Games Workshop move to resin! There could be trouble ahead?
April 7, 2011 by warzan
So we heard last month that Games Workshop were planning a move to resin and in itself it’s not a particularly interesting story... hell Privateer Press have been rolling out resin for ages!
However, it’s when you dig deeper that things start to get interesting...
The technicalities of moving to resin
First up, let’s see what this means for GW. Resin is an obvious choice, but not one without a bucket-load of challenges. Companies have been producing resin minis for ages, but all are generally at the boutique end of the scale, as it’s a very manually intensive process. Games Workshop have invested heavily over the years in the production of metals and have the process nailed to a fine art, with state of the art automation and control (even the moulds are RFID tracked through the process to see where they are at any given time).
Metal gives you little to no wastage, as all miscasts are just put back into the process, the down side is that the tin and its alloys are a commodity that has a very unstable price point, that makes life hard for the accountants!
Resin, on the other hand, has the potential to create massive amounts of wastage. It typically uses softer moulds, which degrade quite rapidly (with particularly fine moulds getting perhaps only 20 – 30 uses!), it brings with it, health and safety issues too. With many resins being touted as carcinogenic (cancer causing).
Now it’s worth remembering, that GW own and operate one of the most successful resin cast businesses in the market, Forgeworld, so perhaps the growth and continued success in that area of the business has led to significant investment in the casting process, where the issues of automation, soft moulds, wastage, fragile casts and health and safety have all been addressed!
We cannot underestimate these challenges, resin moulds (especially multipart moulds) are a bugger to create and require perfect resin mixes and vacuum chambers, but even then, you may find that the stuff simply will not flow the way it’s supposed too. On a small scale this is manageable, but on the larger scale it’s a pretty daunting challenge.
So what’s the upshot for GW?
Why Bother!
Obviously the price point of resin is very stable, which makes life a lot easier for the accountants. Although we hear the price is really not that far from metal (unless they are getting amazing economy of scale).
The other benefit could be weight, resin models are significantly lighter than metal, which in theory may reduce shipping costs. However, if you consider that the packaging may be the most significant part of the shipping cost anyway and then take into account that the models are more fragile (and therefore may need more packaging) and you could be looking at things evening out there also.
Yet another benefit is in model quality, a good resin cast will have a very high resolution and enable the super-fine details of the models to shine, so we could start to see some incredible looking models come out of this whole process.
However, this leads me to the reason that many haven't considered... the 'perceived value' to the end customer of a resin model ... you see in general the cost difference in production between a resin model and a metal model are pretty negligible, but the grand experiment that they called Forgeworld, has demonstrated that the market is happy to pay more for this amazing medium called resin.
Could we be in store for a massive price hike? I wouldn't bet against it, that’s for sure.
Keeping Control
The other story that has been going on in the background for quite some time, is that the model range for independent stockists is being culled like it’s got mad cows disease! Line after line of product is being pulled from the independents and being placed on direct only orders (i.e. GW's Website only) some with basically no notice whatsoever.
Is this a sign that the models are being phased out and that resin is going to replace it... it certainly could be. However the interesting thing to watch is when the resin replacements are released, will they make their way back into the stock lists of the independents or will they only be sold from the GW website... think about what that might mean for you?
Like.... when was the last time GW had a sale...
Is this all speculation, certainly we don’t know for sure what the motives are, but there are enough rumblings in the industry to tell us to expect something. We can only hope the changes are for the better, and that what is a very cool move on the surface doesn’t have a nasty sting in the tail!
Your thoughts?
BoW Warren
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A guy I know why just bought up a local gaming store here in the UK can’t get half the stuff he wants from GW anymore, and his side business of stripping 2nd hand metal models for ebay would suddenl;y become a lot more awkward if everything is resin.
If most of everything going direct order with a big price hike actually happens if they shift to resin, I can see a fair few of the stores closing and GW becoming more of an internet business than a street level presence.
and i don’t know about you but i would say games workshops “street level presence” is a massive part of their business and some peoples reason for getting into the hobby and carrying on with it, so eliminating this presence would cause their sales to fall and the number of players to fall and may eventually lead to the game not existing as people haven’t got their local GW to go to for a game and in some places this is peoples only option
I’m really wary about the whole resin thing. Most people I’ve talked to know full well that resin dust is potentially cancer causing, and wouldn’t dream of letting their children play with anything made of the stuff. That combined with GW’s main demographic being 12 year old kids with little to no understanding of the safety precautions taken, plus what will probably be another price increase since, let’s face it, it is GW, will probably result in a massive loss of parents buying the product for their younger children.
