As any visitor to Black Lion can attest Warmachine and Hordesare both pretty popular miniature games and with the recent addition of Rackhams AT-43 the upcoming all pre-painted plastic Confrontation, there is plenty of scope for miniature gamers et-al.
Of course you can just collect your miniatures and use them as they come right from the pack, but to get the best from both these excellently detailed models and the hobby itself you really need to immerse yourself into the wonderful world of miniature painting and modelling and we have just the things in stock to help you get on your way! This is the first of a series of articles to help you get the most from the hobby and maybe even pick up a thing or two along the way.
Painted vs unpainted the battle continues!
While there are thousands of unpainted miniatures available from a wide myriad of companies on the market, there are also a vast number of companies offering pre-painted models that often cause conflict between newcomers and traditionalist miniature gamers! Wizkids released its highly popular ranges of Clix games with Mage Knight and Heroclix five years ago, each set came with fully painted miniatures, albeit to a pretty low standard, but they did at the time set the standard for the hobby itself and offered a new style of quick gaming for those to busy to spend hours sitting down and painting vast armies of toy soldiers.
Five years on and while Wizkids are still at the top of their game (with the highly anticipated Halo spin off Actionclix due out in September of this year to coincide with the release of the latest game), there are other companies who offer pre-painted and assembled miniatures to a very high standard.
Mongoose Publishing recently launched its own pre-painted system in the form of Battlefield Evolution, a near future skirmish wargame that uses pre-painted 25mm miniatures of foot troops, support vehicles, tanks and helicopters. The first wave of Battlefield Evolution miniatures suffered from the same mistakes that have plagued Wizkids over the years and many of the miniatures had the look of being hit in the face with a saucepan. Thankfully the later releases are a lot more tidy and look great when placed on the table top.
Around the same time as Mongoose Publishing were developing Battlefield Evolution, French games company Rackham where working on their own pre-painted system, AT-43 and both games hit the market at around the same time. AT-43 is a game system set in the far future where the citizens of the planet Ava are locked in a bloody civil war, that is until an alien race appears and they forget their differences and fight the common foe. The base AT-43 Operation Damocles: Initiation Set brings us a whole new ball game when it comes to pre-painted miniatures, with 15 foot troops, two walkers and plastic terrain, with paint schemes that are not far of showcase standard, raising the benchmark of excellence even higher than Mongoose Publishing had set it.
Of course part of the fun of the hobby is actually sitting down and painting the models themselves, and this can be not only very rewarding when you see your miniatures on a battlefield or cabinet, but can be relaxing in itself!
There are a lot of arguments both for and against pre-painted vs unpainted miniatures, far to many to go into here, but the main ones seem to revolve around the fact that if you purchase painted miniatures you are cutting out a part of the hobby that is important to learn, that the miniatures are not painted to a high enough standard and perhaps most importantly that pre-painted will never take the place of non painted models. All valid points, but as with all things there are ways around them.
Firstly the paint used to paint the vast majority of pre-painted models is applied very thinly and more often than not by a machine (even though some companies do use the term hand painted, only a few actually are), this allows for the detail on the sculpt to come to the surface and if you wish to paint over them simply give the miniature a quick coat of primer and off you go.
You can always add extra detail to the basic painted models, such as shading or highlighting, or even dry brushing to give an extra level of realism to your miniatures. Ink washes and blending can add an extra depth to even the most basically painted miniature, as can the use of flock or scenic scatter to the base of the figure.
Another excellent way to get more out of your pre-painted miniatures is to use a dipping product such as Fanatic Army Painter. These products are lacquers designed to stick in the recesses of the miniature and add depth to the model. Available in super light, light, medium and dark tones, Fanatic Army Painter can give absolutely stunning effects to pre-paints, that make them look professionally finished.
To use Fanatic Army Painteryou simply dip the miniature into the pot and then remove and shake off any excess dip and leave to dry for 24 hours. Not only does the lacquer seep into the models recesses and help bring out the detail, it also acts as a varnish and will protect the miniature from scuff damage, thus increasing its life tenfold. Once totally dry Fanatic Army Paintercan even be painted over to add any other details you may wish too.
If you combine Fanatic Army Painterwith some of the excellent basing materials from Ziterdes and Vallejoyou can get some truly stunning effects. By simply adding sand or fine gravel to a base then painting it once dry you can turn something that is totally featureless into something more realistic. Add scatter or scenic flock and you can bring out even more detail, or why not go the whole hog with water effect paints.