I am a huge cheapskate when it comes to this hobby. I make enough to support a family of four comfortably on one salary in Phoenix, but we are comfortable because we don't toss our money down the crapper. I am always on the lookout for deals. I’m all for you supporting your FLGS, and the FLGS does get my money from time to time, but Ima do what’s best for me.
So today, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Organized Labor, I give you, the working schmuck my guide to stretching your dollar (or quid) in this hobby.
Books
You need them all to even have a prayer of competing in this game, and can’t nobody afford that. The Ruskies have all the books online in a database within a couple weeks of release. A fellow named BranStark has them on kickass.to within a day or two, as well as most of the Black Library stuff. You will, of course, not retain a copy of whatever you download unless you also have a hard copy you purchased like the fine upstanding citizens you are…
Models
I will not use non GW models in GW games. I can’t give you a good reason, and I don’t care if you do, but I won’t. I love the Preying Mantis Warrior models from Raging Heroes that clearly mean to improve on the old metal Daemonettes. I won’t buy ‘em. Plus, if your TO feels like being a hardass and only letting you summon GW models, it could bite you. So no low-cost imitations for me.
GW doesn’t allow stores to sell their products via an online store, but Ebay is allowed, and most vendors will send you a price list via email. Usually the discount is 20-30%. For the popular stuff, this is about the best you can do. If it’s a GW exclusive model like the actual Flesh Hound models, you’re really out of luck, and should try to come up with some other GW model that could cheaply stand-in for what you want to do with a bit of conversion, like Warhounds of Chaos.
With a bit of searching, you might also find Chinese knock-offs, which are often quite good as the Chinese are the world’s greatest reverse-engineers and will steal anything not nailed down. True science fact! They once captured one of our planes and built their own copy, and the one they built omitted rivets that had fallen out of the original. This is a good way to find the OOP Seekers and Daemonettes, though they’re always popping up on Ebay. Those are not cheap.
The second cheapest ways to get models are Bartertown and Craigslist. I just picked up two Warmachine units on Bartertown that go for $110 bucks and paid $65 shipped. 40% off. Craigslist is great for super cheap lots, though I’ve gotten some models that way that look like they were assembled by someone totally clueless. You can also get steals buying used models from Ebay users if you’re willing to put up with having to strip the paint job, and whatever modeling mistakes they might have made when they assembled them. I got my first Warmachine models as a used lot off Ebay for like 60% off what it would have cost had I paid full price.
The cheapest way to get new models other than as a gift is to win tournaments. Pay $5-$10, get $30-60 in shop credit. Admittedly, if you play where great players are a dime a dozen, this isn’t so easy to pull off on a regular basis. But maybe you’re good and Magic and could win your models that way.
Storage and Transport
If you fly across the country to major tournies, you have no cheap options and will have to buy an expensive carrying case. Part of the reason I won't go to NOVA is because I don't want to spend $300 bucks on a travel case on top of plane and hotel expenses.
However, to transport things around town, or to anything within driving distance, head on down to your local Target, buy one of these bins for $11, ask for some shipping foam from a local retailer and cut out impressions for your models with a good knife. It fits in the trunk of your car and gets the job done.
Paints and Brushes
Brushes wear out fast, especially the finer ones, and especially when you use metallic paint. Hobby Lobby has good brushes for $4.99 in their model plane section by the Testors paint. They have a coupon every week for 40% off one item which you can look up on your smart phone. For primer, buy Krylon White Indoor/Outdoor primer at Walmart for stupid cheap. Krylon black primer is harder to find, but Walmart has black primer for cheap that works just fine.
Good paint is hard to get cheap. You can get decent acrylic base or layer paint at Hobby Lobby for $1.29. Their black paint is just fine as a base coat. In fact, I like the cheap black better than the more expensive Reaper Mini black. For the details, metallics and top coats, you should use the good stuff. The uttermost pink layer on my CSM army is Changeling Pink, but the two undercoats are a cheap bubblegum and magenta. GW paints, PP paints, Vallejo or Reaper are all pretty much good, and roughly the same cost. I guess you could get away with the cheap paints for the whole model if you just want it to look pretty decent on the table.
I don’t use airbrushes, but I heard Kenny Boucher once say that you should spend the money to get a good one, and don’t skimp or you’ll be cleaning out the nozzle every five minutes. Fair enough.
