Rumormill: GW quitting metal

[Nanite]

Lots murmurs that GW is shutting down production of metal miniatures, to be replaced with Resin and more plastic.

 

Can't confirm, it's all friend-of-a-friend stuff, but the volume of rumors is really high.

 

 

[sethohman]

I have heard the same thing. Supposedly the reason they are discontinuing some of the metal lines, to replace them with the resin version.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Wonder how this will affect prices?

[Kannan Fodder]

I've been noticing that the plastic boxed stuff is more expensive that the metal. I mentioned this at my FLGS a couple weeks back, and the response was that plastic is supposedly petroleum based, so naturally it's going to be more expensive as oil prices go up.

 

However, like the first post, this is all "word of mouth", and I haven't seen any confirmation about it. Just saying *I* noticed an increase in price.

 

~M

[Hadier]

ill be honest if GW does to all plastic ill be happier i know metal holds more detail but their metal models seem too busy in my opinion because they are trying to squeeze every ounce od detail out of them, not to mention they will be much more easily converted

[Lars Porsenna]

I've been following this rumor too for the last week or so. Personally, if GW dropped metal in favor of resin, I won't miss it. Resin is lighter, easier to work with (in general -- you can get really crappy resin too, like the stuff Battlefront uses), and can hold just as much detail as metal (technically more, but usually that level of detail in impractical for gaming; I have a few 1/35 scale figures with things like separate "lapels" for their uniforms, molded not flat but defined and paper thin).

 

Damon.

[Heisler]

My only issue with resin for gaming miniatures is that it can be so fragile. I would guess that only characters would end up being cast in resin and maybe a few "character" grunts to help with variety.

[DARK ELF]

back in the days of old, (bout ten years ago.) i didnt like plastic figures much. but as tecnology improved over the years...i now think its the bomb! the detail is every bit as good as white metal, IMO. (just look at some-0-GWs plastic Space Marines, that came out of the latest Space Hulk game.) and its way easier to mod then metal. tin prices are on the rise also. id say the reason GWs prices being higher then the metal minis, has more to do with being such a hugh company, with shareholders, type, stuff...

 

 

[joshuaslater]

The thread on the frothers forum is around 15 pages on this. 'Guess we'll just see what happens in the rough and tumble world of miniatures production and marketing.

[Wumby]

All I know is that the main LGS in Richmond is having a blow-out sale on metal models from GW. The guy who owns it, seems quite "in" on the hobby scene and informed us, the customers, that if he doesn't have it in the store, he can't get it and that GW has told him to sell down his stock of metal.

[Heisler]

Plastic is still not as good as metal for painting detail. There tend to be odd voids where detail just disappears. From a gaming standpoint this is not a problem. I was very frustrated painting a plastic Hussar from the Perry Brothers that is beautiful but when trying to paint it for competition it just lacked the very sharp crisp detail that metal gives you. Resin, however, is an excellent replacement for metal and I have seen and have painted resin minis for competitions that are as good as sometimes better than metal. Plastic is great for the troop types but not characters.

[Ddot]

from a business standpoint it makes sense to streamline the manufacturing process wherever possible. In theory, they have to comply with different regulations for handling metals and plastics, store mulitple materials, etc.

 

This is especially true for GW, who's biggest seller for years has been the 40k line, which has a lot of plastic, particularly the vehicle and monstrous creature kits, which tend to have high retail values.

 

From that, I would consider it "unconfirmed truth".

[Dr.Bedlam]

The idea that plastic is more expensive than metal (as far as toys and miniatures go) is a load of steaming &%$#@. If this was the case, every toy sold would be made of aluminum.

 

The STARTUP cost for plastic minis is substantial; those molds have to be insanely exact, and they are expensive as all hell to make. Once you've got the manufacturing underway, though, mass production drives the price WAY down. Mass produced plastic minis are cheap, and cheaper the more of them you make and sell.

[haldir]

Also considering metal molds last long then plastic ones.

 

I'm not much of a GW fan but there are some stuff I do like from them & I hope I can get some of those new metal skaven heroes cheap (if this is the case) ::P:

[Heisler]

Plastic maybe cheaper than metal but that does not mean that GW will charge less for it. Plus for a character figure I am sure that you would never recover the cost of the mold. However, my gaming group was discussing this yesterday and there is additional information to that rumor. Apparently GW intends to use their existing metal molds for this so that means a resin as opposed to a plastic. The conjecture is also that this "plastic" is the same or similar to the "plastic" that Privateer Press uses. Apparently this material is 100% recoverable so bad casts can go back in the hopper. Its obviously not a 2 part resin nor is it the same plastic that is used for the production of GW vehicles and grunt troops. I know for a fact that regular plastic glues do not work on the Privateer Press stuff so I have no idea what kind of plastic it really is.