Playing with the models wouldn’t be a problem.
The issue with the dust only arises in the preparation and any conversion work, It is the sawing and sanding that creates the dust.
I try to remember to wear a mask when sanding with the mini tool now any way, Even with plastics.
There has been a lot of discussion on Dakka about the fragility of resin, but there are many different types of resin now available so I don’t believe this would be an issue. Mantic are using a hybrid plastic/resin which i think it is called restic. Someone else is using a similar material.
Will wait and see but I expect the problems will not be as bad as people expect.
As many will already know from companies such as Heresy, the price of metals is going through the roof. GW stated nearly 2 years ago that they planned to switch from metals due to the volatility of the market.
i totally agree with what hammerhelden is saying, not only is there massive health warnings with resin models but they are more brittle than plastic. Ive done a few resin kits and I have to be honest I’m not a huge fan of them, GW should stick to plastic I think, look at what they have turned out this year in plastic, grey knights (stunning) the new tomb kings next month (amazing) and the orks they recently did, GW stick to plastic you make good stuff with it.
i agree with loganzaraki and hammerhelden
Which one super glues better? I dispise having to glue metal. huge plastic pin right through from scull to base does it for me.
We have GW to thank for gaming as we know it. Without those street stores most current players simply wouldn’t have heard of it, as many of us from before mass internet sites would not have found the stores to go learn from. Maybe GW lost the will to live so are planning to bankrupt the company to regain individuals freedom. Where would this leave all of you players? D:
Is the resin methodology that PP and Mantic use the same as the ones used in Forgeworld
i’m not afraid of cancer. cancer can suck a big one.
i’m on resin’s side. better quality, and less accidental bending is right up my alley.
it’s the artistic side of the 40k hobby that keeps me coming back. i never would have painted my first canvas if i hadn’t painted a metal carnifex when i was 14, and that’s the truth.
it really doesn’t matter what they charge. i understand that we want the game to be accessible to the kiddos, but this game isn’t really kiddo-friendly (another reason we keep coming back). 40k should be what kids want to play when they grow up. let them start with a skirmish game like i did (necromunda), and when they’ve got a real job and too much time on their hands, they’ll start picking out a real army.
support the artists you love, or live without art.
That’s the Beasts off War spirit!
Give me toy soldiers or give me death!!!
BoW Andy
And, ahem, capital letters?
I want to see GW dropping prices. Nothing is scarier to a share holder than seeing higher profits but lower sales – it’s a downward spiral as people panic and hike prices only for sales to fall.
I also want to see GW succeed. Hell, they’ve given me an entire world to play in every day. I don’t want the youngsters driven away or playing anything but what they want to. In fact, the more fellows getting in to the hobby the better. That will only happen when a parent doesn’t balk at spending two hours pay on a box of 10 plastic men.
Also, pewter, tin and lead are actually just as poisonous.
Heavy metals anyone ?
So is epoxy (or other) putty, super glue (it’s cyanocrylate, for pete’s sake !) or any other glue that’s not PVA (and even that’s nasty)…
The paints are somewhat toxic as well (although water based and not much… I mean, it’s crushed bugs and more heavy metals such as titanium (white) or cadmium (red)…
And don’t get me started on the spray cans !
Let’s face it, pretty much any part of our hobby is at least a little toxic, and also quite polluting… Just like pretty much everything, especially anything FUN.
As long as you’re somewhat careful, it’s all right… I still have to meet a single gamer that got cancer BECAUSE of gaming, though !
BoW Romain
I totally agree. I get really annoyed at ppl constantly complaining about the prices. I think that if better models is the result of higher prices, then get on with it! This hobby really isn’t all that pricey compared to many others out there. Belive me, I’ve tried a few, and this is easily one of the cheapest. Quality always beat quantity when it comes to models!
Resin, eh?
Since FW came back into the fold, this doesn’t surprise me much. If we do see price hikes, I’m pretty sure players will be sticking to plastic.
As for the FW models, I love what they produce but never would pay the price. After all, they’re across the “world pond”….
One of my favorite aspects of the hobby is converting models. The brittleness of resin would make converting much more difficult, the increased expense of resin models means it’s far less feasible to buy a model just for it’s torso, and the saw work that goes into chopping arms/weapons/heads/etc will produce a lot of unhealthy resin dust.
