"Getting into the Hobby on the Cheap" Topic

Folks:

I recently gave myself a challenge: what would it actually cost for a complete beginner to get into the hobby as cheaply as possible? So I did a project and tracked the costs of everything, and ended up writing a 10-page guide for complete beginners.

It isn't a cheap hobby, and I wanted to get a realistic picture of what it would actually cost. Take a look and see what you think…

Spoiler alert: I ended up painting Airfix 1:32 recasts of WWII figures for a skirmish-type game.
You can find the article here:

link

Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

Paper figures or top-down counters would probably be cheapest.

This is a pretty good breakdown. Thanks for doing this and posting.

Bill:

That is true, but I wanted to cost out a "proper" miniatures game. My experience of teaching newbies (and I've on-boarded a few over the years) is that having even a small number of "real" miniatures is a big attractiion.

For me, at least, the paper counters never really did it: I remember spedning money on "System 7" Napoleonics and regretting it, since I used them exactly once.

Plastic figures us definitely the way – can get DBA and two armies for about £15.00 GBP

20th Maine: Can you get the right mix of figures without buying multiple boxes? (I looked and couldn't figure out how to do it, but I am not really a DNA player).

I suppose some of the warband armies would work, since they don't have a lot of variety…

A couple of options to consider…

Prime the figures in their primary uniform color: if that is khaki, or olive drab, spray paint them using the Primer + Paint which matches the major color they will wear, to skip a step in painting. Whether that color is matte, or glossy, doesn't matter, other than glossy paint will be harder to apply other colors over the top of, so matte, which has more microscopic roughness, is a better choice. In the end, this will allow you to only paint the bits and bobs which differ from the main uniform color, drastically speeding up the painting process.

Apply simple block painting, to get them done ASAP! Follow this by brushing on either a dark brown/black Magic Wash formula (Quick Shine Floor Finish + acrylic paint), or use the classic Dip Technique (Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut Urethane Stain, ~$17 for 1/2 pint can), brushed on, followed by a matte clear coat. I also recommend using a 50mm square base, Hot Gluing the figures to avoid them falling over, way too often…

I use mixtures of colored sand on the bases. Quick, easy application with PVA Glue. Make random light/dark patches to really jazz them up.

I used to paint directly on the plastic, using its color as their base, sealing them with Minwax. Unfortunately, that peels off after a few years with normal handling. I need to use the Rustoleum Primer + Paint, to see if that will adhere better.

I use 50mm MDF squares for bases. The Hot Glue works amazingly well adhering the LDPE plastic to the MDF, with surprising strength.

Using 40mm sized vehicles with 54mm Army Men may look off, but it makes it affordable. True 1/32 scale vehicles are super expensive! CD's make super crater markers, and they're inexpensive. They can be decorated, if desired. Attach an armature of crumpled aluminum foil to the surface of the CD with Hot Glue, then apply more Hot Glue sculpted with the tip of the Gun, to finish them; Hot Glue takes acrylic paint, superbly, without primer being needed. It is relatively inexpensive, but when using it to sculpt, its cost can add up, over time.

The thing to teach newbies is that Rome was not built in a single day, and they don't need everything for their games, on day one… They can build up their inventory of figures, vehicles, and terrain, over time. Books, and other stuff around the house, can serve as terrain, initially, until they build what they need.

Crafting your own terrain is a hobby unto itself. It can be a lot of fun. There are PDF buildings; you can make large LP tanks using empty aerosol cans; a huge water tower can be made using a cardboard tube and a platter of some sort (center of image, left of Stop sign).

Blacktop roads and parking lots can be made using free samples of carpet picked up from your local DIY box stores (lines an be painted on them using white/yellow paint and a brush). I needed a bunch of Landing Craft for a beach landing: I could have made them out of paper/cardboard, but we ended up using rectangles of MDF, instead (the host owns a 50W Laser Cutter, so he cut up MDF as needed); note that a river was made using free blue carpet samples where we cut the edges into wavy shapes, laying them end-to-end to lay out the river's path on the tabletop. Our ground cloth is Tee-Time Indoor/Outdoor carpet: mottled green color; can be vacuumed, or even hosed off, outside, to clean it; nigh indestructible stuff -- my old carpet ground cloth had a grooved pattern in it, but I used it for 20+ years and when I retired it, replacing it with the Tee Time, I covered my wooden steps in my garage with it, as it was still pristine!

