, Joker2007 said:

I would love that! Of course, my wife and kids might have something to say about that...

Gaming stores are what are known in financial planning as "lifestyle businesses." The point of them is to generate enough money to pay for a lifestyle of gaming, often in the owner's home town. There are many ways to make one a profitable venture and make a decent living on them. If you're interested, I can give you some pointers.

To take an example, I once asked about how to apply a transfer on a mini. The guy at the gamesworkshop store answered me so quickly and without writing down what He was saying that I had to ask him to repeat (which annoyed him) and then to write it down... He had some room in his store to show me how to do it on a mini He had in store but I didn't had the guts to go any further. I found another gamesworkshop more friendly... in Paris... a bit too far from me now ^^ .

I know when I go to an art shop that they might (or not) help me, I'm not unconscious, but when I bought my soap yesterday and asked some advice on how to use it properly, I received a kind answer nothing else than what I was expecting but it was not like I was a nuisance. But I mean, I went to that hobby shop where I bought my primers and...ok...the guys were 15 minutes late for the opening (nothing important I can be late)...but they basically arrived without any rush (nothing interesting here neither) and weren't even interested to know why I was standing in front of their store... I mean saying : "Hello, you want to buy something ?" or "Are you interested in something in particular" ? No...just stared at me without a word, then let me in and continued their smart conversation about a father having sex with his son's girlfriends.... man... If I wasn't that determined to get what I was looking for I could have run away. I mean... I understand their job wasn't that exciting at that time because I was nearly the only client in store but It was obvious for the owner to see that it was my first time there, don't you welcome your clients just a bit ? A simple "welcome to you and if you need any help, feel free to ask".... nope...zero... Ok end of the story, I stop the complaint.

I will close this brackets, but man !

To finish on a humoristic note :

6 hours ago, Joker2007 said:

Sorry if that last post is straying from the thread...

Not at all it feels good to have some testimonies like yours here and there it makes the place even more comfortable to stay in

10 hours ago, Taki said:

The point of them is to generate enough money to pay for a lifestyle of gaming, often in the owner's home town.

Sadly this describes the local game stores where I live...

15 hours ago, Elrad said:

I agree that buying local helps broaden the horizon. Sadly, today, I felt like I was buying stuffs to real strange peoples... I mean, I won't summary the conversation they had while I was looking at the paints and the attitude of the shopkeeper....not impolite (the attitude) but like..."you ask, I answer"... that's it. I know I'm a bit too easily offended for my own good but as I am the client... well that's one shop I'll never go back or only if I find no alternative. Buying local is always a good thing but I sadly had unsatisfying experiences. Like the shopkeeper does only care about you if you buy something (that's what happened at the gamesworkshop Brussels at a time) but to give you an advice it's just "you ask, I answer"...

Maybe am I fan of a hobby but not of the peoples getting around it... But that is here invalidated for example. You all spending time to kindly answer me makes me feel like at home more than when I go to a hobby shop/game shop where I more than often feel like a total foreigner in a country I've just crossed the border (nearly illegally). Neutral attitude is fair enough, but sometimes it's just not very attractive. I feel better with a friend or two of mine than in a shop full of unknowns who intimidate me by being in their world without showing the will to share their trip with you... so I always felt like left behind. Even with some of my friends back when we were playing Diplomacy... They came to my flat to play the game...I was just an accessory. To say the truth, When I went to Paris for my Erasmus, they bought the game to play it together.

Ok, sorry for this pathetic post.

back to business. (this post could have been longer but this is not the place to unburden yourself so, let's go back to our game )

Maybe I'm just picky, but spending years upon years in some for a service industry position and being regulars at several stores ranging for tradition art stores to video game stores to games stores (independent and GW) I will say I think it is always ridiculous when people only give short or curt answers to any question where someone is trying to get information on differences of products/techniques/opinions. It is bad for business and in the tabletop gaming world it help kill the stores that we play at because bad employees send people to online stores to buy product. I just don't get the whole thing, why make people feel they don't belong or you are wasting their time...

