I have been thinking about the paint I use recently and have decided to branch out and try some other paints. A quick bit of history first, to hopefully explain where I am coming from. I started gaming and miniature painting when I was 12 and I am now 32, giving me 20 years of experience. In that time I have mostly used Games Workshops paints as they are easily available from a number of places in the UK and as I started (and sometime still do) playing GW games I used there paint.
Forward a few years and I have tried all kinds of things from tubes of artists paint to oils mostly with out much success. Also in this time Games Workshop changed there paint manufacturer with the resulting change in the qualities of the paint, which I had to adapt to. A few years I picked up some Flames of War models and wanting to paint them in (nearly) correct uniforms I also picked up some of the Flames of War paint sets. These sets came with what I now know are Vallejo paints and now I almost prefer to use them over the standard GW paints.
The next major thing that happened to affect how I paint was the release of the foundation paints and washes from GW, the foundation paints have a much higher ratio of pigment in them meaning that they cover a lot better and can be thinned down much more while the washes remove a lot of the guesswork involved when making a wash. Now my painting style is a result of learning to paint the GW way, basecoat, wash, drybrush highlight and the new paints and washes complimented that perfectly. It is also around this time I discovered pigments and dip, but will leave these for another time.
The last major thing that was a wet pallet, this has changed a lot about how I paint. Now I can make up colours and use them for 3 or 4 days without much worrying about drying out.
And so this brings me to now, I am considering getting some of the P3 paints to see what they are like and if I can get on with using them. I will most probably get the Everblight set as it appears to have almost the same shade of blue I am using for my Legion beasts and the basic Iron Kingdoms set for a base range of colours.
I wonder how this will change my painting?
Showing posts with label Rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rant. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Why I am beginning to hate Games Workshop
I have been playing GW games for the best part of the last 20 years but recently I have been going off there games for a number of reasons.
1 - Cost - Games Workshop seem to charge almost as much for plastic models as they do for there metal ones. For example Dark Eldar Kabalite warriors cost £15 for 10 or £1.50 a model, considering that will need at least 20 or 30 for a functioning army thats £45 straight out and you will also need a HQ to lead them which is another £10 roughly meaning that your basic force (with no upgrades or vehicles) is going to cost at least £55. The fantasy range is even worse with the Goldswords or Costigors running at £25 for 10.
2 - Rules - 40K used to be fun but with the rise of the net-list most tournament armies are simple cookie cutter builds using stuff known to work, this has also started to bleed over in to Fantasy recently. Also I find the "dumbing down" of the rules somewhat annoying, I assume this to appeal to GW`s target market - the 12 - 16 year olds who just bug there parents to buy them the latest stuff. Also whenever a new edition on a core game comes out it makes a number of models unusable, here is an example This model can not be used anymore as the options modeled on to it are no longer in the army list!
3 - The company its self - GW used to be run by gamers for gamers, now it is run by accountants for the shareholders. The effect of this is that every single opportunity to push an over priced product is taken. There are all kinds of horror stories on the net about pushy GW sales people trying desperately to sell inappropriate stuff to customers. I asked my girlfriend to get me a couple of imperial guard bits from a GW once, she was in there for about 25 minutes and in that time the staff tried to sell her a black reach box set, a starter paint set, a Baneblade and an Ork Stomper. None of this would have been that bad except she had a list of what to buy and only asked the staff to help her find 3 boxes (Cadian shock troops, Cadian heavy weapons and a Chimera), they told her that I wouldn't want any of that (I did) and that starting new army was the best thing to do!
4 - The Website - The old GW website was full of interesting articles, painting tips and other such stuff. The new site is just one big E-shop, with a smattering of articles whose only real purpose is to sell more stuff.
5 - Refusing to support tournaments and events not run by GW - The biggest Warhammer tournament in the world (the ETC) had no official presence from GW, considering that people traveled from all over the world to play GW could at least have had a trade stand. At Salute this year there was no presence from GW except third party retailers selling there products.
6 - Specialist Games - These are some of the best games ever produced by GW and they leave them to rot as they dont sell enough models.
