Originally Posted by Caiphas Cain
No reason not to but for Mantic there is no market for it (there's barely enough market for some of the infantry, hence restic Corporation and retooled FF's and Orx). Believe it or not the historical minis market is bigger than the fantasy market.
GW is probably the only fantasy manufacturer to have the customer base for real plastic ranges everyone else will jump on the Restic band wagon just hope they have good quality control as a lot of the restic product I have bought has been badly cast.
Still everything changes I haded slotted bases when they came out love them now often agonise over rebasing my historical collection oh the Champage problems : P
Which ones have you bought - do you have pics so we can see the sort of miscasts restic may be having?
Member of J.A.D.E.DTrying to convince Warseer that GW are anything less than perfect is like trying to teach a horde of zombies that lettuce is a perfectly acceptable alternative to brains.
Lest we forget
I am sorry but I have no idea what you have written there. Could you please explain your point again, perhaps with proper punctuation? English is my third language so please bear with me.
Oh it's a lot bigger in both 28mm and 15mm
'Jim Bowen- was that a troll effort?
I think what he meant was that GW is the only company big enough to be able to go all-plastic or always do a big plastic range as their customer base is already big enough to pay for it. Everyone else will switch more and more to the resin or restic alternative and that people might not like it and quality control is probably an issue for some manufacturers, it will become the norm and both quality and acceptance will increase over time.
That's how I read it anyway
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye... and then it's just fun!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Support the Mantic Deadzone Campaign
Also he hated slotted bases when they came out but now he loves them. He's not looking forward to rebasing his historical minis.
I don't know how many people are going to read this, but here is basically my thoughts on it:
I like metal. I think its a nice material for characters. Those big, important models that will lead your army. I think its cool, and nice for heroes. I enjoy painting, but am not that good, so can't see much difference between painting metal and plastic.
Citadel finecast is a pile of ****. That's all my opinion on it is. It's overpriced, and a poor material, but has some advantages.
Mantic, and privateer press's RESTIC, (oh and AoW, I intend to get some of their chosen) as I will refer to it has, has all the advantages finecast might have. Pinning is easier, and not as necessary in some situations, which makes it great for larger models and large stuff like wings or weapons.
Whilst I dont mind restic characters, and I find them a bit easier to paint than metal models truth be told. But, I prefer the feel of metal. Crucially, PP+mantic+AoW charge less for the restic models. Only a small difference, but for stuff like warjacks, a few quid really makes a noticeable difference. Finecast adds a few quid to the price, and that really irks me.
So yeah, Roll on mantic, I much prefer your restic units to metal ones, the material, ease of painting, easy of modelling etc makes it a great material. Oh, and if I save a few quid, perfect
Roll on the alternative plastic ranges from other companies.
Mantic and AoW are producing lovely plastic sprues for the consumer.
I am happy to collect metals as well.
It's all about the sculpt and the price.
About the sculpts - Plastic Resin lets us use Remy, plastic doesn't.It's all about the sculpt and the price.
Another plus for sticking with restic. After getting some Corp last week and some stormrage vets this week, I am really impressed with the quality and detail in the models. I had no miscasts or bubbles in any of the models either which I was slightly worried about after some finecast mishaps. Remy has done some brilliant work for the corp line and I would love to see more of his work in Warpath (or KoW) in the future!
My Wood Elf painting log
Build Me an Army Worthy of Mantic
Some info about plastic vs. metal production has popped up on one of miniwargaming.com's videos for their Dark Potential fundraiser. They started out with the goal of raising $10,000 to make five metal minis. The bulk of the money is for things like concept art, sculpting and packaging. The cost of a mold they give at $100-200 and the cost of the metal as 50c per mini. They then say that to do a single sprue would cost anywhere between $20-50k depending on what needed to go on the sprue and the cost of the plastic would be about 25c per sprue. It would also need to be outsourced to either the UK or China.
It looks like a number of companies that tried expensive plastic sprue production are now going down the resiny/plastic casting route; Mantic, AoW, Defiance.
I know that Mantics "restic" minis are cast in China, as are Reapers new Bones line of somewhat softer plastic minis. I wonder where AoW and Defiance will have their future mini's cast? Are Privateer Press resiny/plastics cast in China? Anyone know where Black Scorpion are having their minis cast now that they've switched from metal to resin?
I believe AoW is doing their restic stuff in house. See posting here:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...cl-Apoc-Dwarfs
Yeah AoW are doing all their resin casting themselves. They also aren't abandoning plastic sprues - its just a lot quicker and easier to get out a resin set so they are going tp pump a few of them out to get the money for more plastic.
I'm sure anyone currently facing months of waiting for their restic figures doesn't think it's much quicker to do them in restic lol. Whilst bringing it in house does create a number of advantages it would be naive to think that the up-front expence of plastic production didn't factor heavily in their decision to switch to restic for their boxed sets.
People waiting a few months because of really high demand may think they're waiting longer, and it sucks that they're out money for a length of time, but I'm pretty sure plastic would have taken a lot longer to come out. Once they have the second machine installed and are through the initial demand, they'll be much better positioned to deal with the demand of the next release (experience working in the medium should help too).
A lot of the "smaller" companies cast their resin "in house" as a lot of it can be done relatively easily (self poured silicon moulds and two part resins) I know that antenocitis workshop does all the resin production in house, because he quite often posts on facebook saying how much of a pain it is making multiple moulds (because of how long it takes)
I am indeed one customer waiting for possibly another month before mine get shipped...In this case, I think the demand just far exceeded what AoW were expecting and once they have the production capabilities up to the demand, Felix has said they can produce a new resin kit every month, which is faster than plastic would be.
Maybe in their case but Warlord Games churn out that much plastic and more. The difference being that Warlord make enough money off their plastics to warrant a release schedule like that whereas AoW don't and may never be in that position as they operate in a smaller market. My point throughout this being that AoW's decision to go with restic is better for them because of their position in the market, not because monthly plastic releases can't be done.
Last edited by redben; 13-04-2012 at 08:33.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote