To pimp or not to pimp, that is the question. What should I do with my new WoFun miniatures? Should I just put them in the bases provided and enjoy looking at them? Or should I do the work myself and design the bases? Maybe even paint the edges? Just black or the uniform color.
Questions upon questions and no one who can make the decision for me. Of course I could look around on the Internet and see what other players have done with their figures. But let's be honest, there are many very good figure painters and friendly hobbyists on the Internet, but also many who can put you off the hobby. This is where the „WoFun Games Supporters Wargaming Group” on Facebook comes in, because like-minded people hang out there, the tone is friendly and no one complains about wanting to play with figures that have already been painted. After all, everyone there thinks the WoFun miniatures are great. So if you don't know what to do next or just want to see what the figures look like in real life, this group is the first place to go.
If you already have your miniatures, you can continue. The nice thing about WoFun miniatures is that you can start playing with them straight away. You can just try out new eras.
The wars of Alexander? I've always wanted to put elephants on the playing field. Or the wars of the Spanish succession? No idea what's going on there, but the uniforms are fantastic. Napoleon's wars and Sharpe in Spain, I loved the books.
No problem, or would you rather have the Crusades? I've always wanted to have big, colorful armies of knights, no, better Custer's last battle at Little Big Horn. As a child, I saw every western I could imagine. Everything is possible and can be done in a short time. Because the figures are already prepainted and battleready.
This brings me back to my original question. Should I just play with my WoFun figures straight out of the box or invest time and a little money to make them look a little better?
It's about what I want to do with the figures. Do I just want to try out a new era without having to spend ages building and painting figures? Or did I choose the WoFun figures because they are already prepainted, battleready and are also not so expensive, meaning that large armies can be set up in an incredibly short time. Should they be my main army or just a small side project?
If it's a small side project, I honestly wouldn't go to the trouble. I would play them as they are. And when I think back to my childhood, to Airfix, Revell and the like, the WoFun figures are far better. They are colorful and historically accurate and not just green and brown. And yet we could also spend days with these old soft plastic figures, fight huge battles and still live in fear of our mothers' vacuum cleaners.
WoFun miniatures, on the other hand, are colorful and look great even straight out of the frame. I also think that my mother wouldn't just vacuum them up, especially since they are much bigger because of their bases. So there are more advantages than advantages.
However, if I now want to play them as the main army, I should perhaps think about whether I don't want to invest some time in designing the bases. Because let's be honest, painting the figures is actually an essential part of our hobby. We enjoy creating something. Of course, only after we have spent days or weeks poring over the relevant specialist literature to decide what the right color was for the buttons of the French infantry during the retreat from Russia and whether there were even real buttons left.
All of this is not necessary with the WoFun minis, but you can still let your creativity run wild here. Would I perhaps prefer to have paper flags to adapt my regiments of the English Civil War to a specific battle?
Such small changes often make a big difference. But a designed base can also change the appearance of a figure. Here I have to decide again. Do I just want to add some sand and grass? Or go straight to the full and design each base individually with small flowers, stones and anything else you can think of.
Now that I've got this far, it's not far to paint the edges of the figures. Just a little black on the cut edges of the figures gives them a lot more depth and completely changes the look of the units.
Below I have simply included a few comparison pictures, fresh from the frame compared to the same figures with blackened edges and next to it fresh from the sprue on a simply designed base and next to it a designed base and blackened edges.
I think that you can already see a clear difference here. If you have the time and inclination, you can of course also paint the edges in the colors of the print, which almost turns a 2D figure into a 3D figure again. I have attached a picture from our group here so that the difference is clear.
And yet I would like to point out that the more time I invest in the figures, the less time I have to play with them and I personally believe that playing with friends is the main reason for us to pursue this hobby in the first place. For me, it is primarily about personal contact with my fellow players. How often have we just sat down after a game and talked about our everyday worries? One minute we were fighting each other to the point of bloodshed and not giving an inch, and less than five minutes after the game we were complaining about our work or sharing other worries. I think that's the most important aspect of our hobby, the human contact.
And here it becomes clear that everyone has to decide for themselves what they would like to do. Do I want to invest the time or not? Am I the figure collector who is interested in collecting large armies or the "artist" who is interested in painting as a process. Do I collect, play or do I prefer to paint and craft? Did I play with my grey plastic miniatures in the past or did every figure have to be painted perfectly?
All of these factors of our hobby can be found here in all its areas. For this reason, the initial question: To pimp or not to pimp My WoFunMinis, cannot be answered off the cuff.
Everyone should and must answer it for themselves, I just hope my thoughts have given one or two ideas. Perhaps one or two people have recognized themselves in my words and have been able to make a decision for themselves about what they want to do with their figures.
I think it doesn't matter what, the main thing is that you have fun.
Until next time.
Your Martin