$150 minis

For $100 on the Tactics Kickstarter, we get every mini unlocked in the Kickstarter, unpainted, plus the game and everything else.  But for $150 more, we would get that PLUS every mini unlocked in the Kickstarter painted (so, you'd end up with two sets of minis, one painted, one unpainted).

$150 for a second set of minis with some paint slapped on them by a person on an assembly line in Asia?  I have to say that seems like crazytalk, although I do appreciate the effort that went into making the option available to people for whom it's not crazytalk.

I see there are 8 people who have already taken the offer so far, so maybe I'm the one who's crazy...

In general, the backers seem happy with that. Maybe that's normal for minis games? I don't know; I've never backed a CMoN project.

Hey, if you have money to spare...

I'm right there with you Spiff. 

But major hat tipps to >G for offering the package for people that want it. Hey, if it makes stretch goals easier for my little base level pledge, then I'm all for it.

After Kaosball, I never will again…

Indeed. I sure as heck don't have that kind of money floating around, but kudos for those that do.

Up to 19 backers so far, in 20 minutes. I'm not surprised miniature painting is expensive. I also wouldn't be so dismissive of Chinese workers; there are some poorly made Chinese goods, but I doubt Greater than Games works with them. I do see some missing details (Legacy's lantern looks off, and I hope he gets his grey hair).

Also, the miniatures look much better than the prototypes, independent of the paint job.

I think I'd rather - if I didn't wan to paint them myself - put an ad up at my friendly local game store or at an art school to paint a second set for me.

To each their own. I'm glad that some people have the option if they want it.

its crazy, when you consider that for the extra 90 bucks your paying for the second set of minis, you could pay someone that much to paint them for you.

but if people want it… ill post some pics of my work and you can pay me the 90 dollars and send that second set my way to paint

The recently finished Arcadia Quest Kickstarter had two pledge levels: $100 for everything and $400 for everything painted. I believe there was a similar price jump on the Guardians Chronicles superhero miniatures game as well, so it seems to be in line with what the hobbyists are expecting to pay...

All that being said... I can't justify it to myself. I pay a lot of money to be lazy on a lot if occasions, but this hobby is already a rather superfluous expense already as it is. I'll just keep my unpainted minis until I get inspired enough to paint them or lazy enough to stop caring hahaha

I know that some people aren't the biggest fans of Boardgamegeek, but it is a great place to get the word out about this. If the >G guys are ok with it, I would recommend posting the pictures of the painted minis on BGG. The more people that see them, the more potential backers we will have.

(I would be sure to include a note that they are just a "prototype paint job" and that the finals will be even better quality)

There are actually several pictures on the Kickstarter page that could be profitably posted to BGG. Any of the pictures of the actual prototype boards would fit their guidlines.

I don't have the money for that backer option, let alone to paint minis myself, but $90 to get 20+ miniatures painted, even if not expertly, doesn't seem totally outlandish to me.  It's under $5 per miniature, after all, and if the Citizens and Unity-Bots options are really full sets of minis, it goes up to an absurd 40+ minis at the same cost.

And don't forget, there's plenty of people to whom miniatures are just a prop, not a hobby to pour dozens of hours into.  If you were never going to paint them yourself, then the choice becomes color or no color.

Can I start a Kickstarter to pay for my minis? Just saying...

Now if they add a pledge-level or add-on for just Ra painted, I might go for it, but quite frankly I'm still trying to justify my current minis-only pledge to myself.

It doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Small numbers of manufactured things cost much more per unit than large numbers. You can't compare this to any mass-produced painted item.

If you can paint the miniature for less than $5 each in time & materials, or find someone to do it for you that cheaply, that option is available, as it always was.

There are 49 people at that pledge level now. I'm thinking about it, but I've found mini-painting fun in the past and might want to do it myself. It would cost probably $150 in just materials, though, not to mention time (which is the way more expensive part).

