Miniatures in photo paper

I always read on the Cardboard Warriors forum about how paper minis printed on photo paper look better, and even though I was interested in trying that, I can only find photo paper in very expensive bundles of lots of sheets. A couple of months ago, one of the forum regulars (Parduz) posted about using a photo printing service and that stuck on my mind. Recently, I found a place where 10x15cm photos may be printed at a low price, so I finally managed to get some miniatures done. Here are the first results, from Darkmook's Surival Horror set 6 (Unstoppable):

The colors look sharper and there is also a lot more detail. Obviously, part of that comes from the fact that it is printed on a much better equipment, so I believe that even if I used photo paper on my home printer, the result wouldn't be so good. For the sake of comparison, the following picture shows (from left to right) one mini printed on cardstock and covered with sealant, one simply printed on cardstock and the one on photo paper. The dark camo pattern on the operative's uniform is clearly visible, as well as details on the boots.

As one might expect, things aren't perfect, and there are some downsides as well. Scoring the paper so that it folds properly requires using more pressure than with normal cardstock so that you almost cut the two halves apart. Less than that, and the paper behaves like a spring, making the gluing process a nightmare.

The glue stick that I have been using very successfully also didn't work with this paper, so I had to get back to spreading thick PVA with a brush. I also found necessary to burnish the glued sheet well and leave it to dry under some heavy weight for hours before cutting. I didn't try spray mount on these, maybe that's a better solution. For the above reasons, my attempts at making tabbed bases in photo paper (shown in the first picture) didn't go so well and I don't plan on doing that again.

After this test, my opinion is that printing on good cardstock already provides good-looking and useable miniatures. Using photo paper (especially if using a good printer or print service) gives them a more distinguished look and thus could be used for player character miniatures in RPGs or special units in strategy games.