Being stingy or cheap in the hobby.

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**FabricatorGeneralMike**

Eilif wrote:
cuda1179 wrote:
. While I honestly can't say that anyone in the hobby is "cheap"

Sure you can. I'm cheap. I give you permission to call me "cheap" anytime!

I have to say I somewhat agreed with him in his opinion. The reason he called me this? While I generally like GW paints, I hate paying $5 for half an ounce of paint. So I go to Walmart, buy the same shade of paint in their craft isle (88 cents for 2 ounces) and then I mix it in with the GW paint. Basically the mixture is about 85 to 90 percent GW paint, I just cut the cost a bit by adding generic craft paint with no noticeable difference in coverage.

Grashopper, you're barely scratching the surface of cheap. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to gaming and here's just a few to get you going.

1- That paint thing is kind of laughable. Just buy and use craft paint. I recommend being slightly less cheap and buying the "Delta Ceramcoat" brand that is carried at craft stores. I think it's the best of the craft paints. It's coverage and application is almost as good as model-brand paints and it's available in a HUGE variety of colors. It's bout $1.20 for a 2 oz bottle, but that's still around 8 times cheaper than GW's $5 for 0.5oz

2- Buy used minis painted crappily for pennies on the dollar. Bathe them in Purple Power for a week. Scrub. Rinse, Repeat as necessary. Elbow Grease means saved dollars.

3- Build your own terrain from junk toys and other crap. Go to Necromundicon at Ironhands.com to see the bible for this kind of terrain. Or just search for my threads here.

4- Buy all your hobby supplies from the craft/hobby store (paint, PVA, razor saw, knives, Superglue, etc) or Hardware store or Harbor Freight (superglue, Files, Flush cutters, table vise etc). You'll spend about 30% of what GW would charge you.

5-Buy a 50 pound bag of "Sand Mix" concrete at your DIY store for $5. I know it's $5 more expensive than free beach sand, but you can sift it into at least 3 different kinds of gravel as well as sand and concrete filler. All of which are useful in hobbying. Also, as-is it's a nice chunky rocky soil basing for terrain.

6- For spray Priming, look at hardware store spray paints. Usually they will have a store brand flat white or black for a buck. Test first to make sure it comes out right. You can also get big cans of Grey, dark grey and red primer an cans of very flat camo colors (from rustoleum or Krylon) for about half as much as model brand paints in cans that are about twice as big.

7- Try artists Gesso in black or white (I like the liquitex brand) for priming and Winsor Newton Galeria Acrylic Matte Varnish for easy brush-on varnishing.

One more thing about paints. Alot of folks will tell you you need miniature paints. They unfortunately don't know what they're talking about. You may have to learn how to use a bit of Matte Medium and other supplies to thin or smooth out the paints (though with Delta it really isn't usually necessary) but craft paints can be surprisingly good.

One of my buddies uses artists acrylicas exclusively. One the best painters I know uses almost nothing but Americana brand craft paints and you can see his work here:
http://mdarrow.blogspot.com
Take a look at that and tell me you honestly need miniature-brand paints.

FabricatorGeneralMike agrees with all you have said. I have been in the "Painting miniatures/models" hobby for about 30 years now (Not that horrible GW 'H-h-h-hobby which is buying GW/Citadel models to assemble using Citadel modeling supplies and Citadel glue then painting with Citadel paints then assembling Citadel models to look at and oggle over because that's why people buy them because its a 'lifestyle' luxury brand miniature not because there is a game that goes along with all that crap somewhere...-altho 30k is kinda cool

) and I'm a horrible horrible cheap bastard and damn proud of it!!!

The ONLY thing I would even consider buying at full price is Forgeworld stuff and even then with the crappy exchange rate on the Canadian Dollar $ to the British Pound £..... I'd consider other options >.<

Revel in your hobby glory OH CHEAP OP , look at the silly people who pay full price for stuff and know deep in your heart that you will have learn more about hobbying by being a DYI'er then buying stuff pre-made. ( on a side note there is the time vs cost issue, for some people who don't have a lot of time in their life and cost isn't a issue but still want to Game/Hobby/Collect etc then kits and pre-painted is a godsend and as I know all about not having hobby time FabricatorGeneralMike supports you 100%

)

**AegisGrimm**

I'm not really sure what makes better sci-fi storage tanks than upside down pringles cans with cereal box banding.

'Cheap" used to be called resourceful, back before there was GW brand scenery.

**Asterios**

AegisGrimm wrote:
I'm not really sure what makes better sci-fi storage tanks than upside down pringles cans with cereal box banding.

'Cheap" used to be called resourceful, back before there was GW brand scenery.

this is an oatmeal container I made a tower out of:

**RedNoak**

AegisGrimm wrote:
I'm not really sure what makes better sci-fi storage tanks than upside down pringles cans with cereal box banding.