My Local Games Workshop store are begging to have me back for that reason - I was great for sales, because I'm a Teacher-sort (ex drill-sergeant, technically )

But I can't, because Full Time Dad... Can't work Mall opening hours as they require... So the Internet gets my focus instead.

3 hours ago, drkpnthr said:

Sadly this describes the local game stores where I live...

The people running the stores are paying for both their hobbies and feeding themselves and their families, so honestly they're doing fine. If you want it to be a good money making business, it can also be done, it just requires more effort and solid game plans on how to do it. Again, if you ever want help, just let me know.

Found this nice video from some play tester, its not in English so I'm not sure what he's saying but it has some nice up-close views of the models painted something other than the standard we've seen from FFG.

I've seen this video, and maybe this is wishful thinking, but from the way he is handling the minis, it seems like the plastic might be on the harder side...or am I just nuts?

This video was already linked in the Unpainted Models thread and there I also posted a short translation of what he is saying.

18 minutes ago, Iceeagle85 said:

This video was already linked in the Unpainted Models thread and there I also posted a short translation of what he is saying.

Thanks! I'm cautiously optimistic...

20 hours ago, Joker2007 said:

I remember when I was a kid, going to the hobby store on a Saturday and sitting down talking to the owner and a bunch of regulars for hours...everybody sharing tips and advice, showing off their work...sigh...that store has been closed for 30 years. I miss that...those guys got me excited for the hobby and were happy to answer a million questions from a kid who knew nothing (me)...

wow this. my old time game store back in the day closed down too. they were so friendly, i could pick up a new game (board, miniature, card, anything) and boom have 4-6 people ready to give it a shot that same day. now i find it hard to get anyone in a game store to try anything new. i also got most of my painting and modeling advice from the owners and other customers. ahhh good times.

Once again and don't try to stop me to say that all over again, but thanks to all for your advices so far and the above discussion about buying local and the attitudes of some hobby shops owners/staff members is also a very good thing.

I've got two questions right now and to go back to serious things( (hum...) :

1) do you know good online tutorials on making battlefields ? I mean I'm a true newbie (and when I say I already painted I did but here I'm a complete beginner), I want to build my own landscapes from scratch but don't clearly know where to begin. The basics would be fine to me as I can search the web later for more complicated things... I know people use extrude polystyrene to sculpt their terrains but some others use plaster molds coming from http://castlemolds.com/. It looks attractive but still. I never made anything so yes. What can you suggest me to learn some basics and even advanced tutorials that'll come handy by the time.

2) joining @drkpnthr and @Joker2007, I'd like to discuss the quality of the minis so far... I mean, there isn't much to say about it but looking at rafpark pictures of the unpainted minis makes me worry a little... He states that the minis are not worth the buying for themselves because of not so high quality, but that doesn't bother me as I don't plan on breaking my head in painting 100 details, but still. His picture may be not very well taken even with their high quality, bu the minis look like... well. Painted pictures of the minis and the video above can reassure a bit but still... Bah, maybe I'm worrying for nothing... let's wait and see

3) Oh just forgot : I bought 6.5 mm balls (thanks to you @Corto fo the link). I wanted to know : what should I do before putting the ball in the paint pot ? wash it with soap and warm water ? And also, is the ball meant to stay forever in the pot (or at least till the pot is empty) or do I have to take it off once I have shaken the pot ?

Thanks.

If you want to build terrain check out The Terrain Tutors channel if you want to build a table a quick search gave me this and this.

And again a little bit more for terrain and basing would be Ziterdes and Thomarillion.

Howdy Elrad...I think Iceeagle has number 1 covered pretty well...number 2, I'm still excited for the minis...I like the look of them and I'm sure we can make them look good...number 3, never a bad idea to clean the ball before throwing it in the paint...probably not necessary, but there could be some kind of oil or other junk on it. Mild soap and water...done. leave it in the paint...no need to remove it. When the bottle is empty, you can re-use it if you want...by the way, I really like this thread...Thanks Elrad!