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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 14, 2021 18:17:25 GMT -6
Just wondering if folks would be interested in talking about these topics. It's not just about whether you use them or not, and to what extent. It's also about painting, basing, etc.
For my part, I use miniatures a lot, and painting them was for many years the only way to stay in the hobby. I'm not a big fan of basing. I prefer integral bases or use the clear ones. I've only recently gotten into building terrain. I usually use a battle mat or graph paper.
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naiyor
Level 1 Medium
Posts: 24
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Post by naiyor on Jun 14, 2021 21:15:50 GMT -6
I don't usually use miniatures...sometimes we use dice as markers on the table. I really like having more of a "theater of the mind" thing. I like the minimalist feel. I do love seeing people's miniature set up though.
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Post by hamurai on Jun 14, 2021 22:37:34 GMT -6
I've always been a fan of using miniatures for D&D combat, especially in the later editions where you have more tactical options. I enjoy painting them, but, same as you tkdco2 , I'm not a big fan of basing either. I only ever base my BattleTech minis (they don't need a lot of detail at that scale) and my historical stuff (my Strathclyde Saga army and Bolt Action). I haven't painted all of the RPG ones yet, as my focus is usually on the tabletop armies, but I'm slowly catching up and finishing the other ones, too. I have lots of miniatures for fantasy and sci-fi games, which I frequently use in D&D and other games. I only have a couple of terrain pieces and for D&D we use a dry-erasable battle mat or a set of dry-erasable dungeon tiles. When I was playing with folks who enjoyed the visual aspect of gaming like me, I sometimes use a set of old HeroScape hex-terrain pieces to build a small playfield. Since I still prefer playing over building sets, I usually only do that when I intend to use that terrain for a longer time, like a recurring scenery or a mass battle. Usually I try to not make the game to board-gamey and mostly use the miniatures to clarify positions in combat and to add some visual component to the game. This is in addition to theatre of the mind, which is our default mode of playing. Follow-up question from me: What miniatures do you use?Do you prefer the new ones or the classic ones?I have both new and old ones. The new ones often come from some board games (like Black Monolith's Conan), the old ones are a bunch of Ral Partha classics (some of which I've had for decades, some I acquired more recently) or some old board games (HeroQuest, Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the yellow AD&D starter box set).
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Post by rsdean on Jun 15, 2021 10:59:53 GMT -6
Does anyone have a recommendation for a gray flagstone/tile pattern roll up mat that will accept wet erase markers? My previous one disintegrated, and the maker isn’t selling them anymore (for which there may be a correlation). The Chessex replacement mat I bought recently is serviceable, but the basic tan color wouldn’t be my first choice. I do like to base my miniatures, mostly for their own protection in the case of RPG figures. You can see various examples on my blog (http://sharpbrush.blogspot.com/) if you are curious. Because I have been playing a lot more miniatures war games than RPGs, I generally have things on outdoor grass-style bases, so that they will fit into field battle games. Individuals are generally on 20mm or 25mm round bases, and units are on 60mm wide group bases of various depths. Monsters are a bit of a mixed bag. I guess I would have to add a lot of moss to my dungeon floors to allow those bases to blend in, so there’s certainly something to be said for the use of clear bases as being able to blend in anywhere. On the other hand, my bases are generally equipped with a steel layer on the bottom, so that they will engage with the sheet magnets in my storage/transport boxes, so clear bases would need a different storage scheme. As far as what miniatures I use goes, it’s complicated. I have been at this business of fantasy miniatures since before I got D&D, so since late 1974 or so. My earliest figures were from Minifigs, from their unlicensed Tolkien range (Mythical Earth), and my intention was to do battles from the Lord of the Rings. (This was a case of my ambitions far exceeding my reach, by the way.) By the time D&D came into my hands in 1976, I also had figures from Minifigs unlicensed Conan range (Sword and Sorcery), and some early Heritage/Der Kriegspielers figures. Shortly after I got D&D, a more accessible local hobby shop specializing in military models and wargames opened up, and jumped on the D&D supplies bandwagon. I was able to get early Grenadier figures, early Ral Partha, Garrison, McEwan, Archive and Hinchliffe (when the merged Heritage/Der Kriegspielers got the US license). The Grenadier figures from the first Wizzards and Warriors single figure range (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Wizzards_and_Warriors#Single) were