Just saw this on one of my extremely rare visits elsewhere. Interesting if true. Mind you, the rise in standard of plastic moulding in recent years might just make this not as inconceivable as it seems.
Khorne's Fist
GW suspending production of metal models?
Please please make it so. Plastic is much easier to work with and glue and mold and carve to my every whim!! moohaha!!!
I don't see this being true since ya know....the new grey knights have metal Hq's....and i can still order ALL the metal models for eldar......
I cannot see metal dropping away soon but I hope it does and the sooner the better in my opinion. Plastic HQ & Elite boxes would be better for many reasons.
Well, I don't see it being true. If it's going plastic, Games workshop would then have to put it into boxes. Produce packaging, then put it through the system to actually package it, then create shelf space in already overcrowded stores to actually stock them... etc etc.
Heresy Miniatures has been facebooking that the costs of his models are almost doubling because the price of tin just jumped.
Suspending manufacture does not mean anything, for all we know they may do this when prices spike anyway.
I hope they do raise the price of all of the ranges ... I do not think that GW gets enough of my money, for fucks sake can I just mail them my checks and call it a donation?
I really can not see them dropping metal all together as they just redone several metal minis that I know of. This is something that you pipeline in and work toward. It makes no business sense to spend so much money on making new metal castings to just throw them to the wayside in less than a year. Blows the idea of conservation out of the water faster than hobo on a hot dog.
I really can not see them dropping metal all together as they just redone several metal minis that I know of. This is something that you pipeline in and work toward. It makes no business sense to spend so much money on making new metal castings to just throw them to the wayside in less than a year. Blows the idea of conservation out of the water faster than hobo on a hot dog.
I call this possible, I have heard from other sources that tin prices have soared in the last couple days. Heresy Miniatures has already said he is only casting human or smaller models until the price goes down.
Are they going to have a massive clearance sale to get rid of all their old stockpiled metal miniatures, as well?
GW have been actively moving units from metal to plastic since 2006, due to the change in legistlastion lead was removed from electrical solder and manufactures of electronics started using pewter/white metal to solder, this has caused a huge rise in the price of tin as economies like china and india have started to want the electronic consumer gadgets we take for granted,chuck into the mix our need to have a new mobile every 12 months and you have a huge demand on the planets tin reserves.
GW have about broke the back of the project as the largest changes needed to happen with warhammer fantasy which has seen a huge number of kits changed to plastic in recent years with some armies been almost exclusively plastic.
GW have about broke the back of the project as the largest changes needed to happen with warhammer fantasy which has seen a huge number of kits changed to plastic in recent years with some armies been almost exclusively plastic.
From what I gleaned from over on a Warseer thread (in Fantasy news&rumours), the metal models are suggested to be going over to a resin-type material. Not the stuff the Forgeworld use, but something a bit softer and more akin to the plastics. No idea if this is actually true, but there appeared to be some support for it as an actual thing.
As for price, who knows?
GFP
As for price, who knows?
GFP
GW will always make most of the special stuff such as SC and most HQ models metal its the way they get away with charging as much as they do for them. Plastic is gonna be used more for the models en masse that have to be used with an army.
This isn't out of the realm of possibility.
I don't expect that GW is discontinuing metal models right now, but it wouldn't surprise me to know they are going that way.
The return on investment for plastics looks a lot higher from my perspective. And that increase in cost per kg doesn't seem like a whole lot, but I would imagine that across the scale of their production it multiplied incredibly quickly. I did a quick search and the increase over the last 6 months has been 4 GBP/kg. That's definitely going to cut into their bottom line. Also consider that the models they are making out of pewter tend to be the bigger chunkier ones representing special characters and monsters. I can only speculate on the (average number of models/kg of tin) but if you also factor in the costs for transportation of these metal models, around the world. Add on to that a wholesale pricing scheme that has small regular cost increases built-in, and doesn't allow them to increase prices on the fly as easily (without really upsetting wholesale buyers and therefore players). . . . yeah GW is feeling it.
Additionally, the secondary market for miniatures is much lower on plastics. It is significantly more difficult to strip and repaint plastics, and they're more fragile than pewter. Consider for a moment the number of pewter models being resold over ebay, from as far back as the 80s, compare that the number of plastic beakies, orks, or other early space marines.
