Geeky Hobbies: Still Cheaper than 3gun

So I’ve been rearranging my office. My wife and I took a trip down to Ikea and bought 800 pounds of shelving for $870. (IKEA: Furniture by the Pound). Luckily for me the lovely Mrs. Correia considers Ikea furniture grown up legos and put them all together in a few hours.

I was tired of my mini painting stuff cluttering up my writing desk, plus it was a pain in the ass to have to move stuff whenever I wanted to work. So I put together a painting station.

Office-painting station

Since I was moving everything around I figured I would organize my painted minis. I stuck all of my Warmachine Mercenary army in one spot, and that made me realize… Holy moly… I’ve almost collected them all. And then I got a notice that Miniature’s Market was having a 40% sale… This next part will be gibberish to most of you, but Warmachine people will get it. So as of yesterday I now have every single Mercenary, minion who will work for a mercenary contract, and ally. Achievement unlocked.

Office-total mercs

I figure I’m about 40% painted.

And since I’m taking pictures, here is the rest of my painted Warmachine. I’ve got a bit from every faction and a bunch of things that I use for IKRPG.

Office-all factions

EDIT: added for hosting purposes

Black Friday Loot

Hugo Aftermath Post
The Drowning Empire, Episode 59: Battle of Waterfall Temple

50 thoughts on “Geeky Hobbies: Still Cheaper than 3gun”

  1. Is that the new Bones Cthulhu on the top shelf? I got one a couple of weeks ago, haven’t painted it yet. Also, I went over to Miniature Market, and the “Mr. Graves” in the Malifeaux line on their front page is exactly how I pictured Franks, only he’d have a big handgun or RPG instead of a 4×4. Maybe someday a kickstarter for MHI and Grimnoir minis? 🙂

    1. If Warmachine hasn’t yet made MHI and Grimnoir ‘inspired’ figures, they’re idiots.

      Which is more likely:
      A: Larry complains weakly, while buying the entire production run with an alias?

      B: Larry has a screaming nerdgasm, posts bragging pics, and we the Legion that can’t say no, buy them all?

      I want a Mr Trashbags holding Julie by an ankle.

  2. I moved last winter and the painting stuff all got packed away, so over the weekend I set up a new desk. I was feeling kinda proud of myself but now… “I’m not worthy!”

  3. Does she use Gorilla Glue in the assembly, I’ve found the IKEA stuff works much better and lasts longer

    1. BTW, even though Gorilla Glue foams up, it is NOT gap filling. Foamed glue is weak. It’s only strong where it doesn’t have room. Matt Wandel proved that on YouTube with a series of experiments, and he got a letter from Gorilla Glue saying “Yup, you’re right.” If you need to glue with gaps, especially in particle board, good old yellow carpenter’s glue is the stuff. But if the furniture has paper lamination on it, nothing is gonna help you.

      1. I use Loctite gel super glue. It is the best thing ever for this kind of thing. And I’ve glued together a LOT of stuff.

        For gap filling, I use green stuff epoxy putty.

        1. Before I started assembling airliners, I assembled office furniture (the last chance after my software career tanked during the tech implosion). Usually it holds up pretty well unaided, until you let movers get their hands on it, then it’s all over. But there are key points, like not overtightening cambolts so they tear out the wood, which then overstresses the camlocks, and it goes downhill from there.

          Dragging it across a carpet will destroy most of it, especially if you have the little plastic feet nailed in. But those little plastic frizbees for moving stuff on carpets really work.

          And my secret for getting those tiny brads in the back of bookcases… Tweezers, but you don’t use them the way you think – you hold the nail in the joint of the tweezers and line it up that way.

  4. Care to estimate how much you’ve spent on minis and paint, Larry? Or are you of the “if it’s not documented, it can’t be audited” mentality?

  5. Miniature Market still has a lot of the IKRPG-specific minis that were discontinued a few years back when not all of them were given Merc stats for MK2. The prices on them are dirt cheap, too. I picked up a good few a couple of weeks ago, some for less than $4. If you’re running the IKRPG, you never know when you might need some of those.

    That’s how I rationalized it anyway. The fact that I’m not running an IKRPG game at the moment, nor playing in one, nor the fact that of the five guys in the gaming group only two of us are really interested have no bearing on this.

  6. That is one helluva collection. Reminds me of the days when we used to play D&D and would buy a few figurines for our characters. One day we were talking about what to use for all of the monsters and I had an idea. Next game day I walked in with three big bags of plastic army men. The guys all laughed at me but damn if we didn’t use them from that day on. Oh yeah, does anyone want to buy a sack full of D&D dice? Cheap….

