morella

I am really curious about the level of my little pony knowledge displayed in this thread. But the last several pages have really made me happy, which is my response to the title of this thread.

I envy your youthful optimism. This reminds me when the collectible miniatures games first started coming out several years ago, and I thought - Why would anyone want them already painted?

I had not seen this thread until now. Wow, that is gorgeous.

It's not already like this? I appreciate your enthusiasm, though I don't necessarily share it. I am happy it isn't so mainstream yet, but then I have always been anti-pop. I do wish all the good gaming companies the best of luck, but I think even if it does eventually trend big, it won't be sustained for very long, simply because of the investment of time and care involved in this hobby is more than many would be willing to give - indeed, that is (in my opinion) the largest reason why it will remain a niche market (like so many other worthy endeavors that are popular for a moment, and then revert to a stable, if small, consumer base). But if it did occur, then there may be a few who would learn about the hobby and stick around after the next big thing took hold, which is always a good thing.

See, I thought the whole point was that it is not about democracy at all. It is about the fundamental tension between producers and consumers. At the extremes, a company will either listen to its customers too much (or not at all), and since you can't make everyone happy all the time, the result will be an inferior product to at least some of the people. This is amplified in the gaming community, as we are generally not passive consumers, often quite the opposite. And it is this passion which keeps us (and our money) here, but at the same time it can seem like it is tearing the community apart. Meanwhile, the producers are balancing between listening to the community to respond to consumer demand, while simultaneously ignoring the noise, because you can't make everybody happy and trying to will likely guarantee a poor outcome for both producer and consumer. To the Wyrd folks - I just want to say I've seen bad customer interaction from all levels of the gaming industry, and then I've seen worse, but you guys have always impressed me with the ways in which you try to enact this balancing act, and I applaud you for sticking to your vision while attempting to be responsive and engaged with the community, because that takes guts. And I hope you choose to never have stockholders to appease as well.

Wait - before you do that I had been meaning to ask - does your name mean you raise Wyandotte chickens? If so, "Awesome" from one fowl enthusiast to another. If not, well then I guess I just provided a reason for why you might want it changed.

Panda, I have read many of your other posts in other areas of the forum and it is obvious you are a class act who genuinely cares about the community. My boyfriend is also a writer and your style is similar to his, so I followed you for a large part, though I can see where others are coming from as it takes some getting used to. Don't be disheartened by the critiques. And congratulations on your graduation and your birthday.

Thanks for the tips everyone, and suggestions for spray varnish brands. You're the best!

I have had my first batch of Malifaux minis waiting to be clearcoated for a few months, but I am trepidatious about using spray varnish having had one bad experience many years ago. I have several bottles of Vallejo varnishes in various finishes from a paint set and would like to give these a try, but wanted to ask a few (probably stupid) questions from those who use them regularly. First, I assume you do not want to water them down at all. Is this correct? Also, I have seen in some posts where people use gloss coat on pointy areas to help keep the paint from being rubbed off and then cover with matte. Does this actually work well, and can I just coat certain areas with the gloss first, or will I need to do the whole model with gloss then matte to avoid variations? Thanks for any advice you may have.

I have used Vallejo and GW foundation paints and washes, but most recently I had purchased the Army Painter warpaints starter set and I am really pleased with these. Plus, I think they have the best dropper bottle design (there is a sort of drain hole, so paint doesn't form a plug). I have not bought any of the individual paints from this line yet, but plan to as I need new colors.

Sample Starter Lists.pdf A few days ago I thought it would be fun to make a spreadsheet (I like making lists for no real reason) listing the points values for the starter sets and one or two additional blisters. The idea was to try and create a suggested purchase list for someone who was brand new and didn't want to spend more than $50 to begin with until they got a feel for the game and their chosen master/faction. I revised this to $60 (with a couple of exceptions) and limited it mostly to starter boxes, with a few alternate lists for some of the starter boxes that people don't seem to care for. I know there have been threads like this in the past, but it seems most are over a year old, so I culled the forum for info on the crews I was not familiar with. The idea here is a simple starter purchase recommendation, that would allow a new person to play a few 25 ss games with some variety without going all in and spending a bunch of money immediately. This was just a fun exercise for me, but since they just created a new player forum, I thought it might be nice to get input and see if we could come up with something that could be added for potential players to reference. So, anyone want to help with their suggestions? Or just tell me it was silly idea. (I posted a pdf, but I could make a post for each faction and just put them in the body of this thread)

I have tried looking for this extensively. So far, the only ones I have found were at Kerr & King http://www.kerrandking.co.uk/25mm_scale/kk123.html and http://www.kerrandking.co.uk/25mm_scale/kk126.html I also found these, which you could probably do a water effect over to submerge them a little http://www.back2base-ix.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=36 If you find more suitable ones, post back, as I'd love to see others for gremlins (I am no good at sculpting/basing so prefer to buy resin bases).

+1 to everything Q'iq'el said so eloquently - I had meant to post something in the same vein in other similar threads. Each faction (and master) should retain their unique qualities. If everyone has access to everything then it is just boring boring same same. Which is exactly what turned me off of other games. Adjusting strategies and schemes or revising costs is one thing, but trying to level the field with constant tinkering leads to a vicious cycle. And personally, I like the idea that some masters require more skill to use than others, but also agree that there should be some way to address the problem of bad matches in competitive play.

Thanks for your comments. I was unsure about the brown lip as well, it is somewhat reminiscent of baby poo. I tried black but didn't care for it - I had considered doing faction colors on the lips, so I may try a burgundy or deeper brown. The white coat was a thematic choice - I am a sucker for fluff congruity. Judge's coat has so many layers of paint where I kept shading then fixing the mess I made. Originally I was going with a warmer brown shaded dirty white, but it just looked dingy so I went to a cooler black shade. In future I plan to use black and white as accents only as much as possible as it is tough to get them right. Thanks again for your thoughts.

So, I finally got this crew done (started over 2 years ago, but it got put aside due to life getting hectic). I am hoping to actually start playing the game soon since summer break is starting in a few weeks. Anyway, before I put the clear coat on, any small suggestions? I tried fiddling with highlights on the black, but they were too much, so I tried to tone them down, which mostly obliterated them (highlighting is not something I excel at), so I decided I may come back to them in the future. Right now I have dozens and dozens of other minis to work on. If you have any suggestions for small improvements I welcome them, or any other comments too. I will be painting the black bases in brown to match the others (the DM bases are from dragonforge, basing is something else I just don't do well). Thanks.

I sent you a PM.

Hey ya'll. I've been collecting (hoarding) Malifaux minis and watching the forums since the first book came out, but have yet to play a game. Since I just spent the weekend getting the first half of my guild cleaned and started painting, I figured it would be a good time to drop in and say hi finally. Also, it seems the texas contingent has been kind of quiet the last few months, but if any of you from the area are still around and wouldn't mind showing me the ropes, I would love to actually start getting a game in occasionally. To all the rest, it has been great reading your posts and at least playing vicariously the last few years. Will try to be more active here in future.

Don't feel bad - there are lots of people who lurk (like me, usually). For a first attempt they are quite alright. After you get the basic painting mechanics down you'll want to pay attention to highlights and basing, which really makes a huge difference. But these are way better than my first painted models from years ago! Painting technique takes a lot of time and practice - don't get discouraged so soon.

I am so happy you have added these in 30mm. Would love to see the Slate Wasteland (minus the bullet casings) in 30mm also, as well as some swamp bases. I really appreciate the quality of your bases and service.