Taken all together, it makes one of the most attractive parts of the hobby and makes it ridiculously unfeasible. GW, don’t do it!
I’m still not completely sold on plastic, so for me, resin is a step to far! That said, the value for money I get from Mantic and the Perry brothers wonderful plastic sculpts (LoTR and Historical) are chaining my opinion.
I just love metal mini’s, the detail, weight and the way that they take paint being the biggest attractions.
I’ve struggled painting resin in the past, perhaps I’m doing something wrong, it just feels different and a little bit wrong!
A requiem for the metal I guess.
Not impressed by their decision, I hope they go for really quality resin so it can withstand the troubles of wargaming.
I guess my last GW army will need quite a few resin models to fill up since I do not want plastic in my armies (vehicles are all right, in plastic, models, not so).
Im all for GW adding resin models to their range as long as it isnt swept out right across the board and only used for certain models, for example larger monsters, maybe some vehicles and some special characters. Im also keen on this change of direction if it means prices come down and GW starts to get real about offering value for money.
An ideal scenario would be GW offering certain models and kits in resin and a very very small handful of kits in metal and producing their ‘rank and file’ models in plastics, with the whole process allowing them to set their prices more realistically (lower).
However, i think theres more chance of Satan ice skating to work.
Are they planning to move to resin for all their products or only metal models?
If its cheaper I wouldn’t complain!
It wont be cheaper what’s likely to happen is:
Metal becomes resin
A (from what we hear) Massive Price Hike will come in
You may only be able to buy direct so no discount.
What’s not to like 😉
So true…. so true…
And that’d be the final nail, methinks. The fact that indeps can discount by up to 20% and still make a profit implies GW are making impressive margins already. I don’t want to see them begging, but a little encouragement wouldn’t go amiss.
I recently bought the White Wolf Mage, the Ascension rulebook – 400 pages of gorgeousness. It was £20 off Amazon. The Tomb Kings book is £22.50, and 96 pages. I am starting to feel ripped off.
Now if they moved to resin to create a Master Class of figures that would be ok by me. Instead of buying multiple SM Chaplins to fit your army needs why not have a resin kit that comes with all the options. GW realeases codexs without looking at their current kits. Who here would like to have a Las/Plas for their Razorbacks??
Me! I’ve three of the older ones painted by my exuberant younger self and would dearly love to see a new model.
Its an interesting prospect.
Assuming they would use a form of resin/plastic mix to lessen the ‘elf and safety’ aspects, it could be beneficial.
Detail rendering is better with resin, so in my view, if the price goes up, I wouldnt say its not an issue, price rises always are, but if detail and sculpt quality goes up too, then I can certainly live with it.
Well I welcome the change it happens, but only for the metal models and if does not implied an automatic hike in price…
Resins this days are strong and definitively easier to work with than metal…if transforming minis is your thing!
I am somewhat mixed about this. On one side I like money, but on the other I love the quality a resin model can achieve. It is a tossup. However, I think SC are BLAH and try my hardest never to deploy one on the field, so I suppose it is something of a non-issue for me after all….. unless of course they decide that they want to do TWC in resin. Oh, that could hurt.
Hello, I am an asthmatic, Statistically Resin Dust can cause me to choke to death 37x easier than other people, if all models become resin – I wont be buying any as they will be a health risk. What I say is, GW, Stick to plastic or you’ll lose a lot of your market.
I know that feeling. I have to open the windows wide when I’m using plastic glue or else the fumes send me potty. Arguably the hobby’s dangerous – knives, clippers, plastics, solvents – making the materials dangerous would be no fun at all.
I hope they dont go pure direct sales. Waiting for a deal on ebay is the biggest way I and most players afford there ridiculous pricing. If they do, I wont stop buying at ebay. I will just have to wait till people sell there stuff.
I am really concerned by it…
mainly for one simple fact majority of forgeworlds stuff that I have orderred has been slightly flawed. Certain bits warped or the casting has been too sparce and that has lead to things falling apart when trying to cut them off the unclean casts.
I hope they continue the quality but right now and although its technically the same company…
Forgeworld stuff can look nicer but the GW stuff currently is a lot more reliable. The forgeworld stuff seems to be a lot more fiddly and a pain to add to your items at times due to the poor casting quality.