'Cheap" used to be called resourceful, back before there was GW brand scenery.

heck, i even remember the 3rd edition ork kodex telling you how awesome an ork army is to collect, because you can scrapbuild your own vehicles! they even put in tutorials with pictures and all, on how you could convert an ordinary boy into a skarboy, kybork, ardboy or nob by using bitz and greenstuff and how to glue two shootataz together to make a bigshoota/rokkitlauncha... well, i guess times change

**RazgrizOne**

Personally, I wouldn't give a single damn about being qualified as cheap.

- I never buy GW modelling supplies, for quality/price reasons and because there are plenty other well known manufacturers in this field.
- I buy all my IG vehicles on the Internet, either by Facebook groups or other second-hand sites. Vehicles are not as much customizable as infantry, so why should I bother buying them at GW?
- I do as many conversions as possible and I try to redo my old minis.
- I buy NOS infantry whenever I can but since I need them new to make my conversions, they are the only thing I actually buy at a GW.

This policy has made me save hundreds of euros... that I used to buy nice third-party bits for my army. So not real reason to call me a cheap guy after all

**Talizvar**

RazgrizOne wrote:
This policy has made me save hundreds of euros... that I used to buy nice third-party bits for my army. So not real reason to call me a cheap guy after all

I think of the nice description for the word "cheap" would be to use inexpensive items in a practical way to get a result near equal to any "dedicated" product.

**jhe90**

Sense and reason.

I mean if you got a forge world primarch or such 50-60 quid character and then decided no, Il not get a accurate colour I need or oh Il use a half dead brush that's falling apart and losing bristles. Yeah.

There's being smart and then stupid. Its nit being cheap ita just being smart with spending and still doing the same job you would spending more otherwise. Its just like I us army painter as cheaper for some things and good quality. Recyvle and clean up old battered marines, yes I buy gw kits for spares to repair them but not all new. And one kit can go a long way when you use it right.

**Eilif**

Lots of folks have talked about used 40k minis, but I just wanted to add alternate miniatures to my list of ways that I am cheap and you can be too. You don't even necessarily have to buy used.
There are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of different lines you can draw from. One of the cheapest is for those who want figs to play Infinity or some other shiny sci-fi setting. Buy a copy or two of "Sedition Wars" on amazon for $30. Each box comes woth 50 figs and scenic bases!

**KingmanHighborn**

Nothing wrong with Wal-Mart paints (Anita's and Folk Art's premium colors are GREAT. They are generally a little pricier at $1.97 but their metallics are *bleep*ing good. )

Only ones to avoid is their light yellows and 'glitter' paints (unless your detailing.) as the coverage is awful. Yellows are about the only colors I go looking elsewhere for.

Also their glow in the darks are disappointing cause they don't last. T-T

**Asterios**

Eilif wrote:
Lots of folks have talked about used 40k minis, but I just wanted to add alternate miniatures to my list of ways that I am cheap and you can be too. You don't even necessarily have to buy used.
There are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of different lines you can draw from. One of the cheapest is for those who want figs to play Infinity or some other shiny sci-fi setting. Buy a copy or two of "Sedition Wars" on amazon for $30. Each box comes woth 50 figs and scenic bases!

I bought like 20 boxs of Sedition wars when they were like $14 a box at MM or CSI or both.

**Eilif**

Asterios wrote:
Eilif wrote:
One of the cheapest is for those who want figs to play Infinity or some other shiny sci-fi setting. Buy a copy or two of "Sedition Wars" on amazon for $30. Each box comes woth 50 figs and scenic bases!

I bought like 20 boxs of Sedition wars when they were like $14 a box at MM or CSI or both.

Wow! I bought 3 boxes at the $26-30 price. I remember being sorry I missed the super-cheap ones. I've painted up all the basic troopers and managed to almost make back the cost of the boxes selling the strain figs and game parts. I did keep a set of counters though (great for many games) and I've got enough extra bases to re-base all my marines. Someday...

What did you do with all the sets you bought?

**Cothonian**

Kilkrazy wrote:
I like to build terrain from cheap stuff and junk rather than spend a lot of cash on ready made stuff. Especially the GW terrain pieces that while nice are very expensive.

For examle here's my gallery of building Tau structures from things like Japanese soup bowls and shampoo bottles.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-299-4981_Tau%20Scenery%20Speed%20Build.html

Seconded, the majority of my terrain is made from packing Styrofoam and cardboard. With a little spray paint and cutting, I've created some fairly decent looking destroyed buildings.

**oldravenman3025**

Cheap is good. Expensive isn't so good. Thus the gospel according to my wallet.

