Guide To Affordable Gaming, For those cash-strapped gamers out there

[Arfa]

Hey there guys!

When I first wrote this article Id be the first to admit I did not have greatest amount of money, and judging by the average age-group of Warhammer gamers (usually around the Senior School - University range), Id say there'd be a fare few of you out there that are the same. However, this does not mean you should not be able to play the game, not at all! I had a tendancy to spend very little on my Warhammer and yet still have a grand army, and so I am here to help all you. Here are some of my tips for surviving as a poor gamer.

Models

The first and probably most important thing you need for the game is your models. However, you dont have to pay out AU$50 for a single regiment, there are other options. LEGAL options too, before anyone thinks Im suggesting people go stealing . I personally get most of my stuff from eBay or from stores with reward systems. My local gaming store grants a $50 gift voucher with every $500 total you reach (all purchases go onto an account and are recorded), the Warstore gives great discounts as is Da-Warpath's official sponsor, and www.maelstromgames.co.uk give 10% off and free shipping worldwide.

However, you can never go past 2nd hand stuff for cheap gaming. Either online on sites such as eBay, or trading with friends and others you meet at your gaming groups, you can save a significant ammount on the models you need for your list. Taking advantage of what is available then and there is a big part of things in this area of buying however, as unlike a store the person you are buying from has usually only one of each lot, and once theyre gone theyre gone. My two favourite sites for buying or trading minis are WargamerAu (Australian and Kiwi trades only) and Bartertown (worldwide, although mostly US). Great sites, and Id suggest looking there every now and again.

When searching for items on eBay there are a few tips to take into account. Although trustworthy, generally the 'power sellers' with ratings of 3000 or somesuch are stores, and sell as if they were a buisness rather than just a normal person looking for a couple of quick dollars. Ive bought from someone with a rating of -3 before, and everything went smoothly. Some people just get an unlucky break at the start of their eBay lives and then noone refuses to buy from them. This can work to your advantage, although there are of course always risks.

When typing in your search criteria, merely search for something obviously warhammer related (such as Space Marines) and then look up the top. Each item will be catagorised into different sections. Find the one tagged 'warhammer' and you will find all items listed on eBay in the 'warhammer' catagory. Sort by cheapest first and have a browse. Although it may take a bit longer to find any specific item, you will often find lots detailed 'Warhammer minatures' or something similar like that. Check these out.

Often these lots are made by people who dont know about the game or its monetary values, and just group everything together to get rid of them for a couple of dollars. I once got one lot with seven plastic Orcs, some random Undead Dinosaur thing (its a really cool mini actually), a Boar Chariot and a couple of other random metal mini's for AU$18.00, including postage. This is because it was a lot entitled 'random warhammer figures', and anyone searching for 'Orcs' or 'Boar Chariot' would not come across this, as its not listed as it. The less people that know about the auction, the less bidders, and the greater the chance you have of winning at a low price.

When selling on eBay, remember to keep all this in mind as well and list an item as 'Warhammer 40k Space Marine Bike' or similar, not just '40k SM Bike'. By including the words 'Warhammer' and 'Space Marine' as well as 40k let people searching for the more common things come across it as well as those searching for specifics. So, if you were selling a Boar Chariot, dont just list it as a 'Boar Chariot'. It is a 'Warhammer Orc Boar Chariot', and now anyone searching for Warhammer or Orcs (common searches) will come across it, where they wouldnt in the past. The more people that see your item, the more that will bid on it, and the higher your profits.

More coming up; Converting, and Painting!

Arfa da Grate

[Arfa]

Converting

Converting is a fun and impressive part of the Warhammer game, and lets you create models and thus an army that is truly unique to you. However, most are daunted by the fact that they cannot afford expensive tools and products, and ultimately settle for 2nd best. Fear not, because Arfa's guide to cheap converting tricks is here!

Many conversions use Greenstuff or similar puty for filling gaps, sculpting fur or whatever. However, for those starting out the thought of having to use an expensive substance in a limmited ammount of time soon puts them off. The answer to this? The humble BluTac!

BluTac, for those that dont know, is a cheap adheasive putty that doesnt set. It is commonly used to attach posters to walls and other similar tasks. Coming un packets with four long strips for around AU$3.00, which compared to Greenstuff is damn cheap. Practice your sculpting techniques with this marvelous stuff and build up the confidence to move to Greenstuff, or do as I have done and stick with the Blutac! In its original form BluTac is almost as fine as Greenstuff, although it does not set. To get it less sticky for various tasks merely dunk it in water, althoug let it dry before sealing it.

