What's the cheapest way to collect miniatures?
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- One of the biggest costs of getting into miniature wargaming is buying the models. Where can you save the most money doing it? In this video we take a 1000pt. list and "buy" it using the GW website, investing in a 3D printer setup, and paying a 3rd party to print your STLs.
Testing out a new thumbnail idea. Let me know what you think.
See more cool models at: / goodnuffhobbies
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Music: "Covert Affair" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Images from Games Workshop's website, 40k Wiki, My Mini Factory, Warhammer Community, and the One Page Rules webpage, all under Fair Use.
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#tabletopgaming #onepagerules #3dprinting
I have to admit there's a certain appeal to paying an artist in a more direct fashion for model designs, instead of going through a big company. I used to manage a team of artists so I feel their struggle.
The first gain of OPR for me is TIME. Less time to learn the rules, less time to introduce the game to a new player, less time to build a list, less time to prepare a battle, less time to play a game. So more time to paint miniatures, more time to build terrain, more time to play more battles, more time to live out of the hobby too, because we are not only hobbyists.
Savings on the 3D print side will occur once you move beyond a single army/faction and get into printing terrain, etc. But yeah, your analysis is pretty solid. Given the variety of miniatures I desired from a number of great artists (from Bob Naismith to OPR, to others...) and variety of scales (Battletch along with 40K/OPR)... I made the choice to 3D print. Piecemeal. Sadly, the discount printer I bought is now broken, but I have the infrastructure (alcohol, wash station, resin, tools) to be able to buy the next on the cheap. That, and I'm still FDM printing stuff as well... You can only build kits. 3D printers allow for other parts, like being able to repair my washing machine (true story).
A couple of additional points to comsoder 1. Quality of GW plastic way better than printed resin in many cases, and is much more resilient to drops. 2. The printer can break (busted fep getting resin in the internals). 3. Printing does gives you a lot more options. Ive been printing display statues, resin bits, accessories etc.
Lots of great reasons to get a printer. If i was just playing GW games I would just get GW stuff. However, if you are a wargamer/hobbyist and not just a GW fan, printing is a great investment.
There are a few things rarely taken into account when buying a 3d printer.
1. You will use more resin then you think because failed prints
2. The fomo of patreon costs vs my mini factory costs makes fomo pretty brutal and will put a lot of pressure on you to buy files you may or may not want down the line.
3. You need to invest in lots of gear, cover for fumes, funnel, silicone spatula, tea strainer if dealing with modular units, mask, replacement filters for mask, gloves, replacement fep, screen protector, a mat or tray to work on and potentially a waste collection service. These things add up and often need to be replenished.
Excellent points. I have about a 80% success rate with my prints. Found out part of the reason was opening the windows to let the smell out let the humidity in and messed up the prints. No idea why, but once I stopped opening the windows I had fewer fails.
Been 3D printing for over a year, and a few observations.
On the 'once you have the STLs, you can print as many as you want' - this has led to us printing warbands for Mordheim and other skirmish games, and giving them away. (Vae Victis, in particular has a lot of nice, solid, Mordeim-esque STLs.)
The subscription model - oh, my fuzzy ears and whiskers! From OPR alone we have Alien Hives (Not-Nids), Jackals (spacefaring woof-woofs - I love them so, so much), Saurian Starhost (space lizardmen), Wormhole Daemons (both fantasy and SF), Eternal Dynasties (Asian themed not-Tau), Beastmen (beastmen), Human Empire (Empire), Ratmen (not-skaven), Blessed Sister (not-Sisters of Battle), and, most recently, Dwarf Guilds. 'Third army', my foot! :D
My wife and I went kind of crazy, printing up armies - and bought a few others (mummified undead, Robot Legions, Saurians), when they had that long, long, long 70% off for Patreon. I actually like Robot Legions more than necrons.
I got into filament printing very early and was already printing terrain pieces. Then came affordable resin printing and i was an early adopter of the anicubic photon (the very first model with rgb screen that loved to burn through the shutter screen) - back then paid models were the exception, but the community made some amazing proxies that looked like the real deal. Yep they were straight copies. I have printed several armies on that printer (2000pts tournament lists) - several armies. And i saved so much money in the long run... Hell i have bought two more resin printers since then and am still saving money. - Yes it is not for everyone, not everyone has the space for it. But if you can. Do it. By all means. You won't regret it - Plus you can stick it to the greedy corpo that plays with the meta of it's own game every few months.
