My current auctions....live nude girls!

Well the topic is not a lie, there are indeed topless women and my auctions are live here. But with the new Magic set coming out I want to be able to draft and play in a ton of sealed events so I need to sell off some painted minis. Thought I would share and provide a link to my auctions here.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/chuck_the_painter/m.html?_trksid=p3692

My opinion of Heroforge...giving it both barrels

One of the many Facebook groups I belong to is a D&D page. One topic that constantly comes up other than people bitching about the ranger is where someone can get a figure for their D&D character. While I have already done posts talking about minis for your D&D game (see my Sept 2016 postst) I only briefly have mentioned a company called Heroforge https://www.heroforge.com/. This is a company that is brought up constantly and upon every mention I throw up in my mouth a little. In short I do not like the company.

Before I go into my dislikes of the company and club them like a baby seal or an NFL spouse, let me tell you a bit about them. They started as a kickstarter (what small company doesn't these days?) producing one of a kind 3d printed minis for your game. Need a wizards with a staff, they have you covered, need a fighter, boom figure.

Pros:

• They are constantly adding mini/item options daily
• I must admit their customization menu is fun as hell to play with
• They are also one of the few companies with tiefling and dragonborn options
•  Minis are produced in various materials from "strong plastic" to "bronze"(not sure if this is a pro however)

Dislikes:

• Price: Minis range from $14.99 to 99.99(American Dollar) for a 28-30mm figure. While I have paid around $20 for some figures, the minimum 15 is not worth it, as you will see.
• Durability: There are various materials that you can get a mini in, all have their drawbacks. Lets assume you are a painter (as I am) I will be looking at the ultra detail plastic. I dropped a mini off my desk from a height of about 3 feet onto a soft rug. The figure broke into 3 pieces!
• They also produce a strong plastic option, that has NO DETAIL.
• Detail, again using the "ultra detail" as my metric, I will prove my point with the following picture:

In the above picture there are 3 Ultra Detail Heroforge figures and two primed Star Wars pre-painted figures. Unless you knew what was what you would not be able to tell the difference. The three on the left are Heroforge. Even after having been washed and given an alcohol bath you can still see grit and an uneven surface.

Here is how the figures looked before the prime job. I can't even see any detail and these are suppose to be the good ones!

To further my point I want to link you a fellow mini painter and fellow Dwarf-kin Minigrinder Studios. He has painted a few Heroforge minis on his channel and take a moment to look at how you can still see the tool striations and bumpy texture.

While gathering my thoughts for this article I hit on the reason I so loath Heroforge as a company. Simply put they are not for me. There are a ton of companies out there (many of whom I have linked and commented about here on this blog) who produce tens to thousands of beautiful figurines for figure painters. There are wonderful sculptors like Patrick Keith, Bobby Jackson, Werner Klocke, and Kev White, to name a few who have produced awesome figures that each bare the mark of their creator in some way. Heroforge figures are static, the detail is generic,  and are boring to look at.  Simply put  Heroforge figures have no soul, and are not for Miniature Painters, they are for role-players who might not give two shits about the sculptor of a mini or care about blends, layers, and other painting techniques. They want a Halfling with a crossbow for their game and this is the only source they know because it is talked about so often. I think this is reason I also hate pre-paints for PC minis too. They are too Kardashian...no soul.

It is no secret I do commission work, and while I love that I can pay for my hobby with the funds that I make I would be a great deal happier having more painters out there attempting the craft. That takes knowledge that there is more out there which is one of the reasons I started this blog, to document my journey and inform you the reader. There are a ton of more options out there to help. Reaper Miniatures http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder has their own figure finder that you can search by race, weapon, clothing/armor. Likewise Dark Sword http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/catalogsearch/advanced/ has their own finder too. Both of which are to help the consumer find the figure for them and fly in the face of another ignorant line of the Heroforge mission statement

            "Gone are the days of rooting through poorly stocked shelves or browsing low-rez image     galleries for something that vaguely resembles your hero: design your character from the ground up and see it in full 3D, and finally have a miniature that captures your vision."

I would very much like someone to explain to me how those sites are low-rez. A good majority of miniature sites are very much helpful to navigate and give bright bold image. This statement might have run true in the early days of the internet, but now is just false advertising.

Final Thoughts
I am an opinionated bastard and I pull no punches when it comes to telling you what I think. But having been married I am no stranger to apologizing and admitting I am wrong. They have recently released a beta grey plastic, that is suppose to be more durable and more detailed. It is also 25 bucks a figure. Assuming the first two statements are true, I would love to give this material a try, but there is no way I am doing this on my own dime. If anyone out there would love to give me the money to order my own I would gladly document my process here on the blog.