Well I don’t think many resin models will be made that much in the future as GW seem to be heading more toward plastic for all their models except for the special ones that are small and specialised so I don’t see it being that much of an issue te things GW do with plastics now is better than what they used to do with metal years ago, also I remember when they used lead to make models that was more o a death trap than resin
The biggest casualty of a move to resin, without a doubt, would be the Specialist Games range. These basically live off of the benevolence of GW in continuing to produce such a large range of metals (seriously, if you combine all the metal models in the SG ranges they far outstrip the metals in any of the big 3 – and possibly all 3 together nowadays)
The Inquisitor, Bloodbowl & Necromunda communities have been slowly shifting their buying onto more 3rd party models in recent years so are less likely to be badly harmed by such a move.
Whereas the likes of BFG, Epic & Warmaster have a much smaller choice when it comes to good alternatives without having to abandon the game they love completely and start a new one. Warmaster does have the advantage of the all-plastic Battle of Five Armies starter set with is the same scale and GW still produce mostly to sell to Warmaster players as cheap bulk troops.
No resin!
Just another excuse to rise the prices again that’s what it is imo…
Plus it is harder to assemble than plastic…
Well if they only change the metal ones into resins, why not…
GW might finally fall flat on their face, and it could mean the end of them – the price message may actually get through.
Look at what has come out as of late, most are plastic cast and only a hand full are in metal. Im all for the resin cast for a few reasons.
1. If its a real health hazzard as mentioned above, the 2 things will happen. Perents will not want the kids play with them and more mature players will come out this as only them will take the steps to be safe to hadle resin the way is should be handled.
2. Resin is much better with detail than the heavy ore used in the metal at the moment. They could go with a lighter metal mix for better detail but it just can’t match resin.
3. With better detail the greater the desire for complex models. With complex models only people willing to put the time and effort into the hobby will stay and all the kids that just get into the hobby because it looks cool will start to fade away. Don’t take what I say wrong, young players can and are great as long as they are mature about the game and I know some that are more mature than me.
All in all, it will bring about a adult feel to the game and less hyper spazoides.
Time to say for ever good bye to GW.
I dont know how much the metal GW uses costs but resin is not expensive. You can buy good quality resin for about £7 per kilogram and GW would be buying vast quantities of the stuff so no doubt would be paying even less.
Also vacuum chambers are not that expensive, you can make them fairly easily, and resin doesnt need to be heated so reduces costs in energy to produce figures.
Apart from switching old machinery out for new resin casting machinery (and surely they could sell their old machinery off anyway) I really dont see why this would call for a price increase apart from through greed or GWs own failing business model.
and also resin dust is very dangerous, that cant be overstated enough. Working with resin without a mask is asking for trouble
That’s exaclty the point, even if resin is cheapper it will only be another excuse for GW to rise the pices, because “now it’s resin”.
Not everyone knows that resin is cheapper to produce than metal, so it will kinda justify the overpriced products for those people, but in reality GW will make a bigger profit… Greed, it is always about greed, the GW’s head bosses aren’t gamers…
One word:
Bugger!
Personally, I think this could bite GW in the arse.
Resin is far more labour intensive.
There is far, far too much wastage. ( Although if Forge World quality control is anything to go by then the rejects will just go on sale with all the rest. )
Resin is crap for modelers as it’s a pain to work with.
GW aims their stuff as kiddiwinks these days and any whiff of a possible child based cancer scare would hit the media big time. ( Never really a problem with Forge World as I’ve always been under the impression that most of their sales are to the more dedicated older gamer. )
Price hike mixed with everything else is going to lead to less sales, which will hit them in the bank acount in the long run.
I do enjoy the extra detail that resin models offer but the major down side the people haven’t talked about is the susceptibility to heat. Leave your lovely painted miniature in the car on a hot Aussie summers day (even in a model case) and they do tend to warp. On the up side you do get an instant Chaos army.
><i?oh dear…
I've been playing with war machine for a while and never had a problem with the resin.
and I don't see why GW's possible move to resin could hinder my love of their games…
(in the immortal words of @beerogre, “Give me toy soldiers or give me death!!!”)
but I do have great fear of the posible price hike…
if there is two thing’s GW is known for they would be,
1>they’re expensive
2>They don’t have sales
the point being that like most war gamers, I’m willing to invest in my hobby, but if the price gets to high, I’m going to switch to an alternate game. I mean think about it. Would people play Kings of war if they charged as much as GW? personally, I don’t think so. would people buy a Warjack if they were priced the same as a GW dreadnought? would be surprised. (okay, admit ably that last one was a bad example…)
So I guess what I’m trying to say is…
GW, if your out there listening,
Please keep your prices reasonable,
or you may just price yourself out of the market
That last one _was_ a bad example. I can only speak for prices here in Sweden but the Deathjack from Privateer Press has a retail price of about 427 SEK. A land raider has a retail price of 470 SEK.
