Busy busy

Quite a delay in posting I am afraid Retrodelics- my work life has rudely interrupted my hobby life.  Tsk.
Thanks for the emails.  I have had a few requests and questions.  Lets tackle them.

Q: Can I get a close up of the Monster Starter Set Ogre?
A:  Totally.  I will be posting close ups of the completed monster starter set once I, you know, complete it and stuff.

Q:Good pages for collecting retro citadel.  Well, FROTHERS (FU-UK) has a great 'citadel archive' sticky thread, which is well worth going through every page of.  Take a day off and cruise it with a bottle of fine tequila.  For the definitive AD&D mini collection, google Otherworld minis.  Stuff of Legends is a must have bookmark, as well as the collecting citadel miniatures wiki.  Am I the only one who thinks wiki is a stupid name for something.  Put it in the sin bin with google, blog, skype and twitter.

Q: Whats the best way to find old stuff?
A:  Ebay.  Naturally.  Search result combinations to try are '(1980s, vintage, OOP, rogue trader and rare) + (GW, citadel, warhammer, talisman)'.  Tad obvious, but I am hardly a font of deep wisdom.  Joining the collecting citadel miniatures yahoo list also gives you a headsup on auctions.

Q: How do I stop getting ripped off?
A: Tough one.  Go for quality figure photos, ask if the photo is of the actual model sold if duplicates are listed.  Its almost impossible to tell a good recast from a late line model, but the bottom line is you want a figure thats good quality.  Most recasts you will encounter are gravity fed tin copies made from silicon moulds- very warped, softer details, lost details, inferior metals and a ragged double mould line are the main problems with these.  A clean double mould line is a by product of the manufacturing process at citadel - the putty masters are cast in resin, and from these resin masters the production moulds are made.  Lazy workmanship means the original mould line is not smoothed off, and a double line results.  A ragged double line that digs into the figure denotes a poor silcone mould copy and is definately the work of a pirate.  If you imagine where the two parts of the mould run against the figure you get very thin silcone edges, and these need to be trimmed with sharp scissors or they have a tendency to fold in and cause crappy joins.  Hence the ragged edge.
I have no doubt that some professional casters may be tempted to make proper vulcanised plate spin cast copies and these are often impossible to tell from an original even placed side by side.  Quite often you just have to shrug and say 'close enough'.
  I wouldn't question the integrity of a seller, however you do have a right to return the figure if you are not satisfied with it in most deals.  Remember that some genuine dealers may have picked up fakes in job lots and have not spotted them, so its not part of a conspiracy against you.  Accusing someone of fraud and piracy is a major thing.  Try for a refund, then complain.  Most dealers are in it for the love, its not exactly big money.
That said, a policy of checking frequently to see if the trader keeps getting the same stock back in- its amazing just how many rare rogue trader figures some guys get manage to find every month.
Ultimately dont pay too much for a figure- if you pay more than a modern figure your a nit wit.

Q: I heard someone lost his whole collection to theives.  Do you insure?
A: Yes and no.  I have read a couple of cases of insurance companies not paying out on miniatures, even when Citadel where asked to value the collection.
  Instead I keep most of my collection in cases in a secure storage lockup rather than at home.  I rotate these when I get fed up looking at them, or once I finish painting them.  At most I only ever have about fifty or so figures out at a time.  If I ever was robbed I would only loose a couple of hundred bucks worth.  Sad, but something I could live.  I wouldnt take any more than a case load to a convention.  I don't buy super rare stuff either- so no chicken dragons or Mcdeath sets for me.  All this adds up to a pretty secure collection.
It is actually one of the reasons I am doing this blog- so I can eventually see them all in one place and check which ones I have already when buying online.  Gotta love blogs.

Q: Whats next?
A: Once I claw my free time back I have a huge clean and priming session planned to protect my current batch of exposed metal.  I lost some lovely figures to lead rot recently due to a citrus air spray I was using, (doh) and its gonna be the last time!

Back soon with pictures!