To seal your BluTac 'Greenstuff' merely put a thin layer of Superglue over the top and allow to dry. It will seal the outside of the BluTac, and unless excessive force is put into trying to break the seal, the whole of the BluTac creation will remain solid. If it seems a little too loose, you can always add a bit more glue, although remember that the more glue used the more detail lost, and that the final product will be harder after paint and varnish.


All detail on the model sculpted with BluTac rather than greenstuff. Although Im not a master putty sculptor, the final product is still rather good.

Having used BluTac in my earlier days of modelling I can safely say that it helped build up my skills and confidence so I could make the move to greenstuff without worrying. Sure it isnt as detailed as the 'real stuff', but when you are just starting out you probably cant go to that level of detail anyway. As you can see above it is still a good result, and the best part was that I wasnt rushed into finishing my conversions, which took a lot of stress and pressure off my back and just let me learn as I went along.

Hobby Knives and Scalpels are often expensive from a modeling store, but you dont have to buy them from there. Most supermarkets will sell Stanley/Hobby knifes for a fraction of the cost, and they are just as effective. Pin vice sets are also very expensive and not needed. If you grab a set of small drill bits from your local hardware store (a rather cheap thing) you can superglue them into a pencil (remove the lead) or similar and, if glued right, have exactly the same 'tool' as the $20 pin vice sold in your local model store.

An item Ive seen around is 'Superglue sealer', which instantly sets Superglue, sold at around $8. So does water . Although you'll be left with a bit of 'frosting' (especially if you put too much glue on), water will set superglue rock solid, which is one of the reason blowing on the glue to help it dry works.

The one thing that really gets to me is that people go out and buy $60 metal products designed to look like wood, when there is real wood sitting right out your window. Use it. There is no real art to scratch-building Rock Lobbas and Spear Chukkas for Orcs and Goblins, becaus they're supposed to look raggedy. Just look at the current metal model and try to make it similar in design, with the same positioning of bars etc. Just keep within the boundaries and use trial and error, and even if you do stuff up its no big deal, you havent wasted anything except stuff you found in your backyard!


Scratch Built Rock Lobba, using real rocks for the firing rocks (the counterweight rock is made from Polystyene packaging) and real wood for the wood.

For banners and such, you dont need to go out and buy expensive metal Banner-Bearers, simply use what is available to you. The ultimate banner-creating material is the aluminium seal found in Milo tins and various other powdered milk cans, or the type wrapped around wine bottle tops. Although many companies use plastic or paper, if you can find something with the metal then use it. The seal is thicker than aluminum foil and keps its shape better, although is still easy to bend and cut/rip. Attatch it to a banner pole made from spears or twigs and set it with Superglue, and your done!


Banner created from the Milo tin seal.

'Rope' can be made from twisting two wires together, and lengths of this wire can be bought from your local hardware store for around $6. Ive had a roll of this for around a year now, and its been enough for any rope conversions Ive needed.


Rope made from two peices of wire twisted together, attatched to a wooden stake made from a twig.

Anyway, hope Ive helped so far, one more to go!

Arfa da Grate

[Arfa]

Painting

Now, Im no master painter by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have a few handy tips for the strapped-for-cash painters out there:

Undercoating is a necesary part of painting, as it establishes the base colour and dictates whether the end result will be lighter or darker. As most Orcs and Goblins wear dark clothes, most people tend to undercoat them with black. Now you dont have to use GW paints for this, as all black is black when it comes down to it, and there are plenty of other fine water-based paints out there. Remember that when you are undercoating it is best to water down the paint so that you dont clog up any detail, and also use less paint overall.

Drybrushing is a technique used by many gamers, especially those who have to paint fur. Ill say it now, I paint my Wolves with Wattyl house-paint. Sure its a bit unorthadox, but for dry-brushing it is perfectly fine. For base colours I probably wouldnt use it (maybe a tad too thick for the details), but as drybrushing is just a very light coat of paint over the top it doesnt matter one bit.


Wolves drybrushed with house-paint, its hard to tell isnt it?

When basing models there is nothing I hate more than seeing people go out and buy sand or gravel, when a short car trip to the seaside (well, at least in most countries) can get you buckets of sand or gravel for free. Gravel roads really dont suffer from you taking a couple of handfulls of fine gravel from their sides, and noone is going to care if a beach miles long looses a small tupaware container full of sand!