particular favorites for D&D characters, because they came with adventure gear like bags and backpacks, and because they had some sort of representation of most of the possible classes of character, as long as you identified as male, of course. Since we had no female players in those years, and since it was the 1970s, this wasn’t a problem for our group. (By the time I ran my second campaign, using AD&D1e in the early 1980s, I had both female players — my group consisted of several husband/wife teams — and female figures to represent their characters, mostly from the Ral Partha Imports/Citadel FA — Fantasy Adventurers—range.) I continued to add miniatures to that collection until about 1987, when I shifted over to mostly historical miniatures as my main gaming outlet. Since I had that core of small/old/“true” 25mm figures, scale creep eventually locked me out of reinforcements. Newer 28mm figures were already towering over my existing figures by the early 1990s. So, that was another factor in why I stopped buying things. I simultaneously bought into the first Reaper Bones kickstarter back in 2012 and decided to revive my D&D gaming, so I thought for a while that I was going to be using the Bones (32mm or so in reality), and I have a boatload of them (mostly still to paint ). They are nice figures, but I am feeling more inclined to go with the old 25s these days, especially with the vintage rules. Just to make things more complicated, I also have a collection of 1/72 scale plastic figures including fantasy types, which mostly supports war gaming, but which could stretch to D&D. Their main advantage is that they are easy to transport in quantity, due to the smaller size and light weight.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 15, 2021 15:46:15 GMT -6
Miniatures: I have a wide range of miniatures: 1/72 plastic (historical and modern), true 25 mm scale lead miniatures including the very first set I picked up, the later pewter and plastic ones, and even some in resin or paper. I don't just have fantasy; I also have science fiction and modern miniatures. I have a bunch of starship miniatures for my space combat games. I don't often play historical wargames because my friends aren't interested in recreating historical battles. They like SF battles, so I may run starship combat. I only got interested in paper miniatures as a cheap alternative for people on a budget. Painting: I've spent more time painting miniatures than playing the game. Acrylic is my favored medium, although I have experimented with oils, enamels, and even craft paints and tempera. I use acrylics meant for canvas in addition to those made for miniatures. Just remember that these paints are drier than miniature paints, so you have to thin them a bit more than usual. Flow aid works really well here. I generally prime my miniatures white; I never liked the results when I used black primer. I paint the bases green if they are integral bases. While I still paint miniatures, my eyesight has gotten pretty bad. I often buy pre-painted miniatures. Basing: Not gonna lie, I've always hated the slotta bases. I've had to use them because the miniatures I like came that way. But I prefer having a base that's made of the same material as the figure and comes already attached to it. I find flocking and texturing messy, so unless it fits the style of miniature (like cobblestones on a Victorian miniature), I will avoid doing that. A lot of the pre-painted miniatures have plain black bases; I just leave them as they are. Using clear bases is a divisive issue; people either love them or hate them. I'm in the first category. I have rebased Heroclix miniatures with clear bases. I usually use the ones made from Litko, but other companies make them as well. A lot of the new Wizkids lines use the clear bases, as do the Role 4 Initiative miniatures, so I've been buying those. I still need more demihuman miniatures with clear bases, though. Terrain: I use a mix of 2D and 3D terrain. I purchased a few and crafted others, including dungeon tiles. I am not a very good crafter, so I prefer to buy certain types, such as trees. There are lots of excellent crafting videos on YouTube. I will link TheDMscraft since this guy started the trend. I have crafted some of my game mats using Gaming Paper. I just bought some green felt that can be used as grass. I am experimenting with backgrounds, since I plan to use it for my photography experiment. I'm not much of an artist, but I may be able to come up with a passable landscape which will be used with miniatures and scatter terrain. Flagstone gaming mat: I found these links. The reviews on YouTube were positive. Gale Force 9Deepcut Studio
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 15, 2021 16:16:53 GMT -6
Here's something I forgot to add in my last post. My biggest quirk when it comes to crafting terrain is that aside from glue and paint, I don't like to mix different types of material. If I craft something out of cardboard, it's all got to be cardboard. If I use foam, everything has to be made from foam. I have mixed the two materials together for a craft project, but I tend to shy away from that for some reason.