As always I am Chuck and I paint.

Lets talk about the plastics!

No, I don't mean those "Plastics." I realize making a Mean Girls reference on a geek blog will go over about as well as a sportsball reference. Instead I am talking about the actual material a miniature is made of.  Most of the miniatures I choose to paint are made of metal (tin actually, with other alloys, lead is no longer used that much in the US, due to the whole poison brain damage thing). However many miniatures are made of plastic also. There are a ton of different plastic models, for the sake of todays discussion we are talking about High Density Plastic similar to what you would find in a model kit bought at most department stores and hobby shops.

Assembly Note:

All of the models discussed can be assembled using the same techniques one can use on metal and resin miniatures, but you can also use plastic cement which will melt the parts causing them to stick as opposed to just gluing them as normal glue well...does. Warning: Use in a well ventilated area unless you want to get higher than a participant at a Snoop Dogg concert.

Note: All of the companies/Companies  I will be talking about are Kits, not individual models. In most cases you will have a ton of extra parts and be able to create multiple characters and you will have a metric fuckload of parts left over.

Games Workshop https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Home?_requestid=7018882

This company has been around for years, and to my knowledge they were one of the first to use that type of plastic. They give you a ton of weapon options and cover most of the major races. One issue many people find with these figures is that the GW IP has a very distinct look and with the newer iteration of the rules, that look is even more distinct. That being said, the models are beautiful and the current plastic kits are some of the best I have seen in a while. Please note they are expensive, expect to pay anywhere from 25-50 bucks a box for 5-20 figures. Many of their older models are out of print, but you can still find them at LGSs and online.

North Star Miniatures  http://www.northstarfigures.com/

Recently in the miniature world a new game called Frostgrave has hit the scene. It is a fantasy skirmish game reminiscent of an old Games Workshop game called Mordheim. A game based on Games Worrkshop you say? Pay attention to this trend. While this is a UK based company you can find the figures on Ebay as well as most LGSs can get their hands on them. They are putting out multi-part kits that you can use to arm your adventurer with any number of weapons options. As it stands right now they have two Human kits (one being normal soldiers and they other cultists) and a Gnoll kit. I am sure the other races are on their way. They price is super cheap around 30-35 American for 20 figures!

Mantic Entertainment http://www.manticgames.com/

Remember when I said Frostgrave was similar to another GW game, well for many years GW was the big boy on the block and ripping off ideas from them was par for the course. Mantic started making generic fantasy figures for use in GW's Warhammer, but soon went on to make their own game. The figures none the less are great for your table and again cover most of the race class combos. The figures are a great deal more generic so they will fit better in your world.

There are a ton of other companies out there who all do hard plastic figures, you can also check out:

http://wargamesfactory.com/

http://giveusyourmoneypleasethankyou-wyrd.com/collections/through-the-breach/products/wyr30401?variant=1826676865

With both companies I will warn you, the parts are smaller than I feel they need to be so do not assemble over a shag rug.

As stated many of these kits will leave you with a ton of extra parts, which are great to have if you ever plan to convert models. You can take a plastic sword from a kit and use it on your metal model. For example this Dwarf is metal but the two swords are plastic from a GW Marauder Kit.

If you will notice the sword used comes from this Sprue

This guy (I used a random search image) took plastic parts to convert his metal figs. A quick prime job and you would not even notice the difference.

I hope this was informative and as always I am Chuck, and I paint.

Lead Tells the Story

Many, many years ago when I was I was a wee lad who was as tall as he was wide I started to play RPGS. One of the old timers in our group use to say "lead tells the story" cementing in my mind how important miniatures were in gaming. Given I run a painting blog, I think it is pretty obvious a fan of minis, but I feel I need to go into detail about their uses, as one of the Facebook groups I follow constantly has questions about what minis to get and where to get them.

With all the products I list, I will try to provide specific links, but to be quite honest most of them can be ordered by your LGS or from Amazon/Ebay. I have not been paid by any company and my opinions are wholly my own, but I am willing to review your product and give my honest opinionated opinions.

When it comes to roleplaying it can be done "on the grid"(Grid) or "Theatre of the Mind"( TotM). The Grid is pretty obvious in how you use it which I will go into exhausting detail later. TotM is where the GM describes in Tolkienesque detail the land our heroes are adventuring through. It has some issues however.

