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Antique Japan Miniatures Collectibles
By DavePF | June 25, 2009
Many war games such as Heroclix, Mage Knight, Warmachine and others use miniature figurines which are also called miniatures or mini for short.antique collectibles porcelain elizabeth arden adomizer Often role-playing games can use minis to help visualize the factors that affect combat such as line of sight, hand to hand combat and directions. Some minatures are expertly sculpted, and considerred collectible in their own right.
The hobby of painting, collecting, and gaming with miniatures is descended from the toy soldier hobby. Traditionally, “toy soldiers” are sold pre-painted, and miniatures are sold “bare” and require painting. This distinction is blurring with the recent introduction of pre-painted plastic figures, such as those used in Clix games.
Miniatures have most commonly been cast in white metal, which is an alloy of lead and tin, with a small amount of antimony, which improves the alloy’s ability to take fine detail. Because of the high lead content, minis were sometimes called lead figures.
In 1993, the New York legislature nearly passed a bill outlawing lead in miniatures, citing public health concerns. Most miniature manufacturers feared that other states would assert more bans on lead, so they began making them with expensive lead-free alloys, which in turn raised prices for collectors.
Following almost a year of public discussion, including complaints from miniature makers and devotees, Governor Mario Cuomo signed the bill which declared that miniatures were not subject to the state’s Public Health Law. The manufacturers in the United States continue to use alloys without lead in them in spite of this.
Manufacturers produce miniatures in a variety of materials such as polyethylene, plastic or hard polystyrene, however there are some that will use polyurethane based resin.
Box miniatures are sometimes used in war games and they are simply made from card stock folded and called cuboids. Each side features artwork on the outside.
Painting: In order to be able to tell characters or units used in role-playing and war games apart on a particular gaming surface such as a battle mat, an unadorned table top, or even on terrain, many gamers paint their miniature figures.
Some gamers believe the skillful painting of minis is a hobby on par with the “more serious” modeling of historical and military figures while many others care little about the quality of the paint job. The results of skilled mini-painting are quite amazing, but the process can be difficult, precise, and time-consuming.
In Internet painting competitions like Games Workshop’s Golden Demon Contest, sometimes one can see the featured painted minis of fantasy, role playing miniatures war gaming conventions.
Professional painting services exist for hobbyist and corporate customers.
Topics: Gaming |
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