This seems to extend to miniatures. That's one of the reasons I don't like slotta bases and won't mount my 1/72 plastic figures on metal washers.
If you're interested in seeing how I've used miniatures and terrain, check out my Solo MERP Game AAR thread on the Tolkien and Middle-earth forum on these boards.
Edit: I keep forgetting to add stuff. One more thing about my preferences: I prefer thin bases to thick bases. I don't like my miniatures standing so far up over the ground. I have created my own bases with bits of cardstock or transparent plastic, but those are a bit too thin.
By the way, I found out Miniature Market has a sale starting today.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 15, 2021 23:54:23 GMT -6
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Post by rsdean on Jun 16, 2021 3:59:20 GMT -6
I’ll throw in a link to Dave Graffam Models for cardstock buildings, but more later: www.davesgames.net/
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naiyor
Level 1 Medium
Posts: 24
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Post by naiyor on Jun 16, 2021 6:57:22 GMT -6
Thanks for the links tkdc02 and rsdean...these look awesome. I may need to incorporate these into my campaigns. I never know where to start with a lot of things and this is great.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 16, 2021 12:26:37 GMT -6
One way to avoid accumulating too much stuff is to use this method for your dungeon delves: Ultimate Dungeon TerrainI gave a general link because the first video shows the original design and philosophy. The creator has since refined his technique a couple of times, and other crafters have put their own spin on the build.
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Post by rsdean on Jun 17, 2021 4:05:25 GMT -6
I like that! It would be nearly as fast setting up as drawing on a mat. I already have the styrofoam carvers… As for bases, I am inconsistent. I will go with thinner bases if I want the miniatures to blend into the terrain in an unobtrusive “realistic” way. In my case, that’s usually steel washers to engage with my magnetic storages boxes and movement trays. However, for more abstract situations (4 40mm Renaissance pikemen on a single 60mm square base as a company of troops, say), I find that thicker bases work, and have the advantage of sometimes allowing the troops to be handled by the base rather than by the figure.
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Post by rsdean on Jun 17, 2021 6:25:52 GMT -6
BTW, I see that I can buy a flat topped 18” Lazy Susan from Amazon for under $30, so I’m not going to stress my non-existent woodworking skills by building it…
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 17, 2021 10:50:58 GMT -6
BTW, I see that I can buy a flat topped 18” Lazy Susan from Amazon for under $30, so I’m not going to stress my non-existent woodworking skills by building it… Same here. One content creator showed that he uses a pizza pan instead of a Lazy Susan, so that may be a cheaper option. I think he adds magnets to the bottom of the miniature bases, though.
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Post by rsdean on Jun 17, 2021 13:45:45 GMT -6
For historical reasons, nearly all of my troops are based on steel, and the storage boxes have the magnets, and I’m not likely to flip that at this point. I was concerned that the magnets might degrade over time, and thought that the boxes would be easier to replace than to rebase the troops. It hasn't been an actual problem, but I’m about thirty years into this system now.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 17, 2021 15:05:16 GMT -6
Painting miniatures has always been a favorite hobby of mine. I prefer acrylics, as I find them the easiest to work with. I have been looking at different techniques. I haven't been pleased with my attempts at wet blending or nonmetallic metals, so will need to keep practicing. Many artists limit their palette; I remember reading a Dragon Magazine article suggesting that no more than five paints be used. I have been enamored with the Zorn Palette lately, so I have painted some of my miniatures that way, with the addition of silver or gold as needed. If you need a purple using this palette, use a cool red like Alizarin Crimson instead of Vermillion or Cadmium Red. Also use a cool black like Lamp Black. Keep in mind your purples and greens will still be muted.
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Post by rsdean on Jun 18, 2021 11:21:39 GMT -6
The Zorn palette looks interesting. I don’t have much paint/color theory, and my idea of a limited palette is usually more like what one would get for a speed paint event at Gencon—about 12 colors including both metallics. I have a description of my travel paint kitover on the Reaper forums. I would note that I hate slottabases, too, but my main objection is that the majority of my figures are destined for group bases for war gaming, and I don’t have the tools to carve slots at arbitrary orientations into a group base to allow the figures to stand pleasingly together.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 18, 2021 15:43:20 GMT -6
Litko does custom bases upon request. I usually go to them for clear bases, but I think they have a set of wooden bases as well.