A Cygnar Centurion Heavy Warjack costs 278 SEK which is just slightly more than a Rhino at 270 SEK.
I don’t know if Warmachine is cheaper compared to GW in the UK or other countries but here it’s not all that far apart. Although obviously you don’t need all that many figures for Warmachine compared to GW.
well, here in Canada a Khadorian Warjack kit is about 35$,
and a basic dreadnought kit runs you about 55$,
So in general GW’s stuff is more expensive.
In the U.S. the deathjack is around $44.00 and a chaos dreadnought is around $58.00 which is more comparable in size/detail. I think the biggest difference in price there is probably shipping and not Privateer Press’ profot margins… opinion i admit.
After all the buzz and excitement surrounding the Tomb Kings sneak peak, I find this news from Warren a right kick in the knackers.
Firstly I am not keen on resin kits. Resin is great for buildings and the odd model from Forgeworld but much of the Games Workshop hobby is about modelling. The idea of having to wear a facemask when trying to saw through brittle resin does nothing but put me off. I have no patience for that.
However what angers me the most is the news of yet another price rise and the retreat of Games Workshop from independent retailers. After numerous bad experiences of visiting GW stores in London (I had enough of the full-on salesmen and high prices) I visited for the first time an independent retailer. Walking into the independent shop you soon realise that GW models are no longer the only ones available, there are now many other successful and growing model companies now eating up the competition. Looking down the list of what games they play at this retailer’s games nights, GW games rarely feature on the list. Like a space marine GW should be ‘taking the fight to them’ and tackling the competition with better prices, discounts, sales and marketing. Instead I fear GW are just throwing away their monopoly. Also, like many collectors, I buy a majority of my hobby from e-bay and now from independent retailers. Not only do both these outlets offer me more reasonable prices but they are actually a key component of what is keeping the hobby alive. Limiting these outlets will do GW more harm than good.
All three points: moving to resin kits, another price hike and downsizing to being just a mail order company signals to me that GW as a company that has lost confidence in itself, that it is in retreat and is happily walking down into its own demise. I would be happily proven wrong but this to me sounds like last nail in the GW coffin. If I were a GW employee I’d make a start at looking in the job section of the Evening Standard.
I completely agree with you,
Although I admit 40k isn’t the greatest game out there. it is one me and my friends all enjoy playing. Considering it was the first Wargame I ever got into, it will always hold a special place in my heart. So it would be a shame to see it go away. I really hope the higher ups in GW realize the error in their ways soon and once again start to move the medium forward.
Personally i hate pretty much everything that isn’t plastic.
First of all you can’t, to my knowledge, use any glues with polycement like properties, i.e. welding the parts together for good strength.
Second, it is a lot more fragile. Maybe i’ve had bad experiences but figures from privateer breaks like glass. I dropped a warjack once and not a single glue point broke but both arms and both legs snapped like that.
Thirdly its a bitch to work with, regular plastic you can do some pretty neat things with but resin and other plaster like materials you practically need a hammer and a chisel to do anything with.
No, a move to resin might just have me stop buying GW’s stuff and since the alternatives are pretty much as bad just quitting wargaming altogether.
Sounds like an easy excuse for GW to do another price hike. My local GW store shut down last January and one of the biggest and oldest local independents is dropping the GW line. Bad Omens!
Resin can be an amazing medium that can allow for the best detail available on the market! But will gw hire sculptors to resculpt their entire metal range to make use of this, or will they just release metal models in a more fragile medium to save a few cents? I’m not sure any company produces resin in such high quantities that would require such high fidelity as gw are looking to do, they better have a plan if they want to pull off such a feat.
I think what GW intends to do CAN be done but I am uncertain the company cares enough to execute the shift without ignoring the finer nuances that could make it a positive change. This must be a scary time for players with lots of metal in their ranges, I feel for you guys.
I really don’t see how this is going to be of benefit for mass production. Forgeworld has a niche market for specialised models.
