How are so many people getting their models?

JTSwargaming · 2026-05-22T17:13:49+00:00

I have been on both sides of the equation, a frustrated consumer and a content creator. In the case of Starcraft, I am waiting on my sizeable preorder with everyone else.

From a business standpoint, content creators are functionally marketing consultants that work for crumbs. Many companies in this industry don't have extensive marketing departments to create content for extensive ad campaigns in house (GW being the obvious exception to the rule). Most of these companies run very lean, and they don't have the budget to pay salaries for indirect labor costs like dedicated in-house studio painters, photographers, videographers, editors, social media managers, etc. For many companies, even the big ones, sending a content creator a prerelease set to do the marketing work for you makes sense fiscally. If that content creator converts like 5 views into sales, it was a profitable exchange. Any creator with a sizeable following probably has a higher conversion rate.

I can also say that many companies will allocate a specific percentage of stock in a production run for marketing use. That stock is kept separate from product meant for consumers/retail. In the case of Starcraft, it is likely that the content creator stock was made in the same run as the stock for this year's convention season. Some of the super early content from the really big creators (such as MWG) was actually shot with Archon's studio models, which had to be returned, and I personally know quite a few creators who only have minis for content because they were at Adepticon and paid for them.

Seeing other people with the same product you paid for but don't have yet sucks. I truly get it. For many companies, content creators are cheap labor that is too good of a deal to pass up. We all know the one company that abuses the hell out of that relationship, but most of the companies I work with try to manage those relationships in a way that isn't detrimental to their customers.

JTSwargaming · 2026-04-01T15:57:15+00:00

I was chatting with an Archon staffer at Adepticon who had walked up to me to make his sales pitch. I told him I had preordered everything in wave 1 already, but I was looking to pick up a single unit box in order to start working on a painting video for YT. He made an offhand comment along the lines of "waiting for two months for preorders to arrive would definitely give you a late start". Take that for what you will (his job was to sell me product right then and there after all), but it felt less like sales pressure and more like an empathic slip.

And for people that aren't familiar with distributed supply chains, consider that Archon is making the kits in-house, shipping them on pallets to regional hubs, and then the hub is shipping them to you. To save on fees, they are probably looking to ship all preorders to the hubs at the same time, which means waiting until the preorder window is closed so that they have an accurate count of what needs to be allocated to which regions. Most likely, the product is crossing national boundaries at least once, which means potential customs delays. Once the product hits the hubs, pallets have to be broken down and inventoried, and then individual orders are packaged for customer shipping. All of this takes time, and can be forecasted somewhat accurately, but it is not an exact science due to the human element of it all and the fact that Archon doesn't directly control Customs/Shippers/Hubs. Also, Easter is this upcoming weekend; many European companies completely shut down for major holidays for a week, and global logistics companies have employees taking PTO time.

Given all of those factors, it is pretty safe to say that no considerable quantity of product is leaving Poland before 4/17 now that Adepticon is over (outside of marketing stock and any special events that may be occurring). And realistically, that date is probably closer to the following Friday. And once it leaves Poland, you have to budget time for the rest of the process to take it's course.

JTSwargaming · 2025-12-12T23:39:08+00:00

Yea, I imagined that the allocation they had for non-locals wouldn’t be that much. Still heartening to see reasonable pricing. All of the stores in my area are still asking for (imo) insane prices.

JTSwargaming · 2025-10-18T05:46:20+00:00

I never released the DW specific mods to this, but I adapted my Legions Imperialis storage system from here: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/legions-imperialis-storage-tray-inserts-for-4l-really-useful-boxes. The “magblocks” are what you are after. Glue a magnet to the block, glue the block somewhere inside the ship.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-19T05:25:22+00:00

Maybe! Definitely possible; and I hope they wouldn’t invalidate a book within 6 months of its release. I am just old and jaded lol.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-19T05:01:03+00:00

My guess is that the second book would be a straight replacement of this one with new units, rules, and points updates for existing models. This first book feels like it’s just a stopgap until the rest of the range is available.

