Friday, June 18, 2010

Empire "Gangbang"

Continuing with WT's portfolio of warhammer pictures, we have his take on how the Empire can beat Chaos: go 3-on-1, with his self-titled "Empire Gangbang".


Again, both sides are painted by paintedfigs.com, and the company's strength and weaknesses are revealed. The chaos warriors look good to look at, but the Imperial spearmen are wargaming quality (ie. good for games, but not masterpieces). Also, JQ's got a shipment of Chaos knights from them at exhibition/showcase quality, and judging from review images, they look really good. We will be taking pictures of them sometime in the future.

It's safe to say that JQ and I have found paintedfigs.com to be a reliable painting service, and it pays to really know what you want while making the order (ie. color schemes, assembly instructions). Specifying details will help them in painting as close as possible to your wishes, which will be critical in your satisfaction...it really sucks if you get your minis painted and end up very dissatisfied with the finished product (after waiting a few weeks). Ultimately, fielding a painted army (or even a partially painted one) feels a lot better/immersive than using tissue boxes and other proxies, and painting companies provide that convenience with the investment of time and money.

But this brings up a separate debate: the difficulty in painting human faces/bodies well. Skin does not come in just a single tone, and it takes a lot of time to undercoat/dry brush/highlight human faces + detail their eyes well. I can't do it well now (and sometimes wonder if I have the time to do it), and I have a lot of respect for painters who do them really well.

Price Hikes Yikes

Well, anyone a fan of price-hikes? GW (always a corporate pain-in-the-butt) has raised prices again...and the bigger pain is this: they specified that companies can no longer offer the 20% wholesaler discount. So this means minis will rise in cost, and how prepared are we to continue an increasingly expensive hobby? JQ even mentioned that GHQ bucks that trend, and actually proves to be more customer-orientated with their reasonable pricing (that hasn't been raised) and listening to input of customers for minis to be released.

Personally, a way around this is to buy minis 2nd hand on ebay...and even then the prices can be indirectly affected by the price hike. You maybe lucky enough to get someone who just wants to sell his/her minis at a reduced price...perhaps due to the economic climate and simply clearing their homes. Then and again, thanks GW for the price hike.

7 comments:

  1. Er.. Woah. Dear Josh,
    Were you truly thankful for the price hike?

    Because, I am sure as Odin's Beard that I am not.

    Damn GW moneymongers!!.. As consumers, We are powerless at such damn prices. Never once has GW ever decrease their prices. This really gets to me.

    But this isn't the first nor is it the second time.. So I'm used to this shenanigan of inflated prices. I wonder how many LESS people are gonna buy their stuff from this price hike.

    But since they do it quite often, I'm presuming our demand for Warhammer and 40K are inelastic. So whatever the price, people will still buy.
    Which is sort of true even for myself. But its going to hurt more for me and I might buy less. Geez

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  2. Hey Des,

    Two phrases on my opinion on this: "Don't Like it, Can't Stop it." =/

    Its amazing how Reapers Miniature or any other figurine company doesn't do the same thing that GW does.

    But i guess GW is probably one of the only BIG BOYS in tabletop gaming and Plastic Figure Collections. Just like Microsoft. Noting stops them from doing it THEIR WAY.

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  3. GW FTW...
    HAHA I wanta comment on the left empire dude.
    He looks like he has goldfish eyes.
    HAHA and makes him look way too uptight and serious.. Then again, he looks like he is depressed on stabbing the chaos warrior. :3

    Hilarious.

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  4. Lol. Humorous comment there.
    I like how they really are using their numbers to really take that Chaos Warrior though.

    Pretty nice combination of stabbing and slashing the poor Northland man.

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  5. Thought it might interest you all.

    Check these links out.

    http://www.purplepawn.com/2008/08/games-of-workshop-raises-prices-again/

    http://www.purplepawn.com/2010/06/backlash-from-games-workshop-price-increase/

    All in all, I can say that is that GW is really in over their heads.

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  6. I guess we all share the same sentiments on the price hike.

    What would really affect me the most would be the damn paints I use.

    I always use citadel paints because they are real high quality and I am just use to the nice touch it has to all my model stuff. These includes my military models.

    So you can imagine my displeasure as i pay 15-17% more for new goddamn paints. UGH

    Might switch to Vallejo.. But i really do hate their goddamn bottles. And their paint can be pretty runny. :/

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  7. hawaiiwarhammerfanJune 27, 2010 at 8:23 AM

    The press release by GW on its reasons for price hikes are simply total BULLcrap.

    Their the biggest company around for Miniatures. As such, they should have economies of scales. But their the only ones increasing their price for their figures.

    Ludicrous!

    ReplyDelete