As for Static Grass and other products that you really cant find in the wild, just dont buy GW. There are plenty of other static grasses sold by other hobby stores at far cheaper prices. On a similar note, buying GW glues, dice and rulers isnt needed either when your local bargain stores or supermarkets will always sell tape measures and basic glues (superglue & PVA). If youre one of those people that simply must use plastic glue on plastic models instead of superglue, then just go to a different brand instead of the rip-off merchants, there really is no difference in quality.

Lastly we come to Inking. I personally own just the one Ink (Flesh Wash for my Guardsmen), but I use many different types with my gaming. How? By watering down paint. Grab a palate (I improvise every time and use whichever plastic surfase is within reach, Ive even used my keyboard once ) and put a small dollop of paint on there (just a single brush-load). Then mix water into it (again, one brushload at a time) until you get your desired consistancy. I mix green ink (watered down Dark Angels Green), black ink (watered down Chaos Black), brown ink (Bestial Brown) and red ink (Blood Red), as well as being able to mix and match coloured inks in the same way you do paint. Simply mix up the colour you want before watering it down and you've got yourself a perfectly fine ink at a fraction of the cost!

Anyway, thats it! Hopefully your wallet will sigh with relief on these dollar saving techniques, and hopefully I wont be considered such a weirdo for my cheap ways when lots of other people realise their advantages. Anyway, now that we can all afford it, lets grab a pint each of 'Tubs Brew and celebrate!

Arfa da Grate

[rat of vengence]

Hmmm, saving money . I like it. I have a rather limited budget for my gaming (self imposed) so I try to make much from nothing. My tips so far would be...



Never, ever buy GW gravel, sand, flock, glues etc. It is way expensive. I get my gravel and static grass from model railway shops (more variety and volume for the same price or cheaper), and my sand from school (the nursery kids wont miss a tupperware container full from the pit...).

Watch where you are walking. Not only does it prevent you falling over, but you can get interesting bits and bobs. Broken thingies can be useful, but my latest find was a broken slate roof tile. Enough bits of slate to adorn many a characters base.

Tape measures. The Ģ1 shop. 'nuff said.

Dice. Okay, I will admit to owning some nice spangling dice. But you can get them cheap from teachers supply shops.


Hope this helps.

RoV


Arfa, I have already collected some sticks/wood after being inspired by your stone thrower.

[Hertz]

There are a guide on Entertain Meīs page about doublinīyour goblinīs

and remember that GW sells good stuff, but that you can get most of it elsewhere, far cheaper.
and look at online bits sellers, like Battlewagon bits etc. you can often buy cheap additional torsos so that you can use the extra arms, legs, and heads from the other sets you bought. And if you for example, want a lot of cheap night goblins or 40k termagants, look at their starter kit bits. (Iīve ordered a total of 60 termagants form BWB, for a fraction of the real price!)

[EntertainMe]

Indeed, some of my own efforts:


Double your goblins (thanx again to Hertz )

Plastic Savage Orcs

Getting an Empire Canon AND a Mortar out of one box

And soon to be out-dated, but nonetheless:
Cheap Boar Boys and Black Orcs


Some other usefull money saving tips:

Pin Vise

In stead of a pin vice, you can also use a hobby knife. Some sorts (the cheaper the more likely) can also hold a drill-bit.

Brushes

Never buy GW brushes. You can get the same quality for lower price at any painting store. Just inform on which brand to buy. A few dollars will get you a brush that you can use for years.

Good care of brushes also ensures that they last longer. A few pointers:
- Never dip you brush too far into the paint. It just needs to pick up just enough paint and never too much. If you stick it in all the way to the metal part it will be ruined after a few uses.

- Clean often while painting large surfaces. This ensures the paint doesn't dry inside the brush.

- Clean thouroughly afer painting by rubbing the brush against the side of a yar of clean water. Make sure all paint is out.

- Store brushes with the brisstles up

- Never use your good brush for drybrushing. In stead use old brushes or buy dirt-cheap ones in stead (Cat tongue brushes are a cheap alternative).

Paint

Especially on terrain or other large features buy cheap water-based paints often used in schools and such. This saves a great amount of money!

Most of the rest is already stated by Arfa

Modelling

With the plastic regiment sets with loads of extra pieces and Most of the time some champion-pieces as well it's not hard to make characters out of these spare pieces. Normal bosses can be represented by a normal soldier with some additional weaponry painted in a contrasting color. This frees up the champion bits to use for characters.
Most of the time these champions have better armour, larger/different weapons and such. This means it's not hard to create a Hero or even a Lord out of plastic.