• Most DMs suck at it
• It requires a great amount of concentration/listening skills from the players which due to disability or advanced age is lacking in some players
• It bogs down as you have more players
• It requires a great deal of trust from the players
• In noisy venues it can be difficult to hear the DM, any player who played with Baldman Games at the past few Gencons know what I am talking about in that horrible hall
• Again, most DMs suck at it.

Back to the Grid.
You can use hex maps, wet erase, Dungeon Tiles, 3d terrain or even make your own. Most of us wish we had terrain like this:

In actuality we have the Mat:

To my Knowledge Chessex http://www.chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_&_Megamats.htm made the first and for most of us, that is what most of us use. Paizo http://paizo.com/ also makes their  own version. A company called Gaming Paper( http://gamingpaper.com) also makes Rolls you can write on and you can also buy large gridded white paper sheets at Office Max.

CHEAPSKATE OPTION: You can buy wrapping paper with one inch squares on the back and these can be purchased for super low prices after the holidays

Both have their own pros and cons

Pros:

• Cheap (they range from .99 cents to 25.00+)
• They allow for the DM to create a map on the fly
• Easily transportable (with the paper methods you can make your maps ahead of time)

Cons:

• Boring looking
• Some maps can take a long time to recreate on these mediums
• Some types of markers cannot be used on certain mats (DO NOT USE DRY ERASE ON CHESSEX MAPS

EXPENSIVE OPTION:

Some people use an overhead projector mounted above their table to project their map.

Now that you have your maps you need your minis. There are a ton of options at various prices. In a perfect word we would have the above Dwarven Forge terrain populated with wonderful metal minis from Heroforge painted by Jen Haley (for you non mini people she is to mini painting what Hulk Hogan is to Wrestling). Sadly only those with more money any sense can afford that. You know the type of people who own the Geek Chic Sultan table....

CHEAPSKATE OPTIONS

Paper Minis. Just do a search for "paper miniatures:and you can find a ton of options. Here is what I found in under 30 seconds of searching.

http://zenseeker.net/PaperMiniatures/

Homemade tokens: Take a Magic common, or uncommon and a 25mm round base. Place the base over image, trace around it, and cut out. Instant token. You can mount to the 25mm base for some height.

Candy: I kid you not, Starburst make great Monsters. They fit perfectly in the one inch square. you can mark on top of them, and they come in multiple colors. When they die, you can eat them. Single Reese's Cups make perfect larger monsters. Monster candy: Deadly to your players and diabetics.

As for minis which I consider to be the best options for PC you again have a ton of options.

CHEAPSKATE OPTIONS

Reaper Bones http://www.reapermini.com/miniatures/bones

As you can see, they paint up fine, there is an issue with loss of detail and bendy miniatures, but when you are spending 2-4 bucks a figure, don't complain.

If you are really lucky you can find the D&D Prepaints cheap at rummage sales and mini exchanges. I picked up a ton of them a few years back when Wizards made them at 25-50 cents a figure. So worth it. WotC also makes board games that come with unpainted versions of the minis and you get a ton of them for cheap. It also comes with nice dungeon tiles you can use for your game.

The best option for your table is metal miniatures (I suggest metal, but you can also find them in Resin, which I find to be brittle and or HIP Plastic, such as the plastic one finds in Games Workshop Kits)

There are a ton of companies that make metal figures. My top 4 are:
Reaper Miniatures http://www.reapermini.com/ Seriously, these guys make thousands of figures and will cover most of the major race, class combos. If you can't find what you are looking for I think you might be running one of those weird ass race class combos, and I bet Reaper still has you covered.

 Average Price 4.99-9.99

DarkSword Miniatures.http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/ The figures are based on many of the classic images from original D&D. SJWs be warned, there are a ton of boobs and butts here.
Average Price: 7.99-14.99

Stonehaven Miniatures. http://www.stonehavenmini.com/ While I loath Kickstarter, they have done a ton of SUCCESSFUL Kickstarters and make figures based on classes for ALL the Races. Each set is based on a specific Race and they try to include a class for them. Dwarf Mage, they got you covered. Elf Barbarian....yup, him too. The figures are very sturdy, chunky. and a joy to paint. My only complaint is they have to be ordered from directly, but I have had no issues with their service.

Freeblades. http://dgsgames.com/ The figures are meant to be used in their own Game, outside of conventions, I have NEVER seen their game mentioned or played, but that does not mean their figures are bad. Infact they have a nice basic look to them, and for the most part are very modestly dressed.

Thanks for reading my inane rumblings and I hope to write more, feel free to comment, bookmark, and as always this is Chuck, and I paint.