"The Never Ending Struggle" Topic

One paper miniatures company includes this line in their promotional material:

If you have ever been frustrated by the never ending struggle to keep fragile plastic or pewter miniatures in good condition, this may be the product for you.

Which leads me to ask… how much of a struggle is it for you to maintain your painted miniatures collection?

* major effort
* some effort
* minimal effort
* no effort
* I don't know what to say

Almost no effort…

For me it is a never-beginning struggle. I remain unpersuaded of the need to switch to paper as a more durable substitute to fragile metal.

But then I am not trying to sell the idea of paper miniatures to anyone.

Mainly confined to 'Don't put this box on top of that box'.

* I don't know what to say

Minimal effort. I just have to remember to keep the lids on the boxes so the cats don't jump in.

I use metal and resin and paper

More problems with paper than the others – figures survive coke being slopped on the table the floor plans did not…

For me 'I don't know what to say' but not in a nice way…

Don't know what they're talking about. I've had some of my figures for decades. Kept in cardboard boxes with no ill effects whatsoever.

Bare minimal.

Perhaps some people find putting their figures in sturdy boxes a problem? I don't.

No problem with metals, slight with plastics. Cat's more enamored of chewing plastic.

Almost no effort for me.

* no effort

Paper minis just leave me flat.

Mine are in enclosed dispay cases . no one is allowed to touch them If I am Not there . so no problems with my mini's

Ditto with Ming31.

All of mine are in plastic boxes, easy maintenance.

I used to until I got some Charon cases…

No effort, put figues and ship models away.

One of my Zulu's [don't even think about it] lost an assegai a couple of year's [steady] ago.

Does that count?

Figures, no problem, basing – tends to deteriorate!

Years ago I had some paper figures (Normans I believe) and they were all but destroyed by rampaging snails. These same gastropods left my metal and plastic figures alone.

As long as I keep my kids' friends away from them, it's no problem at all.

Other than one friend who's father also collects miniatures…he knows how to handle them properly.

It's not that hard. Just handle figures with reasonable care, and store them properly.

But Connard, he gained an apostrophe – who needs an assegai when you can overcome apostrophe poverty.

> Plynkes: I remain unpersuaded of the need to switch to paper as a more durable substitute to fragile metal.

:o) Yep – that just about wraps it up.

Phil

maybe they mean if people have to repair paint jobs on minis if you print them out and ruin them you can just print them out again. Sounds bad to me but prolly what they meant

No effort at all.

My 35 year old AWI Hinchliffe British could use a dab or two of touch-up.

I used to haul Ancients armies to tournaments, in plastic sweater boxes, with no lining on the bottom, or foam padding.
I never lost a pike or a javelin.

Now, one time I DID up-end an entire box of Ral Partha NW Frontier Pathans in a rainy parking lot. They all survived, and none needed a touchup.

My Seleucids need their pikes reglued, but that's about it.

My basement is prone to flooding when it rains heavily. A couple of times I've had some of the scenic stuff on figure bases ruined.

Would I be better with paper figures?

As long as I do not have friends help me move my minis when moving to a new place……

Other wise minor effort.

I only use paper for buildings. While I would like them to last, I know that they will not hold up as well as a more solid building would. But then I did not pay a lot for them.

Would I be better with paper figures?

Yes. Put them in a styrofoam cooler, and they'll float when your basement floods.

No real effort. Magnetic base bottoms and rubber steel lining close lid cases from Dave's Baggage Train or punch out foam trays and Sabol cases have never let me down.

I live in Florida, with very high humidity, paper figures would be out of the question.

I just found a Zulu assegai.

Anyone lose one?

Was it buried in an heir to the French throne?

I've a few paper figures – but they are antiques…

I find it a struggle to stop my metal and plastic figures from blowing over when someone opens a door.

Pat

What plynkes said, no sweat with metal. Now, if they were made out of beans…

Not really any trouble.

One of the challenges of my collection is trying to have appropriate boxes and containers to store and protect the figures. So I say a major effort.

If you have ever been frustrated by the never ending struggle to keep fragile plastic or pewter miniatures in good condition, this may be the product for you.

I produce paper stuff commercially every once in a while, but that statement still seems like a real stretch to me. The only time that I can imagine that statement coming close to the truth is if I were to take 2 plastic tubs and then carelessly sweep an armful of paper figures into one and an armful of plastic/pewter into the other, then drive somewhere else for a game. In the back of a truck doing 60 miles an hour over a potholed road.

In that case, yeah, the paper stuff would be more likely to survive such careless handling…but I can't imagine someone treating plastic/metal that carelessly, and if they do, they deserve what's coming to them.

My plastic/metal stuff, when I had it, lived on a shelf or in a padded box. Very little effort to maintain or protect them when they're just sitting there, aside from an occasional dusting--the only time I worried about their physical condition was during moves or when taking them to a game elsewhere, but that's what padding is for.

I guess you could say that paper figures could technically stand up to careless handling better and are more easily replaceable, but "never ending struggle to keep plastic or pewter figures in good condition" is about as patently silly as those TV infomercials that make a huge deal out of a problem nobody really has in order to sell some dubious $19.99 USD product.

These guys should be trying to sell their paper figures in the *other* direction. Paper figures are awesome for conventions and stuff like that precisely because they're relatively disposable. I don't have to worry about my much more valuable plastic/metal figures disappearing or being damaged by careless people, I don't have to schlep heavy tubs of stuff around, and if I lose some of them them to theft or damage, I'm only out a few cents of paper and ink.

The other use case where paper figures excel is when you want to try something else (a new period, a new set of rules, etc) cheaply without completely sacrificing the visual aesthetic by resorting to coins, pogs, or whatever. If you get into it, then you can invest in plastic/metal without worrying about buyer's remorse. Or, for that matter, they work pretty well as something to include with a printed book so you can test drive the rules quickly, like those flat fold up Gears or 'Mechs that were available with Heavy Gear and one of the Battletech sets years ago.

In terms of aesthetics…I'm happy to use paper flats in a game when they're the right tool for the job, but I do prefer to play with plastic/metal figures that I've painted myself, because that's my other hobby.