Well, if you don't feel like gang-banging your party with displacer beast pack lords, the other option is to sell them on eBay. I know that a number of the commons, particularly from newer sets like WotDQ have special abilities that amp up if a boatload are used at once, though that only helps if you're playing the skirmish game.

You should have hit up e-bay. People buy those boxes and pawn off the commons for cheap. I bought 70-something plastic miniatures for about 30 bucks.

I recommend you go to a craft store like Michael's and check out their acrylic paints. You have just as good a selection as with the many lines of paints for figs out there, but you get a lot more for your dollar. You can get some decent brushes there too, look for 5/0 to 10/0, I *think* (folks correct me if I'm mistaken).

colinblackthorn pretty much got the "how-tos" on painting figs, including drybrushing (a technique I use a lot). For the matte, be careful. A glossy matte finish may make your figs look too shiny. Go for a flat matte, and you'll be fine.

I'm also told that the paint job is utterly crappy, you can soak the fig in Pine-Sol and water to get the paint off.

For bases, I recommend getting washers from the hardware store. Attach the washer to the fig using the putty and you shape your base up nicely. A one-inch washer is perfect for any Medium sized fig.

I have used a citrus orange product to strip really bad paint jobs. Stripping is always an option, if you have paint jobs that suck, and no new projects to work on.

The craft store is good for brushes and other products, but I would stay away from the cheap craft paints. I know some people get great results from them, but it is much harder work. Slightly better is the games workshop paints. That is where most people start out. Above that, reaper makes a line of paints, vallejo game color, a few others that I haven't tried. Top shelf is the vallejo model color, but to come full circle, you have to have some idea of what you are doing to get best results out of them.

Oh, and the 10/0 brush is a must, but for each part of the painting, use the largest brush you can use and still get the detail you need. Trying to paint a dragon with just a 10/0 will turn you off painting forever.


and someone else said it, I'll repeat it. Your first several figures may look aweful, keep at it. It gets better fairly quick.

The problem I've found with the Games Workshop paints is that they can dry out quickly. Plus at $3 for such a small can you don't get the volume.

Having said that, I realize that GW changed their paints to come in the flip top caps instead of the screw-ons (last I saw), which seems to make them last longer, and you can use it more efficiently. I just have a beef with the cost.

Reaper paints are pretty good, and if you don't want to go with an unknown quality that you might find in the craft stores, it's probably your best bet.

As for #1, do you know of any gaming buddies might need spare pieces to use for D&D pieces? Could use them for presents; for example: for DMs, they are handy for representing random enemies.

You ~could~ try repainting some of them, if you're daring/bored enough, though on the plastic it probably won't stick to well so you'd have to take care. Some of the pieces wouldn't work as well as others also, such as any piece with a lance because the lance would be bendy due to the plastic and crack any paint (though you could just avoid painting these parts and it would solve that problem).

Can't exactally say anything myself as to #2 as I only just started painting minis myself.