For those willing to take it one step further you can easily make characters out of mundane regiment models. for example:
Orc battle standard bearer
Orc Big Boss on boar
Orc shaman
Skaven assasin

Scenery

While GW offers some nice trees and hills, it's always best to make these yourself. Here's one method, but there are others.

Hills can be made from Thick carboard, treated with PVA glue for strength. Just paint green and glue on green stuff and they'll be as pretty and strudy as the GW ones, but at a fraction of the cost.

Creating a house for scenery can seem liek a dounting task, but actually it's quite easy. some tutorials:
Beginner
experienced
Most of the materials are from stuff I had lying around or could get at bottom prices. The only thing I bought specifically for these houses it the balsa wood. But again, this isn't really necessary.

Ah well, just about time to call it a day. Hope I helped anyone

Grtz
-EM-

[AGPO]

Really great thread guys, I'm gonna have to try that trick with the cannon/mortar and the one for getting extra goblins. I wonder if the same thing works with Skaven? Probably even easier as sculpting fur will cover up my decidedly newbie level of sculpting. (although I've been in the hobby now for neigh on 11 years, I only started working with GS seriously a couple of months ago!) Anyway, I digress...

...I was posting here because I have recently scrath-built the four gobbo bolt throwers I need for my chaos dwarf army from some old sprues, some plastic gobbos, some wire and some brass rod. The total cost of the four throwers was under Ģ2 not including crew and bases which I had already. I will be posting a conversion guide on this site once I have my decent camera working again, but for now here is a written discription of what I did. I haven't given any proportions for this very rough guide because frankly, I did the first conversion by eye. The actual guide will be much more detailed:

Components: Two plastic Common Goblins
Plastic Spear
Any old sprue
50mm monster base (you can use 40mm, but I wanted my crew's bases to fit on the same base as the bolt thrower.)
A good length of brass rod
Some thin wire

The Spear Chukka First, cut a 'T' shape out of the sprue (i.e. from where two lengths of sprue form a "T junction") and glue this to your base so that the horizontal piece runs along the very front of the base, with a length running back down the middle. I suggest you leavea goblin model on the base so that you get an idea of proportion while you work on the next bit. Cut out another much shorter length of sprue, with one end cut at a slight angle. Glue this to the base in the centre of your 'T' where the two sections meet. This is the "base" of your spear chukka. For the "crossbow" section, take another length of sprue and your plastic spear. The spear will become your "bolt." If you have the spear from the old Night gobbo sprue, use this. If not, simply remove the hand holding any spare gobbo spear. then make two small fins out of plasticard or some greenstuff and fix them to the bottom of your bolt. Glue this to a newly cut length of sprue so that the head sticks out over the edge and the shaft ends approx 5mm before the end of the sprue. Then take your brass rod and cut a length to form the "bow." Bend this so that when you fix it to the front of your frame it looks like it is under tension. Glue this to the front of your frame then add a length of thi wire to form the "string", which should attach to the back of the frame and both ends of the bow. Glue this whole thing to your base. If you like add a firing mechanism such as a lever or trigger handle. It's up to you!

The Crew For my crew, I made one model with a hand weapon, one holding a bolt. You can make the hand weapons from bows (detailed in someone else's article on this thread) the champion's sword, or simply stealing one from another kit (I used marrauders and clanrats). For the bolt, simply fix a set of fins to the bottom of a spear and fix the arm in place as normal.

Thanks to Kyte who's army blog on Hand of Hashut (www.chaosdwarf.com) inspired the idea for this conversion. His use balsa wood and look far more professional than mine, but I just wanted cheap and cheerful bolt throwers for my army. If you get a chance check out his work, its awesome and shows how to get a massive CD army out of the BfSP boxed set. I apologise for the sketcheness of this post, I promise something clearer when my camera works properly.

This post has been edited by AGPO on May 8 2007, 08:53 AM

[groo12]

Thanks for the great article.

I went to Maestrom games and the savings are fantastic. One item I priced was $AU26.00 as opposed to $AU35.00 and postage is free!

Anyway I found a pin vice for $AU7.50 at my local hobby shop, it included 3 drill bits as well.

So remember ask, as it wasn't on display.

Ray

[Molimo the gobbo]

I didnt hear this mentioned but it was posted before by numerous other people so incase some of the newer folks such as myself are intrested in buying a big mixed horde heres what you can do.