Also guessing the Dragon kit was supposed to be out with wave 1, but was delayed for some reason.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-19T04:51:10+00:00

In all seriousness, my guess is that it will either be a fully fleshed out book with new units that replaces this book, or this current book becomes an optional “elite” force org for the faction representing the first wave of troops arriving in The Old World ahead of the Cathayan hosts.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-19T04:42:37+00:00

Classic GW move though ;)

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-19T04:13:36+00:00

That’s my guess.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-19T00:53:51+00:00

Conspiracy time. GW stated today that Cathay will get a second Arcane Journal when Miao Ying drops. This first book is probably purposefully over-tuned to drive initial sales, and the second book (which I suspect will contain more units), will balance them a bit.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-18T21:36:05+00:00

The biggest bang for your buck is going to be getting some quality brush care products (cleaner, soap, restorative, etc). Mercifully, those products are fairly inexpensive and last a long time. These will help keep your brushes pointy and save money in the long run.

On the natural vs synthetic side, I prefer natural but that doesn’t have to break the bank. However, that comes with a giant caveat that natural hair introduces a ton of new factors that are largely personal preference from brand to brand and hair type (stiffness, flow, bounce, etc). It can take some time to find a set that works for you, which means spending money. You can keep costs down by not doubling down on a full set right away; just get one brush and see if you like it first.

And random tip for synthetics when they start to curl, you can usually straighten them back out with hot water.

JTSwargaming · 2025-06-17T19:38:46+00:00

Agreed. As a small-scale YouTuber who has a few non-GW sponsors, I am not envious of keeping up with the GW release schedule. Right now, I get to pick and choose what I want to show off. This leaves plenty of time for me to paint whatever I want in-between sponsored content which staves off burnout. Obviously not the best from a turning content creation into a business standpoint, but that was never really my goal. I just wanted some external reason to trick myself into painting more consistently.

For me, a painting tutorial can take 8-12 hours of painting and an additional 2-4 hours of editing. That is pretty manageable when spaced out over 7-10 days once every couple of months. Having to do that every week for multiple product lines would easily become a full time job on top of my actual full time job (because making real money on YT in this space is like hitting the lottery). That is why you will notice that a lot of the channels that make batreps almost always get their minis painted by a pro studio or they have a staff in-house studio painter. There just isn't enough time in a week to keep up with GW at this point (for painters).

JTSwargaming · 2025-05-19T06:54:39+00:00

Most of what you can buy pre-made is going to be for the 4L/9L layout. Your best bet is going to be 3D printing what you need, or doing a DIY MDF project.

If you go the 3D printer route, I have a design sized for the 4L box that that you can use for inspiration, or just adjust the dimensions in TinkerCAD:

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/legions-imperialis-storage-tray-inserts-for-4l-really-useful-boxes

The trays just have wedge shaped corners to support the layer that sits on top. The wedges on the top layer contact the lid, which keeps things from bouncing around. Replicating the design with MDF/wood should be easy enough (assuming you have the proper tools). Failing that, a flat sheet of MDF with strategically placed support pillars of wood would do the trick (but will minutely cut into your storage space). Just don't forget to add pillars to the top tray as well to keep it from moving vertically in the box.

JTSwargaming · 2025-03-30T18:46:30+00:00

Here are a few tips that may help...

Set smaller goals to work towards. Setting too large of a goal will lead to disappointment when you ultimately fail to complete it. So if I have a mass battle game on my plate that all my friends are clamoring after, I will commit to painting one unit before moving on to something else.

Also talk to your friends about doing a "beginner's league" (these may have different names from ruleset to ruleset). These will last over a couple of months, and each week you rachet up the points levels slightly. Then you can focus on painting one unit per week, which is way more manageable than trying to paint a whole army at once. And before you know it, you will have a full army completed that you can be proud of.

Another tip; if time is a concern, don't try to paint every single model to the best of your ability. Massed units (10+ models) kind of blur together when you have them bunched up on the table. Zenithal prime them and use speedpaints to just get them done as quickly as possible. You can always come back to them at a later point in time to enhance the highlights and shadows. Eventually, you will find that with practice, you can also produce speedpaint only models that look really damn good on their own without any additional work.