Nothing wrong with gaming and modeling on a budget, improvising and using what is on hand for projects. That inspires creativity. Encouragement of that kind, I might add, is largely absent in the game industry nowadays. There was a time when game companies were awesome about this. They (Games Workshop in particular) understood that it was all about fun. Now, it's all about "BUY OUR STUFFZ".

I'm a cheap bastard. I won't lie about it. But I really don't care how it may be perceived, since being a cheap bastard is loads of fun.

**xevv**

Seems like a fair bit of the issue here is GW prices, Im not really seeing to much complaining about other companies. No big surprise there though. The days of them being pretty much the only option for models or at least quality ones are long gone. Throw in a series of steady price inflation and its no wonder people are avoiding them if possible.

The longer this thread continues the more I want to make a cheap bastard contest for who can make an army out of "junk" the best. But Im not sure anyone would be interested besides me. I dunno if you might and you see this toss me a pm I guess.

**adamsouza**

Asterios wrote:
I bought like 20 boxs of Sedition wars when they were like $14 a box at MM or CSI or both.

I bought 6 when they were $20. 20 though, that's either hardcore or crazy. DId you use the miniatures for anything ?

**Asterios**

adamsouza wrote:
Asterios wrote:
I bought like 20 boxs of Sedition wars when they were like $14 a box at MM or CSI or both.

I bought 6 when they were $20. 20 though, that's either hardcore or crazy. DId you use the miniatures for anything ?

actually they are sitting in a tub waiting for me to get to them.

**Kap'n Krump**

I sometimes play with a guy who has papercrafted land raiders, dreadnaughts, and a 3d printed thunderfire cannon.

Honestly, I don't mind, the papercrafted land raider actually looks pretty decent. dreadnoughts are a little 'eeeeeeh'. 3d printed artillery looks surprisingly good.

I'm not sure if that would rub some players the wrong way though.

**Eilif**

I painted the 17 troopers from the first box http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2015/01/sedition-wars-good-deal-for-patient.html

and then my buddy painted up 34 from the second and third boxes in an identical scheme.

Then we used them as the defensive force in a large-scale (28mm instead of 15mm) "Mech Attack" game at Adepticon.
http://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=116

**Matthew**

I personally buy GW models, convert a lot of it, use GW and craft store brushes, mainly GW paints, but I'm trying to phase into Army Painter, and some craft paints for blue, black and white.

**adamsouza**

I can't remember the proper name for them, but they are the human worlds that have joined the Tau Empire. I was thinking of using Sedition Ward soldiers as Human Fire Warrior equivalents and Hulk Buster Armors as Crisis Suits.

**Eilif**

adamsouza wrote:
I can't remember the proper name for them, but they are the human worlds that have joined the Tau Empire. I was thinking of using Sedition Ward soldiers as Human Fire Warrior equivalents and Hulk Buster Armors as Crisis Suits.

That seems like a great idea to me. They're certainly a similarly shiny and smooth aesthetic to the Tau. You could probably swap in tau guns pretty easily too though the guns they have aren't bad.

The only drawback is that IMHO a few too many of them have special weapons and they don't come with extra regular rifles. I solved this by going back and later cutting off the mini-tank and grenades from the 2 grenade launcher figs to turn them into boarding shotguns. Or they can just be treated as regular rifles depending on the ruleset. No pics of this, but it's an easy mod and looks good too.

It leaves you with a nice division of figs with:
2 Heavy Weapons
2 Special Weapons (flamer-ish things)
13 Regular rifled troopers

And of course there's the gun drone and the character figs of Medic, sniper, leader and extra-heavy with exo-assistance, but for the most part they have a somewhat different look.

**chromedog**

adamsouza wrote:
I can't remember the proper name for them, but they are the human worlds that have joined the Tau Empire. I was thinking of using Sedition Ward soldiers as Human Fire Warrior equivalents and Hulk Buster Armors as Crisis Suits.

The Gue'vesa (Gue from what they call humans, 'vesa from "helper" - the same suffix is part of name they call drones).

**adamsouza**

Thanks Elif and Chrome Dog.

With 5 boxes worth I should be able to cobble together enough Gue'vesa with the same rifle. I was planning on going heavy on the Hulk Buster Crisis Suits. The only real hurdle that keeps me procastinating the whole project is heavy weapons for the crisis suits. I'd eather have to Ebay a ton of bits or cast my own, and I haven't felt motivated enough to do either.

Although this conversation has me thinking about it again, I should probably finish working on my nids before playing with Tau

**snurl**

On Saturday I went to the FLGS. I saw single-figure blisters of the new dwarfs for $30, and boxes of 10 Ironbreakers for $50.
I am NOT paying that much for anybody's figures. Period.

**Vulcan**

It could have been worse. The 8E Witches were SIXTY dollars for ten... several years ago.

And those are significantly smaller minis to boot...