Buy a battle of skull pass army boxset which is 70 $cdn wich is roughly 500 pts, trade of the spare dwarf to another player for his goblins if hes looking to start a dwarf army, it shouldnt be hard to find people willing to trade.

Secondly buy the 6th edition box set, the orc i find are spectacular,also if you do the same thing for this set as the BOSP box set youd be set! if you are saying "oh god my entire army is going to be in the same pose." fear not because the way the arms are sculpted you can easily cut them off an postiion them diffrently! I made my entire 40k army this way.
Buy an additional boxset of your choosing. and voila!

If you follow the steps above for scratch built spear chuckkas and rock lobbas and such you could have roughly 1500-2000pt army for as cheap as 200 dollars

The only problem may be finding people to trade off old empire minis too, if all else fails use them as slaves in your 40k chaos army!!!!!!

[BarmyBob]

THought Id add this tidbit. For those in the US, ACE Hardware stores carry pin vices for around $5 and they come with several bits. Looks almost exactly the same as the GW one, and IMO is a bit better quality at a fraction of the price.
If anyone needs one (regardless of where you live) let me know and I can pick them up for you at cost plus actual postage.....You wont get a fancy package unless you want to pay for it, but I dont mind chucking them in a padded envelope and send them.

As to paint for terrain projects..... if you want a certain colour, say Bleached Bone for example, take your paint pot to a paint store (Home Depot,Lowes,Sherwin Williams,etc) Get them to mix you a quart, a pint, a gallon. The can match the colour exactly. Just be sure to get a water based acrylic.....remember that miniatures paint os hardlymore than housepaint in a small pot.

This post has been edited by BarmyBob on Nov 10 2007, 01:24 PM

[theman]

another way to make a spear chuckka a little easier (can be used to make a rock lobba)

you will need:
a little bit of spruce
a chaos standard (the circle one or really and cool circular object around the house)
a chaos standar pole (a orc spear can be used but i like this as its a it longer
a bit of blu tac/green stuff

first grab a orc base and a some blu stuff. then take to small legnths of spruce and stick the in the blu stuff. then take a third piece of spruce and use some wire and hang it up on the to other pieces then glue the spear on to the cross bar (so it looks like its in midflite). finaly grab some wire and and attach the circle to it. now attach the wire to the construct and your done.


to make a rock lobba just replace the spear woth a small rock attached to the circle

[bobkian]

Hi I have a web site which has a section on saving money.
it has a collection of methods I have collected from the internet.
here it is:
http://warhammer.synthasite.com/
if people see their own methods on my site and don't want them there
email me:
kian_kane@yahoo.co.uk

This post has been edited by bobkian on Dec 2 2008, 06:38 PM

[Barney]

Donīt know if it belongs here or not, but Iīll post it nevertheless

My biggest pain with da greenies is the movement trays. The GW made modular just donīt fit, and they arenīt exactly free as well.

So I came up with an idea (actually, I stole it from a friend of mine ) to use CD covers as movement trays. The upper piece, not the one actually holding the CD, and I find slimpack CDs work best. They can hold exactly 25 orcs (5 orcs per rank fit almost as if the CDs were designed to hold them, you can easily fit four ranks in, the fifthe could be a bit problematic, but with a little cramming, you should be able to do it just fine- if I managed to do it, anyone can ), and they can be moved with almost no friction over the green battlefield carpets.

Plus, they cost a tiny fraction of the GW modular trays, not to mention everyone of us has lots of spare CDs and the covers.

And they can be painted as well, just spray them black/white/grey as you would your minis and add whatever flocking you want.

I think they are only viable to use to hold large blocks of orcs or cavalry, or anything else thatīs mounted on a 25 mm square base, though, as I think you wonīt get any good results trying to cut the stuff

[Fikkle.da.Night.Goblin.]

just wanted to say this is an awesome thread thanks to the guide on how to double your goblins, after a raid on my bitz box i got out 39 of the lil gits [and added a spare snotling to make it 40


cheers

[Da-Git]

doom diver can be very easy to make as well just take 4 separate parts from the sprue and turn them both into V shapes if you have an orc warriors set take the spare shield and turn them into the bottom wheels of the doom diver if you dont like the actual catapult part being sprue you can stretch some green stuff and make it into the rubbber part put a hook for the back slap on the gork/mork symbol in the front and you've made a doom diver catapult .... also any spare goblins can be used as crew


Not sure how many are required for it..... i think 2 right?