I am positive that the sales people at GW realized that the persistence of metal models across 'generations' of gamers (by which I mean sequential waves of people who get into the game) is far higher than plastics, despite that the plastics are increasingly available (and now comparatively cheap).
I'll be grouchy if they come up with a plastic/resin that dissolves/degrades under Simple Green. Purchasing used models on the secondary market (and heavy converting/sculpting) is basically how I can afford to keep working on miniatures.
Whew.
It may not be happening this moment, but it is the shape of things to come.
Bet on it.
Kreuger
I don't expect that GW is discontinuing metal models right now, but it wouldn't surprise me to know they are going that way.
The return on investment for plastics looks a lot higher from my perspective. And that increase in cost per kg doesn't seem like a whole lot, but I would imagine that across the scale of their production it multiplied incredibly quickly. I did a quick search and the increase over the last 6 months has been 4 GBP/kg. That's definitely going to cut into their bottom line. Also consider that the models they are making out of pewter tend to be the bigger chunkier ones representing special characters and monsters. I can only speculate on the (average number of models/kg of tin) but if you also factor in the costs for transportation of these metal models, around the world. Add on to that a wholesale pricing scheme that has small regular cost increases built-in, and doesn't allow them to increase prices on the fly as easily (without really upsetting wholesale buyers and therefore players). . . . yeah GW is feeling it.
Additionally, the secondary market for miniatures is much lower on plastics. It is significantly more difficult to strip and repaint plastics, and they're more fragile than pewter. Consider for a moment the number of pewter models being resold over ebay, from as far back as the 80s, compare that the number of plastic beakies, orks, or other early space marines.
I am positive that the sales people at GW realized that the persistence of metal models across 'generations' of gamers (by which I mean sequential waves of people who get into the game) is far higher than plastics, despite that the plastics are increasingly available (and now comparatively cheap).
I'll be grouchy if they come up with a plastic/resin that dissolves/degrades under Simple Green. Purchasing used models on the secondary market (and heavy converting/sculpting) is basically how I can afford to keep working on miniatures.
Whew.
It may not be happening this moment, but it is the shape of things to come.
Bet on it.
Kreuger
As I said I see everything moving to plastic as in unit wise. But for things such as SC and I mean the smaller models. I see them still being metal.
models such as greater daemons and the like I can see those being plastic one day.
models such as greater daemons and the like I can see those being plastic one day.
Everyone seems to be taking this as GW have stopped making metal minis for good. The OP says they have suspended production for at least three months, that doesn't sound very permanent to me.
Maybe they are having a reshuffle in the factory, checking old molds or just seeing out the price hike in tin, metal minis aren't going anywhere for a while yet.
Maybe they are having a reshuffle in the factory, checking old molds or just seeing out the price hike in tin, metal minis aren't going anywhere for a while yet.
Why is everyone assuming that 'suspension of metal models' means 'moving to all plastic'? There are many more substances than metal to mould with.
As for resin not being 'child-proof'... all the resins I've handled bounce a lot better than metal models do, and breaks tend to be clean rather than bends and chips. They only shatter when you throw them with huge force at a solid, hard surface. And virtually all (UK at least) GW stores have carpetted floors.
Downsides? Much lighter, so slightly more fragile in cases / when handled, and you can't use hairdryers to dry the paint like on metal or plastic.
But then, this whole thing might well be BS anyway...
As for resin not being 'child-proof'... all the resins I've handled bounce a lot better than metal models do, and breaks tend to be clean rather than bends and chips. They only shatter when you throw them with huge force at a solid, hard surface. And virtually all (UK at least) GW stores have carpetted floors.
Downsides? Much lighter, so slightly more fragile in cases / when handled, and you can't use hairdryers to dry the paint like on metal or plastic.
But then, this whole thing might well be BS anyway...
Well, this is from the Heresy Miniatures March 14 news release:
And...
I'm not sure when he started his business, but that is a significant price increase. And it is some cause for concern, but we can't assume that the same can be said for GW since we don't have access to their records.
Games Workshop is not going to switch to resin. Or discontinue its metals. I promise.