If you pace yourself, and you are willing and enjoy making terrain yourself, you can do it all inexpensively, over time. Cheers!

Thanks for doing the analysis. I think that it will be very useful for those looking at the hobby.

Your range is from $172.00 USD to $242.00 USD. I think I get it down to $97.00 USD:

link

I'd agree overall. I generally figure something shy of $300 USD for two armies and terrain in a new period and scale, and the period and scale chosen are almost irrelevant. (That same budget would have gotten you enough 1/72 Napoleonics or ACW for a smallish massed battle, for instance. Or 6mm Hoplites.)

Note that most of us could do it cheaper, knowing a few shortcuts. Anyone who can't come out of an HMGS(East) flea market with two new armies and terrain isn't trying very hard.

You can find interesting answers when you start playing with the definition of "Getting into the Hobby".

There are free rules. There are free paper miniatures. You can find a d6 somewhere. No counting the price of your inkjet and cartridges the hobby is free.

Get a 3D printer and you can put out a *lot* of figures for a $20 USD bottle of resin. Craft store paints and brushes would set you back another $20. USD

How about show up at game stores and conventions and play whatever someone else paid for and painted. They'll be glad of an opponent and you only paid for gas.

If you poke around there are some army men style plastic figures that could be worthy of paint. There are many genres available on Temu, not just army men and cowboys. Pirates, all kinds of things. The dollar store has pirates and cowboys, sometimes the ACW, though you won't be able to do the ECW this way.

If you want a "proper" army for an obscure period and you want to use hobby paints and brushes instead of craft store stuff, and if you want nice terrain and commercial rules, then you are looking at hundreds of dollars.

My other nitpick about the premise of the question is that this is never going to be a one-time thing. You're going to keep spending. Perhaps an interesting question question is "what can I do on $x per year?"

Andrew's last comment was straight on. I would add, go first rate from the start. Keep it small (skirmish level) and it will grow to army level from there.

Take it from me, a few 25mm Spanish American War foot figures bought second hand has lead to a massive collection including both fleets in 1/2400.

Col Durnford, you seem to me making a presumption of the same figures for a skirmish and for an army-level game. Yes, I've seen it done, but I think generally you're ahead to use few and large figures for skirmishes and many and small for army level--possibly except for convention play, of course.

Andrew, I'd agree that spending tends to continue--but not necessarily by making the same armies larger. "How much for two armies and terrain?" is a perfectly valid approach.

As for the Editor's suggestion of top down counters, he should report himself for subverting his own website--though I agree it's a good way to test out rules and periods.

Free wargame rules, a set of Airfix 1/76th scale US Marines and Japanese Infantry for WWII. Some sand. Ready to play in five minutes after the box is opened. Turn the boxes inside out to use as bunkers.

Total cost about $25. USD

Bunkermeister

Some of the DBA armies can be done from one box – Libyans, Nubians etc – but they are a bit limited in options – psiloi and warbands IIRC. It's probably possible to do Norse and Anglo Saxon but I haven't done that (or checked).

Hat do/did a few army boxes – Assyrian for sure and a couple of others which had part sprues from several boxes to give all DBA options.

They also do sample boxes for, I think, ,ACW and maybe some Napoleonic armies which would give a starter for a skirmish or element based game.

It is always good to do a cost analysis. I think that I would have gone with 1/72 because it is a lot cheaper to add tanks and vehicles, and they don't dominate the table as much as 25mm tanks.

I very much appreciate your efforts in putting this analysis together. One can certainly add or subtract from it, but you have put together a good basis for discussion. Thank You Very Much.

Fitzovich: Thanks you for the kind words. Indeed, I am learning some things from this discussion myself. We all have out own views here, but I thought it would be a fun project. I am very happy to see people react, too!

