I should have known better. The warning signs were there.
Having succumbed in small measure to bones-mania by purchasing two newly arrived Bones minis from my LGS, I must report that I am disappointed.
Here is where I launch into a diatribe against the minis in question. Having started to do just that, I realized that A) I was coming across as a wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth, crazy-person, and B) my criticism was off target as I am really not the consumer for whom Bones miniatures are intended.
To point A: While I may actually be a wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth, crazy-person, I try to conceal this fact whenever possible.
To point B: Bones are meant for gamers, not painters. They may be made from a very flexible, almost rubbery, plastic, lack the crisp detail of metal or resin minis, feature mold lines that are difficult to deal with effectively, and suffer from mis-molded details here and there, but they are cheap. In this case cheap carries the day.
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| The Face That Launched A Thousand Frustrations |
Sorry to hear, I saw the signs and steered clear. I also saw a few in the LGS and could tell they were Lesser Q. I still have a love have relationship with GW over Finecast and I wasn't taking any chances. GW still have some nice sculpts that are simply to hard to resist, although I loath the direction they are going in. Like music Metal rules! \m/(><)\m/
ReplyDeleteLive and learn. I just couldn't resist a crack at a storm giant sculpted by Julie Guthrie.
DeleteReaper is a solid outfit: great metal minis & customer service in my experience. It would be a shame if this Bones stuff supplants their metals.
I have a bunch of prepainted D&D figures I'm mostly using for chassis for scratch build projects, but there are a few monsters that, despite being cast in plastic, are still better overall than any comparable metal figure out there.
DeleteIn the beginning I thought Reaper was going to improve on the formula, that the material would be a little better than what Hasbro used and that and the fact that you didn't have to deal with an unwanted coat of paint would make them viable for monsters if not human figures with swords. Thankfully I picked up a Bones ogre before the Bones KS campaign and I could see how crappy the material really is. It's the softest of any prepaint material I've seen. I could stand the figure up and holding the base with one finger, push the head down easily and touch his nose to the tabletop. Really not suitable for anything but a big creature and then you're going to suffer the detail problem you point out.
In the end though they've really done a coup on the community because the KS prices made them seem like an ok value but the msrp of these things have be scratching my head. You save a little, but you don't save nearly enough to make these worth while even if I didn't care about quality of casting and paint job.
I picked up a plastic naga from the Descent boardgame a while back based on what Chris from Dukeofthebloodkeep was able to do with it; my only experience with non-styrene, plastic minis. I can't address how it takes to paint yet but it beats Bones on the flexibility scale hands down. I naively anticipated that Reaper's offering wouldn't be any worse.
DeleteHow wrong I was.
I find that gesso works as a pretty good primer for almost anything. I have only begun on some bones minis someone gave me so I guess I need to reserve judgement, but so far so good. I have painted a lot different plastics in my time, so I may be more tolerant. I think they SAY bones need no primer but do not believe it for a minute.
ReplyDelete