Because, check out Dat Bunker! That's not some half-assed assembly line paint job, that's a professional painting. And I am totally getting them painted. I can't tell them apart very well when they're all grey.

My wife was all "do you want them, I'll get them for you."  But she's drunk right now, so we'll see what she says tomorrow.  Pricing the number of miniatures to paint it isn't a bad price.

I think I like the $120 wait and just get the painted ones option better.

The ones used for advertising are usually hand painted by someone that does it for a living. The ones that usually come to the customer tend to be assembly line painted.

Hey, if anyone wants to go for the $150 minis and donate their unpainted ones to me, I wouldn't complain. ;)

If anyone wants to get the painted miniatures and sell their unpainted miniatures to me (or trade them at a favorable basis for miniatures from the Reaper Bones kickstarters), I'd be happy to send actual money to people in exchange for a second set of unpainted miniatures to paint with a different color scheme. PM me. Please.

29 minatures, round it to 30, fully painted is entirely worth 150 bucks. Entirely. Even at chinese sweet shop paint jobs. Fully Painted minature lines, sch as HeroClix or others usually are 10-15 bucks for a booster of 5 mini's. Given that they're production costs are going to be a whooole lot less than >G, 5 bucks a minature is not a bad price point at all.

Given that it will probably be unity and her bots as the next two goals, I can bet and expect 36 minatures, painted, for 150 dollars, less than 5 dollars a minature.

That's... really good actually. Really good.

I'll still paint your minatures if you want, but not for that cheap :P

if you care, here is some photo's of some unfinished 40k work

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v687/lynkfox/Warhammer/DSCF1843.jpg (base and weapon still had to be finished)

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lynkfox/media/Warhammer/Skittari/DSC00182.jpg.html?sort=3&o=11 (base wasn't even built, and still had to wash the black for detail)

iw ould seriously paint them for money, but only semi serious. If you're going to pay someone to paint them, you'll get a much better deal and better end product out of someone else :P

Even better, since the first $60 of that is the cost of the minis themselves, so it's $90 for about 30 paint jobs.  As painted minis go, this seems on point with Hero/Horror/Mage Knight Clix.

So now we know everything we're getting and what it costs, and it won't change anymore. Who wants to do the math now =)

I'm tempted.. it's a good value I think but it's a lot of money period.

I'll use $50 as the cost of the core and uprising minis unpainted [1] and $170 [2] as their cost painted.

I'll use $20 as the cost of the add-on minis unpainted [3] and $80 [4] as their cost painted. 

Total for unpainted minis is thus $70 and for painted minis is $250. There are 53 minis [5]. 

That's $1.32/unpainted mini or $4.72/painted mini.

[1] I'm assuming that we're looking at the cost to _add_ minis to getting the core game, not to get them by themselves. Since $100 gets you the Core game and the Core/Uprising unpainted minis, but $50 gets you the Core game, $100-$50 is the additional cost for the unpainted minis. Total is $50

[2] Getting the Core and/or Uprising minis painted is $60 each, so $120 extra dollars on top of the $50 for unpainted minis. Total is $170.

[3] The Add-on including unpainted minis is $40. The Add-on maps alone are $20. The extra required to get the unpainted minis is thus $20.

[4] The Add-on including painted minis is $100, so that's another $60 above the unpainted minis. Total is $80.

[5] 53 minis: 

Core (19) - 9 characters plus 10 Citizens;

Uprising (17) - 5 characters plus 6 Proletariats plus 6 bots

Add-on (17) - 6 Blade Battalion soldiers plus 5 dinosaurs plus 5 underbosses plus the Reaper

I 100% agree with the add-on for a single painted mini, Ra

So, as somoene who doesn't normally buy minis, is this a good price for painted minis? Could I fairly get someone to paint them for less?

For a quality paint job you are looking at far more.  I can't imagine someone painting fast enough that they could charge that little.

depending on quality of paint your looking at 10-20 dollars per mini. if you look up at mine above, thats a 12ish dollar job.