$200 USD as a target is very reasonable assuming you have to do it all yourself.

That said if I were advising a noob I would suggest the 1/72 route as well;

• Future figure/vehicle/terrain buys will be much cheaper.
  
• 54mm is limited as far as vehicles and other accessories like buildings.
  
• A $16 USD box of Airfix Germans includes 50 figures. That's your first two squads and then some. So expanding is "free" you just paint more dudes.
  
• You can readily find opponents in 1/72.
  
• 1/72 also works well at larger scale games where 3-4 figures on a stand represent a platoon.

That said, I'm a 15mm man myself for skirmish games.

Apart from Airfix figures, I started WW2 wargaming with just a few 1/300 tanks using Charles Grant's Battle! book. I just checked and one tank costs around 75p so for £15.00 GBP one could buy 20 tanks which gives 10 a side which is a lot more than I started with.

Painted 15mm DBA armies are on eBay all the time at reasonable prices.

AGregory, you wrote:

"The whole point of the hobby is to create a small diorama which you use to recreate an historical scenario, played as a game. The aesthetics are key to this."

That is your opinion and, if that is what you require of your hobby, that's fine – for you.

But if someone enjoys playing wargames with unpainted RISK figures, glued in groups to pieces of card, using free rules they've downloaded from the internet or Thomas's One Hour Wargames, I don't think you should deride that as "shameful". I have played many wargames using such troops to try out new rules, or periods for which I had no figures, and had great pleasure from them.

Starting out in that way, which is quick and easy to achieve, will encourage beginners to embark on the hobby, whereas presenting them with something that is going to require so much time, effort and cash to achieve that it may actually discourage them.

When one plays a wargame, it is surely the challenge of forming a plan and executing it, responding to a rapidly changing situation, and trying to defeat one's opponent that gives enjoyment and satisfaction.

The main purpose of three dimensional figures and scenery is to enable players to identify arm of service and individual units more easily than can be done by peering at a small cardboard counter and to determine quickly the terrain across which their formations have to march without having to interpret contour lines and other symbols on a map.

If the figures happen to be expertly painted in historically accurate uniforms, and the scenery is diorama standard, the game may look more attractive to spectators, but it remains the same game. Chess does not become a more challenging or interesting game by having more elaborate, colourful pieces.

The most important aspect of a wargame must be the rules – are they both realistic in the outcomes they create, so that newcomers do not develop false ideas about the warfare being portrayed, and are they easy to understand, learn and use? But there is little discussion of rules – other than their cost – in your advice.

For me the hobby is entirely about spectacle. So I'll disagree with Arthur. The rules are not the most important aspect – to me, the look is. I'll play a beautiful game with frankly lightweight or even silly rules (I've played an amazing Alamo game like that). And figures are not

to enable players to identify arm of service and individual units more easily than can be done by peering at a small cardboard counter and to determine quickly the terrain across which their formations have to march without having to interpret contour lines and other symbols on a map.

At least not to me.

But I'll agree with Arthur1815 that different gamers value different aspects of the hobby.

Arthur1815: Yes, my opinion. But I have taught a lot of newbies to play historical miniatures, and one of the big draws is always good looking figures and terrain. This is what sets us apart from board gamers.

People will do that if they want – sure. But I don't think people need a lot of encouragement to do that.

I used to be a board gamer – then I discovered miniatures. I never looked back. What defines us as historical miniatures gamers is quite literally the representation of the battle on the tabletop as an historical diorama.

Of coursem different people take that to different degrees, so to each his own. But I am not going to apooogize for encouraging beginners to play with painted figures on a table covered with decent terrain! ;-)

Yeah, it's all about the figures and the look of it. I started in 1/72 and still game in that scale in multiple periods. If you are paying more than 13.00 for a pack of 1/72 figs you are probably getting robbed. Airfix sells for 7.59 a box at Scale Hobbyist. Great service and prices there. I also believe you can do WWII including two armies for about 100.00 or less. Counters might work for boardgamers, but not as a tool to recruit miniature gamers.