We have two people in my wargaming group with 3d printers. Pretty much the rest of us subsidize their 3d print hobbies by paying them for prints. One guy charges 2x resin cost and the other 1x resin cost + base price for the number of plates he has to use ( for example he can print a 10+1 unit on a single plate ). As a group we've definitely saved money collectively because we share files with eachother. I've got the OPR subscription, another guy has a subscription to a patreon that is more focused on D&D or TTRPG minis but they work just as well for "characters" for fantasy armies.
Just under a your ago I Bought a resin 3d printer, a wash/curing station and 2 bottles of resin. It was about $600. I then became a OPR patron and got the Lizardmen bundle for $60. and over the next 4 or 5 mouths I received the rest of the lizardmen army, $75.
So all told I spent about $735 This includes taxes. With this I was able to print a 2000 point OPR Age of Fantasy Lizard man army. I then went to GW to price out the same army from them. The GW equivalent would have cost me over $1,200.00.
As you noted, the more you print the better the deal because you are amortizing the cost of the printer. At a certain point you will spend less printing your own. But cost is only one upside. Printing gives you access to a large and growing pool of design talent creating sculpts that you simply can’t obtain any other way. You can create the army of your imagination by selecting sculpts from different artists.
I am a huge advocate for 3d printing so I admit Im biased on this. However, once you get over the initial figureing things out phase the cost substatially drops like a lead ballon. You learn how to avoid failures and what the machine can and cant do.
The resin i use is sunlu abs like. One of their colors is always on sale for $30-$35 for 2000 grams on amazon. Color dosent matter because your gonna paint it right?....right?
I usually pump out a new 2500 point OPR army every 2 weeks for less than $30 in resin. Then with the OPR patreon you get the files of the month and a steep discount on the MMF store.
The main problem i have now is pulling the trigger on making an army and then seeing different files that i like better.
Edge Miniatures makes the true Dark Eldar
Two cents from someone who is currently printing OPR's Blessed Sisters: My first 1000 points barely used 1kg of resin, and since in the example you bought the full Notcrons range, with your initial estimate of $604 you should _already_ be able to print a 2k pt army. $574 if you use water-washable resin. :P
Edit: That is if you're actually playing OPR. But since in that system units are more expensive point-wise, you require fewer models. Printing not for OPR but to be used as 40k proxies would require a bit extra resin, maybe close to 1.5 kg. Didn't consider that.
With the water-washable stuff. How did you dispose of the waste water? I left it out for months and it never settled. I ended up have to spend a day straining it just to be able to cure the sludge and toss the clean water. It was way too much work. Do you use water-washable resin but still clean it in alcohol?
@@Good.Nuff.Gaming Since I washed my models in a transparent plastic container, I just left it in the sun for one day or so, down the drain, and to bed with a clear conscience... but now I'm double guessing myself. Was that not enough? D:
And no, I washed the WW-resin in water. Later moved on to regular resin+alcohol.
Been 3d printing for 3 years.. ditched GW after playing their games since 1986 and now only play miniature agnostic games like OPR and Kings of War or older editions of WFB and Mordheim. I print amazing miniatures for literally nickels and dimes, 100 28mm miniatures for a $37 dollar bottle of resin, some alcohol and gloves. A really good machine cost $400-800 bucks, feps are cheap now. I'm never looking back at the GW product release cycle hamster wheel ever again.
There's one more advantage 3D printing has over buying plastic models: if one of your minis breaks, you still have to buy a full box of that particular troop type to replace your "casualty"; with 3D printing, you just select the appropriate STL (which we'll assume you already have it) and print it again, no surplus, no wasted shelf space.
Good point.
I've bene 3d printing for about 4yrs and building up a collection through the Artist you like and connect with is the way. I recommend MMF Tribes to find the Artists that are making the minis you like and commit to supporting them for 3-6months. See what a small collection of their models will look like on your shelf. ps. Target tribes with smaller member counts.
While it was up, Udos had an incredible amount of proxy’s for admech,space marines,tyranids,tau,SoB,Imp guard, necrons and the forces of chaos, all of which were free.