I’ve been collecting GW mini’s for a long time, lots of my models are the original ‘lead’ alloy. GW had to move away from this because of EU regulations around lead models and child safety. Who’s to say that the EU won’t put something in place around resin. Makes sense, it is dangerous.
And lets face it, resin is brittle, metal isn’t, resin models would be of a much poorer quality.
This ‘move’ maybe motivated by people recycling metal models on ebay. Also the reason for the shift to plastic models as you cant strip the paint off them like you can metal.
GW continue their war against metal models.
They bred a massive movement of “plastic is better” (mostly based around the old claim that plastic models would be a lot cheaper I might add), and now no doubt they will be spouting loads of information about how much more awesome resin is than metal.
Now I will say I have bought a number of expensive resin miniatures over the years but these have usually been expensive because they are limited edition and the company has gone to special lengths to put as much detail as the medium can possibly hold into it. Studio McVey would be my current prime example of this.
Now if you look at larger models lets compare say Ultraforge Miniatures with Forgeworld or even GW Metals. Brilliant detail (on par with forgeworld) and much cheaper for the size of model you get.
Other things to think about, surely if there was a problem with metal as a medium it would hit smaller companies first as they tend to run with much smaller profits. Yet we see no mass dropping of metal or hiking of prices by smaller companies anywhere.
Oil prices are far, far, FAR, more unstable than metals yet you don’t see GW giving up on plastics.
Really I don’t see that GW are doing this for any reason than to continue their brainwashing line of “metal is bad” and as an excuse for more and larger price hikes.
In my opinion if resin was a cheaper alternative to metal than it may be a leap forward some of gws large metal modles are priced rediculasly int opinion it is over priced to pay over 100$ for a large figure however if the resin is the same $ then you have a more hazerdeos material and a danger for doing conversions
I think this could be a very bad move by GW. I don’t know why they’re having to increase their prices so much because with new competition coming in they should price low to beat the competition out of the market. These changes if anything look to me like they’re going to lose a lot of custom, potentially myself included if they put up prices much more.
Well I just got back from my local gaming shop, and asked if they have heard about this rumor. They said that they were not sure but think something is definitely up. They mentioned that orders for individual medal models were not being filled. Hmmmm….
Beasts of War should buy GW then it would all be good.
God. Half my orders from Forgeworld I’ve had to email them telling them that the items in question were not moulded right or were to brittle to even paint! I hope plastic models stay plastic and if metal models become resin I’m just going to buy plastic models and make conversions to make them as Characters or whatever. If plastic becomes resin……..they better be a lot better then Forgeworlds are atm.
I think if they moved to a resin-type plastic such as Privateer Press uses it would be a good move if they done it right. Like the new grey knights you have many options so just get some magnets and magnetize the kits and you get a excellent value for your money. i know i say it a lot but every chance you get you should magnetize your kits unless it is a kit that is say a warlord games kit with only one weapon choice and such.
I sense dark times ahead.
sadly, your not alone in that…
it is true enough that they are doing fantastic things with the plastic, so that just makes me wonder why not just move entirely to plastic?
Why does it seem that BoW seems to be so much more in favor of other companies over GW, I never hear criticism about PP
Firstly, the article is purely conjecture not a criticism 🙂
It’s based on what the industry is telling us along with recent experience of the business decisions by GW.
So it’s not a criticism, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Why GW simply because they set the agenda with this move, if you look back you will find an article on the whole GW vs Chapterhouse thing have a read over that and you will see were not into GW bashing here.
GW get the fairest ride here than probably anywhere else, we love their work but we are fan boys of wargaming not fan boys of GW or PP or Mantic or Corvus Belli or Battlefront etc.
We can only call it as we see it 😉
I like GW models and I have been willing to spend a fairly large amount of money on it but If we see prices reach Forge World costs on basic troops and vehicles it will just be ridiculous. I already feel like the standard prices are almost at the tipping point of cost vs perceived value. I love modeling and war games but a hefty price hike would put me out of the GW market baring winning a lottery or getting a great paying job.
Are wwe really sure they will increase their prices? couldn’t it be a way to
keep the same prices and still make a better profit. Surely Mantic must have taken some marketshares? I know I will buy a lot of Mantic instead (WHEN THEY PUT MORE OPTIONS IN THEIR BOXES, not just three of the same).
