My expensive Miniatures Hobby

 Toy soldiers have been around since forever. Ancient Egyptians had miniature soldiers, chariots, boats, etc; in their tombs. Tin soldiers were produced in Germany in the 18th century. Plastic toy soldiers appeared in 1937.

Nearly every male child has played with toy soldiers. In the 19th century, a method to teach battlefield tactics was developed by the Prussian Army, Kreigsspiel, the grand-daddy of all modern tabletop wargames.

During the 70's, I played a lot of tabletop wargames - most of them by Avalon Hill (PanzerBlitz/PanzerLeader being my favorite back then).

H.G. Wells published a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers titled Little Wars in 1913. In 1971, Gary Gygax published a set of rules for Medieval warfare game called Chainmail. A magic & fantasy supplement for Chainmail later became Dungeons and Dragons.

In the 80's, Games Workshop developed Warhammer - a miniatures game influenced by Dungeon and Dragons, where players play out a battle between Medieval & Fantasy style armies. Warhammer 40K later came out, and eventually replaced Warhammer as GW's flagship product.

Today, throw a dice and you would hit one of any number of tabletop miniatures games, each with it's own set of rules and proprietary miniatures.

On my shelves I have miniature armies from several game systems. Undead Egyptian, English Knights and Fantasy Elven armies for Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battle/The Old World or Mantic's Kings of War. Haven't played a game since 2019 due to not being able to find a active group of players near me. I would guess about $3000 in miniatures collecting dust.

I have a complete Star Wars Imperial Assault collection, but again that's a game that no one plays. It can be played solo, but I haven't unpacked it since 2022. Technically discontinued (development officially ended in 2019), it is still being published. My collection of 48 sets has a $1284 retail value.

I had played Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game from 2013 to 2022, when I moved to Arizona and could not find anyone that plays it (occasionally my daughter and I play a game using 2012's 1st edition rules). The game had been discontinued in 2025. I don't have an inventory of my collection (yet), but I would estimate at least $2500 in miniatures.

I have all 5 factions for Star Wars Legion (SWL) - Separatists, Grand Army of the Republic, Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire and Shadow Collective I started in 2020, but I haven't played a game since 2024 due to the closest player community is nearly a 2 hour's drive away. Not quite as expensive as Warhammer 40K is, but still a pricey game to get into. Character 2 figure packs about $40, 7-10 figure unit sets about $55, vehicles $60+. According to my inventory list, my collection's retail value is $6,505, 1025 figures/models, average $6.35 each.

I have 4 Warhammer 40K (WH40K) armies - Astra Militarum (aka Imperial Guard), Imperial Agents, Imperial Knights and Tau Empire. Not my favorite game, but one that has the largest player community. Got into the game about 1998-1999. I can find a game at any of 4 game stores within 45 minutes of me. It is also the most expensive game to get into. A single character figure can cost $35+, a box of 10 figures $70+, vehicles $100+. I have 614 figures/models in my collection, which has a total retail value of $15,444! That's $25.15 per model! (good thing I never paid full retail price for any of them).

The game I find myself playing the most, and frankly enjoy the most, is Warlord Games' Bolt Action (BA) - a WWII tabletop miniatures game. Only been playing 1 nation - US, though I do have figures and models for a British and a German army waiting to be assembled and painted. In the Phoenix (Arizona) area, I've only found 1 active community of players, but fortunately it's plays at a store that's within 30 minutes drive of me, and has about 8-10 active players. Compared to WH40k, it is a cheaper game to get into - less than half the cost of GW's models. And unlike GW, Warlord Games does not care who's figures or model you use for your game - you can even bring 3D printed models to official tournaments. My collection has 408 figures/models, total retail of $2865 - at $7.02 per model, slight more expensive than SWL, but less than a quarter of WH40K's cost.

So just counting SWL, WH40K and BA, my collections total retail would be $24,814. Fortunately for me, I paid on average about 41% of the retail price. Spread out over 28 years (since I started playing WH40K), that's an average cost of $363 per year. Yeah yeah, it's not expensive at all...

Oh wait, I haven't calculated how much I've spent on paint...

Imperial Knight Baron Papercraft Project

 

Found out about Warhammer 40K Papercrafts (PC) in March 2024.

 My first model was the Tau Devilfish.

Took me nearly a month because of many distractions and feeling a bit overwhelmed at first. 5 pages, over 100 parts to cut out and glue. But I eventually finished it, and both myself and my friends in my local gaming group were amazed by how close to the actual plastic model it was. 