7 - The great cease and desist purge - Games Workshop hired a new head of legal, her first actions where to go on a purge of fan sites on the internet with the aid of a very large number of C + D letters mostly to fans running websites.
So with this in mind over that last couple of months I have been looking around at other companies and have come up a couple of games that I like namely Malifaux and Warmachine/Hordes. Both companies seem to embrace the internet and actively communicate with there fans via forums (which GW did away with some years) coupled with the fact that both game systems use a lot fewer models than almost all GW games makes them an attractive option.
So with this in mind at some point over the weekend I will be putting a large amount of stuff on to Ebay. At the moment I am playing to sell -
Half built High elf army.
A load of IG stuff still on sprues.
The army books / Codex's for armies I dont own.
Most of the random models I have laying around.
I am going to keep my IG and Vampire armies for the time being and may well continue to paint my Space Wolves only because these are the games I can find an opponent for.
1 - Cost - Games Workshop seem to charge almost as much for plastic models as they do for there metal ones. For example Dark Eldar Kabalite warriors cost £15 for 10 or £1.50 a model, considering that will need at least 20 or 30 for a functioning army thats £45 straight out and you will also need a HQ to lead them which is another £10 roughly meaning that your basic force (with no upgrades or vehicles) is going to cost at least £55. The fantasy range is even worse with the Goldswords or Costigors running at £25 for 10.
2 - Rules - 40K used to be fun but with the rise of the net-list most tournament armies are simple cookie cutter builds using stuff known to work, this has also started to bleed over in to Fantasy recently. Also I find the "dumbing down" of the rules somewhat annoying, I assume this to appeal to GW`s target market - the 12 - 16 year olds who just bug there parents to buy them the latest stuff. Also whenever a new edition on a core game comes out it makes a number of models unusable, here is an example This model can not be used anymore as the options modeled on to it are no longer in the army list!
3 - The company its self - GW used to be run by gamers for gamers, now it is run by accountants for the shareholders. The effect of this is that every single opportunity to push an over priced product is taken. There are all kinds of horror stories on the net about pushy GW sales people trying desperately to sell inappropriate stuff to customers. I asked my girlfriend to get me a couple of imperial guard bits from a GW once, she was in there for about 25 minutes and in that time the staff tried to sell her a black reach box set, a starter paint set, a Baneblade and an Ork Stomper. None of this would have been that bad except she had a list of what to buy and only asked the staff to help her find 3 boxes (Cadian shock troops, Cadian heavy weapons and a Chimera), they told her that I wouldn't want any of that (I did) and that starting new army was the best thing to do!
4 - The Website - The old GW website was full of interesting articles, painting tips and other such stuff. The new site is just one big E-shop, with a smattering of articles whose only real purpose is to sell more stuff.
5 - Refusing to support tournaments and events not run by GW - The biggest Warhammer tournament in the world (the ETC) had no official presence from GW, considering that people traveled from all over the world to play GW could at least have had a trade stand. At Salute this year there was no presence from GW except third party retailers selling there products.
6 - Specialist Games - These are some of the best games ever produced by GW and they leave them to rot as they dont sell enough models.
7 - The great cease and desist purge - Games Workshop hired a new head of legal, her first actions where to go on a purge of fan sites on the internet with the aid of a very large number of C + D letters mostly to fans running websites.
So with this in mind over that last couple of months I have been looking around at other companies and have come up a couple of games that I like namely Malifaux and Warmachine/Hordes. Both companies seem to embrace the internet and actively communicate with there fans via forums (which GW did away with some years) coupled with the fact that both game systems use a lot fewer models than almost all GW games makes them an attractive option.
So with this in mind at some point over the weekend I will be putting a large amount of stuff on to Ebay. At the moment I am playing to sell -
Half built High elf army.
A load of IG stuff still on sprues.
The army books / Codex's for armies I dont own.
Most of the random models I have laying around.
I am going to keep my IG and Vampire armies for the time being and may well continue to paint my Space Wolves only because these are the games I can find an opponent for.
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