Thanks.

John

BTW – the original article is an interesting one, and a good description of a route into gaming. I would echo others (and myself) that 1/72 gives more room for future growth for the average player's available space.

I love seeing 1/32nd games, have seen some great ancient games using Hat's larger figures – but it needed a large demonstration table at s show.

Then there's the question of what suffices to "get into" the hobby? I bought a miniature for D&D and painted it with my old model airplane brushes and paints. I didn't even buy the rules. Did I get into the hobby at that point?

I would think actually playing a wargame would be the one essential, whether it was with one's own figures or someone else's, and then deciding to continue with wargaming afterwards, rather than giving up on it.

Oberlindes, I suggest you had embarked on another hobby, that of painting miniature figures – which is, for many people and respondents to this thread, a major part of the wargaming hobby, though it does not have to be IMHO.

I find it interesting that so many people are backing 1:72. It was the scale I first got into when doing WWII gaming, but these days I know almost noone who games in 20mm (I live in New England, where there are a lot of gamers, too.) Everyone is either using 25/28mm (Bolt Action and Chain of Command) or goes the 15mm route, which seems to be dominated by Flames of War. That said, I did notice that Rapid Fire had been revised recently, and I always liked that game (I think of it as absolutely a 20mm game, for whatever reason.)

I agree with Arthur 1815 it's not about the figures bur the game. I got my best friend hooked on war gaming using 1/4 and 3/8 inch painted screws for Napolionic infantry and cavalry, Cannon wheels from paper pu ch holes and cut oit horses on a thin stick like a cocktail stiche stick. he wagames now decades later. seems to me thre is an overemphasis on modeling, certainly for me that is not the center of gravity of my gaming and decades later it's still not even with a 3 D printer. your costings have little to do with war gaming. 2 boxes of air fix plastics £16.00 GBP total, cerial boxes for hills, painted or not, free rules, a die and a steel tape is all that is needed.

Being excessive you could get a full set of rules, pre coloured paper figures (Peters Paper boys) for about £35.00 GBP which look stunning, not my period but I see them at shows and they are remarkable. Your definition of $300 USD to get started if frankly absurd. I don't pay that now decades on.

I have had many great looking games using Peter Dennis's "PaperBoys" paper figures. A great number of different rule sets, and both large battle and skirmish games. Paper figures are available at many price points, including free. They are something of an acquired taste. I love them, some people will refuse to play with them. Some view them as acceptable only as a stand in until "proper" figures can be had.

As for a $200 USD buy in being an expensive hobby? I think it makes miniature wargaming an extremely cheap hobby to get into.

What would it cost for greens fees and club rental for a round of golf? The lessons to learn how to use those clubs not withstanding.

A very basic model train set is going to cost at least $200 USD and will not satisfy for long.

$200 USD does not go far in the art supply store if you want to take up painting with quality materials that will not have you tearing your hair out in frustration.

How much does a basic video game console or hand held cost these days? Not to mention games to play on it.

What does a quality R/C plane or car cost?

If the goal is an entry into a hobby with high enough quality to make the experience enjoyable and fulfilling enough to sustain interest $200 USD seems on the low end. Especially if we are looking at enough hobby material to provide equal enjoyment for two hobbyists together.

Dave Crowell – Your and my definition of cheap are wildly at odds.m I would not want to spend $200 USD on a hobby I was unsure of.

I recently bout an RC boat for me (well the excuse was the grandkids but that was an excuse). That is now £35.00 GBP and is a sparkeling entry to the hobby,

Perhaps there are really two questions here:

What is the minimum spend required to try miniature wargames to see whether one likes it enough to pursue the hobby?

and, having decided one does definitely want to take up wargaming,

What is the minimum spend required to play satisfactory games in the short term until time and funds allow one to expand one's collection of figures, terrain pieces et cetera?

I guess (it just occured to me) that $200 USD is about the entry point for a GW game (rough price of a starter set). So that's a sort of "standard hobby measure" for wargaming. Sort of.