So inspired by my initial success, I dived headlong into making more PC models. I build Imperial Knights Armigers, Imperial Knights, Tau Crisis Suits and even 2 versions of a Warhound Titan (I posted earlier about their construction Here and Here).

The Imperial Knights I found 3 patterns, all identical except for coloring. Unknown creator. It  was similar to the plastic model, but in a broad sense.

And one day I found the inspiration for the PC version: Imperial Knight Baron. The first appearance of an Imperial Knight in the Warhammer 40K games, it was a metal figure in the Epic (8mm I believe) scale. So of course I decided I was going to build a PC version.

My photoshop and PDF editing skills are quite lacking. So instead of trying to recolor a PDF file of the Knight, I decided I would just "recolor" by painting. I started with the Yellow knight pattern.

I rounded up the paints I would use. My old Ironhull Grey was old and a bit thinned out, which made it perfect for giving the yellow "brass trim" a "steel gray" look.

So first thing - print and cut out all the parts. 8 pages to print out. 117 pieces.

Printed the picture at full (WH40K scale) size, cut out the extra parts I would need (printed double-sided and mirror reversed for the banners).

Autocannon

Chainsword

Both completed and painted.

Feet (2)

Boot armor handcrafted to supplement the foot armor pieces.

The boot piece replaces the front "toe" armor piece.

Feet finished.

Hips and upper legs. Simple compared to the previous steps.

Note - The beveled ring piece for the bottom is about 6mm too long.

The shoulders. Base painted, details will be added after they are on the model.

Note - a snip here will allow the shoulder to fit properly on the "base" (the grey ovals).

Shoulders, head cowl and head finished.

Close up of the head piece.

Main body and exhaust parts.

Main body finished. Now to attach everything.

And done. Ready to enforce the Emperor's Will 

Papercraft Warhound build

Besides the JVS version, I'm also building a scaled up version of a Titanicus scale Warhound Titan. I think the original version was by Jim Bowen. Scaled up 464%. 65lb Cardstock. 

Day 1: Head piece.

Day 2, "sheet 2". Torso sections 1 & 4.

Day 3, got the feeling I scaled up too large, so spent the day resizing and printing the head. Getting that Goldilocks and the Three Bears feeling. Using the JSV pattern as a guide. "Papa" is sized up 464%, and seems too big. "Baby" is sized up 348%, and seems too small. "Mama" seems just right, sized up 407%.

Day 4. After resizing and starting again, back on track with "sheet 3" - Torso pieces 2, 3, 5 & some smaller parts.

Day 5, sheet 4. Hip joints, waist ring, shoulder Mounts, left leg parts.

Day 5 part 2. Main hull assembled.

Day 6, sheet 5. Hip, right leg parts, lower shin parts.

Day 7. Getting the legs assembled. When I built the 1/2 size version, I had the lower legs straight up from the feet, and the model was nose heavy.  Having the lower legs at an angle should help shift the center of gravity back

Day 8. Toes. Due to their size, two sheets.

Feet completed. Getting the feeling this Titan should have been called "Raptor", not Warhound.

Day 9. Legs assembled.

Day 10. Chassis finished, armor pieces ready.

Day 11. Almost done. Next, the weapons. Thinking about attaching them by magnets to allow changing to suit WYSIWYG.

Day 12. Plasma Blastgun done.

Day 13. Finished. Ready for table duty.

JSV papercraft Warhound Build

 This will chronicle my build of a papercraft WH40K Warhound Titan. This will use the pattern released by JSV (jsvironfurnace@yahoo.com). Rather than bottom up, starting with the feet; I've chosen to build top down, starting with the head. After cutting out the first piece, I realize the pattern does not include overlap tabs common in papercraft models (quickly I manually added them on all subsequent pieces). I'm using 65 lb Cardstock. 

Day 1: Head completed.

 (Each square on the craft board is 1 cm.)

Day 2: Main hull completed. 

Day 3: Right rear hull section done.

Day 4: Left rear hull section.

Day 5, sheet 5. Shoulder Armor Weapon Mounts.

Day 5 part 2. Hull sections finished and assembled. Next, legs and feet.

Day 6. Vulcan Megablaster. Warhound's wargear is 2 weapons from 8 options, so going to magnetize them. 

Day 7. Plasma Blastgun. Will do the rest of the weapons after I finish the Warhound. 

Day 8. Waist and Hips.

Day 9. 1 foot completed.

Day 10. 2nd foot done.

Day 11. Left leg done.

Day 12. Finished. Painting and detailing will be subject of another post. Getting "Ghost Hound" vibes. :)