Personally, I discovered paper minis around six years ago. I printed some off, glued them together, cut them out, and didn't do much after that. Then in 2017 I had a significant health issue and it changed my life permanently and I really didn't feel like painting anymore but I still wanted to enjoy the games I played. Subsequently, after some searching, I saw that there were many more artists publishing great works and I was hooked. I set aside my painting brush right then and there!
There are benefits to paper minis. One big plus is the price! I can download a PDF of say wood elves and print as many as I need for a few bucks and print them out. You can also find plenty of stuff for free online! One Monk Miniatures is an excellent source for free minis and is where I got my start. Just go to the download section and check out the forum hoards and other free things. They also sell a wide range of Sci Fi miniatures and fantasy figures. Additionally, you can get a wide range of bases here as well for free.
Now for my favorite artist, David Okum! He has many different lines of ever expanding figures through his Patreon projects. He's got fantasy and sci fi all of the way up to old west gunslingers and supers to zombies and survivors. In addition, he has multiple layers for customization of colors and a vast majority of his models contain a full sheet of bonus material. Can't say enough about this guy! He seems to pump out figures at an amazing rate! If you join his Patreon you have access to a mountain of downloadable minis depending on what tier you are at (I do the $5 a month!).
As I said, you can get many different sizes and shapes of bases here at One Monk Miniatures for free or you can go on to Litko and buy some plastic bases. I like the Litko bases as they're clear so they adapt to any terrain. Another thing I like about these is that you can write down pertinent information about the figure with dry/wet erase markers. Pretty neat, at least to me!
I may write up a tutorial showing what I use and some tips on properly gluing and folding. We will see!
I'm not sure I will ever make the switch, but I like how you provided some cool resources. There are a lot of paper minis that are so finely detailed and colored that I could never reach that on my table top any other way. I do agree, if you want to test a ruleset, paper minis are probably the route to take.
ReplyDeleteThanks TTown! Precisely, they're not for everyone out there. I've been painting for nearly 20 years and just got plain worn out.
DeleteThe next set David Okum is coming out with is a line of pulp gangsters and G-Men. Not something I'm really into but I do have some rules that will work for it. Perfect example of not spending a whole lot on something I'm not sure I'll like. :)
Painting the minis has always been a big part of the hobby for me, but I have to admit that some of these look pretty good. I can see how they'd be particularly appropriate for supers, straight off the page! I'm starting to see the advantages of paper terrain, so maybe I'm already on the slippery slope ;-)
ReplyDeleteAgreed! For years that's all I did was paint minis and sell them. Eventually the urge to game started to creep in and finally I just said to heck with it, I'm going with whatever is easiest for gaming and can work around my son's bedtime.
DeleteI still like 3D terrain. I've been hoarding cheap fold-flat terrain and eliminating rigid models from my collection where ever possible. Although, trees, bushes, and stuff like that just don't look all that good on the battlefield, at least in my opinion.