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Post by rsdean on Jun 21, 2021 8:11:03 GMT -6
They do have wooden bases, even including a pretty decent 1” slot base that I use instead of plastic for figures that need them. But for groups, the slots would have to be individually carved to meet my usual objective of trying to keep weapons from overhanging the base edges, and to keep figures from poking weapons into the backs of their own first rank troops. It’s a LOT easier to shuffle integral-based figures around to a pleasing group configuration before gluing them down. I was looking through old threads yesterday, and I see that we had one on casting: odd74.proboards.com/thread/11881/cast-miniatures-1982I am not sure that I want to perform thread necromancy on it, but I did spend much of last summer carefully venting all of my Prince August early series fantasy molds, and started casting them up. The Oathmark game is still ‘to come”, but at least they have ben played with: sharpbrush.blogspot.com/search?q=Rabbit+hole
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 21, 2021 15:38:59 GMT -6
Nice! I like the dirt road tiles; they look very realistic. How did you achieve that?
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Post by rsdean on Jun 22, 2021 4:07:46 GMT -6
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Post by rsdean on Jul 1, 2021 6:44:20 GMT -6
I’ve ordered a couple of tools to build the Ultimate Dungeon Terrain spinner. I’ll order the Lazy Susan if I get the foam slab constructed…
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Post by tkdco2 on Jul 1, 2021 13:01:14 GMT -6
I’ve ordered a couple of tools to build the Ultimate Dungeon Terrain spinner. I’ll order the Lazy Susan if I get the foam slab constructed… I made mine out of cardboard, but foam is probably sturdier. Some folks have made their own variants, and some of the ideas are really good. So be sure to check them out to see if they work for you.
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Post by tkdco2 on Aug 20, 2021 12:45:14 GMT -6
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Post by tkdco2 on Aug 20, 2021 13:08:02 GMT -6
We all have our preferences when it comes to miniatures and painting. These are mine:
Metal miniatures are my favorite. I still have my old lead miniatures. I'm okay with plastic, but I don't like resin.
I like miniatures cast in a single piece, including the base. I'd rather not have to glue different parts together, especially if different materials (usually metal and plastic) are involved. Those are two of the reasons I never warmed up to slotta bases. I like integral bases, so I like the Reaper Bones line.
On a related note, I find that I don't like mixing materials, even when building terrain. I may build terrain from either cardboard or foam, but almost never both at the same time. I may use similar materials such as carboard and wood, but I have a strange hang-up about using different types of materials for a single project. Glue and paint are necessary in either case, of course.
I don't like flocking or texturing the bases. If the miniature has an integral base, I just paint it green. If the base comes separately, I'd rather use clear bases. While I was initially skeptical about them, they turned out to be my favorite bases. I've rebased several HeroClix miniatures with clear bases from Litko or Wizkids. Some companies are switching over to clear bases, so I will get the miniatures I like.
I prefer white primer; I've never been happy with my results whenever I used black primer. Light gray will also work. While I have used spray primers, I am concerned about the effects on the environment, so I use brush-on primers as much as possible. I've found that white craft paint makes a good undercoat.
I enjoy painting. My technique will never win awards, but it's good enough for the table, which is the whole point anyway. I limit my inks and washes to black, brown, and flesh tone. I find these usually suffice for shading.
Anyway, rant over. I needed to get this out of my chest for some reason. What are your favored techniques?
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 3, 2021 13:12:42 GMT -6
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Parzival
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Is a little Stir Crazy this year...
Posts: 347
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Post by Parzival on Sept 16, 2021 13:10:15 GMT -6
Chiming in late:
I don’t typically use minis for D&D— I’m very Theatre of the Mind for roleplaying games.
However, I do play “Grand Tactical Wargames” with 10mm figures (usually as strips), fixed to a base at a range of 8 to 14 figures per base. I use the OOP Warmaster rules from Games Workshop’s Specialist Games. There is a fan variant and update called Warmaster Revolution which you can find on the web, but I don’t know much about that version.
