Midgard Models, Painting from Argentina

[Glorian Underhill]

Hi, does anyone know these guys from argentina?

I just didn't get it. They paint there Blood Bowl teams to a fair standard. Then put horrible green plastic gras on the base and try to sell 16 player teams, but with a collection of models no one needs!?

A proffessional mass producing Blood bowl painting service is a nice thing, but do they not understand that no one nedds a high elf team with 3 throwers, 5 Blitzers and one Catcher?

Some of their teams look like they where leftovers from someone elses minis...

[frogbear]

Some of their teams look like they where leftovers from someone elses minis...

I always had the impression that these were just recasts painted to a high standard and sold below the price of other legit teams - hence I never supported their trade.

Disclaimer: These are just my thoughts. If they are not true, then so be it. I am not basing this on any facts.

[GreyKnight]

Damn! Those bases are awful indeed.

Why go to all that trouble in painting to a half decent standard, and then only spend 10 seconds on the bases with the worse flock in the world to use?

[Gaixo]

They have to be recasts, right? They did a 17-figure team for me and charged like $150, including the models and shipping. I think that price would be suspicious enough, but when I asked about having them paint a certain model for me (don't remember what it was, but nothing unusual or OOP) I was told that "their supplier" couldn't come up with it.

My bases are putty with what appears to be painted sawdust on top, by the way. I actually had to send the team back to be redone, as well, as they sent the wrong positional players and used colors completely other than what I had asked for. They eventually came out well enough, and at least they replaced them, but the experience was unpleasant enough that I wouldn't deal with them again (to be fair, I think that feeling might be mutual).

[thechosengobbo]

How dare you Gaixo. How DARE you complain that they weren't the colours you asked for. You should be thankful they sent you anything at all for your money!

I swear, people these days show no respect to businesses

[Brage97]

Just wanted to take this one up from the crypt again:

Does anyone besides Gaixo have any experiences with these guys?

I just looked at their pages again and see they have hundreds of different models available. I don't know much about the finer methods of recasting, but wouldn't it be very expensive and inefficient to cast hundreds of different sculpts?

Them putting all kinds of minis in a Blood Bowl team could come from not knowing the rules.

The low prices could come from them paying minimum wages to their workers (And I guess Argentinian minimum wages aren't the same as European minimum wages) If they can pay a slave 2USD pr day to get the things painted; it would really make a difference. (I guess for a 10-year old it is afterall better to paint minis than to work in a mine)

With low labour costs they could afford to sell original casts, right?

I hope someone can give some more info, their offers look tempting (Except for the bases of course)

[Shteve0]

Well, since December, the Argentinian minimum wage has been around A$16 per day (A$400 pcm), or GB£2.50 (US$3.75) per day, so that could be a factor. I don't really see why the assumption would be that it's child labour though, I'd hesitate to make that leap without any evidence. With an unemployment rate of approx 17% (give or take) and uneducated adult workers available for well below minimum wage on a non-contract basis, it would seem an unfair assumption, if I may say so... Granted, there's a suggestion that as many as 250,000 children are put to work accross the country (compared to, for example, 400,000 in Spain), but there are no confirmed cases of child forced labour (source: globalmarch.org).

So yes, comparatively low wages may well contribute to the selling price, but how much work it takes to paint the models, plus o/hs, materials etc, is up for debate.

[Brage97]

... I don't really see why the assumption would be that it's child labour though, I'd hesitate to make that leap without any evidence. .

Let's not make a disscussion out of child labour or not, they are probably old enough; I just wrote it for "fun" Probably not very funny either, given all the children around the world who grow up as nothing but slaves.

I'm just wondering about this company; if they are selling originals or poor recasts, I can see the possibility of both, given the marginal labour cost.

I mean; someone handpaints the Kinder Egg Surprise-toys to almost tabletop standard and they sell for 0.50GBP.

[Gaixo]

I will say that the models I ended up with are fairly attractive. I don't really mind the ugly bases, except that the figures snap off of them very easily.