Ohh, those are nice. I love the VSF line! Do you have any experience ordering from them? Are they timely, etc?

There are several online retailers that carry them - I typically get them through CoolMiniOrNot.Com who get them to me pretty quickly.

The Auld Grump

Not a miniature... a wash or ink this time, and not the color itself (a greenish yellow brown), nor the quality (very fine pigment, no noticeable grain), but I need to mock the name of a bottle of Secret Weapon Wash that came in the mail today - Baby Poop.

Yeah, they named the color Baby Poop.... I think that it is an accurate description of the color, but....


Baby Poop!

The Auld Grump

a good name for that colour

I found this quite interesting: An Overview of Games Workshop.

Rather a one sided - 'Games Workshop is Wonderful!' overview.

Leaves out lousy QA (particularly on 'Finecast' - they tried to hype poor QA as part of the 'Finecast experience' for the love of mud!), not listening to playtesters, pricing, taking out loans to pay dividends to investors (that one at least has stopped, I believe - it was something they did in the 'nineties), increasing prices to cover the cost of capital investments (yes, raising prices shows up twice - for different reasons), dropping the number of models in a box and/or moving to a less expensive material while keeping the same price or even raising it (let us go for three times on the pricing - everything is better in threes!).

Another thing left out is The Churn on systems to produce ongoing sales. Some armies never even get released for some of the editions, because the next big update happens before the Wood Elves make it to the gate. Landraiders and multimelta miniatures skipped an entire edition as well - they were in the book, but no models were available.

And how about treating distributors as rivals? Trying to kill online sales by non GW companies, blocking non GW sales to Australia, and in general behaving in a monopolistic fashion in a hobby industry that they do not hold a monopoly on....

Now they have added 'Everyone gets really big, really expensive creatures for their armies!' to the mix. That I consider most of these big new models to look like crap is kind of beside the point.

And I used to have some White Dwarfs that complained about other companies' prices.... (Back when GW and Citadel were separate entities.)

GW has some talented people, Jes Goowin leaping to mind, but the company itself....

Not a boycott or anything, I just don't buy from them anymore. There are better models that are less expensive. And resin models that are actually quality checked....

One of the folks from Mantic had some interesting points, comparing wargaming to model railroads - that once upon a time it was inexpensive to get into model railroads, but as toy trains got more expensive, often more detailed, and the modelers themselves got older, the entry point all but vanished. Kids don't get into model railroads much, anymore.

He was concerned that wargaming might go that same way, that to keep the hobby expanding there needs to be an inexpensive entry point.

You may not love Mantic models, but they are a cheap way to get into the hobby.

The Auld Grump, this may have been a rant....

Now I don't find it quite so interesting.

Sorry about that.

GW's biggest problem is that it is publicly held - and for the most part investors don't know anything about the hobby, they just want the numbers to be bigger. For most companies the shareholders aren't even people, they are brokerages, holding companies, and trusts.

When the hobby is shrinking there are two ways to increase profit - one is to reverse this change and grow the hobby, the other is to raise prices.

Can you guess which is easier to do?

Stock and share ownership does weird things to hobby companies - Grenadier Miniatures belonged to an automobile repair company, West End Games belonged to a shoe company(?!), and those were small companies, with limited shares. A big company like Games Workshop or a huge corporation such as Hasbro becomes ever more diffuse in its ownership, and may own shares in other companies into the bargain.

Taking out loans to cover dividends was an attempt by GW to keep attention off the actual running of the company - satisfied stock holders are less likely to demand changes that may not actually help the company.

Paizo has stated that as a major reason why they have no intent to go public - while being privately held limits immediate growth it prevents ownership by disinterested holders. They would rather be a private company than have someone else in control of their production.

Privateer, likewise, has no intent to go public - most of their founders used to work for GW.

Limited ownership can also lead to hardship if there are bad choices made - the original Call of Cthulhu card game nearly bankrupted Chaosium, Lorraine Williams did kill TSR, GDW sank after investing in a huge printing of a Desert Storm fact book, etc..

Neither is perfect.

So, anyway *shuffles feet*, here is a description of Reaper Miniatures given by The Miniatures Page. Less of a Gosh, wow! Isn't Reaper Wonderful!' than a 'this is how the production goes, nice of them to let me drop by, eh?' presentation. Over a decade old, but still worth looking at.

The Auld Grump

The problems associated with separate ownership doesn't just apply to hobby companies, and it doesn't just hit the customers. There are many successful business owners/staff who've accepted millions from major corporate investors to allow their company to grow even further, only to realize they were far happier before the windfall of corporate capital.

The folks at Paizo and Privateer sound like they're making wise choices. Here's hoping they keep their businesses operating successfully and don't end up in the sort of position that drove WotC into the arms of Hasbro.

And that is without mentioning the folks that buy controlling interest, and then strip companies. (Anyone remember Commodore Business Machines?)

Many companies are much better served remaining LLC.