I also play Steve Jackson Games’ Ogre/GEV, GW’s Space Hulk, Ares Games’ Wings of Glory WWI (formerly FFG’s Wings of War), and FFG’s X-Wing, but these really don’t involve terrain. I’ve also created my own fleet scale spaceship combat game (Generic Outlandishly Big Spacefleets!, aka GOBS!) and Redcoats & Minutemen, a simple American Revolution skirmish game for use with the big plastic toy soldiers you find at Hobby Lobby and toy stores. And I recently acquired Mantic Games’ Armada fantasy naval game.
Because of the scale, my Warmaster terrain is very simple. I have a couple of modular hill/mountain slopes from GW, a printed cardboard river (ditto), some plastic ruins (ditto), a “build your own Stonehenge” plastic/resin model, and “snow village” Christmas trees I bought from Lowes during an after-holidays clearance. I have a modular fortress/castle made from laser-cut MDF (Sally 4th is the company, and their stuff is excellent), as well as a print-it-yourself paper model “not Helm’s Deep” from another source. If you’re not too obsessed with having things be “more 3D than you’d actually see,” paper terrain is a great way to go, and often sold as PDF files you can print and build in as many quantities as you desire. The cost is your inkjet ink, of course, which can add up if you’ve got a guzzler printer.
Although I don’t play D&D that way, I do have Mantic Games’ Dungeon Saga minis/board game, which comes with a ton of dungeon terrain— furniture, doors, chests, altars, crypts, etc.. I’ve also backed Hasbro’s redo of HeroQuest, which I expect to receive in October. So while I will play these, they might wind up being sources for some future, tactically-oriented tabletop D&D play. We’ll see.
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 21, 2021 0:06:10 GMT -6
Another prop you can use is handouts. I don't use them in every game, but they add flavor to the game when used judiciously. Here's a handout I made for my Castle Falkenstein campaign. I made photocopies and passed them out to my players. flic.kr/p/2msKKRc
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 21, 2021 2:44:36 GMT -6
I didn't hand out copies of this one to my players, but I showed it to them. It became a story arc for my Highlander campaign. It's supposed to represent a scroll about swords of power. I kept the pages separate instead of combining them into a scroll because it's easier to store and transport this way. flic.kr/p/2msFHfVflic.kr/p/2msQwP9flic.kr/p/2msPseiHere's the English translation: THE LEGEND OF THE SWORDS In the first age of mankind came the Immortals. Among their number were two brothers, Tethior and Krelix, who made swords of power. After two hundred years of great toil, seven swords were created. After many years, Krelix turned to evil, and he created swords of evil power. Great was the wrath of Tethior, and he slew his brother. Tethior then journeyed to unknown lands and hid the swords, both good and evil, in secure locations. No one knows where these swords lie. For many years Tethior was away from his home. When he returned, he became a farmer and never again crafted another sword. After fifty-three years, Tethior was slain by another Immortal. Wotan is the name of the other Immortal. Wotan slew Tethior because Tethior would not tell where the swords lay. So potent are these swords that they cannot be destroyed. Such is their nature that an Immortal wielding one of these swords becomes invincible. Should a mortal wield such a blade, he would gain Immortality. However, the potent nature of these swords is such that the mortal may be overwhelmed and killed if he is not sufficiently strong. I, Aelfwine, wrote this A.D. 871
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Parzival
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Is a little Stir Crazy this year...
Posts: 347
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Post by Parzival on Sept 21, 2021 9:40:47 GMT -6
I do that sort of thing all the time. I’ve handed my players runic inscriptions, crude carvings in goblin, images of bloody scrawls on the wall, torn bits of a tavern menu with a crude map on the back (which isn’t obviously a map), and so on. Sometimes I’ll go so far as to “age” the paper. DM tricks from back-in-the-day. I’m also big on “physical” puzzles— by which I mean things the PCs have to physically manipulate to resolve, which I describe to the players and let them figure out. And of course, the ever challenging riddle poem as a clue of what to do.
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Post by tkdco2 on Oct 25, 2021 23:30:53 GMT -6
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