Topic: Things have certainly changed.

[Immovable Object]

4 or 5 years ago I decided I couldn't be bothered any more and sold everything I had. My Empire army, my Mordheim warbands, my Man O War fleets, Blood Bowl teams, all my paints, terrain, boxed games, everything. A whole rooms worth of stuff, all gone. Absolutely loads of it.
I haven't painted a miniature since but lately I've been getting a bit of a nagging sensation in my brain and I'm considering getting a couple of models. Probably just a Mordheim warband and the occasional miniature I like. The idea of painting a whole army leaves me nauseous.
Been poking around a bit having not realised Games Workshop had killed their world off and my word things have got expensive haven't they? I have zero interest in the Age Of Sigmar stuff so I've been looking at the models I know and love from Warhammer Fantasy Battle on eBay and by Jiminy, just buying a regiment of troops, some brushes, glue, files, paints and basing material is a pretty hefty sum of money.
It's enough to put you off isn't it?
I think I'll buy a couple of boxes of paints and a few brushes and then a miniature or two. See where it goes from there...

[Padre]

Wow .. that was a a hefty absence. January 2012 since you were last here.

As far as I am concerned, my hobby continues as it always has. The WFB world never died. The campaigns and battles go on. The only real difference is the frequency of the games ... but that is down to all the players I know being older, with jobs/families etc swallowing up their time. I myself just upped the effort I put into other aspects of the hobby - painting, modelling, converting, story writing, photographing, etc. It still feels real for me.

What you need is to know some others who play WFB in the old style (any edition) and then you will be alright.

[Immovable Object]

Aye, that would be a big help I reckon. Unfortunately, I dont know anyone with any interest in Warhammer at all and I don't have the time or inclination to go out of my way to look for people if Im honest. I was always more interested in painting than gaming anyway so I guess I'll just get a couple of miniature sI like and take it from there.
I do miss all those great models and games I got shot of now though... You live and learn!

[Padre]

I've never been able to part with anything I painted - apart from those things I painted as a gift for someone. The only reason I managed to keep some players around is by holding onto the players who I knew before WFB died. I kept the campaign goign as a cunning ploy to keep them involved. I dread the day they get rid of their armies, which will probably happen because I can't make the campaign go fast enough!

[The Peacemaker]

Pretty much what happened is GW priced themselves out of the market. Thats why all the individual characters and unit boxes are so expensive.
Currently the best buys from GW are the 'Start Collecting' box sets. Its not a whole army, more like 1/3rd.

The good news about GW's pricing stupidness is that its allowed a plethora of competitors to enter the market.
If you want cheap stuff to paint in the form of individual models the Reaper Bones line is tge best.
....when you first look at the reaper bones line you might think its crap quality detail. But once you get the model you see that its got the detail.


For paint stuff:
Go yo micheals craft store and get a multipack brush pack for like 8$. Their stock varies so sometimes you can find a pack with lots of fine detail brushes, other times its bigger, etc...
For paints:  just get yourself the 3 primary colors and mix! ....obviously paints are a longer investment.
Paint pallet: Dollar store, get a small container with lid. Spongaes. And parchment paper and you got a wet pallet.

Its actually cheaper than ever to get into the hobby.

You can also check ebay or kajiji(for local) and find awesome deals.

[Midaski]

There are a lot of new plastics sets out there now, that are great value: 20 - 30 multipart figures for £20 approx.
Plus some manufacturers who have evolved or arrived on the scene.

Have a skim through this thread:-

http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php/topic,31348.3100.html

and you will get an idea of what has been happening in the last few years.

[ZeroTwentythree]

AoS is one of the best things to happen to Warhammer in a long time.

Mind you, I don't actually care for the game or most of the new figures, but I think it splinttered the stagnant WFB-cetric fantasy gaming world and now it's easier to find players for alternate games, and helped increase the already growing interest in smaller miniatures manufacturers.

So people are playing AoS if they like it, or sticking with 8th ed.... or playing 9th Age (sort of like a fan created 9th edition.) Hell, more people are even going back to older editions -- I spend a weekend in VA playing WFB 3rd edition at an "Oldhammer" event. Locally, I've gotten into Kings of War, which I initially thought looked like a horrible game but turned out to be very fun -- sort of like Warhammer with less arguing and looking through rules books. Other games I've seen a lot of interest in online are Frostgrave (sounds like a small warband campaign game, like Mordheim) and Dragon Rampant.