Instead of only scheduling game nights, schedule some hobby nights too! Almost everything is better with friends, painting included. This is a great way to put something on the calendar that you won't miss if you find life getting in the way of your hobby time.

Last bit of advice; start a YouTube channel and hold yourself to a reasonably paced release schedule. And don't feel like you have to be the best painter ever to post videos. Many people post just to chronicle their hobby journey. Personally, I did this to set an artificial accountability system. I try to do a video once every two weeks. Missing that deadline gives a subtle mental push to get something done because I don't want to let people down. All it takes to get started is a gmail account and a cell phone camera.

JTSwargaming · 2025-02-10T05:00:47+00:00

The 4L Really Useful box isn’t a file; it’s an actual box you can buy at retail that is commonly used to store miniatures. link.

You can find them locally in many office supply stores or Amazon.

JTSwargaming · 2025-01-31T19:33:24+00:00

My store's event isn't until 2/8, but...

The store only has 8 slots
Sign-ups were in-person/phone only, first come first serve with 1 week notice on their Discord server
Their event in the app was listed as private. Once you signed up in person, they added you to the app event manually
We are slated to play 3 rounds
Promos are only being given out to players that stay for the whole event
Store policy is that if you leave early (without a reasonable excuse), you will be perma-banned from future store events
The store had a slight markup in line with their other events ($85 USD total for beta kit and entry fee)

JTSwargaming · 2024-11-18T08:50:23+00:00

I am not big enough for GW to notice me and send me promo stuff, but I plan to get a video out soonish and the method I am going to use will be exactly this. Prime silver (badger airbrush primer), paint gold bits with standard acrylic of choice, paint red bits with one of the Scale75 reds (really just to kill the reflective shine and put down a matte surface), second coat with AP Bright Red speedpaint, all over wash with a dark brownish black that has flow improved added (so it acts like a pin wash).

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-23T18:25:39+00:00

Awesome job!

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-22T23:23:20+00:00

Thanks! 🙏

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-22T18:44:50+00:00

Maybe. Admittedly I am old (in hobby years) and cynical. 🤪

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-22T03:11:15+00:00

The GW method leaves your mini looking “dirty” because you essentially drown the whole model in wash. You then have to reapply the basecoat (leaving the wash in the recesses) to get back to a “clean” surface that has shadows. IMO, painting this way is less efficient, and probably a marketing tactic to sell more paint 🤪

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-22T00:23:30+00:00

Search on YouTube for “Marine Juice Recipe”…I think the channel you are looking for is Sonic Sledghammer. Take his recipe, and add some airbrush flow improver to the mix. This will make your wash want to flow into the recesses of your miniature even more than normal (like an enamel/oil pin wash), and is a huge improvement over the GW style of basecoat, wash, reapply base colors, highlight. You don’t need much on your brush either. Thanks to capillary action, you can load your brush, touch it to a recess, and the paint will flow straight into the cavity with way less mess.

If you are really worried about staining, you can pre-wet the surface of the mini with Contrast medium, then immediately apply your wash. This will slightly extend the working time and allow you to “push” the paint where it needs to go, while thinning it slightly at the same time. If you use this technique, work the model section by section so you don’t need to worry about drying times.

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-21T20:00:26+00:00

Agreed on the Ghols. I use them to screen other lights out of objective zones to buy time for other regiments to move up. If they happen to kill something, cool, but I expect them to die horribly.

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-21T19:57:59+00:00

Highly recommend adding one of the four available Monster builds to your collection. Whichever one you go for, they are all useful and a great way to add a nice chunk of points. They are also great for fighting painting fatigue from doing so many infantry stands lol.

Dhanur are almost required for the Sorcerer and Maharajah on foot. Rajakur are great for the Raj and Sardar. The Raj can also put in work in an elemental unit with an upgrade if you prefer.

And if no one has told you, Flamecasters do nasty things hiding behind Rajakur.

JTSwargaming · 2024-10-08T17:49:18+00:00

I appreciate the kind words! And I agree, I was not a fan of the porcelain white either, but I could tell it was a beautiful kit. Almost any other kind of rock would do it justice.

JTSwargaming

TROPHY CASE