The Auld Grump

It is interesting to see what two companies do with the same source material - Bronze Age has been doing a line of Barsoomian miniatures for a while now - and now so is Tin Man:

GreenMan from Wasteland Mutants (Bronze Age)


Horde warrior (Tin Man)


Mutant Ape (Bronze Age)


Great Space Ape (Tin Man)

Warning: Nudity
(Bronze Age)
Warning: Dear gods! My eyes!
(Tin Man)

Both make decent Green Martians, but the Red Martians... and the apes....

The Auld Grump

Being a former active model railroader myself (though I am currently verrrry slooowly picking up a few choice re-start pieces) I will agree that prices are hard to swallow, but the modelling quality for themost part is impressive - you get what you pay for --- granted it's more than a I paid a quarter century ago...

But to bring the discussion closer to back-on-track (no pun intended):

Denny, please don't sell out! We love you and what you are doing!

Not arguing that - as an example Bachmann went from creating some of the best inexpensive model trains to making $200 trains for their 'value' line. Good models, but 'value'?

I will admit the improvements in quality - it is the phasing out of the majority of the entry level sets that I object to, and that Walthers has already mentioned as being a problem - the pool of model railroaders is shrinking, and the expense of entry is preventing newcomers from replacing the old guard.

The pool of wargamers is also currently shrinking - and that is where having a low priced entry into the hobby is important.

I don't know if Mantic is getting sufficient exposure to become the entry point. I have gotten several folks to pick up the Kings of War starter set and a few of the boxed armies. (Decent value on both.) The fact that the rules themselves are free does help.

Games Workshop has some incredible models, but they also have a growing disconnect with their audience.

Mind you, they also have some horrible models that folks field anyway because the stats are good, and good models that do not get fielded because their stats are poor. My personal experience is decades out of date in regards to Warhammer, but I remember the Knights of the White Wolf, which cost more as models, were less effective in combat, and cost more points.... Now they are included with the plastic Knights of the Empire, and the biggest weakness has been removed. (Getting the first strike is important in Warhammer, and KoWW always struck last....)

On a quick positive note for GW - their plastic terrain sets are reasonably priced, as compared to their units. And some of them are good enough that they tempt me - and I have painted a few of them for commission, so I have seen them up close. The Garden of Morr in particular.

RPGs are in a different boat, it is the churn that is a problem, but I have introduced a lot more young folks to RPGs than to wargaming.

The Auld Grump

Good news! 1970s style Sci Fi sitcoms are making a comeback!

Yeah, big hair, cheesy (and slightly cheesecakey) costume....

The Auld Grump, actually for Pathfinder, but....

Don't know why you pre-censored this one Grump, she's clearly wearing one of those impossible, metal barbarian bras that magically adheres to breastflesh, as seen in every painting of fantasy women since... ever:



Meanwhile the Space Ape you posted clearly has some space-doodle action going on...



Bidi-bidi-bidi-bidi, sign me up, Buck.

For the humor value. That was why I labeled one 'Warning: Nudity' and the other 'Warning: Dear gods! My eyes!' The true bare breasted barbarian babe is also the better miniature, whereas that other... oi!

And, in a similar vein....
Lift and separate!

Those might do for Red Martians Gone Wild, I suppose....

I have been hired to paint a unit of those for a Dark Elf army for Warhammer.

The Auld Grump

Wow Tinkerbell, you've gone bad!

Actually not sure whether I like these or not.

The Auld Grump

Warning, No Nudity, But Rowdy, Rude, And Raucous Female Dwarf Football Team!
Jiggle, jiggle.

The Auld Grump

Where're the beards?

As a native New Zealander Rogal is proud to perform the Haka.

The Auld Grump

Aaagh! So the stories of amphibious cave sharks were true after all!

That mini is so wrong in so many ways, and yet, somehow ...

Street Sharks - Surfer style

We're gonna to rock down to Electric Avenue....

The Auld Grump

Exactly (and sadly) what instantly sprang to my mind as well...

Hey, that is good wholesome Saturday morning cartoon material right there.

Oh, dear - one of my players just e-mailed me a request to paint some figures for her Dark Elf/Chaos army....

Some of these aren't just topless.... (Safest image I could find, but... at least the image is small enough that it's hard to notice.)

She intends to use them as Witch Elves, I mean Blade Dancers, in Kings of War and as Daemonettes in Warhammer.

Out of ten figures I could not find a single picture that was safe for work....

I swear, she does this to me on purpose - she also wanted some of the other Dark Elf witches from Raging Heroes....

The Auld Grump

My goodness Mrs. Claus, you're looking... svelte today.

I actually like the figure - but I am planning to paint it up and use it as Mrs. S. Claus - and label the scroll that she is carrying 'Naughty'. From the Reaper Pathfinder miniatures line.

The Auld Grump

Yo ho ho ho! I be Pirate Santa!

So doing him up as that for my Christmas game!

The Auld Grump

He TAKES toys from naughty children...

A... heroically proportioned figure from Raging Heroes.

I... kind of like her, actually. She would likely be the general or maybe 'The Captain' for my Kings of War Kingdoms of Men army.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Okay - this one is just sad:

A Kromlech Juggernaut (Ork Nob in Mega Armour) $19.99

Better looking, in resin, from a boutique company... 2/3 the cost of one from GW....