Midaski has the link to the other manufacturers, but if you want a shortcut to Empire style rank & file, look into: Artizan, Foundry, and Warlord ("Pike & Shott") landsknechts. There's a bit of crossover with the Wars of the Roses era, so look into ranges from Perry Miniatures (plastic and metal), Front Rank, Renegade, and others. Frostgrave has some good plastic and metal figures that can work well with some Empire armies. There's a boatload more, especially for characters and more fantastical elements. (Westfalia halflings!!) So it may be fun to slog through that thread linked above. 

[Midaski]

It's a long thread              but it contains lots of pictures, so one can browse pages quite quickly, and stop if you see something that appeals, and open a few tabs as you go along.

[The Real Rick Salamone]

Welcome back. As we age our hobby can sometimes flow more toward the hobby side of things. Depending on your region there are maybe pockets of gamers that you might not even be aware of. Since the demise of Fantasy gaming in the last few years, at least in my area, gaming is happening less at game stores and more at folks homes. It feels like the now splintered fantasy community has many underground cells. Where are you located?


EEFL!
EEFL.freeforums.net

[Padre]

If you can remember all the way back to 2010, Immovable Object, you almost came to the Yorkshire mini-bash I ran. A work-training day stopped you.

[Gneisenau]

Welcome back! Please start painting again.

[Artobans Ghost]

I've never been able to part with anything I painted - apart from those things I painted as a gift for someone. The only reason I managed to keep some players around is by holding onto the players who I knew before WFB died. I kept the campaign goign as a cunning ploy to keep them involved. I dread the day they get rid of their armies, which will probably happen because I can't make the campaign go fast enough!

This was a really moving piece Padre. I really hope your friends never sell their armies.

[jtrowell]

Welcome back, and knows that fantasy wargaming is not dead, you can still play in the Old World using old andnew miniatures using the 9th age rules or Kings of War by Mantic.

[patsy02]

I'm still waiting for those pro gloria plastic landsknechts to fill the puffy sleeve void.

[Von Trinkenessen]

I'm still waiting for those pro gloria plastic landsknechts to fill the puffy sleeve void.

me too

[Midaski]

I'm still waiting for those pro gloria plastic landsknechts to fill the puffy sleeve void.

me too

..... and me.
I keep looking at the Warlord Games metal figures which they have on a regiment deal, but I have resisted maybe in the mistaken belief that if I buy the metals it will suggest that they do not need to do the plastics.

Maybe we need to keep sending them messages asking for progress reports on the plastics.

[ZeroTwentythree]

As much as I love the idea of the plastics, and was looking forward to them, there are still plenty of metal options available. Aside from Warlord themselves, there's Artizan, Foundry, Old Glory, The Assault Group and others. I'm starting to question whether I would even bother buying the plastic ones anymore.

[Darknight]

Plastic models are desirable for convertibility, in the main. For GW models, the plastics represent a cheaper alternative to metal models - but that isn't always the case for other manufacturers. Historical minis are generally less-expensive than GW ones, so the metal puff-n-slash models are good if you aren't wanting to convert them.

[Padre]

Darknight has a point. For example, my current project = making captured Tilean slaves to haul ogre baggage wagons.

In plastic I can pose the parts (limbs) and cut away the weapons easily to make unarmed (and unshaven) slaves who look like they belong in the game world. The beards being greenstuff (aka milliput) ...



In metal, well I relied on pure luck that my brother had bought me some celts for xmas years ago who happened to look like they were wearing underwear or just their breeches (again, milliputted beards - you don't get the opportunity to shave when your effectively a draught animal!) but changing poses was not an option, so there were only three I could use ...

[Wolfgang aus Wien]

Citadel minis and GW products have never been cheap - even all the way back in the 1970's, they were noticeably more costly than most everything else in the fantasy wargaming hobby.
They priced me out of the market sometime around 2006 or so, but I was never among those who like ONLY GW, anyway.
If you're primarily interested in painting and don't want to spend loads of money on re-acquiring figures, may I suggest plastic toy soldiers ?
You can get boxes of Airfix, Hät, Italeri, Strelets, Zvezda or similar 1/72 scale figures for between US $ 6-15 a box, containing on average 48 infantry, 12 cavalry or 4 cannon + crew.
Nowadays, there are even 20 mm fantasy figures, including Elves, Orcs, Amazons, Dwarves and such.
Depending on your lifestyle or work schedule, you can get a pretty imprewssive army of 20 mm figs together in a short amount of time - and for very little money.
If that's too small, 54 mm is another popular scale, although the selection is much smaller and I'm not aware of any fantasy figures in that size.