Here's the thing about pewter-- while the price of tin does go up each year, it's still the single most reliable material out there. Resin is a huge pain in the ass to work with (from a production standpoint), and the material cost is STILL higher than white metal. Resin is fairly oil-intensive to produce as plastics go, and while it's got the highest potential for fine detail, it's also outrageously prone to being miscast. Anyone who's bought Forge World knows what I'm talking about-- it's not bad quality control, it's just the nature of resin.
Now, have there been fewer and fewer metal models produced over the last five years? Sure. There are a couple reasons for that. One is that customers prefer plastic, and Games Workshop realized they could sell a box of plastic models for the same price as the metal models and reduce their overhead. Case and point, Empire Greatswords. Also, with the ability to put more onto sprues, they could package more options in each box, eliminating the need to have blisters like "Space Marine with Meltagun." Finally, it's a hell of a lot easier to steal a blister than it is to steal a box. Blisters are an obnoxiously high-theft package, and putting things in boxes that could potentially go into blisters (such as the metal daemon princes that preceded the current model) helps reduce losses from theft.
Games Workshop wouldn't necessarily be remiss in making resin models, however. They've done it before-- the Cities of Death barricades, for example, are resin. There are some things, like that, that don't make sense to make in any other medium. Expanding their range of tabletop accessories (like the barricades; making army-specific objective markers and whatnot) wouldn't actually be a terrible thing. But I don't expect to see Space Marine Chaplains, Chaos Obliterators, Commissars, etc in resin anytime soon. If I'm wrong, I'll eat a sock, and post pictures. That's how sure I am.
Here's the thing about pewter-- while the price of tin does go up each year, it's still the single most reliable material out there. Resin is a huge pain in the ass to work with (from a production standpoint), and the material cost is STILL higher than white metal. Resin is fairly oil-intensive to produce as plastics go, and while it's got the highest potential for fine detail, it's also outrageously prone to being miscast. Anyone who's bought Forge World knows what I'm talking about-- it's not bad quality control, it's just the nature of resin.
Now, have there been fewer and fewer metal models produced over the last five years? Sure. There are a couple reasons for that. One is that customers prefer plastic, and Games Workshop realized they could sell a box of plastic models for the same price as the metal models and reduce their overhead. Case and point, Empire Greatswords. Also, with the ability to put more onto sprues, they could package more options in each box, eliminating the need to have blisters like "Space Marine with Meltagun." Finally, it's a hell of a lot easier to steal a blister than it is to steal a box. Blisters are an obnoxiously high-theft package, and putting things in boxes that could potentially go into blisters (such as the metal daemon princes that preceded the current model) helps reduce losses from theft.
Games Workshop wouldn't necessarily be remiss in making resin models, however. They've done it before-- the Cities of Death barricades, for example, are resin. There are some things, like that, that don't make sense to make in any other medium. Expanding their range of tabletop accessories (like the barricades; making army-specific objective markers and whatnot) wouldn't actually be a terrible thing. But I don't expect to see Space Marine Chaplains, Chaos Obliterators, Commissars, etc in resin anytime soon. If I'm wrong, I'll eat a sock, and post pictures. That's how sure I am.
I was talking about heresy miniatures, GW can stand to buy and charge what they want as they are top of the pile and the models they use are for games systems, indie companies without rule sets are on the coat tails of the large companies anyway, so they need to adapt to survive, something similar happen back in the 90's when lead was banned from toy soldiers and GW and the rest were forced to start using white metal, alot of mail order indies/small manufacturers that produced roleplaying models and wargame stuff folded because they couldnt stand the increase in material costs and change molds and techniques (i think white metal has a higher melting temp if memory serves).This was before FW and GW introduced resin and plastics to the warhammer faithful on mass, back then plastic was a naughty word and its use was frowned apon outside of tanks.
Same is happening here it seems, the indies need to shift to plastics or resin quick sharp or be at the mercy of the price of metal that keeps going up and always will while its used in electronics.
Same is happening here it seems, the indies need to shift to plastics or resin quick sharp or be at the mercy of the price of metal that keeps going up and always will while its used in electronics.
Next question is what do they get replaced with?
Plastic kits like the empire wizard that let you build multiple HQ's maybe...
Plastic kits like the empire wizard that let you build multiple HQ's maybe...
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