    1. GW is horribly overpriced. Every time I start to consider getting back into WH Fantasy or 40K, I just drop by GW’s online store page. That pretty much instantly kills my interest in the games.

      War Machine figures can be somewhat similarly daunting price-wise ($44 for 10 Space Wolf Grey Hunters vs $55 for 10 Cygnar Trencher Infantry) , but you don’t need anywhere near as many figures to build an army with. Also, iirc Warmachine’s Warjacks tend to cost significantly less than GW’s similarly sized Dreadnoughts.

      Do price comparisons with other miniatures companies – particularly companies that do historicals, where there’s lots of competition – and the prices tend to be significantly lower. Of course, you’re not always getting the same level of detail on the figures, so buyer beware. And GW and PP figures tend to look cooler.

      On an amusing note, when the Imperial Knights were released for 40K, someone created a thread over on the DakkaDakka forum discussing Bandai’s plastic models that –

      1.) Were about the same size as GW’s Knights, and thus might make decent substitutes
      2.) Were much better detailed and generally better looking than GW’s Knights
      3.) Were significantly less expensive than GW’s Knights.

      😛

      1. I love me some miniatures games, but the appeal of GW’s product line for me started to wane when they dropped all support for Necromunda and Mordheim. I’ve been quite happily playing Warmachine/Hordes since right around the time of the release of Escalation. Seeing what 40k has become recently with crap like that Imperial Knights “codex” that has one effing model and a price tag of $50 for the “codex” only reassures me that I made the right choice.

        I’m looking at Infinity right now. I can get a starter force for roughly $50, and the rules are all free online. And the miniatures are some of the most dynamic I’ve ever come across. Gameplay looks like it should play out a lot like a FPS video game where I’m controlling five to ten players instead of one and high terrain density. The campaign system looks tight, too.

      2. You might also like SAGA, which is a Viking-era warband-based historical miniatures game. It was just recently expanded into the Crusades era with an updated rulebook under the name “The Crescent and The Cross”.

  7. All you need now is a scale model aircraft carrier as big as two station wagons and Mitsubishi Zeroes painted Kabuki-style. And, um… don’t forget the blimps… with giant leering faces painted on the sides.

    And gatling guns. Lot’s of gatling guns.

    1. You might want to check out Dystopian Wars, by Spartan Games. Some of the nations in that game have giant zeppelin warships – including carriers.

      The Japanese, on the other hand, have a giant heli-carrier.

      1. I love the scale and models of Dystopian Wars. The models themselves are really rewarding if you’re into fast painting techniques like base-coat and two or three drybrush coats. The new version of the rules are pretty good. I just can’t get my gaming group to buy into another minis game. Oh well, I guess I had kids for a reason…

  8. This is a bit off topic (well, ancillary to 3 gun), but if you are bored some day (unlikely given your schedule) would you consider a blog post about firearm maintenance protocols?

    For example, I recall reading you ran an insane amount of shells through an 870. How often do you clean the trigger group? Do you Gun Scrubber/brake cleaner to bare metal and call it a day? Strategic application of oil or light grease? Corrosion X the whole thing then blow off the excess with compressed air?

    It is always nice to pick the brain of someone with a ton of personal experience.

  9. You know, a lot of fantasy/scifi writers are ashamed of being nerds and don’t do anything nerdy because it’s not as hipster as writing ironic scifi novels. I have a new respect for you, sir, for displaying your mini collection and dropping a chunk of change to accommodate it. Today I shall buy one of your novels.

  10. Since there are no official MHI or Grimnoir figures, is there any mini-savvy person out there who could start a list of “stand-in” figures? The Malifeaux Mr. Graves could be Franks, there are the dirigibles in Dystopian Wars…

        1. It works really well. It makes your high lights far easier to do, tells you where to put them, and still keeps good shadows. Base coating over it takes a little practice, but after that it is by far my favorite way to go. You can also use it for speed painting. Zenithal prime, and then do some basic base coats and washes and you’ve got decent good looking table top quality.

          1. I’ve always used black for darker base coats and white for lighter ones, then gone in later and tried to add the darker colors to give it that shaded look (with mixed results). It makes highlighting easier, but shading more difficult.

          2. Try zenithal. It really is the best of both worlds. If I’m doing something that is all dark, I’ll still zenithal, and then first thing put a black wash onto it which will collect in the upper folds. (helps pop the detail too)

  11. So as of yesterday I now have every single Mercenary, minion who will work for a mercenary contract, and ally
    ——————-

    Regarding that bit…

    Since Cephalyx just got released, does that mean that the above no longer applies?

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