It’s a shame it got taken down though :/
Also you could’ve just searched on cults for free necron models, didn’t have to pay 194 or smthn for OpR
I bought a 3d printer one year ago, bought a $40 bundle of snakemen, printed a 1000pts army and, including all the costs, I came basically on par with buying similar models from GW. I'm now printing another army and the costs are laughable. I don't think I'm ever going back to buying models.
Great comparison. There is a game store in Tempe, AZ that prints and sells models also. I can see more stores offering this option.
I hate cleaning resin so probs just gonna keep buying preprinted and plastic. Thanks for the video.
Sure 3D printing has some massive avantages, but you know what ? Combining 3D printing and buying from GW has some advantages too !
A good example is the necron deathmark/immortals. What a shame having a kit with so many options and so few bodies, except if you can print the missing parts.
It's not an easy task, you have to scavenge some STL in the deepest shadows from some obscure Slavic speaking telegram groups, BUT being able to put 15 models from one box is so a pleasure!
I agree 100%. That's why in my video comparing the two companies OPR got the big win. They encourage you to bring what you want.
Yeah, but not getting a sick feeling while buying a quarter sprue filled with a not that great looking character model for $40 is worth more than $40.
Interesting discussion. I still have concerns about the toxicity of resin.
Plus, plastic models are easier for kit bashing.
That is definitely true, and the clean up, smell, and other processing of printing is absolutely a barrier.
Good video. I would like to hear your thoughts on using proxy Miniatures from other manufacturers like War Games Atlantic and mantic.
I'm all in favor of using whatever minis you like best and are worth paying the price for. I saw the WGA Boxes and thought of all kinds of places for them. I used a bunch for my Hail Caesar Persians.
15% discount from a FLGS? I'm in Northeast Ohio. We don't generally have places giving discounts. They're more of an UNfriendly Local Game Shop.
They're a lot cleaner these days and don't smell like the clientele, so maybe the 15% is spent on Febreze?
Great video. I've already shared it.
Lol yeah I have gone from South Florida to Michigan and I have never seen this mythical discount that everyone else is experiencing.
I do both. I buy GW models, but I also print some models to supplement my armies. In general, the GW plastic is higher quality, so I'm willing to buy models that look better. I tend to print models that aren't easy to find in a store (usually older models), are bulk masses, or that have lower levels of detail.
Best of both worlds. That's what I like about OPR.
Overall well done. Depending on army that can be way off(Sons of Behemet for example) The price changes alot when buying multiple models that start over 100 bucks a piece. One of the armies is 3 Great Unclean ones, last I checked they are 120 a pop. 3d printing is not for everyone in the beginning but In time will save you so much.
Definitely. I've been at it for a little over a year and I still hesitate to fire up the printer because I hate the mess and clean up. I usually wait until I have a half-dozen build plates worth and then I print about 48 hrs straight, then done for another couple months.
Dare I say the one page rules models look better
3D printing is so much cheaper in the long run. Sucks, because there's no way I can afford to get into it. Even just a couple of hundred euros on minis is kind of above my budget. Even just a cheap 3D printer is above my budget. Stuck with buying second-hand GW models for now.
Go in with a group to get a printer? Are there any businesses that will print them for you? I hate to hear people unable to enjoy the hobby to the extent they'd like.
You're sweet for coming up with ideas that might help ^^ Maybe I can try one of those options in time. For the moment, I'm content just painting whatever cheap models I can get my hands on. And I met someone who will let me paint their Heroquest set! Maybe saving up money for a printer through painting commissions will be a solution :)@@Good.Nuff.Gaming
3d printers go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I printed a banana men army :p
if u have time and u strategicly invenst in patrion u save even more. and btw i wouldnt buy a 4k printer, get at least a 8k. its worth 100%
8k came out just after I bought mine (figures), and I haven't gotten enough use from it yet to justify buying another one.
Another option is to buy used. Repair, repaint, recycle !
Ebay and FB Marketplace are some of the best things to happen to tabletop wargaming.
i have 3 1k OPR armys at this point and i have spend more money on Painting stuff then on the actual miniatures...
Steal them
I...I suppose that's an option I hadn't considered...
@@Good.Nuff.Gaming Got to think "Outside the box".
3d printing is still too expensive. instead of making the bits of plastic affordable they are racing games workshop prices - 20% maybe. if that...