Well it was a system shock, it ticked so many bells it was quite emotional, so that is the end of my ride with GW for good or evil.
moving to plastic with its, in my eyes, horrendous undercuts and bulky miniatures, I can live with, their prises and ridiculous price rises, I can live with, cutting their metal line, no that was it.
It might seem as a hyperbole, but I do not like plastic models, sure there are companies out there that do them right, without undercuts, miscasts, with good quality plastic and no mould lines technology, GW is not one of them and I like metal miniatures more (enough more to have more than a company worth of metal marines made exclusively from conversions of the new veteran models) .
GW has nothing to offer me any more.
I absolutely love the Forgeworld stuff. My Space Wolf Armies get special treatment from there. LF Razorbacks get customed rhino doors, the customed termie kit, the dreadnoughts are absolutely brilliant….
But I absolutely loathe putting the models together! The professional glue I use doesn’t stick it properly, I have to pin some parts and some parts are not always the same size. The ONLY reason I buy resin kits is because of how brilliant they look but as soon as I have to start glueing together finicky little pieces with superglue I draw the line. I am not looking forward to resin kits 🙁
I haven’t read up to much on it though, the usual plastic sprues GW release stuff made out of….what is that? The forgeworld stuff is a much lighter grey, paint doesn’t like it as much and it won’t stick to the GW plastic without super glue, so does this mean that only rares and specials are going to be resin or is everything (vehicles etc.) going to made out of the resin?
Well it does depend, I’ve had resin models from other companies which have brilliant fits and no trouble glue wise.
So if GW were to make the move they might not be doing them in the same way as Forgeworld, but yeah I’m not surprised a lot of people have concerns.
I belive the resin kits and miniatures will be from the characters and pieces that are not sold as a box of marines or ork boyz. Generals, special minis, etc. will be made of resin, leaving behind the metal minis.
The problem I see is that resin is fragile, it will require a better shipping box or a better way to storage them.
also I believe they won’t change all at once, at least they will try and see what happens.
Forgeworld are doing better and better minis and probably we will have in the future the core minis from plastic and special ones made of resin.
my 2 cents.
Noooooooooooooooo!
BoW if this is a ploy to get me to create a user account then it has worked. I have to say that I am very impressed with GW plastics. They are a dream to work with compared to metals but I am in no way a fan of resin. The pinning and superglue needed with resin only to end up with a broken model when the mini falls from table to floor makes for a very unhappy time. With the plastics I use plastic glue to weld the pieces together and my mini’s are fixed for life even with the occasional accident.
No resin for me please, just stick with your current mix of plastic. If it is inevitable that resins are coming then I need to get the metals I’m after now. Metals may come apart or bend but at least they do not break.
The warning on the new GW boxes will say:
WARNING: Not for children under the age of 16. This product may cause cancer. Do not sand, file, drill, cut, or in any way handle the product in this box in a manner outside the manufacturers guidelines. If you the purchaser of this product or anyone you come in contact with, see, or even think about are diagnosed with cancer this product is in no way a contributing factor to the diagnoses and GW lawyers say you cannot do anything about it even if you think our products may of caused such a condition.
GW! I AM DISAPPOINT!
>:(
I myself don’t have any expirience with resin, but honestly I’m not interested in it at all, don’t like metal, so for me going all plastic would be the best way to go imho.
Also for me it suck’s that GW is pulling their range from independant stores, because for me I have to take a trip of 2-3 hours to even get close to a GW-store. They need to have the independant stores if the GW part of the hobby is going to survive in Sweden
+1 For all plastic.
Near the entire empire range is plastic now and lovin it. Everyone has their own preference but for me I like working with plastic and the recent plastics have been awesome.
Its not as simple as that.
Going to plastic means many things and inferior sculpting quality is one of them, it has nothing to do with the sculptors or their competence, it is the plastic mould and the process the models are produced.
I personally do not like the undercuts the plastic moulds produce and as odd as it may seems the cabling on the feet of the plastic space marines (because the mould cant handle the undercut there bugs me.
Plastic has its uses but its not the holy grail GW’s marketing makes it sound.
Yes, it may be less detailed, but the plastic kits have more options/buts that you can put in various places. Take a wolf pack box for space wolves, it’s covered in accessories and bits that you can use. Also, many people like plastic because metal models generally have less pose ability, making every named character made from metal very much the same. If you have a named character, without extensive green stuff work, he will look pretty much the same as anyone else’s. This is one of the reasons many people convert models out of plastic: More options in how it looks
listen if you ask me games workshop is to smart to move to resin. reasons being,
1. the saw there sales drop a small amount when they hiked the prices last time don’t you think that a successful business will see there mistakes especially a business that has been in the works for 35 years.
