Simply the best

Looking around on-line, one thread seems to keep surfacing: that, whether tools, glue, paint, or whatever else, you should always buy the best product you can afford. The implication being that the more expensive, the better or something like that. It's got me looking at my tools, glues, paints, etc., and looking at old articles from decades ago (some in publications that predate my entry into the hobby by a number of years).

What I've found in those articles is that the current advice, to buy the best, is in direct contradiction to a lot of the advice from 30-40 years ago. There are articles saying that you should buy cheap tools, because, with any significant use, the tools will soon be broken and need replaced. Of course, back then, most terrain packs for gaming were cardboard cut outs.

Back in those days, companies wanted you to spend as much of your hobby budget as possible on miniatures and products they produced. These days, the same can be said, but most companies have their own terrain line, paint line and/or tools. The days of Games Workshop printing articles on how to make a ruined cityscape out of some foamboard, some corrugated cardboard, yoghurt pots, random bits of computers, etc., (I've picked GW purely because they published the articles i got the most out of back in "the day," and I'm not singling them out), are now long past. Terrain articles in White Dwarf are now about building and painting GW produced terrain.

Aside from product, most of my terrain is home made. I have fortresses made of plant pots, stiff card (the backing of a refill pad), and corrugated cardboard. I have ruins and buildings made from ceiling tiles, foamboard, yoghurt pots, corrugated cardboard, even the old plastic trays that some miniatures companies used to use for multi part metal or resin miniatures. I have hills made from plaster, papier mache, corrugated, ceiling tiles, blocks of packing foam.

I know that a lot of this is nostalgia and pining for simpler days, when gaming on a budget was the norm. I know that a lot of gamers lack the time, skill, and/or drive to make their own terrain. It also seems rather hypocritical to be waxing lyrical about home made terrain compared to mass-produced sets when I design some of said mass-produced sets. All of that being said, i still feel the need to challenge the notion that expensive is better.

Looking at my tool racks (well, an old mug and a desk drawer), there are the remains of 4 sets of needle files. The oldest set was picked up dirt cheap in a record store, and, while some of them have warped, especially tips bending, they have been serving me well for nigh on 30 years. The next set were from a major hardware chain, and cost significantly more: of the six files, 3 are still in use, but are very gunked up, and nearing the end of their useful life after 18 years. The next set was a present, and are from a major miniatures company, so I'm assuming that they were expensive: half of one file remains intact, the rest of it, and the set shattered within the first five years. This isn't to say that the price is inverse to the quality, but the actual utility can vary greatly. The last set was picked up in a discount store, a pack of 10 for €1,50: only a stump of one remains after only 4 years.

My paints, too, tend towards the budget end. Between painting stuff for work and being a swarm player whose attention span for a single force can be measured in weeks, i prime huge volumes of miniatures. I can easily go through 3 or 4 cans in a month, often more. If i was to use brand name aerosol primer, that'd be putting me back enough to by a few tanks each month. As I'd much rather spend my money on miniatures, i use cheap and nasty car primer and matt black spray paint. The quality isn't the same, but i can work with it. Similarly, the paints i use, except for a few specialist ones from Vallejo, blacks, whites purples and "Shades" from Citadel Colour, and Humbrol gloss varnish, are from the cheaper end of the spectrum: Coat d'arms and Gamecraft. Part of this is budgeting, but for the most part it's that I've been using Coat d'arms for so long, other brands just feel weird.

My point is, basically, that there are ways to game on a tight budget, and the best way to do that is to buy what works for you, not what someone else tells you is best.