Though expensive, good airbrushes will ultimately save you time getting basecoats on, and once you are good, improving the look of your models. It's something I wish I'd done when I took up the hobby because I could have got a lot done more quickly. In the long run, the time saved is probably worth the expense.
So today, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Organized Labor, I give you, the working schmuck my guide to stretching your dollar (or quid) in this hobby.
Books
You need them all to even have a prayer of competing in this game, and can’t nobody afford that. The Ruskies have all the books online in a database within a couple weeks of release. A fellow named BranStark has them on kickass.to within a day or two, as well as most of the Black Library stuff. You will, of course, not retain a copy of whatever you download unless you also have a hard copy you purchased like the fine upstanding citizens you are…
Models
I will not use non GW models in GW games. I can’t give you a good reason, and I don’t care if you do, but I won’t. I love the Preying Mantis Warrior models from Raging Heroes that clearly mean to improve on the old metal Daemonettes. I won’t buy ‘em. Plus, if your TO feels like being a hardass and only letting you summon GW models, it could bite you. So no low-cost imitations for me.
GW doesn’t allow stores to sell their products via an online store, but Ebay is allowed, and most vendors will send you a price list via email. Usually the discount is 20-30%. For the popular stuff, this is about the best you can do. If it’s a GW exclusive model like the actual Flesh Hound models, you’re really out of luck, and should try to come up with some other GW model that could cheaply stand-in for what you want to do with a bit of conversion, like Warhounds of Chaos.
With a bit of searching, you might also find Chinese knock-offs, which are often quite good as the Chinese are the world’s greatest reverse-engineers and will steal anything not nailed down. True science fact! They once captured one of our planes and built their own copy, and the one they built omitted rivets that had fallen out of the original. This is a good way to find the OOP Seekers and Daemonettes, though they’re always popping up on Ebay. Those are not cheap.
The second cheapest ways to get models are Bartertown and Craigslist. I just picked up two Warmachine units on Bartertown that go for $110 bucks and paid $65 shipped. 40% off. Craigslist is great for super cheap lots, though I’ve gotten some models that way that look like they were assembled by someone totally clueless. You can also get steals buying used models from Ebay users if you’re willing to put up with having to strip the paint job, and whatever modeling mistakes they might have made when they assembled them. I got my first Warmachine models as a used lot off Ebay for like 60% off what it would have cost had I paid full price.
The cheapest way to get new models other than as a gift is to win tournaments. Pay $5-$10, get $30-60 in shop credit. Admittedly, if you play where great players are a dime a dozen, this isn’t so easy to pull off on a regular basis. But maybe you’re good and Magic and could win your models that way.
Storage and Transport
 |
| Got two more of these plus cases for the troops. |
If you fly across the country to major tournies, you have no cheap options and will have to buy an expensive carrying case. Part of the reason I won't go to NOVA is because I don't want to spend $300 bucks on a travel case on top of plane and hotel expenses.
However, to transport things around town, or to anything within driving distance, head on down to your local Target, buy one of these bins for $11, ask for some shipping foam from a local retailer and cut out impressions for your models with a good knife. It fits in the trunk of your car and gets the job done.
Paints and Brushes
Brushes wear out fast, especially the finer ones, and especially when you use metallic paint. Hobby Lobby has good brushes for $4.99 in their model plane section by the Testors paint. They have a coupon every week for 40% off one item which you can look up on your smart phone. For primer, buy Krylon White Indoor/Outdoor primer at Walmart for stupid cheap. Krylon black primer is harder to find, but Walmart has black primer for cheap that works just fine.
Good paint is hard to get cheap. You can get decent acrylic base or layer paint at Hobby Lobby for $1.29. Their black paint is just fine as a base coat. In fact, I like the cheap black better than the more expensive Reaper Mini black. For the details, metallics and top coats, you should use the good stuff. The uttermost pink layer on my CSM army is Changeling Pink, but the two undercoats are a cheap bubblegum and magenta. GW paints, PP paints, Vallejo or Reaper are all pretty much good, and roughly the same cost. I guess you could get away with the cheap paints for the whole model if you just want it to look pretty decent on the table.
I don’t use airbrushes, but I heard Kenny Boucher once say that you should spend the money to get a good one, and don’t skimp or you’ll be cleaning out the nozzle every five minutes. Fair enough.
Though expensive, good airbrushes will ultimately save you time getting basecoats on, and once you are good, improving the look of your models. It's something I wish I'd done when I took up the hobby because I could have got a lot done more quickly. In the long run, the time saved is probably worth the expense.