2. games workshop already has a god damn resin company it is called forgeworld ever heard of it the braniacs over at gw have seen that that company is not doing as well as expected and is why they shifted some of the models over to plastic (ig, the leman russ variants tyranid and space marine and chaos models over to plastic. remember the valkarie used to only be a resin kit now it is a very popular model on the gw scene.)
3. there is no profit to be had with resin. the only reason that forgeworld stays in business is because gw promotes their sister company and gives money to them. the other reason is that gw has started to move the forgeworld products on to their site:http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat440351a&rootCatGameStyle=books
4. the whole mission statement for games workshop is a community of gamers that play and share things together. they will never phase out independent retailers idiots they are not stupid.
if you ask me there are too many downsides for a move to resin for gw they see that companies like privateer press and spartan games use resin and that they don’t have near the player number nor the profit margin that games workshop has. BEASTS OF WAR PLEASE STOP SPREADING NEEDLESS RUMORS ABOUT GAMES WORKSHOP. THEY ARE A COMPANY THAT HAS MADE MISTAKES BUT ARE SMART ENOUGH TO Realize THEM AND FIX THEM.
now am i saying that the resin wont come in at all for sure no but i am saying that it would be a massive business implosion for games workshop and they know it. before you believe rumors like this resin rumor look at the cold hard facts and see how stupid you are for believing them
thank you,
BAMAN21
Eh that is not true as if you look at the details forgeworld is the part of GW making the profit
I am not going to say much…..GW is one subject that REALLY gets my back up.
But…………..I would like to point out one little detail. Resin IS plastic. Just like there are different metals, there are a huge variety of plastic compounds. Resin is a generic term used to one family of plastics.
What you are looking at is the difference between a THERMOPLASTIC like polystyrene, what GW and a large number of scale model manufactures use (and also used for ‘foamed’ plastics) and a THERMOSETTING POLYMER which are what as gamers we tend to refer to as resin.
The key difference between the two is that Thermosets can be melted, but once they have solidified they remain solid.Thermoplastics (like polystyrene) do NOT undergo a chemical change in composition when heated, therefore they can be remoulded again and again.
@blitzr thanks for that info! Informative
Hey, I went into my local GW store today and the guy behind the counter knew nothing about this. Anyone else had something similar happn?
I agree with manpug completely. In my opinion, if they are going to switch to resin, they should only change the metal models, as I think that the plastic models are very good. But then, why not make everything completely plastic and have no metal (or for that matter resin) models.
Unless the plastic is insanely expensive, i can’t see anything wrong with an all plastic GW
I’ve never had a good Resin kit from Forgeworld, the casts are poor and warped, prefer it if Forgeworld moved to Plastics rather that GW to resin 🙂
Well this is certainly interesting i dont think GW will phase out plastic models in favour of resin however its more likely they will be getting rid of the metal models and replaceing these with new resin ones which seems like a ok move because i cant stand metal models just my thoughts.
Also sorry to post again but why would GW change to resin when they allready own forgeworld which makes resin products why would GW want two of there businesses making products out of the same materals just sounds stupid to me lol 😛
But, as many know, things from forgeworld can be rediculesly warped, and bent. If this drives up the price it doesn’t affect me TOO much because I convert most of the models that would be metal (i.e. kroot shapers, x.v. 15 battlesuits, ect. check out my videos on youtube to see them)
Change does not spell doom. Why is it that everytime something new is on the horizon, everyone starts raving that GW’s doomed and that the end is nigh!? Personally, I think GW’s boardmembers are a bit more savvy when it comes to buisness than most of you seem to realize. It’s a corporation, not a corner-shop.
If prize = quality, then be happy about the fact that we’re getting nicer models! Quit your whining and go back to your lair under the stairs…
So when is this expected to happen? Soon or in the far future? If soon then i wont buy metal models and shall wait till they move to resin. Hopefully soon. I hate metal models. Once i dropped all my grey knights on the floor and because they were metal all their arms came off and the paint got chipped. If they were resin or plastic they wouldnt have and i wouldnt have to put endless coats of varnish to prevent the paint chipping off
for me the resin is just going to be to light. Using metal models in a game feels really satisfying